Easter painting challenge 2020

Several of us decided to set each other a painting challenge for the Easter weekend. We each chose 4 figures, and then votes were cast to decide which figures each of us would paint.

I was challenged to try an Oathsworn miniature from their Burrows & Badgers range as one of my selections, so it was no surprise when it was voted as my figure for the painting challenge.

I chose the Magpie Entrepreneur figure from Oathsworn’s latest Kickstarter, mainly because it didn’t fit in my current ideas for a warband so could be painted as a stand alone miniature without too many issues.

Then it was off to find some painting inspiration. I quickly discovered some great visual references for Magpies, but was a bit disturbed by their iridescent feather colouring on their backs – so much for an easy black bird!

As for the clothing, the figure looks very Dickensian in nature, so I decided to go with a colour scheme inspired by the latest David Copperfield film, as modelled by Peter Capaldi as Mr Micawber – which seemed somewhat appropriate.

I don’t know about you, but I always find painting an interesting process, in the fact that the figure usually doesn’t look that great until the very end. Certainly after the main colour blocking was done it didn’t look that great.

However, once the highlights and washes were applied, the improvement of the look of the miniature was huge. So much is improved by the addition of simple shading and highlighting. A miniature never looks finished until the base is done. I don’t normally add tufts and flowers to bases, but decided that this would be a feature of the Oathsworn minis I painted.

Whilst I am generally pleased with the results, I don’t think I have got the feather colouring quite right. That said, I didn’t want to ruin the result that I had obtained, so decided to stop were I was rather than spoil my work. I think that the various colouring of fur and feathers is going to be, for me, one of the biggest challenges in painting the Burrows & Badgers range.

This miniature has been very enjoyable to paint – it’s a fantastic sculpt with detail that responds wonderfully to washing and drybrushing, which means that even someone with my meagre painting skills can get a good result! I am looking forward to getting the rest of the range to the painting table.