Monday Night Miller 001 ~ Introductions

Hey Everybody! Chris “Bi3cuit” Miller here to throw some of my artwork at your eyeballs. A few of you may know me from my postings over at MotMM. To the rest of you asking yourselves, “Who the hell is this guy?” Allow me to introduce myself; I’m an awesome aspiring (feel free to think that means awe-inspiring) artist from the Amish enchanted lands of the Northeast United States. I am particularly handy with a Prismacolor Col-Erase, 20044 Blue, Pencil and Wacom tablet. I’ve got degrees in Graphic Design and Animation and a passion for drawing that exceeds my imagination at times. My interests range from the Avengers to Zombies (get it? A-Z word play!) and I draw inspiration from all of them.

Introducted!

Mik has been asking me to drop some art postings here at Mik’s Minis for a while now and, obviously, I finally agreed. I’ll admit though that I had some qualms about what exactly to post. So many options to choose from, where do I begin! What do I want the world to see? Should I post just raw sketches, a web-comic, genre specific artwork, concept work, my own personal pieces, tutorials, stuff from art school??????? *click* Why not all of it?

Challenge accepted!

That little problem out of the way I had to next decide what my first post should be. I knew out of gate I had to show something that hopefully depicted how I work. My favorite thing to check out in anyone's collection of work is their sketches. I love to see the process of creation through trial and error. Raw lines, erased mistakes, and loads of half-finished ideas that eventually evolve into the final piece. To me a sketch displays the most character that concept will ever have. That ideal in mind I set off with the task of scouring through my sketchbooks. I had my still growing, over a decade old collection of sketchbooks and drawings sprawled out all over the living room floor. It was like flipping through old photo albums. Oh the memories... Now one thing I confess and think you should know about me is that I am a very forgetful person. It is horrible how much I forget on a day-to-day basis. There have been knockdown drag-out fights with the wife about what I have forgotten. But combing through those dusty yellowing sketch books I could tell you what song I was listening to or had stuck in my head at the time, which DVD I had playing in the background, which room and piece of furniture I was sitting in, what I was eating and/or drinking, how long it took to complete. Its crazy how it all came back as I flipped through the pages with a smirk on my face and I hadn’t even gotten to the many flash drives and digital back-ups I have stashed away. Two hours later and I still had no clue what I should post first. Then it hit me again. Why not all of it??

So here you go…

SKETCH DUMP!

Okay, I didn't really show you all that I had to offer. What kind of weekly blog feature would this be if I gave you everything in the first post? I’m thinking of the future after all. Sky's the limit! A lot of the artwork featured in this particular post was pulled heavily from my art school sketch books. At the time I had to keep the designs simple as they would of ended up being animation projects that had to be completed within a semester.

I'm eager to show what I've got and everyone can look forward to seeing more sketch dumps (or not, we'll see how this one worked out!) and an array of other artworks ranging from sci-fi to fantasy, concept art to web comics, the possible to the impossible, and probably quite a bit of Lego inspired concept drawings. Much like Mik, I am a big fan of the minifig and brick. I might even take some requests.

Anyface, I look forward to seeing everybody from the Mik’s Minis community in the comments section and here's hoping you want to see more of what I've got to offer.

~ Enjoy

Dark Elf Team Acquisition

There's no shortage of Blood Bowl in my neck of the woods, my only lament is that my gaming palette is so full and diverse that there is little time devoted to it unfortunately. I'm still always looking out to add to the collection though and this recent trade was better than I could've hoped for. Right out of the box, err, because of the box, I got...the box. Not that I'm a collector of original packaging or anything, but it was a nice bonus.


Next was the biggest delight and that figs are painted very well. I had even checked my levels of Simple Green before receiving the package just to make sure I had enough to strip the team. One look at these figs and no, I will not be stripping them, they'll play as is! Sure, there might be a few tweaks here and there, but they are good to go. We've been talking about creating an Elf-only division in our Blood Bowl league, the Painsphere. Though I already have painted Wood and High Elf teams, I didn't have a Dark Elf team, and you can never have enough Blood Bowl teams! So look for these sinister players hitting the pitch soon!

Vaddarra's Patrol

501 points of choices for Song of Blades and Heroes

We played a great game of SBH not too long ago, but I was shocked to see that it had almost been eight months since the game before it. We really need to crank up the frequency of this gem of a fantasy skirmish game. Totally, utterly, and enthusiastically inspired by that game I cranked out "official" models for the "evil ice elves" from the report. They were proxy of course, and I felt I had to do them justice. Yesterday saw their official Sarterra entry. Instead of making a specific warband of exactly 300 points, I went with a larger spread to have options.


I primed these guys white and used a lot of techniques I normally don't use. After soaking them with a custom-mixed blue wash overall, I went back and added some darker wash to certain areas in the armor. I also started blocking out their cloth and cloaks with a tan. I used a bunch of wet-blending to work their cloth up to a pure white (first time I ever wet-blended like that). Their hair was a chore too, basing as black, and working up with two other really dark blues. All in all, especially given how fast I cranked them out, I'm happy with them. I'm also trying to make a point to quickly paint up figs that other friends give me (instead of just hoarding them) and the basis of this warband came from the Repple Depple blog. The three Reaper elves, and the big Reaper troll were all hand-me-downs, so thanks again Brian!


Tundra Troll, (Troll; Q5/C4, tough, fearless, big, 41pts)


Warband leaders...

Frostfairn Marshall (Dark Elf Leader; Q2/C3, evil, heavy armor, leader, 88pts)
Frostfairn Sorceress (Dark Elf Witch; Q3/C1, greedy, sorcerer, 30pts)


Warband specialists, left to right...

Frostfairn Scout (Dark Elf Sneak; Q2/C2, acrobat, evil, stealth, traps, 48pts)
Frostfairn Berserker (Dark Elf Witch Dancer; Q2/C4, acrobat, distract, 88pts)
Frostfairn Soldier (Dark Elf Warrior; Q3/C3, evil, 30pts)


Warband rank-and-file

Frostfairn Crossbowman (Dark Elf Crossbowman; Q3/C3, evil, poison, long shooter, 50pts)
Frostfairn Crossbowman (Dark Elf Crossbowman; Q3/C3, evil, poison, long shooter, 50pts)
Frostfairn Guard (Dark Elf Halberdier; Q4/C4, evil, heavy armor, 38pts)
Frostfairn Guard (Dark Elf Halberdier; Q4/C4, evil, heavy armor, 38pts)

The Darque Covenant

A 300 point band for Song of Blades and Heroes

Dark Elf Warlock (witch): Q3+, C1 w/ greedy, sorcerer (36pts)
Dark Elf Sneak: Q2+, C2 w/ acrobat, evil, stealth, traps (48pts)
Dark Elf Crossbowman: Q3+, C3 w/ evil, poison, shooter long (50pts)
Gargoyle (living statue): Q5+, C5 w/ artificial, slow (23pts)
Imp: Q4+, C1 w/ stealth, flying, evil, coward (24pts)
Harpy: Q4+, C2 w/ flying, distract (48pts)
Cockatrice: Q3+, C2 w/ assassin, flying (70pts)
Total: 299 / 300

Warlock Scarfell hails from the ruined city of Darquetower, and has learned much of his arcane arts from the transplanted Shadovar who now reside there. At his side is summoned demon brought forth from a realm far from Sarterra, and simply goes by "Imp".


A pair of Harpies; animated statue and live creature

Many strange events occurred in Darquetower after the shadow rift was opened up. One such arcane backlash was the animation of many of the cities statues and gargoyles. Barely more than mindless constructs, with the right complement of spells and wards, powerful individuals are able to slave these constructs to their will. Scarfell has done just that with this gargoyle fashioned in the shape of a Harpy. Scarfell has also befriended an actual Harpy.


Warlock Scarfell is skilled in the arts of monster taming, and using spells that bend a creature's go a long way. Summoned Imps and simple Harpies are one thing, but this Cockatrice, named Terror Wing, stands as the warlock's ultimate achievement in monster taming.

WHFB Incoming: Chaos and Dark Elves

The Dark Elves

Hot on the heels of making more room for new stuff (and the additional five Blood Bowl teams) the miniatures keep on coming. Here I'll detail two Warhammer armies I also picked up from my buddy Marc. They're not completely painted, but that doesn't matter too terribly much. As cool as it is to add these to the collection, for the time being I've simply inventoried them, and boxed them up together in cold storage.

A rough look-through shows units of Witch Elves, Swordsmen, Corsairs, Crossbowmen, Harpies, and some guys with big axes (Executioners?). There's also a pair of Bolt Throwers with crew, a unit of six Cold Ones, and a whole slew of heroes on critters. These include two Witch Elf looking characters, one on a Cockatrice, the other on a Night Mare. There's also a stout looking general on a Griffin (don't know if that's still legal) and finally, a good ole dragon rounds out the army. All in all, a good sized force.



Chaos Warriors

There's also a starter Chaos Warriors army in the mix. There's not a lot to go on here, but it's a good foot in the door at least. In the back is an army general riding atop a large, two headed dragon. It will require some work, but it's pretty impressive looking, even for an older model. There's also a six strong unit of Chaos Knights, who back in the day seemed to hit pretty hard if memory serves. Last is my favorite of the bunch, it's a very old Bloodthirster of Khorne, this one has a giant dog's face wearing a large, spiked pickelhaube helmet. It's old, sure, but it exudes nothing but character, I'll have to do it justice.