What could I do to improve my painting (see pic)

[ZeroWithWings]

Hello,

I just wanted to get some people\'s opinions on my painting and what I could do to improve it. Two of my better characters can be seen here.

First off about my style:
I use delta ceramcoat paints, I like how they blend, are cheap (college student), and have helped me in a lot of ways (such as always being sure to thin down paints to the correct consistency). I like to successively dry blend my paints up, I think there are about 5 layers on the Necrarch\'s skin and 6 on the red cloak.

I\'d just really like some advice comments and so forth. Thank you all very much.

 

[Ritual]

You got a good thing going...

I think your minis look great. I especially like the black cloth on the vampire. It looks really nice and black is difficult colour to get right. Also, the skin of the vampire is great. On other parts you could go further with your highlights. The clothing on the dark emissary, for example, looks a bit dull and more highlighting would make it look more striking.

Also, you could experiment more with your colour schemes. The ones you have now look good, but feels a bit \"safe\". You could add more contrasting colours. You could also try applying washes of various colours on some areas. The vampire\'s skin, for example, could be even better and more ghoulish looking if you gave it a thin wash of some sickly looking colour.

Finally, try working some more on the basing. Yours look OK for gaming, but if you want to make them stand out try add more details to the bases, like small rocks, static grass, forrest litter or something else that gives more character.

Just a few suggestions which I hope will be helpful. The minis are well above tabletop quality as they are and I would give them both 7 if you posted them here.

-Anders

 

[ZeroWithWings]

I do agree that I was a bit conservative. My army is very \"color-lite.\" I\'ve tried to limit it to blacks browns and whites as much as possible as I wanted that really dark Vampire look. I\'ve avoided bright highlights in the army to go with this, however I think your point is valid that it ends up looking a bit flat. Thanks for the input.

 

[Spacemunkie]

What Anders said and also some smoother transitions between tones (see flesh on Necrarch). Very nicely painted minis that just need some extra highlighting to give them some zap!

@Anders - posted your stuff today. Stuck a couple of 40mm in for good measure!

 

[Ritual]

You can combine muted colour schemes with stronger highlights. The highlights will not make the mini look brighter, just sharper.

Also, it is possible to add colour to a muted colour scheme without losing the muted impression. I am quite fond of limited colour schemes myself, especially brown and grey, but by adding some well chosen colours here and there the minis can become more striking. It is important, though, not to chose too bright colours. For instance, if I want to add something redish to a mini that is mostly brown, I use a brownish red instead of a bright red.

But, it is important to make your own choices based on what you enjoy painting.

-Anders

 

[MaestroOfMayhem]

Also use more layers, thinner layers and try to get tranisitons between those layers are smooth as you can. Picking contrasting colour scheme is good, it will make your character and army stand out more than the average model.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I like \'em, Zero! For the Dark emissary, I think he could use some shading for the beard. Just taking some thinned black and running it along the recessed areas of the beard would give some contrast. The skulls are well done too. I would agree with the previous posters on the vampire.

Jabber

 

[airhead]

The cloth and the flesh looks good on the vamp.

The skulls on the emissary need some more definition (dark brown wash?) to bring out the teeth.

The metals could use the same blending/layering techniqes as the cloth. This really brings the metal to life. (Something I have yet to master myself.)

His hair needs some more range as well.
As DR said to another:
You are painting here:
|---|
and he could be here:
|--------|

Or I like to think in terms of stage makeup. Everything has to be slightly exaggerated to make it look right.

Not a bad set of figs overall.

 

[ZeroWithWings]

Stage makeup, now there\'s something I understand.

I suppose my problems all have to do with an underexaggeration of detail, I\'ll work on this in the future. Thank you much.