About



Hi all!

My name is Thomas Skoven and I paint and collect fantasy miniatures as a hobby.

«The druids journey» is a humble site where to post all my "step by step" photos, as a painting diary. I´ll do it by taking care of the processes of creation, inspiration and "stories behind the scenes", rather than elaborate color recipes. 

 All painters grow up and learn form their own mistakes, so I consider quite useful to see all these intermediate steps till reach the final results. I also believe in "free knowledge exchange between painters", which justifies this blog.

As an artist I love studying the classic Theory of color. For that reason I usually use BASIC COLOR PALETTES (cyan + magenta + yellow +  Black & white), as the only way to understand how color works... Once I consider it understood, I try new more tones.


Miniature painting is an exciting activity full of satisfaction, but it can be very frustrating at the beginning ... requires  patience, many attempts and frecuently: starting again.

This blog is about my own learning path, trying to be helpful for those who are at the beginning ... maybe you will save time on some steps, maybe not ;) Hope to be a source of inspiration to others in someway..

Please, enjoy ;) and of course, all comments will be very welcomed!


"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." Samuel Beckett




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nurgle fly + 40k Chaos chosen: «NURGLED»

Image
Models: "Plague drone of Nurgle"&"Chaos space marine: Chosen" Company: Games workshop "Story behind the scene": Some time ago I got the drone of Nurgle, a quite amazing miniature which I had painted in a really bad way. I wanted to paint a rider, a dark and evil one, but I didn´t like very much the plague bearer. So I was looking for a mini who could ride my monster instead of the plague bearer, and I found the Chaos Chosen. It would be my first conversion. Then, I found some inspiration surfing on the internet, when I first discovered Karol Rudyk ´s art. The way he gets extraordinary riders and monsters hipnotized me. He usually paints monsters using desaturated colors and red-green-brown tones, which would suit very well this project. This Chaos space marine could ride a monster very well, but the cloak and legs where not in the best position, so I cut both. When you first do it you feel how something broke inside yourself...
Read more

STARDRAKE: "THE DEMON SLAYER»

Image
Story started with a birthday present. OMG! It is huuuge! Amazingly detailed, it is gonna be something like Sistine Chapel but, here I am... First of all, I remove the reliefs on shields and armours, cause I want to draw my own freehands, giving more value to the figure. Sencodly, I make an easyhonor conversion using Milliput, just to add a new position to the leg ( I find the original design quite unnatural). Lets go to the base now, I imagine the dragon hunting khorne demons on a volcanic field. I use some cork which imitate castle ruins, surrounded by lava. Lava cracks using milliput, sand and glue. Let´s try something new: lava splashes!  Surfing on the internet I found a great and original tutorial by chest of colors By putting together some plastic pieces, white glue and «Water effects», I got something like dynamic lava. First painting giving lights and shadows, again I use a lateral illumination pattern and OSL
Read more

MV CHALLENGE 2018 "Would you be my friend?"

Image
Model 1: Marie Fleur Company: Mr Lee's minis Scale:  28 mm Model 2: Stardrake head Company: GW Scale: 28 mm Story begins with a challenge from a painter and a team I specially admire: Roman Lappat and Massive Voodoo. This summer the MV challenge dared us to build sceneries including penguins or Marie Fleur. I chose the 2nd option apreciating so great opportunity to go beyond our confort limits. Marie is a cute and delicate mini, small but really beautiful, it transmit a lot, lovely. It arrived home just in a few days. First step was imagine the composition and characters. She is a little girl holding a flower at her back. The question is, who is this flower for?  I remember to be asking my family for their own opinions like a brainstorm: to a robot, her mother, a boyfriend...were possible candidates. Finally, I remembered I was keeping a dragon head from Sigmar Stardrake, could it be a possible friend? But, what about the scenery: a
Read more