Saturday 17 January 2015

From Anne & Sander - The Femme Fatal Duel

Dear Folks,

A Tale of Two Painters

Sander's Tale:

Finally we have reached the decisive moment in that neat little side duel between the lovely Missus O'Leary and myself. How did we get ourselves into this duel? Well simple: I have been following Anne's Antics with miniatures and her sidekicks Ray and Fran for some time now. In my mind I have always called them the Dynamite Trio.

Anne's painting work and more specially her brilliant female figures have been a staunch favourite of mine for quite some time. Upon hearing the news that I was allowed to enter the Hallowed Halls of the Challenge, I found myself challenging Anne to a Side Duel in which we both had to paint our version of the Archetypical Femme Fatale. Gracefully Anne accepted and the fun started.

What was I thinking when I put fort the Challenge? She's miles better at painting gorgeous skintones. Her palette is second to none and her basing and photographing qualities beyond reckoning... basically: I am done for!

The only way out of this predicament was thinking out of the box. So I started by trying to choose a unexpected figure. Your typical Femme Fatal is a jaw dropping beautiful woman in an equally handsome attire, the model I was going to choose most certainly was not... Ever since I visited the first Crisis Convention, I have treated myself to, at least, one Freebooter miniature, this has resulted in a smallish pile of very nice miniatures amongst which I found the perfect little lady for this occasion: Momma Cebada.

This miniature is not the most delicate figure out there but surely full of character and if her choppers will not get you into the next life her cooking most certainly will. I decided to choose a paint scheme that's pretty close to the original but with enough room for artistic license. The base is the regular scenic base included with the figure and I decided not to do anything fancy like including a scenic background. So without further ado I present to you the pictures of the results of my labours and my the deadliest Femme Fatale win!



Anne's Tale:


I am notorious for suddenly and publicly challenging people to Paint Duels. So when I logged onto Facebook and saw the challenge from Sander, I just couldn't say no.  

After picking up the gauntlet the search for a figure began. The obvious choice would have been a knockout scantily clad Babe carrying a big gun. However as I have painted rather a lot of those, I knew it would be easy. As this is a Challenge, I felt I should choose a figure that would push me as a painter.  As my greatest weakness is painting elaborate folds in clothing, I chose this figure.

She is a 28mm figure from Dark Sword and was sculpted by Tom Meier



Sander and I have had a wonderful time putting this together and we hope that you have fun participating in it.

The Poll

Curt has kindly agreed with putting up a poll for you all to vote in (see the right sidebar), so you can all help to decide which Femme Fatale you like best. The poll will be closed on Friday, January 23rd at midnight. The runner-up will sent his/ her mini to the winner.

Greetings from Anne and Sander


31 comments:

  1. Great work from both of you!
    Anne you've really done some excellent work on the cloth and the skin tones. As always the basing sets off the figure nicely.
    Sander I really like your take on the theme and to be honest I don't think never before a gobliness was that sexy ;-) Your attention to detail like the dirt on her shirt and the patterned skirt bring this figure to life.

    Tough choice!

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  2. Those are a pair of crackers. Sander its a great tactical move to use goblin totty and she is very well done indeed.
    Anne your submission is really beautiful.
    This is a tough choice

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  3. A tough choice but for my money Anne takes it. Having said that I think if Anne had done a Goblin as well it might have been so very close indeed.

    But most importantly well done to both of you for providing such excellent figures.

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  4. Both excellent figures... I love them both and Anne I have become a great fan of your painting... but I fear your figure is more damsel in distress then femme fatale though and I must cast my vote to the Gobliness.

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    1. Dunno, my middle daughter selected "The Five Armies" for her birthday movie. When the delicate Wood Elf Queen went to rescue Gandalf....why on middle-earth did she feel the need for the others to help!? ;)

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  5. This is going to be a tough choice...

    @ Sander - well, she certainly looks fatal to anyone who encounters her (or tries her cooking). I'm not sure about her being "femme" though, but that could be because I'm not a goblin ;)

    @ Anne - as always, beautiful painting and basework :)

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  6. Both wonderful!! If only I could choose them both...

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  7. Well if it was not hard enough the figures end up being totally different but great at the same time!

    Oh well can we call it a draw? ;-)

    Ian

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  8. Hi Anne,
    a title in French?
    I hope your Lady in blue will not be too abnormally attracted to sin (dixit Tori Amos:))
    you're on the road to win the Golden Demon of this Challenge!

    Be seeing you;)

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    1. That was my artsy editorial flourish as Anne chose not give her a name. (I hope she doesn't mind...)

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  9. Excellent stuff the pair of you. Well done.

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  10. Too difficult a choice! One's decidedly more 'femme', while the other looks unmistakably 'fatale'!

    Both are excellent examples of your art; well done the two of you!

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  11. Both of these are grand! The gobliness with the gaudy makeup and wicked cleavers( who ate her foot?) And the maiden with fantastic skin and flowing gown( that is tight around her bosom) nice transition there to simulate that! Both are very well done!

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  12. Both work well, but the technique of Anna, in my opinion, better

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  13. Sander, you forgot to mention that your figure was supposed to be Anne, don't you remember??

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  14. Ray, usually I agree with you but on this one: NO! Besides Momma's figure is more reminiscent of someone else we know isn't it Anne?

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    1. Whoever that figure resembles don't piss her off.

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    3. Rousell, you're an arsemonkey. She looks like you and your missus knows it :)

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  15. Very hard choice they both are great in their own ways, good job both.

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  16. The story of this challenge is as entertaining as the figures are. Both done with much creativity and talent. Voting for both is what I want to do, but that's not in the spirit of this duel ..... Hmmmm.

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  17. Now that was a hard decision. They are both wonderful folks...

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  18. Great work the both of you! Really, really tough choice.

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  19. Great painting work. Those maiden are wonderful!!!

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  20. Excellent duel. Very inspirational.

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  21. Two lovely ladies - but Momma is a real charmer - and I just love Cebada (barley in Spanish) ;) Cheers!

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