I’ve posted pics of my second attempt at Thagrosh in my Everblight II gallery. Painted by commission in late 2006.

The idea was to make the conversion half way to the card art, with his fist in the snow, then paint as close to the card art as possible. This remains one of my favorite projects so far.

I’ve put up a new gallery showing the second set of Skorne I’ve done.  These are commissions I painted in late 2006 and early 2007.

 Gallery: Skorne II

I’m writing about some price/service changes that I’m putting into effect this month, and some changes to my overall strategy. The short of it is that I’m going to start charging a little more, but that extra money is going to give me the room I need to explore creatively and continue to push my limits with each figure.

Null Horizon has been open for a year now, and around the anniversary I began to review the studio’s progress from its humble beginnings. When I started, I set my prices such that, to look at it from the point of view of my hourly wage, I was sacrificing for the long term, anticipating I would both cut my speed and raise my quality of over time. I thought of it as a kind of subsidized art training, and a necessary step to get a leg up in the our tight-knit community. Looking back, I can point to a lot of successes and can say that I’ve entered a new threshold in terms of quality. My commissioned pieces go on to win awards, and I’ve even managed to carve out a little niche for myself in the chancy, fly-by-night land of e-commerce. It’s time for me to take a step forward, ask a little more, and push the ceiling up a little.

Perhaps the most important thing, though, is that I believe my new prices remain aggressively competitive for the class of painting I’m providing. Figures I’ve painted such as Be-Lakor, the Extreme Dire Troll Mauler, my work for Anima Tactics, and others best show what I’m capable of today, and with a little wiggle room, I plan to push my limits full force. I want to continue to give my all to every project. There is no difference between what I show here and what I paint for you. What you see is what you get.

For the nitty-gritty, please check out my new pricing guidelines under the commissions heading. Please note that under the old guidelines, I listed ’starting prices,’ where actual prices were usually more. In the new guidelines I list ‘average prices,’ which is closer to what you can expect the actual price to be. This may make it seem like I’ve raised the rates more than I actually have.

Looking ahead, I want to reaffirm my pledge to provide the most beautiful figures for your games, period. I will continue to make custom-tailored quotes for every project, so that you will never be paying more for a smaller, less detailed, or otherwise easier to paint figure. And above all, I’m committed to giving you the best craftsmanship I’m able.

So, thanks to all my customers for helping Null Horizon reach its first anniversary. I couldn’t have done it without your patronage!

Lastly, please feel invited to give me feedback on my commissions rates and services. Do you like the ‘one size fits all’ approach I take where I give ‘the best I can’ for each figure, or would you like to see a split offering of two different tiers of quality, ‘display’ quality and ‘competition’ quality, like some painters offer? Which tier do you prefer? Do you have any other suggestions for me? Feedback will really help me improve my services. Thanks Again.

I’ve recently added galleries for Warhammer and for Anima Tactics.  The Anima gallery shows the official studio figures I paint for Cipher Studios/Edge Entertainment.

I’ve just realized I never put up pics of the wood elf champion I painted for a three-part tutorial for theminiaturespage.com’s workbench, and I never linked to those articles either.   For those interested, the articles describe the complete process  of painting the foot and mounted versions of the figure, and creating a wooded display base for them, a kind of dyptich.  Check it out here:

part I: http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/799708/
part II: http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/242961/
part III: http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/565783/

I’m continuing to put up pics of recent commissions. First, I’d like to report that extreme dire troll lives up to the hype. Not only the biggest figure I’ve painted but also the most fun, and I’d say one of my most successful. I really tried to pull out some stops. I worked to give the figure a clear focal point at the eyes. The hair spines fade light at the base to dark at the tips, and then I went back to give each tip highlights the other way, light at the tip. This was a lot more work than the more obvious way. Did this to match the way the trolls are portrayed in the illustrations. With the flesh tones I was working from a new understanding of how light works on flesh, call it ’saturation in the middle.’ The idea is that as the light traces the curve of the flesh, the lightest and darkest places will be less saturated than the middle tones, at the middle of the curve. Thought most of the flesh is done with grays, this way I was still able to use intense blues, but also keep a relatively realistic look to it. I was trying to paint him as a real giant blue troll would look standing in natural light.
Also one of the first figs I painted using P3 paints.
listic look to it. I was trying to paint him as a real giant blue troll would look standing in natural light.
Also one of the first figs I painted using P3 paints. Overall I’m just really pleased with how he turned out.

I’ve got a hefty backlog of recent commissions to share, and I’m going to get the ball rolling with a unit of trollblood champions. These guys expand the army that was started with the warpack. Check the galleries or click here to see them. More to come soon!

Added two new galleries and a total of eight new figures.

New Cryx: Bloat Thrall and Lich Lord Terminus.

A recent Everblight Warpack: Lylyth, a Carnivean, and 4 Shredders.

They’re also in my coolminiornot.com gallery, where you can rate them.

It’s been a long time since my last update, but I have a lot of new material coming up to show what I’ve been up to all this time.

To kick things off I have some news about several painting competitions I’ve recently placed in.

I had two winning entries in Wyrd Miniatures’ “The Rotten Harvest! II” contest.

My Hordes Everblight Carnivean took gold in the “Things that Go Bump in the Night” category.
And Lylyth, Herald of Everblight took silver in “Witches and Warlocks:”
These are both from a recently commissioned warpack, and my second paints of these figures.  I’ll be updating my galleries with this set soon.

Meanwhile my Hordes Trollblood Warpack featuring Madrak and company took third place in minipainters.com’s “Contest 3: Fantasy ‘06″ competition.

The winners were featured in the latest issue of Harbinger Magazine, issue 27.  You can download it in pdf format for free here.
My thanks to minipainters.com, Wyrd Miniatures, the contest sponsers, and everyone who voted.

I was lucky to have the chance to paint up Epic Skarre before her release. You can check her out here.