Heretic's Painting Blog

[HopelessHeretic]

Thought it was about time that I started one of these to showcase my models. I am specifically looking for tips to improve my painting skills but general comments are welcome as well.

OK, first up we have my Steamborg that I just finished. My Ramos crew will have a red and gray colors scheme. I am not super experienced painting flesh or metallics but I think it went well.

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[shivermoon]

I think it's a great start to some forces.

I would suggest more layers on the flesh. There isn't really a good transition between shadow and highlight right now. Maybe a layer of paint that is between those two would help you achieve a better transition.

[Major_Gilbear]

I like it a lot, and the colours are very Ad-Mech!

[macgowan]

I especially like the striking blue... whateverthehell those bumps are on the front. Looks great! Excellent color choice, great base, good detail work.

It looks like you painted layers of highlights. You might consider more washes to finish and help smooth out the seams where colors meet. If you used Devlan Mud, you might want something a little darker?

Edited April 12, 2010 by macgowan

[themurphyfella]

I reckon an application of your signature would help with the transitions.

You've got a neat paintjob all your highlights are in essentially the correct places.

The next step in painting is to add a bit of complexity. You can do that by adding more levels of colour transition, using washes or blending or a combination of the above. That's the kinda stuff that comes with practice and you've got a flying start there

[Sholto]

Devlan Mud is a little too dark for that flesh tone - Ogryn Flesh is better, or a mix of the two.

I agree your skin shading is too dark and you need to transition more.

A couple of tips to help:

1. Thin your paint. When shading (or highlighting) always work with thinned paint. Thin it down to a 4:1 water:paint mix. Load your brush, and then drag it across a paper towel to discharge most of the paint - you don't want that flooding across your model. Once the brush has only a little paint left (so that it will stay where you put it) you can apply it to the model. The thinness of the paint will make it translucent, so that the base skin tone underneath will show through, aiding the transition. It also helps to have your brush strokes going in the right direction - when highlighting stroke towards the highlight, when shading stroke towards the shadowed part.

2. Colours. To ensure a good transition a good place to start is with your basic skin colour, and think of your highlight colour as being that basic skin colour + something lighter, and your shade colour as being that basic skin colour + something darker. For example, if I am using Tallarn Flesh as my basic skin colour, I might mix Tallarn Flesh 50/50 with some Pale Flesh for my highlight. For my shade, I might mix it 50/50 with some dark brown colour, or even a dark blue. For brighter highlights or deeper shadows just add more of your highlight or shade colour.

Lastly, a final watered down wash of your basic skin colour (very watered down - aka a glaze) will help to tie together your shading and highlights, although you might need to go back over some of your extreme highlights again just to make them pop.

Sholto

[dgraz]

sholto has some good advice there. Although a 4 to 1 water to paint seems extreme to me. I usually go 1 to 4 or 1 to 3 water to paint. The main tip that was great and that I use all the time is to use your middle / main color as an ink - extremely thinned down and washed over the entire area. You could probably do that now to bring the shading more in line and then re-do some highlights.

[HopelessHeretic]

Thanks for all the comments. I think I will try the glaze over the flesh to bring the highlights together. I am just hesitant because I dislike washes being the last step in painting a model. It makes them look sloppy an after painting Eldar for so long I have grown accustomed to a clean look.

I think giving the the color usage might help you guys help me. The skin was painted Dwarf flesh then washed with devlan mud then highlighted with dwarf. And as a final highlight I did a 50/50 dwarf elf mix.

@sholto: I have never heard of stroking toward the light for highlighting. What does that do? I may try using ogryn flesh instead, but when painting smaller models I have found it to be too subtle so I used devlan instead. For example on my Ortegas.

Thanks again for all the help,

Heretic

[Sholto]

When you make a brush stroke (unless your paint is thick enough to be either completely opaque and/ or unable to flow on the mini) the thinnest layer of paint is left where the brush touches the mini and thickest amount is left where the brush is lifted off the mini. If you are using thinned paint, ie. translucent paint that will allow the colour beneath to show through, this means that the start of your brush stroke will be more translucent than the end. You can see how this helps your highlighting or shading since each brush stroke is always ending either in the middle of your highlight or in the middle of the shaded portion.

The other thing I would say is that your painting style is quite different from my own. I go for much less contrast in my minis, while you go for a high contrast approach - neither is right or wrong, of course, but bear in mind that my comments in my previous post are coming from the perspective of my own style, and may not entirely suit a high-contrast painting style.

EDIT: By the way, where did you get the Steamborg base? It looks similar to the Deus Ex Machina resin inserts from Ironhalo.net.

Sholto

Edited April 14, 2010 by Sholto

[HopelessHeretic]

I got a bunch of stuff done this week due to a relatively light amount of school work. I managed to finish up my Ortegas this week. Most of the Close ups are here.

To complete the set of closeups here are Papa and Nino.

I attempted to do a little object source lighting with his lit stick of dynamite. I think it went pretty well. I am trying to do the same technique with Ramos and it isn't working to well. I think it has something to do with blue flame against a red lab coat, but that is a totally different post. Comment always welcome.

-Heretic

[Breadcrab]

No matter what anyone else says, I adore your style. I think the approach is different to what people accept as "Standard painting threory," which to me is like if all comic books had the same artist. Love the look, Epecially on the 'borgs claws and Loco's Pants!

[Melnibonean]

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EDIT: By the way, where did you get the Steamborg base? It looks similar to the Deus Ex Machina resin inserts from Ironhalo.net.

He got the base for me @ www.fiendishfabrications.com

Come and have a look we have a large range of base inserts of all the relevant sizes.

[HopelessHeretic]

Oh, yeah sorry totally forgot you asked that. The bases are from fiendish fabrications. They have some really cool designs but some of the ones you get in each pack are not quite as cool as the others. I also had a bit of an issue with what appear to be air bubbles in the mold. Not quite sure if I will be going back, but I need similar bases since all six of my 30mm were used on the spiders and ramos. I hope that wyrd comes out with some soon.

-Heretic

[dgraz]

I like your color choices and the work is good. I feel like they're almost done. I think they could use one more highlight, but tha's personal preference.

[HopelessHeretic]

So I have been tearing my hair out trying to do object source lighting on Ramos. (During finals week no less). I think it turned out OK. The model is not finished but barring helpful comments the lighting is.

-Heretic

[macgowan]

I think I like this one the best. I would bend the flame so it's rising straight up though.

[HopelessHeretic]

Ok, it has been a really long time but I am finally back at the painting table and first up we have my nearly completed Leveticus. I tried non-metallic metals for the first time on him. I think the gold was really successful but the iron doesn't show up so well on camera. As always Comment and criticisms welcome.

-Heretic

[Shukitty]

Good job on the ramos lighting. I kind of like him in red, most people seem to put him in browns or greys. Keep up the good work.

[mr_chuffy]

No matter what anyone else says, I adore your style. I think the approach is different to what people accept as "Standard painting threory," which to me is like if all comic books had the same artist. Love the look, Epecially on the 'borgs claws and Loco's Pants!

I have to agree with Breadcrab here, I really like you're style (kind of looks anime like to me) and think you should stick with it - maybe refine it a little more (which would come with time and experience).

It's really nice to see different styles along with peoples (different) interpretations of how models should look.

Keep up the good work!

P.S. I think you should paint up some Ronins next..

[Spaced2020]

very nice work!

For those clamouring on about "more layers" and "shading more", what is wrong with this style of over accentuation????

At some point everyone must decide between their style preference and 'artistic' approach versus what can look great on the table top.

Personally I really like this style of painting. I don't believe everyone must attain a certain 'look' in their paint schemes, and some people, despite trying to be encouraging and helpful, occasionally miss that point.

That said, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Rant over. Have a nice day and keep on painting!

Edited August 22, 2010 by Spaced2020

[Deadpool]

These pics do no justice for your minis.

[HopelessHeretic]

I am continuing my work on the levi crew with my prototype SPA. I also got my hands on a DSLR courtesy of the UT Communications deparment so hopefully the pictures will be better.

-Heretic