Rae

Rae

Science fiction, and the grim darkness of the far future. All from a mountain in Ireland.

I made a thing.

The Hobby

I was in the process of wrestling with the Bluesky wordcount and remembered I have a blog. Instead of doing the thing I hate and chain a bunch of bluesky posts together, I’m here. Blowing the dust off this.

I collect art, but not to the level of my Dad. Who really collects art. I just see a thing I love and buy it. I love classic Science Fiction art. The paintings and drawings from the covers of pulp/pop science fiction books, or concept art. I do not like buying posters and framing those. I would like to buy originals or fine art prints. And in the case of classic science fiction artwork I am never going to have the bank account for it.

One of the features of this type of art is the limited colour palette. Where the objects are a colour, not details and components. If they are, then it’s to draw the eye, or add balance. A blue hued painting will have that pop of orange in a light bulb or on a go-faster-stripe.

A limited palette is a very attractive idea to someone who has a pile of WIP because of the detail. I needed to move away from a big sculpt I am doing for Kaijune and used this self-imposed challenge as a break.

text text

Reflection

Everytime I do a build I think about planning it first. Which never happens. I had an idea to make the chain ridged by adding the garden wire. That made it more fiddly. This build (and my sanity) would have benefitted greatly from sub assembly. The floaty skull made painting tricky.

The build

  • A skull from a bag o' skulls bought from some hallowe’en shop years ago
  • Wooden cog thing
  • Jewellery chain
  • Garden wire
  • The spaceman was scrounged from a very large trench of bits at a stall at Salute
  • Bits from a Clash of Steel tank sprue
  • Aluminium armature wire
  • String
  • Games Workshop pipe from something
  • UV resin
  • Baking soda and PVA

Colours

  • Primed with Chaos Black
  • Pro Acryl - Bold Titanium White
  • Pro Acryl - Ultramarine
  • Pro Acryl - Brown Grey
  • Duncan Rhodes - Two Thin Coats - Fanatic Orange
  • Duncan Rhodes - Two Thin Coats - Skulker Yellow
  • Duncan Rhodes - Two Thin Coats - Sir Coats Silver
  • Oil wash - Winton Oil Colour 6 - Cadmium Red Deep Hue
  • Oil wash - Winton Oil Colour 3 - Burnt Umber
  • Oil wash - Winton Oil Colour 44 - Yellow Ochre

I blocked the colours in and then used a bit of colour theory to lighten and darken. Do not use black or white to do this, because it desaturates the colours.