Reaper Bones - Orc Archer

[WeylandBlack]

Hello there. First submission. I've painted maybe ten miniatures at this point, but I think this one is my favorite. At this point I've also begun to notice mold-lines, which I didn't think I had to worry about with plastic minis, but I'll take care of that on future submissions. I'm using Citadel paints and a variety of brushes. Advice/comments/suggestions are more than welcomed because that's why I'm posting! Thanks for looking!


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[Crudelus]

Hi there.

You're on the right path, being this your 10th miniature. Mould lines are a pain, it's very important to remove them and, unfortunately, with BONES it's quite difficult. The material it's strange.

 

[Demihuman]

Cool! Fun right?

I am sure some one will come along and say it very soon so here you are: try and thin your paints with water more. At first it seems like it is harder that way but then you actually will be able to control where the paint goes a little better. Thinned paint will flow from the brush better and as you progress it will help. It's also the first step toward getting nice transitions from color to color or shadow to shadow.

Keep at it and maybe you give me some pointers next year

 

[WeylandBlack]

Thanks for the suggestions! I thin my paints down a little bit, but I think I make them too watery. I'm not using droppers, so I just kind of go by what looks right. Of all the tutorials I've watched, I see a lot of people saying you want a 1/1 ratio of water/paint, so I try to get as close to that as I can, and I try to use multiple thin layers as opposed to one thick one, but I just need more practice. Thanks again!

 

[supervike]

I think it's pretty solid. I like the grubby natural look. I think as you progress, you'll want to concentrate on sharper highlights and forcing the contrast to higher levels.

 

[WeylandBlack]

I think it's pretty solid. I like the grubby natural look. I think as you progress, you'll want to concentrate on sharper highlights and forcing the contrast to higher levels.

Thanks man! I think painting more... "realistic" is a little easier, but I prefer the look of the ultra-high contrast miniatures that look more like illustrations than anything, almost cartoony I guess. Definitely gonna work on some wet blending with my next few to see if I can get a nice, bright highlight and the deep shadows that I like.

 

[Demihuman]

I don't know if you have already been over there but Studio Mcvey has some really nice, relatively short, videos that show some great brush technique:

http://studiomcvey.com/forums/index.php?/forum/39-painting-videos/

I think the "Strain Brimstone" one shows a cool demo of wet blending. She uses 2 brushes which seems a little over complex to me but she is the expert.

 

[WeylandBlack]

Awesome, thank you! I watched the Brimstone one, I'll check out the others a little later on. She does really nice work!

 

[mjs101]

I really think the eyes are excellent. I've been painting for 25 years and still struggle with getting eyes right. And the base work is excellent. Organic and yet playable.

I'd suggest painting only the lower lip. I've found this helps the look of most of my models. This looks to me like you used your base shade for skin color for the upper and lower lips, and this makes the upper lip look fat to my eye. The same notion applies for most female models with redder lips: paint only the lower lip to a avoid a overly-made-up appearance.