Prince Yriel - Inspiring, bedazzling and improvement

[nightsword]

Right, everyone\'s seen this right?

Well, after seeing it for the time, I went off and bought the model in the same week. I\'ve separated this from my project log, because it\'s different. This I\'m looking for all the critism in the world to pump to an average score of an 8 in the CMON rankings when it\'s done. That\'s my target.

I intend no conversion work, but I do intend to use the same palette as Razza and the same techniques, though maybe slightly different tones. So NMM, blending, coloures shadows etc. are all in.

I\'d appreciate as much conversation as possible in helping me achieve a high rating with what might be the first mini I upload to the CMON server. So without further ado, Yriel with cloak basecoated and shaded:

I had alot of advice about contrast on my log, so the shades were applied using a mix of Scab red (the base colour) and regal blue in increasing amounts each time. I also used a fresh GW standard brush, and Glaze Matte Medium. My concern is how natural this all looks, or could it be improved, and if so how? Do the shades down the cloak need to be more solid for example, or does the transparancy running down to a more solid colour look ok?

Thanks for looking,

 

[Bigdennis52]

I don\'t see why you didnt change the color scheme, I am just curious why you wouldnt alter it to make the mini unique to yourself

I cant wait to see what this turns out as

 

[redarmy27]

I think it\'s looking great so far.

If I may make one suggestion, it may just be the picture, but the front portion of the cape, the part that is almost cascading around his right leg could be a litte brighter towards the top. You have some nice blends going on here, I must say.

Good for you that you\'re going for a higher average rating! I really respect that, it takes a little bit of nerve to throw something like this out there and accept criticism. Iwish I could do the same, and I will once I get a chance to relax from a ton of class work and another LSAT. Mostly, though, it\'s about what you think since we\'re all our own harshest critic.

Great job so far and good luck!

Jake

 

[Arma]

It\'s looking good so far. I would go a little deeper with the shadows (almost to deep red black) and watch where the highlights are starting and finishing.

Some look a little \'uniform\' and un-natural.

Keep it up

 

[nightsword]

Wow, thanks for the replies so far!

@ Bigdennis:

Originally posted by Bigdennis52
I don\'t see why you didnt change the color scheme, I am just curious why you wouldnt alter it to make the mini unique to yourself

I cant wait to see what this turns out as

Me neither lol. My intention next year is to enter the UK golden demon, but I\'m not a GD standard painter. So, what I figured I\'d do, is learn the techniques by watching my biggest inspirations. So, I learnt to blend by copying the red from Silphid\'s Magmatrax and applying it to my khorne warriors for example. Yriel is a great example of a mini that emcompasses alot of techniques, from blending, NMM, gems, freehand etc, and i love it too bits, so having my own version, with my own take on the colours, I figured would be great practice for the mini I have planned for next year. The colour scheme will be similar, but the colours at least will be mine.

@ Redarmy:

If I may make one suggestion, it may just be the picture, but the front portion of the cape, the part that is almost cascading around his right leg could be a litte brighter towards the top. You have some nice blends going on here, I must say.

Thank you . I think you are very much right. When I get round to the first stage of highlighting (there isn\'t any yet), I will address this. I though very much the same lol.

Good for you that you\'re going for a higher average rating! I really respect that, it takes a little bit of nerve to throw something like this out there and accept criticism. Iwish I could do the same, and I will once I get a chance to relax from a ton of class work and another LSAT. Mostly, though, it\'s about what you think since we\'re all our own harshest critic.

Great job so far and good luck!

Cheers :beer:

I\'m an absolute slag for critism lol. If it makes me improve, and helps make people like it more, then I can learn how to do it straight off, and make some dazzling peices like GeOrc or Alexi Z. And hopefully impress a GD judge or two XD At the moment Yriel is a weekend thing, because during the week I\'m doing coursework, so I know how you feel

That last comment you made is quite a good one. For starters, I think leaving the weapon off until the cloak was done would have been a jolly good idea... lol.

@Arma

It\'s looking good so far. I would go a little deeper with the shadows (almost to deep red black) and watch where the highlights are starting and finishing.

Some look a little \'uniform\' and un-natural.

Keep it up

Thanks bud. I\'ll see if I can make the recesses deeper, see what happens

Looking at this pic:

I think you are very much right. Something to do one the weekend then

Also, there aren\'t any highlights on it at the moment. I think that the picture is tricking people with the light. It was very dark when I took it, and the mini was under a single daylight lamp, so I think is just \"natural\" lighter affecting the basecoat.

So, darker shadow for improvement and adding the highlights in to further it. Sounds like a plan. Does anyone think that the current shadoe should be made less transparent, and made more of a solid colour?

 

[obsidianpainting]

The way i kinda see something like this, is its not really painting a miniature. Since your not using your own unique ideas and what not. HOWEVER, i would call this a study. I do these frequently, trying things out that OTHER people have done. Actually to be honest, im going to be getting an urmuth(sp?) and try out the flesh tut that automaton(sebastian) has posted. And i may do the same thing with the metallics article as well. It helps you realize how to do things a different way than you are used to, which in turn allows you to learn more than you would then just doing something from your head. So i applaud this and think it is GREAT! Also, i think the blending is great, however, the model that Darren did has a much smoother blending.. WHICH,you could have maybe using more dilute paint, and even MORE layers. lol i know that soudns kinda ridiculous and i know it takes FOREVER! but when you want amazing quality its all about how much time and technique you put into it. I have a thread called Blending for noobs (your obviously not a noob) But a bunch of people have spilled there secrets there, so go check it out and see if you learn anything new.

Gary.

 

[nightsword]

A study is a good name, and I\'m not out to copy Razza completely. Not only is that impossible, but he\'s constantly improving too (I\'ve got a folder full of references lol - I\'m sad lol ).

I\'ve used a variation of Automaton\'s metallics article before too, only with the GW washes instead of his watered down solutions. Combining that with some of the knowledge I\'ve got from white dwarf, I applied it to gold too, and boy does it shine. I too am looking at trying the flesh article XD.

And yes, you are completely correct about the smoothness of the blends. I was following the miniature mentor complete guide to painting, with my own colours, using Razza\'s scheme lol, so I think I both didn\'t allow enough layers, and jumped the transition too quickly, making the difference in darker shadows noticeable.

I will definately check out your thread (I\'m not entirely a noob, but it was my first or second time doing it this way, before that i used Boltman\'s magmatrax guide for blending), and get back to Yriel one day soon, but at the moment I have to many other things to do than he. But I will finish this XD

Thanks for the encouragement, and it was a surprise coming back to CMON after a short break to see this back up lol.

 

[obsidianpainting]

Yah no problem

Also, i found that the miniature mentor complete painting guide thing, the blending there doesn\'t give as smooth as blending as say, automatons style. Even though they are almost the same thing, Laurent tends to leave more paint on his brush and pushes the pigment around.

Yah it would definitely be awesome to see this finished. One thing that may help bring out the tone in the cloak is to do some washes of scorched brown. On the eavy metal facebook page, all of the guys there tend to do that.

Cheers, Gary.

 

[Backstabbeth]

well you definetley got your work cut out for you trying to immulate that! WOW! however, its off to a good start for sure. I agree with the commentary that the shadows could be a bit deeper. Looking forward to seeing the next pic.

Cheers!
Tim

 

[Necroghast]

I think you should PM Mr. Razza and see if he\'ll come look at this. I personally think it\'s looking good so far.

 

[Skullz]

wrong colour pallet

Ok...so I havent read this entire post but I will say one thing and hopefully it hasn\'t already been said. You are using the wrong pallet. The proper colours IMHO should be Lich Purple to Warlock Purple.

 

[nightsword]

Wow lol, lots of posts XD I should probably state I\'ve not actively done any more to Yriel since I posted this up, and it may take a little while to get back to it.

@ Obsidian: I found that out quite quickly, pushing around the paint that is. I probably should have stuck to the method I know, probably the wrong model to try something new out on.

I did a quick search for your thread, but couldn\'t find it ??? Any chance of a link? Oh, and i joined the eavy metal group XD

@ Backstabbeth: Yeah, definately. Probably a completely unrealistic goal lol. I\'ll bear the shadows in mind Thanks alot

@ Necroghast: I\'ve bothered him before and didn\'t like doing it then lol, I don\'t want him to see the massacre I\'m making of his work XD I\'ve got a small stockpile of resources and guides that he\'s done, some I\'m taking his NMM technique from Yriel for example straight from the page, with a mix of tips from GeOrc who was kind enough to give me loads of advice. And thanks Oh, i may leave him a message on the facebook group and see what he says there

@ Skullz: Yeah, I think your right, and no it hasn\'t been said, perhaps I\'ll ask him and find out. Probably the best way

Thanks for the interest, i\'m beginning to wish I had it with me XD

 

[obsidianpainting]

http://coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=30634

There ye go matey!

Hopefully it works

cheers, Gary.