Portal Paint off! Round 1!

So Adam, the editor over at Portal Magazine, has set out to do an online painting competition. One where there is an on-going competition of artists that engage in a series of trials. With the weakest link being tossed from the group each month!

Somehow I got roped into it ( probably cause I volunteered? ) and so I need to paint something up for it this month!

And with that noise.. "With great power, comes great responsibility!"
Theme: Fantasy
Basing: Foliage
Technical: True Metallic Metals

These are the requirements for Round 1 of the contest. So after a bit of snooping around my studio for pieces that can fit with it.. I came up with these...

Good ol' Boris from Heresy Miniatures as the figure, and a nice forest like scene for the base! Strapped to a nicer socket base, add some dirt, rocks, gravel, roots, slate, and a twig... what more can you ask for here?

I attempted a few new things on old Boris here though, that didn't quite pan out so nicely! First was trying to just airbrush him.. nope.. looked too flat and I didn't like the shades... then attempted to add some Oil colors to him.

Liked the effect, and the scheme for it.. but due to the drying times, and my fat fingers, it got wrecked quite quickly!

The base however was given the old Wet on Wet techniques and was whipped up quite quickly...

I even just used the same colors as my Scots from Saga on it! So it came out really de-saturated.. but this is OK! Cause with the basing feature aspect yet to come on, I could add some life to it with the foliage!

But Old Boris there needed some work.. so with some Satin varnish sprayed over the oils, and some Vallejo Model colors in hand.. I went to town on him with some wet on wet coloring. Much better results in very little time!

For whatever reason I have not been taking SBS photos of Boris.. nor stand alone photos of him so far! Can't explain as to why, but yeah.. it is what it is!

But you can see tha the is coming along much nicer now! Still rough, and needs more blendings, but I am OK with this so far.. considering there is still time to get him finished.

As for the base.. it received some nice foliage from my stockpile below..

So much Polak, and other products here to play with. Went for a really dark green to give it a bit more life, and some white flowers for some contrast. Will give it a spray over of browns and yellow yet.. but I like the scene so far.

Boris's weapon will be the focal point of the TMM technique, along with his belt and wrist guards. Plenty to work with here...

Now to see where it goes.. if I can finish it in time... and if I can keep myself from getting booted in the first round!!!! Enjoy!