Into Darkwaters
Rolling into September, seasons change and new projects arise. Coming off from the Aeldari project, I was in a position that felt a bit of what limbo might feel. It wasn't a sense of sadness, or anything catastrophic related to creativity like I've battled in the past. But more of a pause, and something that I've cued myself to pick up better is to sense when I need to put the brush down and feed my other creative senses. The pause wasn't long, just around a week, but in that time it was a chance to open myself to more reading, hunting for new visual imagery to feed the mind, push myself on the climbing wall, rake in more KM on runs, and reset the body with plenty of sauna and cold plunge sessions. After such projects which require a big commitment of time and bandwidth, I think its healthy to give yourself time to decompress and allow your mind to wander in new directions, rather than spend too much of it looking backwards or pressures of starting a new piece right away. I've done this in the past, and it usually leads to unwanted pressure of living up to expectations of the previous piece, imposture syndrome, and too much self measurement. All of this leading away from what a healthy state of mind to form a creative act calls for. Don't mistake this as a complete removal from painting, it's more of lightening the load and allowing some breathing space and setting your creative Heart Rate move back down to a rest or easy pace. I'm still editing the final Masterclass videos for the Aeldari, and at the most, gathering ideas for the next potential project. Which brings us to this...
A Nurgle Warrior found in the Warhammer Quest Darkwater. After the Aeldari project, I still had questions that I wanted answers to, and continue this path of Fluo base work. Some modifications include the primed base, which in this instance is using the Fluorecent Orange in a more limited use that is focused towards the middle of the subject over a saturated orange base. The equivalent of priming black, and using white through an airbrush to give us the light value. What I really want to see is how this base will work into creating a more darker and heavily textured subject. A departure from the clean lines and fabrics of the Aeldari, and a Nurgle warrior is the perfect subject to take that opposing direction. I've continued the use light study through ChromaMagic, doing test colour swatched in Procreate, and gathering references with a new desktop tool Pure Ref. This simple reference gathering tool is cheap and excellent that really does what it says. Copy n Paste, or Drag n Drop images into the blank canvas, resize, draw over, type notes all in this flexible tool that resizes automatically the more you add onto the canvas. It also has a handy mode that you can toggle that its window stays on top of whatever you are working on. There are other toolsets within the program, but its simple, robust, and focuses on what its intended for without distractions.
I will have more on this Nurgle Warrior later in detail when it comes to this new Masterclass Series. A healthy mix of my creative process which includes my references, inspirations that drive the project, colour explorations, and of course the technical painting application! Of course before this comes off the ground, we still have the last Aeldari video which will come out this week, so stay tuned and of course Happy Painting.
Bb