The 12 Days of Reaper figure for December 8 is this charming little dragon and his hoard of presents. This is the first of the holiday dragons that I had the opportunity to paint a few years back, and I just adore him. I think gifts are a perfect thing to hoard, as they represent love and possibility.
Unfortunately I did not take any work-in-progress shots while painting this figure, so I don’t have a lot to offer in the vein of how-to. I will say that I think snowflakes are an accessible pattern if you want to try your hand at some freehand wrapping paper, since they’re mostly straight lines. Use a brush with as fine a point as you can find. You are unlikely to be able to paint this sort of thing with a standard synthetic brush. You will need a Kolinsky sable watercolour brush to paint these kinds of details. You may find that one on the smaller side or with a shorter bristle head is a bit easier to control, but experiment with the brushes you have to see what you can draw the finest, most controlled lines with. I always recommend practicing on a base or an old miniature or something similar before painting freehand on your intended figure.
The snowflakes I painted are six pointed. Start by painting a center line, then paint two lines over it in an X shape, trying to make the end points of the lines roughly equidistant apart. (Or you could experiment with painting a wide X and then a center line through the middle of it. Experiment and find what works for you!) Then you can use straight lines or dots to customize the flakes. Cross the end or mid-point of each line with a small dash mark, or put two dots to either side of the end points, or put dots in between the lines. There are all kinds of options.
The dragon comes on a small base of holly. I used the forest floor mould from Basius to create more foliage, and then placed him on top. There weren’t really any berries in the press base, but some rounded spots I painted in a similar way to the berries to make it look like he was resting on a larger base of holly.
Reaper Miniature is running their 12 Days of Reaper promotion from December 5 through December 16. During the promo, one special holiday figure of the day is included free with every purchase of $40 or more from the online Reaper site. And for the first time ever, they are making the 12 Days figures available for purchase separately, for two weeks following December 16.
The 12 Days promotion stacks with the promotion to include a free Dungeon Dweller of the month with each $40+ worth of order. So for every $40+ you order at this time, you’ll receive two free metal figures. And if your order totals more than $65, you also receive a Christmas Sampler package that includes Bones miniatures, candy, a postcard with cool art by Talin, and a naughty or nice surprise. There are a fixed amount of Samplers, so those are while supplies last.
Here is the schedule of figures for each of the 12 Days of Reaper.
The Dungeon Dweller of the month is Caerindra Thistlemoor. I posted pictures and information about her last week, including some work-in-progress shots with lighting reference pictures and some information on how I rough in the lights and shadows. You can read that here: https://birdwithabrush.com/2018/12/03/caerindra-thistlemoor-roughing-in-lights-and-shadows/
You’ll find the Reaper website here: http://www.reapermini.com/
See you in a few days with pictures of this year’s new holiday dragon!
Bird with a Brush 