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2021 Monthly Painting Challenge - January


Caedrus

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On 1/5/2021 at 10:20 AM, Maogrim said:

@Harlekin I love the purple skin, the TMM metal and the base :)! I think a bit more and deeper shading on the wings would be nice, but could just be due to the picture being a little too bright.

The more often I look at my Valedictorian the more I tend to agree about the wings. They indeed could use some more contrast. But I will leave it for now and maybe comeback later, after I finished the Transmortis crew and brought it on a playable level (2 painted of each type of minions). Don't blame me, please, I am just such a slow painter >_< 

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1 hour ago, Maogrim said:

20210123_1324192.jpg

As promised, I finished the third Illuminated as an extra and can present the trio.

Would really appreciate if someone were to give me actual verbal feedback. :)

Are you looking for feedback on a specific part or a specific goal you had? I think your colors are really vibrant and lively. I'm sure from three feet away, the models like striking on the board. Up close, the paints haven't really blended. Maybe your layer paint is too thick. The pants, for instance, look kind of stripey because there isn't a gradient between the dark brown and light brown. One way you can unify the two is a pre-made wash (like agrax earthshade). Another way is a mid-tone paint glazed between them. Same is true for the eye glow, but I am definitely not expert at OSL so I leave that to more talented members to explain. 

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1 hour ago, Maogrim said:

20210123_1324192.jpg

As promised, I finished the third Illuminated as an extra and can present the trio.

Would really appreciate if someone were to give me actual verbal feedback. :)

I like how these guys turned out. The eye glow doesn't work but I actually really like the look. I thought it was meant to be the skin on their faces becoming thinned out and stuff shining through from beneath or something. Also, it just works compositionally to have that one spot of red on the  face to draw the eye in.

If you wanted actual glowing eyes the face area needs to be darker overall, the glow needs to be subtler and the eyes should have a tint of that colour. Even then only certain model really support an eye glow. The guy on the right for instance doesn't have enough recess around the eyes that would create a shadow and catch light from the glow. 

The gloss finish of their clothes looks a bit weird in the photos. Some people are really puritanical about keeping things matte but it does lend an extra layer of depth at tabletop level. Think the undershirts at least should be matte though as that kind of fabric would never have a sheen to it. 

Think the biggest (and easiest) area you could improve is the bases. Cobblestones aren't actually gray, they're usually a bunch of different colours blurred together with the grime of the street. They also should have crap growing on them, water-marks etc. to make them look more like a real place. The leaves are a nice touch, but kind of

Overall I think they're a really nice looking trio and a very good standard for gaming pieces. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Maogrim said:

Would really appreciate if someone were to give me actual verbal feedback. :)

I can definitely appreciate the work you put in those models. And as a unit they look good. I think, if you want to up your painting game, you have to improve your technical style and use some simple cheat.

Technical stuff :

- Brush skill (your line are not sharp enoug) : you can practice o  paper first (do not and line as thin as possible, than use an other color and try to superimpose new dots and lines).

- Blending skill : your transition are a little bit harsh. Try to master glazing (Vince Vinturella on YouTube have a good video about it). It's a tedious process, but imo it's technically easier than other techniques (especially layering, which most people learn first but its incredibly hard to master). Also, this is your bread and butter for special effect as OSL (if you don't have a airbrush).

- Light placement: try to imagine a light source when you paint (usually zenital, but you model can be at sunset or in the dum light of a lantern, etc.). Than push your highlight and shadow accordingly. Don't be afraid to exaggerate it at first. Scale models is about exaggeration of key elements (and light is definitely one). If you master this, you'll see a big bump in your painting.

Cheat :

- thin your paint (more than you already do).  That'll help you alot with your  brush work in general and your models will look less patchy.

- Use a zenital primer (grey gradient) for light placement.

- use a mat varnish (or even ultramat). It's the easier fix. Your models seem to be to shiny (maybe because of the picture you took). This doesn't help your paint job and it give unnatural lighting. Try to kill the shine as much as possible. 

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Wow, thanks you guys! That was a lot more feedback than I anticipated, and a little more honesty than I'm comfortable with..😅 

Just kidding, I appreciate it! I will certainly try to improve though I feel I've already come a long way from where I started, and the average level here in the forums is really high.

@SEV Will make sure to check out the Vince Vinturella video! 

And I will definitely try thinning down my paints further (already use Lahmia Medium or whatever it's actually called) and try a matt varnish to get rid of the shine. An aquaintance of mine used to do that but I always thought it made the minis look dusty. Maybe something was wrong with the varnish?!

@Woody71 The patches on Teddy are really cool and add color! I love it! :) Would agree that Candy comes across a little too dark, but might just be the photo. Not aure about the blood.. but I'd say go for it! 

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16 hours ago, Woody71 said:

would like to ask for some feedback on the freehand on Teddy.

Those freehands are great. 
The only thing the Teddy lacks is some gradient in the colors. As it is now, it looks a bit flat because of all the huge surfaces. But it really depends on what you want to achieve. If it is meant to be a great and beautiful piece for gaming it's absolutely fine. 

Same about Candy. From a mere painter's perspective the colors are a bit flat because they lack gradient and real highlights but I absolutely do see what you wanted to achieve and the models look (at least) good.
You might want to have a look at my Sybelle just below: about 75-80% of her dress and stockings are just the flat dark colors but adding those rather strong highlights make them pop. 
While I am by far not a great painter I am pretty okay with how the results look. 

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Another model finished: 
Madame Sybelle. 10 Stones. 
20210124-Madame-Sybelle.jpg

Sybelle isn't perfect as I got her from secondary market and disassembling didn't work, so there are a few mold lines where I couldn't reach and some of those didn't show before in the middle of painting her up. But she should be okay-ish after I did her base (still waiting for some lamps and rats from ebay for my Redchapel crew).

A good month so far. 

As a side note: I had to change my painting schedule as I finally have a friend of mine enter the gaming heavens of Malifaux and he is as huge a fan of campaigns as I am. And now, we will use (slightly) modified Shifting Loyalities to do a campaign. 
We will soon find out how the crew of Madame Sybelle's Adult Entertainment will react to Cassandra's Showgirls roaming into our town with their train-based dancing show. 
I really guess that the town won't be big enough to act as a host for both shows.
Damn those cheeky living dancers for trying to destroy Sybelle's honest business!

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5 hours ago, Harlekin said:

Those freehands are great. 
The only thing the Teddy lacks is some gradient in the colors. As it is now, it looks a bit flat because of all the huge surfaces. But it really depends on what you want to achieve. If it is meant to be a great and beautiful piece for gaming it's absolutely fine. 

Same about Candy. From a mere painter's perspective the colors are a bit flat because they lack gradient and real highlights but I absolutely do see what you wanted to achieve and the models look (at least) good.
You might want to have a look at my Sybelle just below: about 75-80% of her dress and stockings are just the flat dark colors but adding those rather strong highlights make them pop. 
While I am by far not a great painter I am pretty okay with how the results look. 

Great feedback!  I feel I tend to under highlight.  I will work on that.  Thank you.

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20 hours ago, Maogrim said:

Wow, thanks you guys! That was a lot more feedback than I anticipated, and a little more honesty than I'm comfortable with..😅 

Just kidding, I appreciate it! I will certainly try to improve though I feel I've already come a long way from where I started, and the average level here in the forums is really high.

@SEV Will make sure to check out the Vince Vinturella video! 

And I will definitely try thinning down my paints further (already use Lahmia Medium or whatever it's actually called) and try a matt varnish to get rid of the shine. An aquaintance of mine used to do that but I always thought it made the minis look dusty. Maybe something was wrong with the varnish?!

@Woody71 The patches on Teddy are really cool and add color! I love it! :) Would agree that Candy comes across a little too dark, but might just be the photo. Not aure about the blood.. but I'd say go for it! 

First of all, I got to say I am no pro painter (just take a look at my posts, hehe), but I like the feedback that I have been reading and I want to add my grain of sand to what has been already written.

I would recommend you to use a wet palette (if you aren't already), so it is easier to you to achieve better blendings (and many more things). There are a lot of videos and articles abiut it, but I would recommend Squidmar Miniatures, since they have helped me a lot.

Also, if you thin more your paints, remember to also unload the brush a bit on paper to keep control of where the paint goes. This is not said all the time, but it used to drive me crazy, and took me long enough to realize I needed to do so ^^'

Hope it helps and keep up the good painting!

 

PD: Here is an update of Fuhatsu, I expect to finish it on time and update with a couple of better shots.

Feedback is more than welcome :) (base, gutling gun, bracelets and hair are whats left).

IMG_20210121_233116.thumb.jpg.af832fa1ca8046d056dd8ecad5bf06f5.jpg

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3 hours ago, Vessien said:

: Here is an update of Fuhatsu, I expect to finish it on time and update with a couple of better shots.

Feedback is more than welcome

Great work so far. The only thing I recognized is that the face of his color seems a bit off compared to arms and legs. Maybe another gradient and added highlight would help. On the other hand. the face already looks good, so I probably wouldn't bother much if it was my miniature

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All I can say is WOW, everyone has really stepped up the game for 2021! Some beautiful models across the board. 

@Vessien Super nice model, very dramatic face and great highlights on the armor, only feedback would be to highlight the weapon (if you haven't yet apologies).

@Woody71 Love Tara and the base! Your Teddy is awesome as is the Void Hunter (love the eyes), great mod on Candy!

@Harlekin She looks appropriately evil! Great job.

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Hi there, a bit late for the feedback, but i hope is welcome nevertheless.

I just want to add a couple of points to what has been already said, all of it very good advice.

First point is that the key to paint a mini is contrast (NOT THE PAINTS, but the concept! 😆 )

There's a lot of theory around better explained than what i'll mention here, but 101 is that you want to differenciate a lot the areas where the light hits from the areas that stay in the shadow.

And the more obvious is this difference the more the mini (or some details in the mini) will pop.  You can do that by going from dark to light, or form 1 color to another, and sometimes by combining both.

Check @Harlekin sybelle, in the top left picture is where is easier to see it, look at the pants, the corset or the feathers, they look great, and in all cases the color form the shadows is far from the colors in the illuminated areas. It goes from super dark to super light.

Another good example is on @Vessien Fuhatsu's face, zoom on it and see the cheekbones and the space right under the cheekbones.  Same with the nose & eyebrows vs the bit under the eyes.  the contrast in those areas is huge, that's why you can see the face perfectly form far away.

@Woody71 in your teddy you did it in the cotton that comes from his belly.  My eyes went straight away to the cotton when I looked at the mini, there's a gray at the bottom and goes to white or almost white on the light areas.  Nailed it! (also, killer job on his eyes too 👌 )

But then the color on the top of teddy's face is the same that the color on his underbelly, this makes the mini quite flat.  Since is quite a big surface it will be hard to work on it, but even some good ol' drybrushing will create an easy light effect (for those large areas get yourself a cheap big make up brush, and do very very light drybrushing as many times as you need until you are happy with the result) then add final touches in the most illuminated areas with a regular brush.
 

@Maogrim i really like the color scheme for the illuminated, is not easy to paint a mini with similar colors (browns in this case) and still separate the parts.  I like specially the rightmost illuminated.
The glow in the eyes as it has been said doesn't look right, when i have to do something like this I go to the internet and look for references, every single time, because is super hard to get it right, and the way the light behaves is sometimes counterintuitive, so better have a reference form a pro.  Doesn't need to be a mini, could be from any artwork, or picture.

Another very important point is keeping in mind what do you want to achieve with the paintjob.

Do you want to reach a super neat paintjob? or just want your minis to look great in the table?

Because if it's the first case yes, it makes total sense to spend a lot of time glazing and trying to get a transition between areas as neat as possible, but there's absolutely no need for perfect transitions on a great paintjob (see again vessien's fuhatsu armor, if you zoom in you can see the transitions perfectly, but is a super cool paintjob, it has the right brushtrokes in the right place with the right color, and it works 👌 )

 

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2 hours ago, Diddick said:

I wasn't very hyped about the Kamaitachi, but then I tried to paint it adding the texture myself, with tiny brushstrokes fro the hair, and just trying this i've never done before (bc i'm too lazy) made the whole process more interesting and enjoyable

Very nice work on both models. I especially like the top-to-bottom gradient on the whole model (something I am still struggling a bit). 
Really awesome fur/texture on the Kamaitachi. I can see the effort which went in. It definitely was worth it. 

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4 hours ago, Diddick said:

Yesterday i finished my January pledge!  2 tiny guys for 4SS each witha  total of 8SS

The Hodgepodge Effigy:

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And the Kamaitachi:

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I wasn't very hyped about the Kamaitachi, but then I tried to paint it adding the texture myself, with tiny brushstrokes fro the hair, and just trying this i've never done before (bc i'm too lazy) made the whole process more interesting and enjoyable :D 

I am in awe!!! 😳 It really starts to become a little intimidating posting pics of low-level to average paint jobs next to the work of you guys.

What I'm trying to say: fantastic!!!!! So much detail on such a tiny model. It's really just astounding. 

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