Female Mage on Stairs [WIP - Dress]

Despite an initial reluctance to start work on Dark Sword's Female Mage on Stairs largely due to a less than adequate primer coat applied during my early days in the hobby, in the end I couldn't resist giving it a go anyway. Other than some lost details (such as buttons) on the upper portion of her dress and potential roughness showing up on her skin, I believe I can still make it work ... somehow.

Dark Sword Miniatures' Female Mage on Stairs, work-in-progress on her dress

Dress colour scheme is a mixture of pastel pink, peach and orange

A semi-botched primer coat means it'll be an uphill battle all the way when painting the mage

Early progress on the Female Mage on Stairs centred on achieving suitable contrast as well as smooth transitions on her dress's light pastel colour scheme. I would like to believe that my understanding of colours and acrylic paint techniques have improved up to a point where I could do both. But credit is also largely due to the well sculpted dress which made the overall process easier.

Beautifully sculpted clothing complements the ...

... equally well sculpted hair

Her hair will be painted to either contrast the orange sash or complement the pink dress 

Going forward, I am tempted to go off at a tangent with regards to her overall colour scheme. To give you a hint about what I mean, the mage's hair will be painted to either complement the pink dress (status quo) or to contrast the orange sash (the tangent I am referring to). Both are appealing choices and for the moment I am at a lost as to which path I should take ... perhaps the road less travelled.  

The many folds in her dress made achieving contrast on a light pastel colour scheme that much easier

Achieving a contrast and smooth transitions for the mage's dress was a key priority at this stage

Going forward, there is a likelihood her overall colour scheme could go off at a tangent 

Coming in only two separate parts, the Female Mage on Stairs was easy to assemble and looks deceptively easy to paint. It's anything but. Painting 28-mm figures from the Dark Sword Miniatures line never fails to be a challenge and it's proving no different for the mage. While the bad primer coat isn't helping, it's the very simplicity of the miniature that makes it difficult to paint well and create a 'wow' factor if you will. But since I always find myself improving, however slightly, when working at such a small scale, it's a challenge worth taking. That I get to paint her in Asian skin tones is icing in the cake as I haven't had much opportunity to do so in my miniature projects. Best I get to it then.