Reapercon prep 2025

Well, it’s that time of year again. lol

At this point in my life, I really only paint when I’m prepping for reapercon. It just doesn’t fit any other time, but I still Do Art other times. Lol

Quick recap: Tiny Overlord (TO) is 7, Chaos Goblin (CG, formerly tinier overlord) is 3, and the Great Bearded One (GBO) and I celebrate our 19th anniversary next month! I started a new job working 3 12s, 9a-9p and it has been amazing. It has opened up so many opportunities for time with the boys, and hopefully painting time! I used to love working 3 12s when I worked ER, but went back to 8-5 when I had kiddos. But it just wasn’t working for our family. I couldn’t ever go to practices or plays or anything that was spur of the moment. I also missed ER, but not enough to go all the way back. Being an NP in the urgent care is now my happy place!!

I mentioned that I Do Art other than painting, so here’s a few receipts for that. I finished crocheting this graphgan as my first ever attempt at that (gotta go hard …)

Then I crocheted a bunch of other stuff. Some granny squares (my brain likes the ‘complete’ dopamine they give quickly. lol) A mermaid tail blanket for one of my friends’ kiddos that is going through it, and some pac-man ghosts in custom colors. TO only likes ‘teal’ and CG likes anything green. Also, i organized my crochet hooks. there are too many of them.

Then I discovered cozy coloring books, and continued my love affair with zentangles. The circle is an attempt at a glitter effect. I didn’t get a pic, but I now have like 4 different cozy coloring books, and I love them.

Then the painting!!! I got all my class minis (Giant Monsters, Eyes, and Comic Style classes!!!!!) washed and prepped. Which was no mean feat. I bought a lot of different ones because I wanted to be able to show several types of eyes and give people options. I ended up figuring out a good mix for a ‘dip’ instead of trying to individually prime/liner each one of these guys. lol.

And I organized my paint. Made a spreadsheet and everything. Organized the paints by sku/msp number and everything. And then we reorganized the house so I moved my entire painting setup, so most of my organization was lost. lol I have some good helpers tho!

So onto more painting! I have been really having trouble finding motivation. I sat around and fussed and whined and decided that I needed to figure out what part of painting is still enjoyable to me. I really only paint for about one month of the year, when I’m gearing up for reapercon. But I do line art almost every single day. So I decided to go back to my black and white that I love ad practice regularly. I got some fairly negative feedback last time I tried this, but I only ever get rave reviews when people actually pick up Yog Sothoth. (Reminder of what he looks like below). I really enjoy the lines and the concept of just black and white to make all of the effects I like.

So, I stripped my Dagon (again… for the 3rd, 4th? time) and started again. You can see how discolored the bones plastic is. lol. He looks like he’s made of white chocolate!! Then I primed him up bright bright white. I decided to use vampire pallor, which is a nice green white. I swatched all the whites and I was really surprised to see the different tones when they’re just laid out like that. I was also excited to use my little holder thing that I bought at reapercon last year. having 5 holders made a huge difference. One of the big issues I had on Yog was smudging when I was holding him. So I’m trying to limit my touching as well as leaving him separate as long as possible.

I started my “proof of concept” with a leg. I know it looks like an arm, but it’s a leg. lol. And I loved it! I know I nailed it when I take it to GBO and he goes, “oh yeah, that’s great!”. So that was where I started, and the scales make me happy. ( you can see part of the swatch on the left. It’s nuts how different they are!)

Then I started looking at his 3 (three!) amazing tails. I decided to stick with just the one color and add black runes down his tail. I never loved the way the tail bubbles are, so I just decided to go over them. lol I tried something else at first, but I didn’t like it and I really wanted to fill him with some cool freehand.