Art Imitating Life

This post is somewhat meta.

I'm a painter whose painted a painter whose painted a painting which has created two more paintings that I, a painter, have painted.

Still with me.

I've written before about my appreciation of games that make their rules and profiles freely available and then trust the quality of their game and miniatures to sell themselves.

Carnevale is one such game.

I find that this approach not only gives you a chance to try before you buy, but also leaves some room for creativity involving the bits box and lead pile.

So, although the miniatures for the artist Maria Fioritura and her painted protectors are great, when Matt, who had been doing some printing for JP, gave me a spare artist model, I saw an opportunity to do something for Carnevale.

I don't see this as problematic because I'm not currently collecting the Gifted faction (although they can be used as, for want of a better term, hired guns) and so Maria wasn't on any future shopping list.

My artist, Mario Fioritura, was painted mainly using contrast paints, which responded well to the surprisingly detailed miniature. I was a little worried that the colours I'd used on him were too one-note, but the yellow-brown pallette allows the colours on his pallete and the glowing green of his rent-infused eyes to pop, and I like the finished effect.

He came with an easel and canvas, something the original model doesn't have, and so I saw an opportunity to clarify the narrative of these miniatures by adding a carefully cut printout of an image of one of the Painted Protectors to the canvas.

In Carnevale, the Gifted are those inhabitants of Venice who the rent in the sky has imbued with supernatural or magical abilities. They can join other factions or work as a separate faction by themselves.

The Artist has the ability to make images in their paintings come to life as defensive duplicates, which is why I opted to use two monopose Wizkids Dungeons & Dragons miniatures to represent them. I did give them a weapon swap as their original sword were laughably flimsy. They are a little short, but they aren't meant to real people, so it doesn't bother me.

I've not tried anything special within the painting to make them seem specifically like they are artistic creations, but instead opted to use the canvas on the easel to reinforce the protectors relationship to the artist.

All in all, I've very happy with the Artist, and happy enough about the Painted Protectors. It means that I have my first Gifted option for games of Carnevale and it's a character I wasn't ever likely to pick up first.

Acquired: -57
Painted: 389
Lead Mountain: 627