My Creativity Is... A Surfer?

I have (or maybe it was my wife who has) found out that my creative mood rides on waves. I've constantly felt this in a way but never really gave it any deeper thought, until lately.

When I started taking commissions, I noticed that, for time to time, it was really hard for me to keep my thoughts together and focus on the task in front of me. I felt lazy and unproductive. It had nothing to do with the projects that I worked with. I felt that I needed to hit the stones together a bit longer and harder to get the spark.

I've started to understand my mind a bit better while getting older. These seasons – the ones when I just feel like an empty and clean jar – are the tides when I either really need to push myself to do something creative or need to focus on something totally different, like go fishing.

But eventually I do find the spark.

These creativily melancholic tides are followed by the heaps when I just simply can't put my tools down and stop working. It feels great, like everything you do works instantly and looks superb, even after a good night sleep. The downside is that while on this mode, I rarely can think anything else than the projects that I'm involved in, until its finished. These are very difficult times for my family, as all I'd like to do is to get back to my cave and create something, anything.

The cycles do wary in length. Sometimes the mood stays for weeks, even months. Sometimes mere days. A good, long, productive heap season really gives you the boost and is even visible in your everyday life. Even the same coffee that you make every morning tastes better.

How is it with you? Do you have times when it is hard to grab the brush and start painting or are you in constant auto-fire mode, pushing out piece after piece of top grade stuff (like Jeff of Convertorum)?

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I think I'm currently climbing towards the heap, my mind working all the time, creating possibilities and processing ideas – and when one idea pops in my mind, it generates a dozen new ones.

Now, I'm literally neck deep in miniature projects. I have a couple commissions under way, all of them coming along with sure steps. Then there are some random projects that just materialized in front of me while putting pieces together. That is one good sign of the creative mood hitting the upswing.

Here's one of the randoms that is currently waiting for priming. Yep, it's another Inquisitor, this time a Puritan of Ordo Hereticus...

+ Inquisitor Valon, Puritan, Ordo Hereticus +

Inquisitor Valon will be accompanied by another character, an Underhive tracker who I will reveal to you somewhere later this month... Maybe they will play a part in the Punk Moth campaign at some point, who knows.

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I did mention the commissions, didn't I? Well, here's a sneak peak to one of them. This is a female Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos, high born and noble, very interesting project to work with...

Female Inquisitor, Ordo Xenos

All the details were given to me by the client. I started working out the idea of the Inquisitor on paper, thinking of which bits I would be using for her, sketching her out of my head while putting the pieces together.

This is my vision of her. We'll see how this thing will form out...

- Kari

Marines of Mayhem - The Red Corsairs Illustrations

I managed to finish the rest of the illustrations for my Red Corsairs project. Here they be...

Renegade Adeptus Astartes Red Corsairs II
(black ink pencil and white acrylic on white cardboard)

This chap is pretty generic Chaos Space Marine with all the spikes, trophy skulls and grotesque helmet. But as always, I wanted to add at least one reference to pirates... "X" marks the spot, eh? My favourite part is the Xenos skull that has been rammed thru the barrel. It gives a nice barbaric touch to the customized boltgun and makes it just a little bit more fearsome weapon of destruction.

Once again my main goal was to draw space pirate marines with hulking armours, whose god-like personalities would fill the whole paper, literally. I actually had to extend my paper with tape and another piece of paper to be able to fit these monsters on my drawing area. I know, bad conceptualization and even worse planning.

Renegade Adeptus Astartes Red Corsairs III
(black ink pencil and white acrylic on white cardboard)

Here's the third and final brutal renegade illustrated for my Red Corsairs project. The pose is once again very stiff and proud – I might try out something a bit more mobile next time, maybe even an action packed battle scene. The off-chopped heads, wide chaotic blade, ancient pistol and long, dark hair give a nice regressive, barbaric impact. Some of you might recognize where the sword has been taken from ;)

Conan the Barbarian flick from the 80's worked as my main inspiration for the all three Red Corsair concepts. I tried to saturate the Corsairs with the same fearsome character that Thulsa Doom and Co. had in the movie. Just check out the scene where James Earl Jones gets off from his ride, takes off his helmet to beheads Conan's mother, and you know what I mean.

These drawings will again work as my guidance and inspiration through the conversion and painting sessions that I will be having somewhere in the future. Like with their predecessor's case, Ragal Gair, I won't be tied to follow the exact path but have pretty much free will to take ideas from here to there.

Space Pirate Astartes - Red Corsairs

"Burn. Burn the ship. Burn the pathetic weaklings with it, alive."

So this is it, my next "grande" project - a true scale Adeptus Astartes. Actually I'm talking about making a bunch of them, three renegade Red Corsair Astartes to be exact. With power hooks, eye-patches and fiery red armours... Yarrr!

The idea of making a true scale Space Marine has been lurking in my mind ever since I finished the first Horus Heresy book. It was Migsula's fantastic Alpha Legionnaire that gave me the spark to start this project. I'm quite sure that my Astartes will have a lot in common with them, what comes to the shape, size and the overall feeling of them (or at least that's where I am aiming to), after all, they have inspired me a lot ever since I first ran into them.

So once again I grabbed a pencil and started sketching...

Champion of the Fleet (black ink pencil)

My main goal was to try to render the hulking embodiment of an Astartes the way I see it. The armour is very bulky, worn and scattered with trophies and ancient liturgies. The head is like a small pin, a pinnacle that over-emphasizes the magnificent frame of the Astartes. The massive fur coat rims the figure, making the warrior look like a barbarian of the far future, something that I've always thought that the Astartes fundamentally were.

With this visual reference I've started gathering the bits that I would be needing to get as close to this vision as possible. I hope that I'll soon have something relevant to show to you, as I'm more than eager to put the pieces together!

Hagard & The Færwyrd, Concept Finished

Meet Hagard...

Hagard & The Færwyrd (water colours, acrylics and inks)

Hagard fought his brutal wars on the same savage planet that Mutie Kul did his biddings. Hagard's grotesque and cruel heavy machinegun Færwyrd sows terror amongst his foes, ripping them to pieces with high caliber rounds and fast fire rate.

Once again Inquisitor Cassar has found another deadly tool for his entourage...

Inquisitor Pherion

"You are criminal and a murderer who has committed severe crimes against the Imperium and who now wishes to save his immortal soul from the eternal damnation of the Chaos? That is easy my friend. I want you to do those same things you have done, but FOR the Imperium from this day on."

Inquisitor Pherion to a Penal legionnaire assigned to his warband.

Rotring line over W&N inks

So after recovering from a very Snaily commission work, Im back with Punk Moth and finally working for my Inquisitor model!

Inquisitor Pherion of Mars Ruthless leader who trusts in strong faith, rather than brute strength or firepower. Little is known but it seems that Pherion is "old as the stars, as he has described it himself.

Being old and weak, he needs lots of technology to keep himself in pace. For that reason he carries ancient device Preservus-unit, life support system which he had obtained  from the Tech Priests of Mars a long time ago. The device keeps him alive by pumping dozes of drugs and medicines into his veins when needed.

He is armed with a HUGE force sword. (he needs battle stimulants to be able to wield it properly in combat)

He carries the cloak of heroes. a cloak that has been almost entirely covered with purity seals from the long years of service as Imperial Inquisitor. The purity seals give Pherion a ward save against his enemies, but there are so many seals made of parchment that the cloak has become very flammable, so he must avoid flame weapons!

This time I have chosen very Kari-like method for the designing process.
-Im sketching the character first.
-Im using existing GW parts for the conversion (Necromancer & Wizards sprues).
-Im also planning on using W&N inks in the painting stage.

Punk Moth Rising

Inquisitorial Archives: Skullhopperre II

Skullhopperre II

Operation Punk Moth keeps thickening. Had some weird wormhole attacking to my schedules and this thing came out of my head. The Imperial Inquisition has been documenting and investigating Inquisitor Cassar's doings for many years.

The hunt is about to begin...

Akvarelli IX

Here's a new drawing I made today, inspired by our Punk Moth project. I won't reveal any details at this moment and just leave this one here...

(water colours, acrylics and inks)

A Peek Under Old Man's Hood

If you are wondering how Job manages to move around without any legs, here's a little peek under his ragged sack...

The man is basically kept alive by his Anti-Gravity Chasis. The Chasis also works as a power source for the rest of the little machines plugged into his spine and viscerals by Adeptus Mechanicus many decades ago.

This is what Punk Moth is all about - extra detailed backgrounds which are more or less obscure...

Inside The Process - Rat's thoughts

Good morning!

Today I like to talk little bit about the character designing. These are the observations that I have made during The Operation Punk Moth. Some of these thoughts have been crystalized in conversations with Kari over phone, but today I only talk about my Design philosophy and techniques.

While Kari always creates amazing artwork for his characters, and approaches his goal with very artistic painterly way (which i admire very much), my approach has always been more design orientated. I like to use more rougher style. Not trying to make eye candy but visual notes.

I am a designer with my heart and soul and with this =][= project I have tried different ways to design my characters. Let me explain:

Nicodemvs was a study to do things more GW style - I chose John Blanche's painting and designed my character based on that painting.  Fun to do, and because of the John's amazing artwork you can't simply go wrong.

Then came Borvs, who was more "hands on" style -  I wanted to carry on quickly with the project so no sketches just sculpting out of head. Im not completely happy with the result, although I did many breakthroughs with my sculpting techniques here. This way of designing things just wasn't my thing;)

With the Project Punk Moth the the character design has been somewhat problematic with both of us... We both create loads of ideas and concepts for new characters all the time, but witch characters to choose then? The warbands are quite small in the =][= game and we would like to create nice dynamics around the characters. So it is "Kill Yer Darlings" all the time. Many cool and wild concepts have been buried in the search for perfect balance and the RIGHT look.

When I started to design my third character for the warband, I imagined many crazy ideas for the character. Once again I phoned to Kari to explain my new plans (I phone Kari quite regullary;)
sometimes explaining your ideas to someone helps to clarify them. Sometimes Kari has something to ad there, sometimes he just advices to carry on. Somewhere between these phone calls and sketching an idea about Siamese Twins appeared.

This time I wanted to use Sketching in the designing process so I created number of sketches studying the pose and the details. After trying out different methods with the earlier characters I noticed, that sketching really is the best way for me to design my stuff. When I draw, I don't try to get the final look, I just try draw cool sketch. The final look of the miniature is created in the sculpting process - just like Jes Goodwin once said Miniature Is The King!

What Im trying to (clumsily) explain here is that feel free to try out different methods to create your miniatures or conversions. Don't restrict your self to just to kit bashing. Try out something that you have never tried before. This way you may even surprise yourself with the result ;)

Here they are.  Conjoined twins that both seek the enemies of the humanity to destroy them with very varying techniques! The III member will be the loose cannon of this warband. The twins are constantly battling for the full control of the body to execute their plans. The other twin is strong guy who wants to crush his enemies in fierce melee, while the other twin is weaker and seeks to snipe the enemy with a sniper rifle. So the theme will be inner battle.

Im quite sure that they have some connection to Mars and to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Maybe some secret experiment of some sort, only the Machine God knows I guess.  

Inquisitor Cassar

I was finally able to visualize the head of my Inquisitor gang. The man had been lurking in my head for a while, staying in the dark corners, avoiding my full attention.

Then couple of days ago it happened. I hit my head on a ceiling beam with the force that made my teeth hit together and curses flying between them. While I was treating the huge bump on my crown with a bag of frozen vegetables, the shape of my INQ28 band's master jumped out from his hiding place to my mental field of vision, clear as the sky. At that moment I knew what I had been looking for. I urged to draw the vision out of my head before it would be too late...

Inquisitor Marius Cassar (water colours, acrylics and inks)

Inquistor Cassar is one truely twisted being. In his nature he is egoistic and sardonic tyrant who achieves his goals with any means necessary - like most of his collegues. He is charismatic and knows how to manipulate people. He posseses dark powers that give him access to disturb thoughts and suffocate reasoning.

Cassar is armed with a high caliber service revolver and a chainsaw-rapier. He also has a customized bolt pistol with reversed mag mounted on his left shoulder. Cassar operates the shoulder cannon with sensors merged in to his spine's nervous system.

Officially Inquisitor Cassar serves the Inquisition, but as he is self-righteous bastard there's really no master for him other than himself. His blood is blue('ish) and ties to the high-ranking officials very strong. Some of his missions are funded by very powerful and influential persons with their own interests in the sad universe, interests which are usually less for the benefit of the Imperium.

Countess

My water colour exercise, the one that got a spark from very random situation couple of months ago, has suddenly evolved into series of 40k inspirated illustrations. The process has been very educative, giving me new perspectives to my hobby and teaching some new tricks on the way.

I was visiting my parents last weekend with my family and had a nice freefloating time to sketch another member to my Inquisitor posse, this time something little bit more elegant to stand beside those previously drawn grotesque male figures...

Countess (water colours, W&N inks, white acrylic paint and black ink pencil)

When I started sketching the Countess, I had one red line that I wanted to grab from; Femme Militants, the ones John Blanche visualized couple years ago. I saw some of the paintings live last summer and damn they were fierce! I wanted to draw something a bit similar to them, but with my own twist and touch.

There are some obvious references to Mikko's Captain Gaga sculpt too, though the similarity came by accident (sub-concious stuff I'd assume). Anyways, it gave a nice final flavour to the final piece and now she stands like another incarnation of the Lady.

So, the Countess was the fifth illustrated member of the Inquisitor posse. My long term aim is to do couple of more drawings and then start to figure out how to collect all the pieces together and build a miniature version from each one of them. In the meanwhile it's time to familiarize myself with the =I=Munda......

Mood Drawing!

Had to show you this - I was thinking about mood boards while designing new stuff and started messing up with the idea about expanding the concept of mood boarding with drawing. After few hours this bastard of a technique appeared!

Image below was created using numerous sliced photographs mixed with drawing Wacom tablet. I think this could be good way to sketch for a people who don't like to draw.... pretty much like converting miniatures in digital 2D realm! First you pick legs, then torso, arms, etc... then use drawing to fill the gaps SIMPLE!!!

Nothing that haven't been done before but I hope you enjoy it anyway...

The Book

Recently I've spent handful of hours with my nose inside Emperor's Will, an awe-inspiring compilation book of Warhammer 40.000 artwork. This book is one that every enthusiastic 40k hobbyist should check out if they wish to dwell deeper in to the dark universe. The book is full of amazing, mind-opening images of paintings and illustrations made by Games Workshop's art department.

I'm not going to write another review of this tome, but if you're interested of one, I'd then recommend checking out Tears of Envy's blog.

The reason for me mentioning this book is that it has been inspiring me a lot lately, especially in my latest hobby related activity. The book also works as a proxy, reminding me of that moment I experienced the enlightenment and started re-organizing my thoughts regarding my creative side.

Speaking of creativity, here's the latest of my drawings, another member of the Imperial Inquisition...

Water colours, W&N inks, white acrylic paint and black ink pencil

Rifleman, veteran, devotee, religious fanatic, scum. These strong words shall tell his story for now. There's more to follow, I just need to finish Captain Gaga first, the one that has been lying in my drawer for too long...

O'yeah, I happened to visit my town's framing shop couple of weeks ago and for my delight they had a nice collection of painting stuff there too, one of them being nice collection of Winsor & Newton's inks. Of course I had to grab couple of them pots to take home with me so that I could finally try 'em out. I must say, they worked out pretty well, definitely something I'll try out in some of my next miniature projects...

Elijah

Let's continue with 40k watercolour paintings...

Elijah (Watercolours, white acrylic paint and black ink pencil)

This is Elijah, Imperial Inquisition's huntsman. He's armed with a massive greatsword, Daemon Cleaver, and an ancient, xenos-origin handgun. Elijah's body has not been physically adepted and he needs a special powerglove to wield his huge sword.

Elijah is a possessor of a rare gift, the Sight of Chaos, also known as the Warpsight. With this power Elijah has gained certain reputation amongst Inquisition; His skill to wade - dream - in the Warpstreams makes him very talented hunter of daemons and personalities carrying ruinous powers. Of course Inquisition has learned to use this edge in their course.

How Elijah got blessed by the skill, Inquisition falls silent...

Akvarelli III

Here's my third drawing made with watercolours, white acrylic paint and black ink pen, inspired by the grim and dark Warhammer 40k Universe. This piece is influenced by Jakob Rune Nielsen's servo-skull collector seen in one of mr. Nielsen's 40k wizpimp sketches on his wonderful blog miniaTEXTures. There's some obvious hints from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet too. I won't bother quoting the famous phrase and instead will leave you with the drawing...

(watercolors, white acrylic paint and black ink pen)

The scheme follows the two previous painings. This crook-backed oldster is inspecting his latest finding, wondering in his twisted mind what'd be the perfect price for such a fine piece...

An Excercise In Watercolors

I had an urgent desire to try my son's watercolors that were lying around our kitchen table. Here's the outcome...

Mutie Kul (watercolors, white acrylic paint and black ink pen)

Servo Skulls (watercolors, white acrylic paint and black ink pen)

The painting process was actually very pleasant, more than I thought. I really enjoyed the free flow that the watercolors gave me. It's been some time since the last time I tried to paint something with these instruments. I guess it was back in the high school. I remember hating them back then, maybe because I felt that I was forced to use them... Well, times change apparently.

- izeColt

Rat Of War

Moving on into the sketching.

Like I revealed earlier, to get started with this, Ian send me this wonderfull 12-page PDF full of amazing characters to choose from! Boy! I felt like a kid in a candy store!!! Browsing through the file I managed to find two favourites (Mr. Millers art is so fantastic that I would have wanted to pick all of them really;)

I chose these following drawings for several reasons.

Firstly there was a rat character. As a proud pack member of the Spiky Rat Pack I felt, that it was great way to bring something that represented me into this project.

Secondly I just love War history and old military eguimpment!

Thirdly these drawings just got my imagination rolling wildly as I saw them.

So we get to the sketching part then...

The character is taking shape here. This is not the final version and the things will get chanched as I move into sculpting phase...

I feel really good about this project...I think that the miniature will be something around 40mm tall. Got pack of ProCreate in the mail at the other day, so this will be good chanche to test that new stuff here.

- okkiW

Masters Of Stars

Just finished another drawing inspired by the 40.000 universe...

Mortis Protectus Legio

Took me couple of evenings to finish him. It's been quite some time since last time I drew with such a pace and passion... Hope you like the outcome, I'm quite pleased by it to tell you the truth ;)

- izeColt

Adeptus Arbites Sketch

I started warming up my drawing zeal this afternoon and ended up sketching Adeptus Arbites Judge. This one is heavily inspired by some baroque and napoleonic paintings I was browsing for one of my incoming projects...

Obeye Lex Imperialis.