A Trip Out...

...finally!! After almost two weeks of being confined to quarters following my bout of "There's a lot of it about!" last Thursday Sue and I went over to see Dan at Wargames Illustrated HQ in Attenborough, Nottingham. The reason for our invite was that Dan wanted to take some photographs of my figures to accompany a short piece I have penned on my Saga of Bicca Biccasson project.

Dan and I spent a pleasant couple of hours chewing the hobby fat and both Sue and I learned a little more about the best techniques for photographing figures correctly. I hope what I learned might eventually lead to better photos accompanying my blog posts! After the photo session was successfully concluded the file of photos was emailed to a graphic designer, somewhere in sunny Spain I gathered, and by the time we had finished lunch at the café located in the Attenborough Nature Reserve the first rushes were back with Dan for comments and approval. When Sue and I arrived back in foggy Wolverhampton later in the afternoon I found I had a sample picture in my email inbox to look at! The wonders of the modern age, eh?👴🏻

So that you might get some idea of how the professionals can make even the most mundane painting efforts look acceptable, you might like to compare these two pictures: my quick snapshot of the photo booth with some of my figures set up on one of many pieces of WI terrain and an image just back from the Graphic Designer ~

Firstly my quick snapshot during a lull in proceedings, I think probably while Dan made us all a mug of coffee. The red pieces are wooden blocks of various dimensions to raise or lower figures in the rear of the terrain piece.

The same set up but photographed by Dan, who definitely has far more of a talent for this than yours truly, and having been worked on by the Graphic Designer. The sharp eyed may notice that the raven on the large rune stone has been removed for example. I'd hope we'd all notice the dramatic sky effect! While it may be true that the camera doesn't lie, it certainly can enhance the image and deceive the eye... It's almost modern day magic you might think?

I imagine that my piece may appear at some point in the early Spring, perhaps in the March or more likely the April issue, such is the lead in time involved in the production and publication of a print magazine.