Stef Paints
Another year has come and gone, so it's time to take a look back at what I got up to in 2022. Quite a bit has happened so strap in for a long one!
In January I decided to surprise two of my friends with a painted model each. They are both life long Dark Angels fans, so I picked two classic sculpts and painted them up.
On Azrael especially, this was the first time in a long time I'd painted a space marine, so I wanted to push myself on the armour concentrating on volumes rather than edge highlighting.
On Ezekiel, I'm really happy with how the reflections in his blade turned out.
They were both very happy with the results, and I'm glad I got to do something nice for them.
In May I started to prep for the Golden Demon competition. I had a few ideas for models I wanted to paint, but I wasn't sure which one I wanted to go with. At this stage the event hadn't even been announced yet, so my goal was to get into the habit of painting with purpose to the best of my ability.
I chose an Edlar Warlock miniature and started working on his robes. Unfortunately that ended up being the extent of it as other things came up, but I do want to come back to this miniature at some point. I like the direction it was taking.
In June, I wanted to surprise another friend, this time a big fan of World of Warcraft. I spoke to another friend of mine who does a lot of 3D printing, and he had an Orc file that would be perfect for the job.
This is actually the first bust I've ever painted, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I have a couple more ready to go so they will be a very good painting exercise at some point in the future.
October rolled around with Golden Demon UK. The first time in a long time since I'd entered, and I put myself out my comfort zone by entering the 40k Vehicle category.
I've never painted a vehicle to competition standard before, so it was a huge learning curve. I chose a Death Guard Kratos and spent many hours of research into techniques such as weathering, rust and chipping.
The process was arduous, but really worth it. Battling through Covid in the final days leading up to the competition didn't exactly help, but I'm glad I powered through and I'm really happy with the results.
Plus, I managed to get a finalist pin for my efforts!
Immediately after Golden Demon, myself and a few friends went on a hobby holiday. The four of us spent a week in a converted barn painting, gaming and eating.
The week was very productive, I managed to finish my Warcry warband, along with a 3' x 2' board ideal for games of Warcry and small scale games.
In November I was lucky enough to attend a painting workshop with Will Hahn. Will is an amazing painter, and the focus of the workshop was around atmosphere, composition, skin tones, NMM and more.
Over the course of two days I learned a huge amount that I hope to take forward into future display miniatures and competition pieces.
In December, I created this website. I've had a website for my painting in the past but it didn't really have any direction. This time I thought hard about what kind of content I wanted to create, and how it can compliment what I already do on Instagram.
One of these ideas is the Hobby Digest newsletter which I think will be a really good resource. I tend to consume a lot of content around the hobby and it gives me a place to share what I find useful every month.
Well, this has been a long one! If you're still reading thanks for sticking around until the end. Here's to a great 2023!
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