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Bourbon Street Sophie
I painted this figure to enter in the Masters category at ReaperCon 2008. This is the category for Reaper's professional painters, and for those who win Best in Show in the general categories, which I had done in 2007. I had a lot of trouble deciding what to paint, which didn't leave much much time for the actual painting, but once I got started I became very committed to trying to push my painting to its limits. I was very pleased when this won third place amid a field of painters I've long admired. The timing worked out such that I was also able to enter it in the newly-revived Chick Challenge 2008, where the Popular Jury voted it second in the Fantasy category, which was filled with wonderful pieces. My thanks to the people who voted for this piece in both contests, the awards mean a lot to me! This is an LE Sophie from ReaperCon 2006, and is probably my favourite Sophie sculpt to date. She has such a lovely face, and I really like the fancy dress. Gaslight New Orleans and Mardi Gras are rich subjects, so I decided to paint her as she was sculpted, amid Mardi Gras revelries. I have three of these, but I had a little dremel incident during prepping that mangled the bodice trim and Sophie's nose, so I had to crack open the second of them (cursing myself all the while as the blister goes for a fair bit on Ebay) and start over. I'm hoping I'll think of a cool conversion for the damaged one some time. In terms of technique, I painted this in a similar way to the way I painted my Vampiress, but I wanted a result that had brighter light, more colours and a more festive mood, which added to the challenge. I'm really happy with the way Sophie and the light turned out, but as goofy as it sounds in some ways the lamp post is my favourite part. :-> These pictures were taken on a black background, but I've also taken photos on a gray background which are less atmospheric but show the colours more accurately.
Posted: 4 Jul 2008
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