Lashura's First Minis-Constructive Criticisms Please

[Lashura]

So my family has been into gaming for years,and my dad and brothers are into 40k. Lacking the time (and funding) to join them I decided to take the smaller route, Malifaux. I've learning to paint with my family but they don't do a lot of high detail miniatures. I'm looking for advice and commentary on my minis, please and thank you! Attached are some of my finished models (the full crew is still WIP). I was going for a Powerpuff Girls theme with my ronin.

[thaehl]

Looking great! You said you wanted constructive crit. So ill start with some things i like. Johan's tattoo is cool! loving it. As well as Taelor's pants, and the power puff theme, brilliant. One thing I've found is that when painting blonde start with a light brown, apply a heavy drybrush of a brown yellow mix, then wash with brown and then finish with varying degrees of yellow highlight/drybrush. Similar with brown, the color of the hair seems a little flat, but other than that great work, enjoy the world of Malifaux bud.

[Math Mathonwy]

For first minis, these are really, really good!

The most important part when beginning is to achieve neatness and you have done just that. Some minor slip-ups are visible (like the bit of brown from the haft on Johan's hammer's head) but all in all, an excellent job.

I like how you have varied the skin colours nicely on the different minis. Gives them a lot of character and fits the motley theme of the mercs.

I believe that the next logical step for you would be to go from drybrushing to painting on the highlights. It gives you a lot more control and makes for a tidier appearance. And taking that step after having painted half a dozen minis is extremely nice going. Just dilute the paints and paint many thin layers and highlighting is a breeze. It's actually usually my most favourite part in painting minis

But yeah, keep up the good work. Extremely impressive stuff.

[dsmiles]

First minis?

Well done. I've seen much worse, and from people that have been painting a while.

The comments on the painting are spot on, so I'll talk about photography:

Bend (not fold) a sheet of white printer paper behind your minis, and get two (preferably white) light sources. Make a "V" with the beams, and put the mini at the tip. It will help with the discoloration of the photos, and make the minis "pop" a bit more.

(Alternatively, you could blow about $50 on one of those portable eBay-style studios. They're a bit more professional, but not exactly cheap.)

[David.Hanold]

The first thing I always notice when I see a new painter's first work, is how they wash and paint any wooden aspects of the models. My advice following that observation is to tell them, "now paint the other aspects of the model following that logic". To be a great painter is not so much about your attention to detail. In fact if you look at the pro paint jobs sold on ebay they lack the details.

To achieve the expert look it just requires time and patience. And many many diluted layers. Having said that I can see that you know how to paint details. Save that talent for after you have all of your layers finalized.

Great work for your first minis. I remember my first minis. You will be amazed how much cleaner minis look when you focus on the major sections and forego the details like belts and buckles. I learned this lesson later in my painting hobby, so many of my early models look "busy".

My last advice is to step back every once in awhile (about 3 ft away from the minis), if they look good stop painting, because this is the average distance people will see your models from.

Welcome to the community, have fun!

Edited September 20, 2012 by David.Hanold

[Somnicide]

Look really good for a first effort! One of the best tips I ever got was to always finish the base rim - it really pulls your model together and makes it look done. Black is almost always a good choice.