Duelling Paintbrushes: Failure to launch?

We are now more than a week into October, and the Duelling Paintbrushes challenge that goes with it. Unfortunately, my progress has been very limited. I have been stymied by a number of things. One of those things is the timing of the new Dark Elf release, which feels like it has stalled my enthusiasm and momentum as I wait for confirmation of what I should really be painting. The new book is now out, although I am still waiting for my copy to arrive. From a brief flick through it at the club on Saturday, I don't think the changes will have a major impact on what I'm painting. But that is yet to be properly confirmed. 

Secondly, my motivation in general for painting Dark Elves is still not at a level equal to where it might have been for some other armies. I intended to write about this, but I haven't even managed to get around to that yet. 

Finally, I have allowed myself to be distracted by other things when I could have been making time to paint. Hopefully I will be more disciplined over the next few weeks - I will have to be if I want to get anywhere close to my goals for the challenge.

I did manage to sit still long enough to paint up the Sorceress, however I kind of messed about with the colour scheme of the swirling magical energy on the model, and it never got close to what I had in mind. In other words, I really need to go back and re-do it. Whether I get around to that during October will depend on how I go with the other models I need to paint.

I like this model, but all the swirling energy is confusing to paint. Especially when you're silly and start trying to mix colours. The stuff winding around her body is confusing, too. It is painted like a vine on the GW example, but that felt wrong to me, so I thought I'd make it part of the magic.

I was going to have the light from the magic shining onto the model around it, but aborted that plan when I realised I didn't like how I'd done it. Maybe when I go back to fix it.

The only other thing I have managed is to paint the bases and steel on the unit of Cold One Knights. I'm not even 100% sure how I am going to go about painting the Cold Ones, so these guys have a very long way to go...

Well at least they're started...

Hopefully I will have more progress to report next time around.