Feedback and constructive criticism needed

[Shoshie]

Hello,
I\'m new to the site (about a week) and I just started posting my mini\'s. The first couple batches I posted have been older mini\'s that I painted a while ago. I am still really new to this and I would love some feedback on what you think I could do to raise my scores.

I have a feeling flocking and more care in basing them would help but I\'d also like to get some feedback on my actual painting style.

Thanks in advance

-Shoshie

 

[chivas]

Do you have any links to pictures of your minis?

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by chivas
Do you have any links to pictures of your minis?

Why not just go to his/her gallery?

 

[generulpoleaxe]

Hi Shoshie, the key thing with small scale models is contrast and slightly lighter colours.

if you can get to a convention where there will be painting demos then do so, it will help you see how the skills you already have are transfered to model painting.
with you water painting experience just think of the model as a 3d canvas, take of any excess moisture from the brush so that it dries almost instantly when applied to the model and away you go.

 

[Shoshie]

Here\'s a link to my gallery

http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/Shoshie

I\'ve been to Gencon a few times. I\'ve even placed first in a couple speed painting competitions. I\'ve been complimented on my painting which is why I was confused about my low scores here. I can see what you mean about painting with lighter colors. I think I have been leaning toward dark pallets.

 

[Ritual]

One thing that will help you a great deal, scorewise, is if you improve your metallics technique. There\'s a very well written and informative article on metallics by Automaton in the article section. The metallics lack in shading and contrast. And as they lack in shading they become too reflective.

Another thing you can work on is to separate different areas a bit better by shading very close to where another areas overlaps, or paint thin, dark contours between areas. That will make details more readable and the overall result will look neater. Careful not to make the lines or shadows too thick, though, or it will look very clumsy.

There\'s a few pointers. You do have a good, solid foundation of basic techniques to build from, though. I bet you will get the hang of new techniques pretty quickly and experience a pretty rapid improvement phase as you start to apply these.

 

[Amazon warrior]

It\'s annoying, but the very nature of this site means that you\'re not judged on your painting skill alone (which looks like a solid start to me), but also on your ability to take a photograph of your finished work. Seems cruel, eh? Looking at a sample of your pictures, I noticed that several have compression jaggies and some have odd focus (e.g., the sword of the mini might be in focus but the actual person isn\'t). For taking photos, there are several very helpful tutorials on CMON that cover all manner of situations and techniques, and there\'s also one or two about post-processing (including pointers to free software), which will hopefully help your pix come out more clearly. This will allow people to judge them better.

Looking at your work though, I\'m sure it won\'t be long before you\'re raking in higher scores!

 

[Shoshie]

What is a compression jaggie? Yeah my camera kind of stinks for macro shots. I really appreciate all help and tips! Thanks so much everyone.

 

[Amazon warrior]

It\'s most noticeable on your kelt standard bearer - they\'re those jaggedy bits that you can see on the edges of your mini against the background. There are actually a number of ways they can arise, but they usually indicate the loss of some of the information in the picture.

 

[chivas]

Originally posted by Ritual

Originally posted by chivas
Do you have any links to pictures of your minis?

Why not just go to his/her gallery?

Because the computer Im using wont allow me to use pop up windows (like profile pages) and not all people have their photos stored on CMON (some people use photobucket) so a gallery search doesnt always work

Anyway-I agree with the being marked on your photography skills as well as the minature itself being an annoyance

 

[Dragonsreach]

Shoshie; welcome to the site.
I took the liberty of viewing your own website, there are some very nice pieces of artwork displayed there.
Having a background in 2D Art will help you on here.

I\'ve looked at your gallery and as Ritual has said learning control of metals will help you improve a great deal. You already have one of the greatest issues any newer painter faces under control and that is placement or brush control.
I\'d suggest that the next step you take is to work on upping the contrast.
It sounds strange but because of the size of the minis we need to increase the contrast far beyond what we normally expect in order for our eyes/mind to interpret the mini as an accurate representation.

One thing to help your pictures, try to get your camera parrallel to the upright plane of the mini. That means that the lens will have more of an effective \"Depth of Field of Apparent Focus\" (Making more of the mini appear sharp) might mean having to invest in tripod and or stands but you\'ll see a difference.