Busting out of a plateau!

[BunnyPuncher]

Good day eh!

I think the problem I am having should become apparent from looking at my gallery page...

http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse/submitter/BunnyPuncher

As you can see. Score wise I\'m stuck in a rut. My last 3 submissions have all resulted in a 6.8 (although that last one will fluctuate for a while). TBH I\'m quite happy with the scores, when I started posting here my first few figs were in the low 5s (over the summer of 2004), then I broke the 6 barrier and am now flirting with 7s. My question is... what areas should I focus on improving to help break that 7 barrier. I know the scores by themselves don\'t mean much, but I\'d like to see them keep going up And they seem to be a much more objective level of quality than a) my own opinion (they all look like sh**) or b) my gaming buddies opinions (thats freaking awesome!).

Thanks for your input!

 

[airhead]

BP,

A couple of things.

Post one mini with great pics, not a troop.
When you take multiple shots of the one mini, stack them verticly so that the pixel width limit allows for each of the pics to be larger.

Your lighting may need some work if you feel that the reds are highlighted as far as you can take them.

Another layer of hightlights on the metals could help as well. Treat them like any other area. Dark recesses and hot spots, just that metals have hotter hot spots. Take them right up to white.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I was looking at your Black Orc Boss (your most recent posting) specifically and there is one thing I would suggest straight away with the Reds you are using.
Instead of trying to highlight any further try down toning the areas close to the metal spikes with a Dark red. Vallejo Black red if you have it, thinned very finely and brushed carefully up to the base of the spike. (Or if you only have GW colours, Dark Flesh used in the same manner).

Otherwise Airhead has covered some very salient points on your gallery.

Hope it helps.

 

[barkel]

not much help

I don\'t know that this will improve your score, but try eliminating the shadow. If you can, have at least three sources of light, one from above, and two from either side of you, but a little higher than the mini. The point is to get rid of the shadow if you can, and if you can\'t to push it to the ground.

I doubt that will help your score much, but it will get rid of the shadow, which can mess with colors and such. Also, use true white light bulbs. Not the yellow bulbs that are standard. Just remember to switch them out when you are done. White light bulbs are hard on the eyes.

barkel

 

[Chief_Wiggum]

when i looked at your black ork it was a 7

 

[BunnyPuncher]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Really makes you realize how much of cmon is about the photography, as all that can talked about is what can be seen I guess I\'m working on a diffuse light box so hopefully that will make the photo taking a bit more consistent.

Re Dragonreach: Thanks man, I will give that a try (probably on my next red armoured mini, not sure I\'m ready to mess this one up yet

Any other painting related suggestions?

 

[Ritual]

Well, I noticed you have painted mainly orcs and similar creatures. If you want to improve your skills as a painter in general I would suggest starting to paint different types of minis where you\'ll need to use different techniques and have chance to try out other colour schemes and such. That way you will improve your \"range\" as a painter. In my experience, the biggest improvements are made when you try out new things.

-Anders

 

[airhead]

There are certain other \"unwritten\" things on CMON that I have noticed that hurt scores as well.

If it is an auction piece, it seems to get marked down.

Certain brands of minis typically score better than others, too. I don\'t think I have seen too many 9\'s in Reapers. (Don\'t get me wrong, I love Reaper minis and that is generally all I paint, but I paint to play.)