truthsayer WIP

[Thomgirl]

Ever get frustrated with a complex project and take a break? Well... I did that, but ended up feeling bad that I wasn\'t keeping up with my painting skills and pushing myself to keep learning by doing. So I decided to just work on some other minis laying around to practice using some of the techniques from Automaton\'s painting tutorials and hopefully it\'ll help me get used to the world of painting minis and acrylics. I must admit, it\'s lots of fun painting without thinking that I want it to be competitive, just practice. I had a friend a few years ago give me a wood elf truthsayer model when I first started painting minis. This is my first mini attempting to use more advanced blending techniques. Before I used to just paint a model with the paint straight out of the pot and maybe only using a brighter color to highlight a high point. So anywho... here is my first attempt at actually going further.

The skin was the first step. I used a base coat of Talleran flesh and then shades of that with dark browns, greens, warlock purple, blues, white... I was bad and didn\'t really keep exact track, but I\'m really happy with the end result. The hair was a lot easier, and the eyes much more difficult. Now I\'m getting ready to work on the fabric.

As always, the comments critiques would be most helpful. I\'m going to be honest and admit that this mini could have been ALOT better prepped, there are mold lines apparent, but I had already primed him long before I realized that I needed to clean up a model before priming it. Oh well, paint and learn!

 

[cheelfy]

Well, that\'s good start and you did a goodjob with the flesh and the face. Maybe you should highlight the hair a bit more. Keep posting the next pics of it here.

 

[BPI]

Nice work on the flesh there Thomgirl, you\'ve set yourself a high standard though, the hair & eyebrows do look unfinished in comparison. Looking forward to seeing the next update :beer: B.

 

[Thomgirl]

Update: Today was green day! I went and painted everything green that I wanted to be green and I\'m stoked with how it turned out. I think it\'s the first time I\'ve had something turn out being the exact color I had in my head. I went back and highlighted the hair per the suggestions and I thank you guys for suggesting it Always good to push a little farther than just settle. So, progress so far:

C&C welcome and thanks in advance!

 

[Thomgirl]

A little more done today. Finished the wooden part of the staff and the bone pieces. I want the ankle adornment, the matching staff adornment and the little mini medallion on his arm to all look like carved bone/ivory pieces, but I can\'t help but feel like I\'m not quite getting something. Maybe I need more shadows? I dunno. Anywho, I still feel he\'s the best piece I\'ve painted thus far and I\'m pretty happy with him. Here\'s progress thus far:

Thanks in advance!

 

[BPI]

Nice work ThomGirl, the green has come out well, you\'re right to feel good about it You could try bringing a little yellow brown shading into the bone, just a few strokes of thinned Gryphonne Sepia over & around the grey shaded areas perhaps? Although I think they\'ll look different once you\'ve painted in the cord holding them to the staff.

Have a look at this thread & see if you think you can take the hair any further
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=34095
plus there\'s loads of great general advice. Not that I\'ve managed to get an effect I\'m thoroughly happy with yet but it\'s an area of my painting I want to practice.

Looking forward to the next update :beer: B.

 

[Thomgirl]

Finally finished

So for all intents and purposes, I finished my first mini in since about a year and a half ago. Thanks everyone for the comments, and though I probably won't do anything more on this guy (just wanted to practice on him) I'd still appreciate critiques about what works and what doesn't. I'm getting ready to start (well, restart...) a slightly more complex mini that I've been putting off forever so I'm hoping the things I learned from this guy help with the next.

He should be up for voting at some point soon (just sent him in to the server) but I'll post that link when it's available. I'm hoping I achieved a solid "above table standard" grade and look forward to pushing my skills a little more on the next mini. Thanks again for all the help guys and gals!

 

[freakinacage]

i really like him. especially the grass. the only thing is that the grass to the left of the stone (As we are looking at it) seems to be blowing the wrong way. so si the stuff on the right but it looks more like eddies

 

[cheelfy]

You well painted it, the base is really good and well fits with the mini.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

The grass is pretty cool

To help the contrast you could add some purple into the darkest shadows on the skin (it will compliment as well as add contrast to the gren and purple already used on the mini)
don't use loads, just a tiny bit.

Rocks are very rarely grey (even slate is made up of lots of different colours)
try base coating rocks white and using washes of ochre yellow, then green then black (build up the black gradualy as this gives you the grey tones)
you can then go more heavily with the black into the shadows of the rocks adding some complimentary/contrasting colours into the shadows as well.

last thing, dark lining is very important as it seperates items,clothing from skin etc.
It doesn't have to be black, dark brown is often the best (grip a finger of your left hand by your right hand and look at the dark line of shadows that seperates them) as it is more natural looking.

always cool to see people improving

 

[BPI]

Congrats on completing him A job well done!

Looking forward to seeing your next piece, cheers, B.

 

[cassar]

thats nice you went to town on the grass a really nice effect.

whats going on with the lion sculpt???? i havent seen anything more for ages, did i miss some progress??

 

[Thomgirl]

Hey guys! Thanks for all the input and advice. @Cassar: The white lion is still in progress, but on hold for now. I'll definetly be revisting it after I get through this project. It's one of those things that means a LOT to me, so I want to make sure I'm ready for it when I get back to it.

Here's the link to the truthsayer for voting (http://coolminiornot.com/236277), but for some reason the picture is coming out very bleh on the site; looks really washed out... so I'll have to figure something out. Thanks again guys!