On the road to Daemonhood!
Moving on from commissions and straight updates that relate to the most recent tutorials. This model here will be of significant importance as well as something purely for myself! And that is you’re looking at the start to my very first Golden Daemon Entry, slated for 2024 Adepticon! Some say it’s been a long time coming and also something of a new push to further my experience and painting goals. Funny enough that wasn’t quite so, as it was only back in 2020 that I thought painting competitions were kinda dumb! Ok not that the paintings and the winners were dumb, not even in the slightest. But just the idea of a painting competition was kinda odd, as I’ve always viewed paintings and art as a form of expression and a communication tool that the artist uses to convey. And with ideas and expression, its not so much as what message is better or worse, it just is. And good art to the individual is something that talks to you in a relatable way. Much like your taste in music is unique and can differ from person to person. Moving on from that idea, the feeling and the drive to compete in Golden Daemon actually stems from a form of challenge for myself. What it takes to build you skills, test your discipline, and construct a piece that follows a set sort of standards that you have to consider with your target audience. Funny enough it sounds like my old career again, in Graphic Design for marketing material. Designing an advertisement that caters and speaks to a particular set of audience with a message that is set to a specific set of goals. So now I’m back with it in miniature painting, creating a piece that not only speaks a part of my core beliefs and passions, but also contains within it a set standard of brush control and all the rules of the Golden Daemon. To push myself to deliver a perfect execution of my painting and leave nothing on the table that otherwise I may have. You know due to time constraints, areas of less importance, or simply feeling satisfied with what the painting has already given me. In the end, I want to bring a trophy home! To display it proudly at my club and in hopes to inspire others especially my local fam that painting goals like Golden Daemon are achievable!
Ok, thats my 2 cents on the why, lets get into the actual first piece I’m starting with.
A White Scars Dreadnought, the Ulhaan Solban. The name roughly translated from Chorgoran to Gothic reads - “Guardian of the morning and evening stars.”
My Dreadnought is taking a very opposite stance and one of a sitting posture in a meditative lotus like position. I couldn’t make him cross legged, although I wish that were possible. But him sitting with his hands out to each side and middle finger to thumb pressed together completes the posture. The idea is that he is on top of a high mountain pass which I’ve had imagery of a mountain monastery in the Huangshan or Tibetan ranges. There he sits guarding the pass to the vaults of the legions Geneseed depository. What all White Scars dreadnoughts are commonly used for is to protect the future of the legion. Considered not a curse, nor an honour, but something in between. Forsaking the path of heaven till death can truly take him, and to guard the future of the legion.
With still more modelling to add, there is considerations of a small shrine, a bowl of fruit, incense and possibly even a portrait picture of the warrior of him as he was once alive. Much like a traditional chinese memorial honouring a loved one. Even possibilities of some paper parchment stuck on his legs as keepers of the monastery or even felling legion warriors leaving the home world to join their brothers in battle would post notes asking for good luck and fortune. Even the possibility of their own self, their geneseed when they fall in battle and pass to Heaven, that he would guard them once again for the next generation.
Of course, not all of this will ever be known to the judges and many looking at it. But I think it’s important for big pieces of have strong meaning and a vivid picture of what you imagine your work to be and possibly represent. The clearer the image in your mind, the more you have to work to make it happen!
Lastly, before I leave this here, I will be doing my best to record the process and construct some tutorials out of the process so I can share it in more detail. These may come in a different format from my usual tutorials, but it’s too early to say at this point. But you can certainly count on updates staying on here as I don’t actually want to be sharing much on social media so as to not get too many eyes drawn to its creation. Rather I want to keep it to my readers and Pro Palette Patreons. I think showing up to Golden Daemon and making a bit of a surprise splash is better than having a project that’s been seen by everyone through the entire process to be a bit of a soft landing, especially with the judges. That’s all for now on the desk! Through the year you will see more and more of him being painted and quite possibly a lot of mistakes and refinements to be had. I hope you enjoy following this journey with me as much as I will have painting it. Take care and Happy Painting :)