painting frustrations

[locutus]

Hi all you fellow mini artists,

Before explaining the title a little about myself:

I've been painting about ten years but doing nothing more then basing the model black and then drybrushing on some highlights.
About 5 months ago i posted some of my work and found that i was missing out on some things.

After some studying I had another go at it.This time it scored around a seven.
I have been trying to paint a model up to a 7 level since but my grades seem to be only going down.(hence the frustration)
Please help!!!

How could I improve my painting skills; are my pics good enough (have some trouble with light); any help would be really welcome.

Thnx!!!

 

[SkelettetS]

hi Loutus!
first off i must say i really dig that ogre in your gallery, thats an awesome piece!:claply:

people usually say, the most important thing is "face and base". thats where you should focus a bit extra, sort of. your minis all have very tabletoply bases which probably drag the score down a bit. the paintjobs are pretty decent, and probably kicka$$ at the table.

im far far far away from a master at photographing but photos look ok to me, but could been better. currently looking at your tzeench terminator, the light there seens to come from a sorce at the left of the mini, looks a bit odd.

PS dont get too upset about the score, its only numbers...

anyway, never surrender!

 

[Hendarion]

Well, about the camera. Either you are too close or you have a weird lens. The perspective is somehow distorting the minis a bit confusingly. And they are too small for my opinion.

For the painting, there are different styles of painting and one of them nearly makes it impossible to get more than a 7.5:

1) 'Eavy Metal style - Basically same color everywhere and small highlighted edges. The direction of a possible light source or sun light is ignored entirely and deeper parts are painted darker, edges always painting bright, no matter in what actual direction things face.
Examples:
- http://coolminiornot.com/252124
- http://coolminiornot.com/157249

2) Zenithal Lighting - The lighht comes from somewhere top and creates smooth color transitions between bright and dark areas.
Examples:
- http://coolminiornot.com/131653
- http://coolminiornot.com/59386
- http://coolminiornot.com/186646

The 2nd requires strong blending skills (and imagination where things should be bright and where dark), but will give a way better rating (the examples are extremely well done, but you get the idea of the lighting difference). The first is easier to do, because it affects only small regions to highlight and all edges are the same, you don't need to determine first where things should be darker or receive more light.
You seam to be more a fan of the 'Eavy Metal style and that basically comes from drybrushing I think. Drybrushing basically gives exactly that 'Eavy-Metal-like look, just not as clean as it could be by using blending.
Of course there exist minis that have characteristics of both types. However, the more the type changes from 1) to 2), the better the score gets.
And... the major key for a generally good scoring mini: Smoothness, smoothness, smoothness. That counts for blends aswell as for surfaces themself. A bad blend (3 mixed colors without actual fading) that is painted with a very smooth surface might score better than a semi-good blending with a cloggy surface - simply because it looks more clean than an oddly bumpy surface. A well-done blending normally automatically has a smooth surface, just question remains how smooth the blending itself is then.

 

[locutus]

thnx for the help guys !!!
Been trying to go for the second lighting example Hendarion; how does this translate to the 2 examples i've posted (what can i improve)
and how could i improve my pics because what i see in real life is not translating to the camara.
Again thnx for the tips!!!

 

[Hendarion]

Which 2 examples?

But generally you should check some tutorials on wet blending, your transitions are partly still too hard. For example on your terminator:
- The red/black face looks really good
- The sword has too hard edges between the different colors and require blending
- The armor on the ellbow is lighted according to technique 1) with too thick red parts. To look like technique 2) the lighting and shadow should be on different spots.

 

[locutus]

see my first post for the examples
thnx again

 

[Hendarion]

I don't see any examples there, that's why I asked. I see your comment about some edit. It says you wanted to add some picture. But I don't see any.

 

[locutus]

aaahh sorry about that ill give the url:

http://coolminiornot.com/252419

http://coolminiornot.com/252556

hope this works beter
still prety new to all this so again sorry for the confusion

 

[Hendarion]

Aaaahhh.
Well, the minis are good. The Gray Knight lighting is good overall, the Firewarrior doesn't give the proper impression. The helmet and the shoulder pad are both not bad, but the lighting doesn't fit together. The helmet is lighted far away from edges, the shoulder pad is lighted to upper edge. Use one of these ways and stick constantly to it all over the mini.
What makes them a lower score is:
1) The described inconsistency of the lighting. I'd say, the Firewarrior should look everywhere like the shoulder pad. Also the black symbol should be lighted like the red plated, same for the weapon and the helmet.
2) Too shy usage of multiple layers. The pants of the firewarrior basically shows only 2 colors. Make extreme deep parts darker and extrem high parts a bit brighter and the impression will entirely change.
3) Lack of contrast. The red (or brown? gold?) at the Gray Knight could be brighter and more clear to give a higher contrast. It lacks highlights to actually see what color it really is.
4) Your technique. This is probably the biggest reason. As I said the gray of the Gray Knight is great. You have an eye for lighting, you know where to put the highlights. But it lacks smoothness. You need to work with more water to thin your paint to get more layers to get a smoother transition of the color. (there are various tutorials about "wet blending" aka "juicing", make sure to check them out)
5) well... the pictures are too small. At least the Gray Knight... I wanted to zoom it in, that is always a sign for too small mini. Your pictures mostly include gray background. But I have to say that the perspective in these pics is better than for example the "terminator" in your gallery - they are not distorted.

I hope that helps. There is definitely potential.

 

[locutus]

wow thnx for all the tips. Trust me i wil put them to use

if i my shed some light on some of your pionts

3 i used the colour orange
4 saw some tutorials about wet blending but i'm still confused about; should i blend the colour over an already dry darker colour(feathering???) or should both paints be wet so they can blend? Have tried the second but found the first more within my skills.

 

[BPI]

4 saw some tutorials about wet blending but i'm still confused about; should i blend the colour over an already dry darker colour(feathering???) or should both paints be wet so they can blend? Have tried the second but found the first more within my skills.

I tend to do the former over larger areas & then the latter when applying final highlights over teensy areas. Play with both, just don't get stuck inbetween! Nudging half dry paint about just seems to lead to ridges/bumpiness

Cheers, B.

 

[Hendarion]

Yea, to keep the surface flat, I'd recommend to blend over a dry color, that avoids bumpy surfaces. Blending 2 wet areas together is the original method and comes from oil painting, but I find it really hard to do the same on fast drying acrylics. Often ends in a mess. So start with thin layers on dry surfaces. The brush doesn't need to be really wet either. "Wet" in this context describes basically that the color is extremely thin. People like to call it "milk consistency" or "juice" - thats why the name is also "juicing". But in fact in the brush contains only a small amount of color/water and should dry nearly instantly when painted on the model. That doesn't only speed up work, but also makes it easier to keep the layers clean and smooth.
For most colors though, I'd recommend to paint the darker colors over the bright ones. Explanation why and for what colors that counts can be found here in post #5.

 

[locutus]

thanks for all the input; will definitly trie smoother blending and other camara for my next project.

 

[SkelettetS]

when i started to paint minis i used to mix drying retarder in the acrylics and then blend the same way as you do with oil paints, still do it sometimes when it's large objects that is painted. works pretty well buy a little bit less controlled than the usual glacing method, which always should be painted on dry areas!
good luck with next project