Oof! I may have bitten off more than I could chew with this one! I decided to all-in on Halloween painting and participate in MZ4250's monthly competition - there is a printer up as a prize, and it was worth a shot. Unlikely to nab it, but I am more than happy for the extra motivation to work on spooky topics befitting the season. MZ has been making a bunch of creepy monsters on his end, so I wanted to work on something new to the catalog. This piece immediately struck me as being ambitions and audacious - perfect! I tried a few other prints as well, but my print game was weak and this fairly complex and delicate piece was the only one I was satisfied with. Ambitious was right!
After printing I had only a precious few weeks left, and my initial look at basing was unimpressive. I spend some solid time building up a base worthy of the title "corpse mound". It is partially clay with some woodfiller and a good dose of chopped up chunks of bad prints. I even made a few skeletons from MZs catalog to bulk it up. I followed that up with a few rounds of late-night speed-painting. I pretty quickly realized I was in over my head - so many bits and bobs here and there. I mostly just went sloppy with it with the hopes that the decayed nature of the undead would mask my mistakes. The photography leaves a lot to be desired - I was forced to use my old phone in a pinch and it struggled with focus on all the protruding bits. Next time ill do better with my painting contest goals.
The end result is decent, but suffers from some balance and detail issues. I think it gets the point across though. Maybe. My kids have differing opinions on what it is - green magical fire, ooze blob or ectoplasm. Not sure what I had in mind, actually - necromantic magic?
Not sure how I will use it - it is almost more of a terrain piece. Maybe is is a mobile portal to the realm of the dead? Or perhaps just mundane rotting zombie stench? Time will tell.
Happy Halloween!
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