Talisman Pilgrim
Talisman Pilgrim
Talisman Pilgrim
Talisman Pilgrim
In western Europe in the middle ages it was common for people of all stripes to make pilgrimages at certain points in the their lives or others, and we can imagine it to be similar in the Talisman setting. The Talisman Pilgrim, though, seems to have made it his calling, and there's a more specific term for these individuals: palmer.
I'm reading Edmund Spencer's The Fairie Queene and the palmer character therein is the perfect inspiration for roleplaying this particular figure.He follows a knight called Sir Guyon, and takes it upon himself to guide him on the path of temperance and away from such perils as a group of flirtatious nymphs seeking bathing companions.
In short, wonderful, clear inspiration to bring this miniature to life in games (as a follower, rather than PC)! I can see the GM of my Talisman-inspired games providing the same sort of incessant moral guidance, perhaps in the service of some Monty-Python-esque burlesque.
In terms of painting the painting, we are looking at a limited palette of off-white, brown, gray and flesh. The main base color is P3 Trollblood Highlight, a favorite light neutral of mine. I washed it with faint wine-brown made with P3 Sanquine Base before highlighting up to white.
I don't like how his sign turned out. It's supposed to be a piece of cloth or paper stuck to his staff and depicting a black heard. But the size of the nail leaves a cramped space for the heart beneath, which is made worse by a little notch on the bottom of the sign. In hindsight I should have sliced away the nail and puttied over the notch at the bottom, and maybe even enlarged the sign a bit, then added the nail back much smaller at the top. As it is, it looks almost as much like a fuzzily-rendered spade symbol. Maybe I'll fix it.
Talisman Druid
Talisman Druid
Talisman Druid
Talisman Druid
On to the Druid. Here's a character I've always felt a kinship with. The key to the scheme is the periwinkle robes, and this is set off by the blue sleeves, red belt, and green mistletoe. Thankfully I have the perfect periwinkle, Vallejo Shadow Grey. This is equivalent to the old Citadel Shadow Gray now made by Coat'd'arms and called Shadow Grey there too. The highlights are warm. I can't remember exactly, but they may be flesh tones.
When it came to painting a white beard, I looked at reference pics as a I usually do and noted in photographs a white beard shows almost no definition or shadows. A white beard is generally brilliantly white. Journeyman painters will often apply the same degree of shadow, mid-tones and highlights to each thing on a figure, and in my view this is a trap that painters will have to grow out of to achieve the next rungs of our craft. Understanding the reflective properties of the different materials one is trying to depict is one of the cornerstones of mastery. To get the beard right here didn't take careful shading, it just took conviction and five extra coats of pure white.
Talisman Scout
Talisman Scout
Talisman Scout
Talisman Scout
The scout was a quick one. I think an old GW Dark Angels Green and P3 Ordic Olive were two main greens I used, among several others. Photo reference is a must for me when I paint feathers.
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