Thursday 1 August 2013

Dark Eldar Diorama - Finished!

One of the early lessons I learned at art college was that it can be surprisingly difficult to get a new project started. A blank sheet (real or metaphorical) is a daunting thing. It takes discipline, and a deep breath, to make those first marks and get things started. Much the same applies to ending a creative project.

Having worked on my diorama for so long it's been been a bit of a wrench to put down the paint brushes. I've been fine tuning the details and there always seems to be one more thing to do before it's all done. The obvious danger is that rather than improving things I'll overdo or even ruin them so, with a cry of 'enough', I am declaring this project finished.




A big part of the problem is that at the moment I'm just too close to the project. All I can see are the faults and I can see lots of them! This isn't because I'm unhappy with the piece but rather it's on account of it not being perfect. I'm well aware that absolute perfection is quite impossible to achieve but that doesn't stop me trying because trying for and falling short of perfection how I improve as a painter.

This is something I go through with almost every mini I paint and It's not a problem. I just need to put my Dark Eldar diorama in the mini cabinet and ignore it 
for a while. Then I can move on to the next project (Chi Chi) and start trying for perfection (whatever that may be) all over again. In a while I'll be able to look at my diorama with a fresh perspective and judge more truly if any details need adjustment.


Perfect or not I'm very happy with my Dark Eldar diorama and I suspect that I'll leave well alone as it's time to move on and apply the lessons learned to something new.


9 comments:

  1. Woot! Congrats. Fantastic work, David.

    Would it be possible to get more/bigger pictures of the project? More, angles, close-ups of the individual models in situ and any other cool details you want to share? I've been following along with this project since the beginning, and now that it's finished, I want to see as much as I can!

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    1. I'm working on getting some good pics and will be posting then. The diorama is proving tricky to photograph as it's quite tall but sticks out in odd places!

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  2. I was following progress of this piece of absolute modelling and painting beauty from the very beginning and let me say this - this is stunning piece of art. Congrats.

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  3. That is ace work sir! An golden demon entry maybe? Been great to follow the progress and will be interesting to see what is coming next. Thx for sharing /Hans

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    1. Yes I'll be taking this to this years GD UK.
      Next project - a giant psychotic, mutant cyborg gorilla!

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  4. You say you find mistakes on it, but i can tell that from the pictura looks pretty awesome, and very inspiring too :) Congratulations!

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  5. Not only is this diorama stunning, but it's also memorable. Honestly, I think that's what is lacking in many competition entries these days. With so many pics of finished minis on the Net (compared to the old days of only seeing your buddies paintjobs in person, and a few pics in White Dwarf every month), it's getting harder and harder to come up with something memorable, and I think your piece certainly does that. Technically stunning, extremely well composed, and stylistically very different from everything else out there.

    Love it!

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  6. Hi David

    A quick note to thank you for sharing this project with us. I've been following your progress avidly and have to say that the end result is exquisite.

    As well as the pleasure of seeing such an amazing piece of art I've learnt a great deal from your notes which have help bring my painting quality up.

    I appreciate that in a creator's mind perfection is impossible to attain but for my money what you've made here would be impossible to improve on.

    thanks.

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  7. That is amazing. You're hard work payed off well on this piece. Hopefully you'll be able to take it to a painting competition and show off :)

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