Instagram story viewer> @rageandpaint> Posts

Rage and Paint

@rageandpaint

449

followers

921

following

DC based journeyman painter
Open for commissions and 1:1 coaching
Dracoya affiliate: Rage10 for 10% off
2026: 7x🥈1x🥉2x commended finalist

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

More WIP photos and thought process from my @neriksonminiatures entry!

Temperance upright is cool, calm, full of poise. I chose to convey the balance through her black and white clothing and in the mandala petals - both of which are meant to play on a yin-yang motif. Blue becomes the hero color of this side, balancing against the orange of the reverse. The background is based directly off the original Temperance Rider Waite art, both the intense and vibrant yellow common across many cards in the Rider Waite deck and with several of the background elements, including the mount Kilimanjaro-esque mountain with a shining halo and a path that you can make out in the mountain. The background elements all have a desaturated, yellowish tint to them like you find in ancient scrollwork, while the flower is heavily saturated, with the hint of a sun above this. While the colors hint at morning or dusk, the sun is centered in the piece, perfectly balanced, with the flower mandala held between the sun and the figure.

For the front, I listened to relaxing music and used calm, collected, intentional brushtrokes.

There are unseen elements in both pieces, but the patch on her back, which I thought would show up much better in the side shot, ends up not being seen at all (this was a WIP shot)

It took me a couple of weeks to land on this, I had been doing a much of research and planning but nothing felt quite right for the piece until I landed on yin-yang as the motif. I'd never done silk, black or white clothing, and black hair can be a real pain to get right, so I immediately knew this side was going to be the toughest for me.

Originally I thought I'd do a less saturated take to contrast against the reverse (and looking at things like the original hair and the mandala before I started refining it, I do wonder if those versions worked better). With the background, at first I tried to more directly honor the original Temperance art, with a blue background and a different mountain and path. But it ended up feeling too Western and didn't feel like it integrated well with the figure.

I'm excited to see the results of the contest Friday! Cheers all by @rageandpaint

161

1

3 months ago

This week, I wanted to share some #WIP photos from my @neriksonminiatures entry and talk a bit more about my thought process for both sides, starting with Temperance reversed.

Temperance reversed is wild, full of passion, but out of balance. It was also my favorite side to work on. The flames themselves clearly hint at a yin-yang symbol out of sync, but so do the off center eclipse, her own pose, and the uneven number of arms. The third arm (which was a happy little printing accident) gives the sense that she is emerging but not yet complete, or could be read as almost part of the background and more of a hint as to the god-like power of this figure.

Unlike the temperance upright background, this one is dark and less busy than the front. The purple marble and dark purple night contrasts directly with the vibrant, bright yellow of Temperance upright as does the metallic frame, which moves from a straight on highlight to underneath, again slightly off balance.

In painting these, I also wanted to carry across these themes in my process. For the reverse, it was all heavy, energetic music with wild and sometimes random brushstrokes. After getting an undercoat done and laying in the red, I completed a sketch in about 3 hours and several elements didn't end up needing any major improvements from that sketch (especially the abs and her knee). That side view of her is especially impactful and I'm really happy with how it came out. Even the background was straightforward - though I went back and forth on whether to include the eclipse and experimented with including it as a motif in the frame before opting against that.

I started iterating on ideas a month before the project started. The reverse side was quite easy, I knew I wanted to honor the Kali interpretation from Nerikson and really it was just about ensuring I could get saturation in the reds and flames without taking away from the piece itself. I ended up laying some yellow tones underneath and using the Kimera red mixed with Golden fluorescent orange for the flames, and just Kimera's red for the robe. The front was much more difficult and complicated and I'll talk about that in my next post.

#minipainting by @rageandpaint

138

10

3 months ago

Progress shots!

I've been a fan of Gloomhaven for a long time, and love the miniatures that come with, even if the sculpts aren't always the best. I originally painted Gloomhaven's Jaws of the Lion for a friend back in 2023 and at the time I was happy with the results and had painted to the best of my ability, but I recently acquired a copy of the game to play with my partner and thought I'd use this as a progress check. These aren't perfect and are primarily meant for tabletop, but I still tried to paint them to a standard I could be happy with (though looking at these now I'm annoyed I didn't remove all the mold lines!!!) it's awesome seeing what a difference 3 years, though I still need to work on my photography.

I finished these a few months ago but waited to take photos until recently, so I'd like to think I've progressed even further since. I'm excited to see where the next 3 years take me!

#progressnotperfection #miniaturepainting #gloomhaven by @rageandpaint

20

1

13 days ago

A selection of my pieces that I haven't previously shared submitted to the inaugural @nofa.open.paintingexhibiton !

I've been working on these off and on for quite some time, and made the final push to get these complete last week. I also finally got my photo set up to a good place where I felt I could take proper photos of these and some others which I'll share at a later point.

The bust was my take on @victor_aguilardb 's fabulous 'The Lady'. I originally started this in Erik Swinson's fundamentals class at NOVA 2025, and picked it back up in April to finish. After receiving some feedback, I made a few revisions to get to this final version. I was inspired by the poster for Miyazaki's film 'The Wind Rises' - and named the piece after it. I tried to pack quite a bit of storytelling into a small space here - from her expression to the way she is looking at the camera, and contrasting her haircut against the almost old fashioned military green jacket. I loved bringing out a unique expression to her and adore this simple sculpt. Painted with Kimera

This Grogu is actually a pencil topper I found thrown out on the ground last year. I couldn't resist taking it home and seeing if I could breathe some life into it. I ended up adding both aspects of the force here, and fittingly used some more plastic I found for the background. (I'll let you guess what it is). This was more of a fun sketch that I decided not to take too seriously, but ended up having a lot of fun with. Painted with a mix of Kimera and Golden Fluorescent

This last one, the Return of the HeroQuest Mummy, is for a little project @nickrotic_brush is running using OG HeroQuest figures. I wanted to pack as much atmosphere as I could into this little dude and am thrilled with the result. Im always happy to be able to freehand a base as well. Painted with AK and Reaper paints by @rageandpaint

57

5

a month ago

My completed figure for the #spira48 challenge!

This was my first ever @spiramirabilis_miniatures bust and it was such an absolute joy to paint. It's so clearly sculpted with care and the painter in mind and was a dream to sketch on. Every little detail has a little story inside it and it was wonderful to explore as the sketching went on. I'm very much looking forward to my next Spira bust after this (and to returning to this to properly finish it) and this was a super fun challenge to take part in.

I painted this entirely with @kimera_models heavy body acrylics. I find Kimera really good for establishing strong, punchy colors which is what I wanted for this piece, as well as for the overall sketching process. They are widely available in the US through @dracoyaminis and you can use code Rage10 at checkout for 10% off the sticker price.

I originally went in to painting this inspired by Dunk and Egg from Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but quickly became enamored with the drunk little goblin at the top, who reminds me of Yoda sitting on Luke's shoulders. I also really wanted to lean in to the cast shadow from the shield, and a story came to mind of a tired servant of a drunk master taking him to the next bar late in the afternoon.

�Hope you enjoy it and looking forward to sharing a finished version sometime soon! by @rageandpaint

111

6

a month ago

by @rageandpaint

21

0

a month ago

I am THRILLED to finally reveal my latest piece - Temperance from @neriksonminiatures which I a submitting to their 5-year anniversary competition. This was a huge, crazy project to take on in a short period of time (45 days!), but it's helped me grow enormously as a painter, progress I'm excited to take to the next (smaller!) project. Huge thanks to both @orc.butt and @jero_miniatures who helped me to plan my approach and iterate on the final result. I also want to thank @skynes1 and @valkyr_miniatures for their feedback as well during the process, and of course the entire painting community for being so inspiring and encouraging and pushing me to constantly strive for more.

My partner and I love tarot and when I saw this I knew I had to take it on. The aspect of balance plays heavily in the piece and I played with contrasting that between sides quite a bit in color, temperature, number and approach to background objects, and even down to how frenetic my painting was and the music I listened to while painting them. I ended up going with a very vibrant, saturated style reminiscent of what you'd see in a deck of tarot - the bright yellows of the Rider Waite Tarot in the front, the dozens of small details on each side, and more, while playing with more subtle elements to give it some realism like with the marble and frame. I landed on a yin-yang motif for the front, Temperance upright, that I felt respected the original meaning with the Asian interpretation, and then played with that subtly and not so subtly, while finding ways to break balance on the reverse - including adding a third arm which I ended up with after a happy little accident.

This piece challenged me and helped me grow in a ton of places. There's the obvious areas - continued improvement on NMM, OSL, painting white and black, etc - but then other areas that I didn't anticipate being as difficult as they'd be like painting the frame, doing my 3rd ever 2d background (though I paint flat bases frequently), and the marble effect on the frame.

Stoked to take what I've learned here to the next piece. Cheers and happy painting y'all

#minipainting #nk2026 #miniatures #art by @rageandpaint

334

10

3 months ago

Thrilled to present my entry for the @dm.stash 5-year anniversary painting competition. This was a super fun piece and I was so impressed by the quality of the print, how painter friendly it came out, and how detailed (but not overly so) the sculpt was. I wanted to preserve as much of that fine detail as possible on the pants and tunic, while also playing with how to present fur and more elsewhere. The colors and vibes came together quickly and this became a real joy in trying to play with OSL, character, and creating depth in a small figure. I decided to base his fur pattern off of my cat, Malcolm Butler, who is pictured in the last photo. If I’d had more time I would have pushed him even further, but as it stands he’s one of my best pieces yet and felt like he brought together all of my learnings from the past year+ into a succinct piece. Regardless of how he does, I’m very proud of him and look forward to taking what I learned here to the Nerikson competition which I’ll begin working on in earnest this week!

The main learning from Raiko of the Wardens was actually photography - in trying to capture him well I learned that I had been taking photos all wrong. I’ll be making some new posts soon with better photographs of some old (and some previously unshared!) pieces.

As for this piece, I let Malcolm name it. He went with “Malcolm is tired now, go bother somebody else”

#miniaturepainting #minipainting by @rageandpaint

166

17

5 months ago

Go big or go home. WIP for the 2026 Nerikson Miniature painting challenge. This will be a fun one and I expect it'll push me pretty substantially as an artist. Hopefully I can finish in time! #nerikson @neriksonminiatures @dracoyaminis by @rageandpaint

33

3

5 months ago

Thrilled to have entered my first ever @squidmarminiatures Open and received two silvers and a commended for my work from last year. These are some of my best recent works and I took new photos for the competition so they could have their best possible showing. It was fantastic to see them stack up well against other incredible pieces.

I'll be shooting for that gold standard next year!! by @rageandpaint

60

6

7 months ago

Last piece of the year!!
This is my finished take on @jorgenorgaard 's excellent Balrog sculpt - a commission for a friend. He asked for a Balrog that leans towards Tolkien's original description of a beast of smoke and shadow, easy on the flame. I ran with it and this is where he ended up.

I had an absolute blast painting him - the sculpt is incredible and a real show stopper at 9" tall. The details are excellent and well defined, which made it perfect for drybrushing much of the body. I had a lot of fun playing with the OSL, low values, and desaturation. There are varying mixes of desaturated blue to contrast against the bright orange flame, and dull browns in the smokey mane. He's also quite dark as you can see from the last photo with Wolverine.

Oh, and he's hollow and lights up 💡🔥

#miniaturepainting #minipainting #lordoftherings #balrog by @rageandpaint

65

4

9 months ago

Been meaning to share photos of this one for a while and took some new ones today while doing a photo shoot for another finished project (photos coming maybe end of year?). This is one of the unlockable characters in #frosthaven Fell in love with the vibe of this one and really wanted to spend time nailing the vibe.

I took photos when I originally finished back in September, but then went back and continued refining to submit at PAX Unplugged. No medal but I was still very proud of this one. Still need to work on my photobooth setup but that's a next year project.

#minipainting #miniaturepainting by @rageandpaint

46

2

9 months ago