Miniature Monday – Alistrilee, Elven Archer
If you think of elves, the archer ist probably the class/profession you’d imagine first, thanks to Legolas’ never missing bow, I predict that thoses elves are also clad in green, but let’s see what our painters imagined this week!
(posting by Antonia)
Slightly delayed because I forgot to check for Bones 4 suggestions, but here we go. Update: Even later because the kid stays home with fever, just sick enough not to go to daycare but more than enough energy to keep me busy *sigh*
The mini has again a good balance between detail and plain surface so people inclined to paint freehands (which I am, but never have the time to do atm) can have fun and the minis is otherwise quickly painted.
The face seemed a bit flat for me, but maybe that’s intentional and part of the “inhuman” looks to make elves appear more of a different race (or species).
I forgot why I chose my color scheme:
When I picked the mini weeks ago, I decided to paint it in variations of blue instead of green or brown, but to be honest, I don’t remember why. I think there was something, a RP character I wanted to portrait, but as happy as I’d be to share my inspiration, nope, no clue.
Anyway, with a limited palette of blues and browns plus a pale golden tone for the skin the mini was quick to paint, because the following wash helped great to bring out the detail.
(I swear, one day my paintjobs will once again have more steps than “basecolor + wash” but right now, I’m mastering the art of “how fast can I paint before the child is back” so I’m more than pleased withthe result).
Dirk forgot where we put the miniature:
Since our unpainted Bones II collection is thinning, the surviving minis tend to get lost in different heaps of “paint soon” and “find other place for” and “OMG make room for next Bones KS”.
So while we’re certain that Alistrilee just used her superior Ranger skills to hide from us, Dirk had to find something else to paint, so he used another (elven?) archer instead.
He only found time to test a color scheme, green and a mottled brown, which could make an interesting “dirty” version of the otherwise very well groomed elves. I mean, in the middle of a muddy battlefield during a downpour… even Legolas might get a bit dirt on him, right?
Michael’s archer is certainly unusual:
He wrote: “Here’s my Alistrilee mini. I was inspired by a board game (that also had an app version) I played many years ago called Summoner Wars, where there was a faction called the Phoenix Elves. I really like how the gold border on the cloak turned out.”
Really cool color scheme, very “”High fantasy” and definitely completely different from my “standard” mental image (see above). Red and gold are always a good pairing and make her look quite noble, as does the gentle expression on her face (not like the agressive, romulan eyebrows I painted :-p ).
Jim picked a classic look with a slight variation:
He said: “My painting time got cut a bit short, so I took a few shortcuts, but I’m still pleased with the way she turned out. Just a pretty standard elven archer/ranger although the blue color was a little different. I only wish I could have captured both eyes in the pic as they came out exactly the way I wanted: Looking straight down her arm towards whatever her target is.”
Eyes are always hard to get right in my opinion, all the better you are happy with the result! How do you normally paint them, with a brush or maybe a fineliner pen?
And talking about “tricks”, what were those shortcuts? I’m always interested in ways to paint faster 😉
Anyway, the whole paintjob is very neat and the color palette quite harmonic warm, while the use of warm metallics adds a nice glamour to it. Good choice to use the cold blue and the green on the scale(leaf?)mail as a contrast.
This week’s gallery:
Coming next:
09/02/19 Bones III Sigurd, Viking (B3 Core)
I added some miniatures to the schedule now. We might still shuffle them around, do extras (like “Show me your project!”) or add more, just tell us what you think in the comments!
–> Since reaper re-organized their online shop recently, some of the links might not be working anymore. Until we come around to fix that you can always use the miniature’s name and use the search box on top of the page.
09/16/19 Bones III Brotherhood of the Seal (B3 Core)
09/30/19 Bones II Mi-Sher, Sword Dancer (B2 Core)
Bones 4 finally! Yay!
Since the miniatures don’t have separate pages in the shop yet, I’ll link to the “packages” they seem(ed) to sell.
Here is the link to Reaper’s page with all the core pieces, but it’s one and veeeery long picture so be prepared for some scrolling. On the other hand it has separate numbers for most of the pieces.
10/07/19 Bones IV Dire animals: Crab (B4 Core) Nr. 55 on KS pic
10/14/19 Bones IV Villagers: Younger Man with stick (back row, left) (B4 Core) Nr. 50 on KS pic.
10/21/19 Bones IV Villagers: Woman with bucket (far right) (B4 Core) Nr. 149 on KS pic
10/28/19 Bones I-III TBA
11/04/19 Bones IV Monsters: Wyvern (B4 Core) Nr. 81 on KS pic
11/18/19 Bones IV Villagers: Bandit with Dagger & Sword (front row, right) (B4 Core) Nr. 100 on KS pic
I added some first picks from the Bones 4 Core Set, some monsters, creatures and villagers.The adventurers I’ll check next, the group was just too large for a quick pick. Any more suggestions?
Caffeineforge 
Antonia – Looks good to me! Oh, did I mention I like blue? The scheme tends towards gray in places which seems very elven to me.
Dirk – Green and brown work well as camouflage that doesn’t look like camo, especially for elves & rangers. This looks like another mini to add to the list.
Michael – The color choice makes me think “Elven Royal Guard”. Red and gold always seem to work well together and your paintjob is well done.
I’m not really sure where the blue came from (oh, did I mention I like blue?), but I think blue and green look good together. The eyes in this case are done with a brush for the whites and irises and I think I dotted in pupils with a Micron pen. That’s my favored method but sometimes the eyes are just too small for pupils and sometimes I just use the pen. It depends on the mini. By shortcuts I only meant that I mostly did a basecoat and wash with only a few places getting real highlights or shadows. The gloves, shoes, quiver & arrows and bow are all just color + wash. The leather armor the hood & cape and the face got the extra attention. The leaf scale is silver with a green wash (or ink?) followed by a black wash. I wish it was more earth shaking than that!