Wednesday 7 June 2023

My Life in Ruins

I am continuing to plug away at the sets of ruins for a friend. 

I have done these in darker hues - deep browns and greys - that can be further darkened with washes and black drybrushing. This gives them that more Gothic look. It reminds me of one of my early trips to Toulouse visiting  the Cathedral St Etienne, a wonderful Gothic cathedral, that was blackened from centuries of exposure to the elements, then going back a few years later after it had been cleaned and seeing the stark difference of the white stonework.



The piece below us a 3D printed item in three parts with a total height of 300mm and measuring 140mm x 140mm on the base.





And a bit more scatter terrain...


While these pieces don't present a particular challenge they do provide a distraction from the post holiday funk while I wait for fresh painting stock to arrive which, if all goes well, will be Monday.

18 comments:

  1. Great post title! Perhaps only your weekend is in ruins? You didn't make a stop in Kelowna and load up on Murch’s Pulp Fugures?

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    1. The last weekend was a holiday weekend, but the weather was awful, so yes a bit of a ruin!

      No I didn't make it down to Kelowna. We got to Vernon where her indoors bought some cowboy boots...and I was sorely tempted to buy a stetson...but resisted.

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  2. More excellent work there Mark. Many years ago the walls at Kings College Cambridge were jet washed to clean them up, and the contrast between the new and the old was remarkable.

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    1. In 1986 I was in Rome and was fortunate enough to see the Sistine Chapel in the middle of its cleaning. The difference between the old and new was astonishing...like someone had turned the light on.

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  3. Very dark and gloomy, jyst as they should be.

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    1. I'm not usually good with gloomy subjects, but it was quite easy with these.

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  4. Nice work, good to switch gears .

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    1. I'll be back to painting figures next week...

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  5. A very dramatic title for this postvMark! The ruins look great. The house I lived in till I was about 15 had been built of sandstone around 1895 and my parents had it sand blasted around 1975...the difference in the colour afterwards was amazing, particularly as it was one of three or four similar adjacent houses of the same era, so the contrast between ours and the remainder was stark!

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  6. More great work Mark. It is quite amazing how well some of the old buildings do clean up in real life. I like the darker look on these and have seen similar ruins done in lighter colours in various GW games and it never looks right to me, like someone in the dystopian world has taken the time to clean the ruins after the nuclear holocaust.

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    1. You never know, I guess there might be some individuals with OCD issues amongst the survivors...

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  7. Very ‘Grimdark’ Mark… that’s what happens when the buildings are built on a foundation of skulls…
    It’s just like being at work 🤣.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly...glad my house is not built on skulks then...couldn't bear having to clean off the 'Grimdark'!

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  8. Some nice pieces in there. Not all painting has to careful highlights and wet blends. These look good to me. 😀

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    1. I did a bit of blending, but I'm not a patient man at times and this is a quick and dirty - yet effective - way to work.

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  9. Great looking grimy ruins!
    Best Iain

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