Need help.

[matty1001]

Right I'v decided to have a crack with a brand new technique (well 2 or 3 actually) , but, I have no idea where to start as technically this is all over my head.

I know Eric has painted in the technique I am hoping to do, and some of you may have tried it so any help would be fantastic.

The mini in question is Hasslefree's Alice, the one I spent 11 hours prepping yesterday. I didn't really have a colour scheme ready and it just materialised over the hours to the point where I now really want to do it. So here is the mini prepped with the base (It needs some touch ups with a brush primer)

(And the hand holding the gun looks a little banana'ish there, but i'm assuming it is the pic angle as it looks fine in real life)

So, Alice, nutty as a fruit cake, she has pulled the trigger on her rabbit and is now ready to do herself in.

The basic idea is that she is in a room with fully checkered walls and floor with a bright white light directly above her head, casting stark shadows (zenithal OSL)

So to get an idea where the shadows go I took photo's then pushed the darkness right up on iPhoto.

And an above shot for reference:

Now Iv also got a few extra things for inspiration and reference.

This I found in the paper:

And these by Cyril Abati and David Waeselynck (Large photo's so il just use a link)

http://gallery.mac.com/matthewbraid/100117/alice01-800/web.jpg

http://gallery.mac.com/matthewbraid/100117/img4550f7e1aaea6/web.jpg

Now it seems in all the example there is a slight green tinge mixed in to create a sickly look (trollblood base would be perfect eh Anders! ) but I also know people use blue's (ala Eric)

But I really don't know where to start (I'v never painted black before, or OSL), so do I block the black in then blend it into grays, moving to whites. (And obviously my brightest highlight can't be pure white, as that will be the light from above) Or should I paint it all in mid tone greys then darken and shade appropiately? Or go the other way and go from white's into blacks?

Then the extra colour, blue or green, should this be glazed over areas to tint the colour, or mixed in with the the black and white?

I understand that I'm not going to paint this over night and It will be long and drawn out (possibly month's knowing me lol) so WIP's may not be regular. But seriously, any help would be fantastic as it feels like im trying to run before I can even crawl!

(O and sorry for the mega long post, but I'v tried to explain everything I am doing. I hate it when people come on and just say "How do I paint black like that"!)

[gi6ers]

Wow, very ambitious...I would've used zenithal priming to get me started personally but please keep us posted with WIPs as this is something I'd like to try.

[Stupidcow]

Nice concept there with that bit of conversion work. Since you have done enough research from what I see, I think its best you give it a shot and show us wips. From there it might be easier to give suggestions. If you don't like what you see there's always the thinner pot.

[matty1001]

Well iv done a bit more thinking, and looking at the colour wheel. I was looking at the values and figuring out how to create different shades which look like different materials, because obviously there is the flesh, the fabric, the gun and the rabbit (then the boots, bracelets, hair etc..) and if I work with different sets of value this should help distinguish them.

So I will use Value's 7 - 10 for the flesh.

1 - 4 for the dress etc..

But then there is the concept of OSL so every deep shadow will have to reach value 1 at it's deepest point and 10 at its higest (which is something that is really taking age's at getting my head around)

Then there will be a spot colour of red. There will be drips of blood on the floor from the red, which will hopefully signify the death (not that the gun, or general feeling won't though!)

The hairband will be red, signifying the youngness and innocence of the girl.

And the tounge will be red, creating a visual focal point on the face.

Does this make any sense or just all sound a bit arty-farty? (Though its helping me come to terms with certain aspects)

And yea, il stick WIP's up, I'm working on the base first.

[gi6ers]

These might be useful, I'd be tempted to keep the use of the red to an absolute minimum:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/139115

http://www.coolminiornot.com/147285

and read the artists comments here:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/110944

[Wren]

I haven't really tried this technique to offer any help, but I can suggest a few more minis in the black and white or sepia style to study -

http://www.coolminiornot.com/98256

http://www.coolminiornot.com/160467

http://www.reapermini.com/gallery/forsale/RC05front_ds

http://www.reapermini.com/gallery/forsale/RC05back_ds_001

[EricJ]

I think I would likely start with a grey mini, put roughly in the black where I thought black should go, then same with white, then once I had the feel that I wanted, work to blend the transitions. that way you won't spend hours on blending, only to realize that the transition shouldn't be there after all

[Hinton]

The pictures are a really good reference for you. I'm not sure how much help (if any) this might be, but here's the WIP thread I had going when I did Alidee using directional lighting (which you even commented on):

http://wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?t=1479&highlight=alidee

[matty1001]

Cheers for all the photos and link, Iv saved them all and using them as reference's.

Hinton cheer's for bringing that up its fantastic stuff, I only wish I had started just OSL or just black and white, mixing the two together is really hurting my head!

Iv got some WIP photo's. Iv taken them on a black background. The base is pretty much done, I may go back to it later on though as the blends arn't super smooth. The shadow's on the base are painted on (there may be some help from the lamp though)

Iv blocked in the black using the photo's I took for reference, I now need to start layering up into gray's and white's, which by the look of it will take ages.

Its all a bit untidy at the moment, but should start tidying up once I start layering.

Im not going to add a blue or green shade in, just going to work with black and white. Its doing my head in enough trying to work all this out!

[matty1001]

Alice just had a nice Nitromors bath

I had tried some painting but it just messed up, the paint ended up going really thick, kept the base as it is though.

Im going to try a different way tomorrow when I have another go.

[matty1001]

Right so re stripped and reprimed.

I had a chat with Anders tonight which helped get my head around using all these different values, and instead of starting with a black r white, decided to start with different shades of grey which I can then highlight and shade appropiately.

So instead of just using black and white, i'v cheated abit and brought the greys out!

I'v painted each section in different value's of grey. Used lighter values where I want a very light finish, and darker values for a darker finish (seems pretty obvious really, but I couldn't seem to comprehend that before!)

So:

Rabbit: VMC Neutral Grey, Value 7

Skin: VMC Sky Grey, Value 9

Hair: VMC Neutral Grey, Value 7

Dress: VMC German Grey, Value 2

Gun: Black, Value 1

Boots: Black, Value 1

The other detals I will worry about later on.

Now to just start highlighting and shading so it looks like the example pics. Should be easier than then previous plan.

[Hinton]

yeah, I think you're approaching this the right way now. It looks like it'll be easier with this method. Looking forward to how it progresses.

[matty1001]

Well iv done a bit, but had a major DIY disaster, 3 shelves (one with LOADS of books, one with all my display minis, and one with my speakers, WIP's brushes etc) came crashing down.

The feeble little pins in the brackets wern't strong enough for a ton of books. Fortunately not much has broken (mini-wise, only a few of my older pieces) so I'v had to put painting on hold whilst I get everything re-drilled and strengthened. Ggggrrr.

I was a bit pissed off I was.

[callumrice]

Understandable mate.

Hope we get so see this mini progressing soon, im interested to see how you get on.

[Lono]

I've been experimenting with this kind of thing recently. I found Photoshop is really useful for checking out different looks. Just save a load of pics of well painted minis with interesting textures going on and greyscale them, then adjust the contrast and use those pics as reference.