Ending the Year with Bloody Lessons

Painting the first member of the Crimson Court: Ennias Curse-Born

After spending quite some time painting larger detail miniatures I received quite a boost of confidence for what I could strive to achieve. Hence, I decided to shift my learning to something smaller yet detailed. While visiting my local game shop, my eyes were instantly caught by a little box containing the Crimson Court miniatures. Four beautiful vampires that I just wanted to add to my collection. And so, I began my journey with the savage Ennias Curse-Born. And oh boy, did painting him teach me many things, especially where I still have much to improve.

Please join me on my journey of painting, making mistakes, and growing as a painter.

The Beautiful Beginning

Once the mini was cleaned and primed, I began deciding on the colour scheme I was going to use. After looking at many different references, I decided to go with a purple look on him, while also trying to have a bit of a fleshy look. With that in mind, I began base-coating his skin in a light purple, while making his trousers a bit of a darker hue. I continued with base coating the armour bits in silver and his boots a nice brown colour.

Once the base coating on the body was complete, I moved on to other parts of the mini. I gave some more detail to the boots, painting the straps. The wings I also painted purple, however, I gave the effort to try and blend some darker tones on the edges of the wings moving to lighter ones the closer it came to the body.

Once all of my base coatings were compl, I playeding a bit more with the wings.

I tried giving the wings more detail and shadows using purple ink. I quite liked the texture that the ink provided, however, it did wash out the different shades that I had created. Because of this, I played quite a bit more with the inks and the paints, until I could bring back that transition onto his back. I also worked on adding some more texture by highlighting some smaller parts of the wings.

Playing with the Shadows

Once I was happy with how the wings looked, I began experimenting with the skin of the twisted vampire. And let me tell you, I spend quite a few hours painting over, and over again, trying new colours, painting over them with different combinations, as you can see below.

I finally ended up going with a bit of a brownish colour as the undertone and bringing back that pale purple as the main colour of the skin. I quite liked the way that skin looked, I then gave it some smaller highlights and began preparing for what I realised is my biggest challenge yet.

Still, a long way to go

Even though it took me a better part of a day to get to this point, and many different tries to reach a result I could be happy with, despite anticipating it, I was still taken by surprised just how difficult my next step would be.

And that step was painting the face.

My attempt to paint a good-looking face, failing, and painting over it must have taken me more than painting the rest of the figure. And even then it was not a pretty sight. I knew it was going to be tough from the past, when I first began painting miniatures in school I would often not even bother with faces and just focus on other things. But this time I knew that if I wanted to get better I had to give it my all, and that is what I did.

And I will be the first to admit that it did not turn out perfectly, however, I am still happy with myself that I tried and learned.

The finishing touches

Even though I painted most of this miniature in a single weekend, due to life, it took me over a month to sit down and finish this vampire. And I did that over New Year.

During my last session, I gave Ennias some final details on his armour and equipment. I gave him some more golden decorations on his armour along with a potion on his back. After that month of inactivity, I ended up being happy with how the details turned out when I moved on to painting his base and finishing the first member of The Crimson Court.

The resulting menace

The experience I had while painting this figure was that of me embracing what I need to improve on. I learned that I may not have been thinning my paints enough. I learned that my brush technique still needs much more work. And I learned that it is okay to fail because failure is what helps us improve. And even though I may have created a somewhat derpy little Vampyre, I am still going to treasure him as a reminder of what I have done in this past year.

And now with Ennias Curse-Born closing out the year for me, I have a new year to paint more, to write more, and to create many more things for myself to cherish, and for you to read.

I hope you will join me on my journey, fellow reader, during this new year full of surprises and adventures!