Jump to content

Ikvars painting adventure (feedback welcome)


Ikvar

Recommended Posts

If you know of a matt varnish that is actually matt, please help me out. Vallejo matt varnish simply wont work for me, no matter how much I shake the bottle.

 

 

Testors Dull Coat.  But it is so matt that it might actually dull things down too much for your liking.

 

Here's the thing with Lilith; if you like the cartoon/comic look (and I do) she is fantastic the way she is. Different monitors might show the color differently, but the essence of the figure is still there.  If someone doesn't really like the cartoon/comic look, there is no tweaking that can be done to make him/her like it. Making parts of it look more natural while leaving other parts with the cartoon/comic look will just end up looking disjointed.

 

If you want to win a Golden Demon I don't know that a cartoon/comic books style is the best one to be going for. If want the best, most attention grabbing figures on the table top actually being played with, it sure is. But for under a microscope presentation purposes, a more natural look might make it easier to win.  But then I really don't know what I'm talking about so if I'm babbling complete nonsense, hopefully someone will step and and set me straight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the critic and help, I truly appreciate it! :)

 

I dont think I can be bothered actually altering her colours at this point, I am simply to tired of painting on her. To be honest I have actually never liked her sculpt either, so if I take my time to paint a new Lilith, it would likely be an alt sculpt I like a bit better. I have only done all the work on her for practice :)

 

I guess I will have to look at the testors dull coat as some other people have mentioned it aswell, so thanks for the advice :)

 

In regards to my style and winning awards, I fully understand what you mean. I have a Golden Demon winner where I play, that more or less said the same thing- in europe the more realistic style wins most of the time. I will however be so bold and say that high quality cartoony style is harder then a realistic style, as its REALLY easy to see every fault you have made with all the highlights ans sharp colours. Its a bit more easy to hide faults in a realistic figure with some brown washes or something ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You smell and I do not like the color of your hair!  ;)

Now that is out of the way.

I like the paint jobs.  Very vivid colors.  Reminds me of the anime cell painting teachniques. 

Snitchy sends.

Hehe, okay I did not see that one coming ^^

 

And thanks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First off, where do you live? Not that I want to break in and steal (or use) your hobby setup, just... y'know.. curious. ;)

 

Is Lilith finished? I have a comment to make but I don't want to if she's done and unchangeable.

 

As for Graves, I'd say leave the face as-is. If you don't have a lot of detail there to work with, it's better to go more muted than end up accidentally making cartoonishly oversized (or shaped) lips. To me his focus has never really been his face anyway. For him, it's the bulging arm muscles and overall massive size. Now, Tannen on the other hand, I'd argue his focus is probably the face.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First off, where do you live? Not that I want to break in and steal (or use) your hobby setup, just... y'know.. curious. ;)

 

Is Lilith finished? I have a comment to make but I don't want to if she's done and unchangeable.

 

As for Graves, I'd say leave the face as-is. If you don't have a lot of detail there to work with, it's better to go more muted than end up accidentally making cartoonishly oversized (or shaped) lips. To me his focus has never really been his face anyway. For him, it's the bulging arm muscles and overall massive size. Now, Tannen on the other hand, I'd argue his focus is probably the face.

Lilith is not 100% done, but even if she was you are more then welcome to give me your critic :)

 

I have actually already started work on Graves face, saying that I would not alter anything because of a bad sculpt would only be a bad excuse for me, I will always try to make it as perfect as possible no matter the conditions :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seeing as I have my black friday stuff now, I have stopped my work on Killjoy for now (will post some pictures of the WIP soon), and started work on Nekima.

 

An aspect about the Nekima sculpt that I dont think have been mentioned, is how the small size effect all the details on the model. The face fx have so many details, but on such a small spot that I am really not looking forward to starting on the details. I actually think the face is smaller then Lilith face, which is also damn small but has less details. I also hate to work on such a small surface as it gives me way to little room to make the details visible and give it a good gradient which is kinda "my thing". I have no idea how to make the tongue look like anything else then a failed sculpt of the lips, as it is basically just a little bump on her mouth :/

 

And her stance is also a bit weird, the way she bends over kinda looks like she is meant to look down on her opponents- hence the tongue for taunting etc... but because of her size, she is more going to look at the stomach on normal models, and the feets on the bigger models...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As promised here are some VERY early Killjoy pictures, as I will be taking a break from him, and start on Nekima instead. What I would really like you guys opinion on is his skin- he started out with just boring green skin, but when I was almost done I thought that it was just to simple and boring for me. Everything else on the miniature I have only painted for a few minutes, I especially dont want to much criticism of his base, as I have barely done anything to it, other then painting the base colours in 10sec.

 

I also know that his skin needs a lot more glazing to get better gradient, but that will come next time I start with him :)

 

So are the colours a bit much?

and do the colours go well with each other? as it seems that is something I am not always to good at.

 

As I final question I will ones again ask for help with the photo background, I never know which one to use- if it needs to have some of the same colours as the miniature (kinda what I have done with these pictures), or does the background need to be in sharp contrast to the miniature?

- and  when should I use a light or a dark background? >>

 

15601474134_bf72252172_o.jpgKilljoy1 by Jonas H.H, on Flickr

 

16036519730_58fa0cf5b7_o.jpgKilljoy2 by Jonas H.H, on Flickr

 

16036519980_6fb6a71b77_o.jpgKilljoy3 by Jonas H.H, on Flickr

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too much purple for me. Though I like the concept. It looks like you've got some green in there too.........which is okay, but in combination with the purple and the flesh, it makes him look really bruised......not sure if that's good or bad, honestly. I think I'd like it if the purple was toned down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since you asked specifically about the colors:

I'm not quite sure about the brown/purple. Mostly because a blueish/redish hue suggests blood and life, which would not be my scheme of choice for an undead.

That being said I would be interested in why you chose the colors/ your thought process when you decided on the color scheme? Maybe it's easier to see where you intend to go then :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I knew you guys would have a problem with the purple ^^

 

Dont mind if it looks like his skin is bruised though, kinda had it in mind while I was painting as well, without it being exactly the goal... if you know what I mean ;)

 

But it is pretty hard to explain my line of thought when I paint- I come from painters background, and even though I mostly painted humans I still threw lots of weird colours on the canvas.

 

This is an example from when I was 18, the canvas is around 2m in length and 1,5 meters high so you loose a lot of the impression on a small picture, but you should get the idea ^^

 

16040041309_ce02ae58e5_o.jpgold painting by Jonas H.H, on Flickr

 

But maybe if I take down some of the purple a little, and paint a more violet gradient between the green/brown-ish colours?

 

Edit: oh and I am going to try him out in my Lilith crew :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that the purple to green is a good look (and have used it myself on occasion).

On principle I like the idea that the purple gets bluer deeper into the shadows but it should still get darker as well. You should deepen the shadows in the butt crack and the edges of the bandages for example.

Also, the lining is rather thick on the bandage edges. Darkening it will help but when going for this sort of darklining approach, you need to keep the lines thin or else it will look weird.

You should also somehow bring the face into focus more - right now the mini lacks a focal point.

As a complete aside, I was reminded of a certain painting video tutorial that you would probably like. It's in French, unfortunately, but the magic happens at about nine and a half minutes in. And it's some damn mind-blowing magic! Worth a watch, definitely:

http://kws.figurines-tv.com/index.php?mod=articles&ac=commentaires&id=115

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Linus the colours I have used for Killjoy had nothing to do with who I want to play him with... though I do see your point, with the whole purple thing I have going on with my Neverborn crew ^^

 

@Math I see what you mean with darker shadows, I will work on that asap :)

I am not sure what you mean with the bandages though, I am simply following the lines that have been sculpted?

- I have been told that I should try to change the colours of the bandages a bit though, as he said the colours are warm on warm atm in comparison to the skin.

 

and a really good point with the face and general lack of focus, I will definitely need to see what I can do about that :)

 

And again thank you all for the great comments, I have really learned a lot since I started this painting blog, you guys truly help me to be a better painter! <3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not sure what you mean with the bandages though, I am simply following the lines that have been sculpted?

Ah, sorry, I wrote that badly. I meant the skin where it meets the bandages, not the bandages themselves. The blue darklining is on a wide area and again should be darker.

- I have been told that I should try to change the colours of the bandages a bit though, as he said the colours are warm on warm atm in comparison to the skin.

That's good advice!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks great (simple answer).

 

Picky answer--the transition on the cleaver from the dark to midline is a bit too stark.  Blending that a little more could make a huge difference.  Rust effects or gore might help.  A deep red would contrast well w/ the purple and green you've got going on in the flesh.  Don't get me wrong, I like the purple...but it's a little hard to conceptualize.  Is the purple the shadow of the skin...if so...it might look better if purple was used to shade everything else.  If it's supposed to look like bruised or decaying skin, some lighter purple outside the skin folds and recesses might work.  As it stands right now, it looks like a lighting effect, and if it is, then the whole scene should be captured in that same purple shade.

 

Very cool piece though.  Saw your other thread about critiques.  Hopefully this wasn't overzealous...just trying to help.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, I'm posting from work so I can't see the links to stuff you posted through Photobucket (or wherever) but I can see Lilith and Killjoy. What I will say is that I like your painting - everything is well shaded and highlighted and there's not a thing wrong with your color choice. I really do like the colors on Killjoy - the green shaded down to purple. I can't really add more than what people have already said in terms of specific tips - the wrappings on his arms mix too closely with the color of the rest of his skin and as a result don't stand out too much, Lilith is well painted but there's no specific focal point so all the different colors just sort of sit there without really doing anything to give life to the figure, etc. etc.

I can't critique your painting, other than if you're looking to kick things up to a "next level" as per your earlier postings, you need to work on developing the smoothness of transitions between colors and your use of color overall to add richness and more depth. You say you'd like to win Golden Demons - in my opinion it's not really the style of your painting that I think is the issue, it's more what you're trying to get across. To be blunt: you've got good choice of colors and the use of bright colors isn't a bad thing (James Wappel, AKA Wappellious uses a whole palette of brightness and he's won a ton of painting recognition) - but your figures Ive seen thus far look "bland."

The highlights and shading are even across the entire figure, for example. The painting on areas of possible interest, like maybe Killjoy's face, have the same height and depth as the painting on the small of his back. Nothing stands out, everything's homogenous, your figures don't get across any emotion or specific interest. I don't know if you have a color wheel, but I'd recommend you get one from an art store and start getting into things like complementary colors and color warmth and coolness. With even simple things like adding in additional cooler color to shading in areas you want to pull attention away from and adding warmth or other tricks with light in areas you want to draw attention toward, I think your figures would have a lot more "substance." Pick a theme, say, and try and tie everything in the figure into it; try monochrome painting or exercises in OSL to practice your skills and play around with what you paint.

Again, this is just my opinion, but if you want to win Golden Demons you need to consider the figures as a whole instead of just each individual part and a uniform appearance.

I've won 3 Demons, myself - 2 Silvers and a Bronze. I'm sure there's people on here who have probably won more awards, but I've made a conscious effort to try working in additional colors to shading and play up warmth and coolness in my competition figures. Some of them I've sunk in 40-50hrs of painting. With my Malifaux stuff, I'm making a conscious effort to move away from time sink painting while still painting a tabletop figure up to my standards.

And for the sake of comparison, here's the figure that won a Silver Demon in the last GD competition I was able to enter:

gw_spectre_fin_front.jpg

gw_spectre_fin_rt.jpg

People tell me I have a very subdued/translucent painting style and I aim for a "realistic" appearance, so it's probably a complete contrast to the usual GW hard edge/highlighting that was really popular over here in the US while we still had Games Days. I'm just happy people like my stuff!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for all the great comments, there sure are a lot for me to take in ^^

 

Remember though as I have said a couple of times, I have only briefly worked on things like the NMM, bandages etc on Killjoy, my focus for now have been the skin. He also has many month of work ahead of him, and things like blood, and other effects is something I will only add at the very end.

 

So again, I am very grateful for you guys taking your time and write all that, but the Killjoy model is VERY early WIP, and I only posted pictures of him to get comments on the colours I have used for the skin :) 

 

@Tinweasel I am a bit curious, where exactly have you won your Golden Demons, and what category? 

- the picture you have posted, is that one of your models that won?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry for the delay on posting, I got a wonderful new years gift in the form of Strep throat this week! (yaay)

 

For Lilith: something I find a bit odd, (and a lot of people do this, not just you), is the size of the eyes. I think adding a surround of eyeshadow, or something similar will bring her eyes more into line and size.

 

I'll try to put up a picture of it sometime in the near future, but I had a similar thing with Pandora: The new plastics are meant to be more truescale than heroic scale, and as a result, an accurate painting of eyes on human figures is more a suggestion and gesture than a full-on paint.

(Also be wary: eyes aren't white, they're light grey at best!)

My preferred method of painting eyes (feel free to take a look at the Pandora crew I've done, and the Hired Swords submission) is to paint everything almost up to the eyes, skin-tone wise, then carefully paint an almost-white eyeslit, dot the black for pupils, and then carefully touch up around the eye to 'fill it back in' down to the eyelid/socket itself. Then, of course, one can apply 'makeup', carefully and mixed with fleshtone :)

 

Killjoy: I quite prefer the stylistic colour. Washes/glazes will mitigate some of the purple issue others have I'm sure, but I tend to find a lot of the Malifaux undead to be 'bleh'. It's bizarre, and I can't quite place my finger on it, but I wonder if you inadvertently helped me put word to it: So much of the Malifaux undead is drab, pallid, washed-out colours top to bottom, while everything else Malifaux feels so steampunk/comic book/caricature that it almost seems they don't fit. The Neverborn are flashy even in their most subtle rendition, most mercenaries are over-the-top design style and awesome, and the only places it seems to fall through are places like Candy given the Wednesday treatment, the Freikorps in their leather-on-brown look, and as mentioned, the undead drab on drab (excluding, shockingly I'm sure, Kirai's bright and colourful...) Not that it makes doing drab wrong, it just never struck me as fitting

 

TL;DR for that: Purple's great, chest-gore's quite bright, and I'd go blood-splattery on him a bit.

 

For Nekima, there's always putting her up on a wrought iron fence or broken stone wall to give her that true mock-you-to-your-face feel! If you can find a doll house craft store I'm sure they'll have fencing in the right scale!

 

*edit* Bah, entirely forgot to weigh in on this: I tend to prefer backgrounds that are more neutral. You can see on my thread (or blog) that the contest entry pics I did had a white background, because I thought I read somewhere in their stuff that Wyrd wanted white backgrounds, and I very much propose against that. Dark and/or black backgrounds that don't intentionally drag the eye away from the model, I say, is best. Since it'll be seen on a monitor, it means you're not fighting for light/focus/attention with the harsh light background.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me the purple looks more like he's in a shade or there is a sunset on a wierd sky..

Hi Ikvar, great painting as usual. I agree with McMolds comment, I quite like the purple in the shadows, it's very nice. It make him look like he's stalking around at dusk. If you could smooth out the nmm on the cleaver that would improve things imo. But as you said it's early days and I'm sure you will add blood to it too.

The only other thing I would say, again imo, is that the bandages look a little too similar to the skin, although they don't have the purple shade. If this will change as you progress, no worries. Great start though.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

So I just had a really bad experience on Cmon, I rated this picture a 1:

 

http://www.coolminiornot.com/373391?browseid=11245136

 

because I really dislike heavy photoshopping on pictures in this hobby, and also gave an explanation why to the artist- you can look in the comments.

 

But now I have had people come to my photo and rate my Gracie a 1 without any reason, I even had the artist himself go to my profile and give me a 1 and write angry russian to me. He later deleted his comment but left his vote:

 

Rating: 1
"говно покрашено !!! иди поучи жену щи варить , мудак."

 

If this is what I can expect from Cmon, I am really not sure if I would want to post my other finished work there...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you're might be taking it a bit too personal. It's only one person and one negative experience.
I've just viewed the pictures there and I don't know anything about community there, so you might be right.

Anyway I know they had some very nice projects and even made games with minis of their own.
That site is a great resource.

Anyway, even with the photoshop that effect isn't anything special, but that base does look nice on its own.
I agree with your photoshop referance, and that comment in russian is childish.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information