The wonderful aroma of. . .

Not necessarily a traditional Christmas image, but I cam across this wintry illustration of Pooh and Piglet several weeks ago, and thought it deserved a place here in the run up to Christmas. No doubt, they'll want some warm gluehwein (possibly cut with some honey) when they arrive at their destination.

The wonderful aroma of oil paints has filled my corner of Zum Stollenkeller for the past couple of days! A delightfully familiar, comforting scent that instantly takes me back to when I was a small boy and used to sit at my mother's feet while she worked at her easel. . . more than 40 years ago! Back in the present, I'll need to sit down to the painting table for an hour or two this evening and work on the next couple of steps on those 20 RSM, Minden, and Fife&Drum 18th century staff figures since the olfactory reminder of my youth has abated somewhat in the last 24 hours or so.

A snow-covered Luebeck, Germany from December 2010. Again, not strictly a Christmas image, but it reminds me of the first time I visited the city in February 1986. It was extremely cold, snowy, and, at that time, there was still lots of coal smoke hanging around in the air. Not healthy at all, but just the stuff of which vivid memories are made. I hope that one day the grand Duchess, Young Master Paul, and I might get to spend a Christmas and New year's period in the north of Germany.

Comments

MSFoy said…

Nice to see the old EH Shepard illustration. It's nice anyway, but it reminds me of a time when I was young enough not to find Winter threatening, and also it demonstrates that there were some treasures in the world long before Disney applied a layer of cheese to everything!

Thanks for that - Regards - Tony

7:17 AM

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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