Miniature Monday – Ostarzha, Elf cleric
Some miniatures leave a lot room for artistic interpretation and painter’s ideas, like an epty canvas, and Ostarzha with her plain, flowing robes ist one of those.
(posting by Antonia & Dirk)
Since it was my (Antonia’s) birthday on Sunday, I did not manage to paint… the downside of a great day with family. On the contrary, I even got more minis that wait to be painted! But well, that’s a gamer’s fate, I suppose!
The mini itself seems simple at first, but in fact it’s a nice balance between delicate detail and plain areas which allow for nice highlighting effects or even freehands. My version had a distinctive mould line running from head to toe which was nevertheless easy enough to remove with a craft knive.
I was thinking about painting my mini as a pale blonde in varius greens, as if to portrait one of my RPG characters, a half elf. Since I’ll have to update that mini another time, let’s see what other painters made of it!
Dirk used the mini as “testing ground”
He wanted to try and practice some freehand ornaments he’ll use on another project. Dirk said: “She is still a WIP, the freehands need a clean-up, and the whole mini gets a wash of army painter, when the freehands are finished. I tried some ornaments to use on my space marines for this years “Armies on Parade” for Warhammer 40k, so I chose white and blue colors on her. The green and red were added to complement the composition.”
Jim tried to be generic, with some very specific conditions:
He wrote that his goals were:
“Make her very feminine (even girly) in color choice, style, etc.
Paint her as a 1e/2e Gray Elf/Faerie, mostly through hair and eye color.
Leave her generic enough so that she could be a cleric, a wizard or even just an elven lady. No specific class.” I’d say you succeeded in the latter, I really got the feeling she could be a noble woman of some kind. Would you be annoyed if I told you the color combination reminded me a bit of a disney princess? I don’t know much about the gray elves from D&D besides them being… snobs, so help me out, what are distinguishing features? And once again you did a great job with picking out all the details, it’ll help my painting a lot to know these are flowers and not just oddly shaped hair *laughs*
Michael had a change of mind:
He said “I wanted to use a bunch of paints that were included in the Holiday Paint set I got from Reaper last season – Frost Blue, Peppermint White, and Sparkling Snow. And, as I was painting, I suddenly realized that I was making Moiraine Damodred from the Wheel of Time. I went all in on that idea and added a blue Flame of Tar Valon on her apron. I had a thought to paint Frozen’s Elsa with those colors instead, but I… Let It Go. :-P” I have to say I love the color scheme (the blues work great with black hair, for example) although I don’t know a bit about the character you are describing – working on this blog broadens my horizon every time. I suppose the blue symbol is taken from the story too? Is she some kind of mage or priest?
This week’s gallery:
P.S. Thanks for all your suggestions! I’ll edit the schedule accordingly, just not now… time to go to work.
Coming next:
10/01/18 Bones III Bregan, Valkyrie (B3 Core)
(I added some of your suggestions already, I might shuffle them around a bit, but keep them coming! For some minis there are no pics in the online shop yet so I’ll add them later.
10/15/18 Bones II The Horned Hunter (B2 Core)
10/29/18 Bones III Hobageddon: Hobgoblin warriors (B3 Core)
11/12/18 Bones III Elven Blacksmith (B3 Core)
11/26/18 Bones II Bat Demon (B2 Core)
12/10/18 Bones III Blood Hoof, Minotaur (B3 Core)
12/24/18 Christmas break
12/31/18 New Year’s break
01/07/19 Bones III Christina, Female Cleric (B3 Core)
01/21/19 Bones II Cuth Wolfson, Barbarian (B2 Core)
02/04/19 Bones III Wild West of Oz Wicked Witch plus Monkey* (B3 Core)
*they sell them in packs of three (obviously) but in the KS there was only one piece
02/18/19 Bones II Dub Bullock, Rogue (B2 Core)
Caffeineforge 
First off: Happy Birthday Antonia!
This mini is definitely a blank canvas!
Dirk – I like the freehand work. Somehow, it makes me think of Ancient Greece. Maybe the specific colors have something to do with that, as well? In any case, I like it.
Michael – Let it go?! OK that was actually pretty funny. I could really see going with Elsa using that color set. In the end, your Moiraine turned out well, especially the blue flame.
Mine? Well, yes, Antonia hit the nail right on the head! Disney princess is almost exactly what I was going for. Grey elves are said to be the “rarest and most powerful of their kind”. They are more intelligent than other elves, reclusive and don’t associate with non-elves often or for long. I tend to think of them as distant or esoteric which can come across as arrogant (or snobbish) not unlike Tolkien’s Vanyar. Grey elves have either silver hair with amber eyes or pale golden hair with violet eyes (Faeries). Generally they favor white, yellow, silver and gold but frequently wear deep blue and purple. I obviouslywent with purple, lavender and pink with a bit of red for contrast.
I like the suggested upcoming minis especially the Horned Hunter, Cuth Wolfson (& Tyrea Bronzelocks), the Ape Demon and Durok. I’d also like to add Bloodhoof the minotaur, Glitterwing the sylph, the Sea Hag and Mab Grindylow. Honestly, I’ll paint whatever comes up in the rotation!
Happy birthday, Antonia!
My comments largely echo Jim’s. I thought “Greek Goddess” when I saw Dirk’s figure, I think largely due to the olive skin & black hair, and the blue and white freehand pattern. It’s looking great, and I’ll love to see what it looks like when you decide your done.
Jim’s is very feminine and looks quite lovely. It works perfectly for any kind of noble or robed class (cleric/wizard/whatever), be they elf, human, or divine. I really like the red on the flask, which really emphasizes its heart shape. Love potion?
So, in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, which I’m listening to on Audible for the second time (the first time took me over two years of commuting and road trips to get through entirely), Moiraine is an Aes Sedai, which are basically the magic-users of the world. They are also master manipulators, pulling the strings of the nations. The Aes Sedai are divided into Ajahs, like-minded societies with an associated color that shows on the fringe of their shawls and the symbol of the Aes Sedai – the flame of Tar Valon (the stylized blue flame on the apron). Moiraine is of the Blue Ajah, and though the members of the Ajahs don’t always wear dresses of their color, Moiraine is frequently described as wearing light blue and having a small blue gem dangling from a chain onto her forehead. After I discarded the idea of making Elsa, I gave her black hair to look like a Noldor, and then it just hit me that this was definitely Moiraine.