Johnys painting improvement journey.

[johnynoi]

Thanks Kath and TBS, I started to struggle a bit with light sources and confused myself, I'm shurd the left shoulderpad is all wrong! The paint was drying quicker than I could blend it so got some flow retarder today and will have a play with that tonight, I hope when I paint some of other details the gold wont look as rough!

And by all means push me, I'm kind of learning this as I go along so the more input the better, I really do appreciate it!

[marjedi]

Make a wet palette, should give you some more work time for the blending

[johnynoi]

Hi marjedi, I do use a wet palette, its more me taking so long to put the paint down through indecision lol! I tried some blending medium there, but way overcooked it! An hour after painting i was able to wipe the paint clean off the model! Woops!

[kathrynloch]

If you're a slow painter like me - I have this laptop right next to me and get distracted for some strange reason - try buying cheapo paint pots at a craft store. Make your mixes in those, add retarder and water. That keeps them from drying out on a palette and I paint directly from them. I can leave them open for hours, even with the fan going and they work just fine.

I add only about 25% retarder and that's max, usually I don't add that much...like 10 to 15%. I use water to thin the rest of the way that way I don't reduce pigment or paint strength.

[johnynoi]

I've had a not so breif hiatus from painting recently due to a few real life issues getting in the way. Moving house (and losing the man room) and creating Johny 2.0 (due in 5 weeks, eeeek) and getting said house ready for mini me arriving! I've made a start again though, I'll need something to keep me calm!

I thought I'd paint something easy to get back into the swing of things:



Perhaps not the best idea, I think i'm making a bit of a meal of him. Skins pretty much done and need to highlight the metallic parts before moving on to the ancillaries. I'll be leaving the flame and lighting till last!

More successfully, I built my own desk from the remains of a kitchen table and a set of bunk beds!



And finally walked my partners horses to their new homes, a meagre ten mile journey with a confused thoroughbred! I know Kathryn likes horses so here's a picture of Q!



Hopefully get some more painting done tonight!

[kathrynloch]

Horsie!!!!! hehehe Thanks Johny! Is that your hand in the pic? It looks suspiciously like a candy bar. heh! How many times did he: 1. Step on you during your journey? 2. Try to crawl in your pocket? 3. Turn around and run back home, so what if you didn't let go of the rope?

The firebelly looks great! I absolutely love that base! Is it resin or something you sculpted? I just finished the firebelly I was working on, he will be leaving for Singapore on Monday.

[johnynoi]

Nope not my hand, but it is a packet of mints! Luckily I had the steel toecaps on so the multiple stepping on toes didn't hurt too much! After the first mile he wasn't too bad with the pulling, except when we got to some tree's he didn't like the look of! Even bog lorries driving past didnt phase him at all! I think we have a new bond now lol! The pony on the other hand was trouble, living up to his name! Here's a picture of him after getting his wormer this afternoon!



Not a happy pony!

The base is nothing fancy, just some ripped up bits of cork with some sand glued down to hide the gaps!

[kathrynloch]

hahaha! Just like a little kid taking his medicine - screws up the face and says EWWWWW!!!! NASTY!!!!!! (Although if its a paste wormer you can mix it with peanut butter and they will love you. )

On the base - very cool! I've been thinking of trying cork, I wonder if they have it at Hobby Lobby...hmmmm!

BTW - I like the desk! I need to do a complete overhaul of my work area. My husband is so close to losing his man cave, he has no idea (all he does is play WoW on the computer). But he drives me nuts because he freezes at the drop of a hat and of course that room is the coldest one in the house. Me, I die from the heat when it hits in the high 80's and I'm stuck at the kitchen table which is also the hottest room in the house. So I'm absolutely miserable and what does he go and do? Kill the central A/C because he's cold.*head-desk!*

[johnynoi]

Been playing about with this Orc Shaman, must be about the fourth time he's been stripped and repainted. Was wanting a darker look for the skin but again made a meal of it! I think i'd need to start with a lighter basecoat and work on the shading?



Take over the man room Kath, its wasted just for a computer!

[johnynoi]

Did a bit more on the Shaman tonight, still not very happy with it but at least my hands are starting to co-operate with my eyes a bit better now! Sticking with earthy tones for the clothing, may go for some wee mushrooms etc on the base. The large bone staff is bugging me too!



Photo taken on the iPhone, I'm struggling to get a decent photo at all with a proper camera! It does look a bitter better through eyes rather than a lense, honest!

Also built a wee paint stand for my DIY desk for the princely sum of £2.20!



I think it suits the desk

All critiques welcome!

[10 ball]

Always loved that shaman mini - looking real good .
Your work desk is way to tidy ! Mess it up , it will improve the painting

[johnynoi]

Thanks 10 ball, it's not that tidy 90% of the time! The other 10% feels kinda good though!

Another couple of horrible pictures, just the sack and base to go then going to call this one done.





Still struggling with placing shadows and highlights on metal, and the clothing doesn't really show up well on these photo's, I'll try and get some better ones tomorrow!

[SkelettetS]

hard to see throught all the pink but what i can see it looks like really good painting going on.

[Willdorling]

I love this Orc shaman and have one on the go ATM. Will be stripping mine soon to go again haha. Dagger on his back looks good. Skin is hard to tell because of the images....contrasts look ok though. Just can't get full impression of colour.

[johnynoi]

Thanks for the feedback guys, my photography skills really do let me down, with a little bit of me seeing my work through rose tinted spectacles and the lens showing up my imperfections! Here's my latest attempt at some photo's.....





The photos are still washing out the highlighting and shading, at least the pink is gone though! It's my first attempt at a scenic base, looks a bit bare now i'm seeing it through a picture!

Feedback and critisism as always appreciated!

[johnynoi]

Made a start on this Farseer tonight, another of my previous half finished models that I've stripped down and restarted. The Shaman isn't doing too hot on the scoring, sitting at a 5.9 but I think thats fair enough, especially with my poor photography!





Again just Iphone photo's, I'll post a picture of what i'm using to take pictures along with the settings the camera has and hopefully some of you guys can point me in the right direction!

[johnynoi]

Been trying out a few different things on this guy and not very happy with how they've turned out, need lots more practice at this kind of stuff! Weapons are nowhere near as smooth as I wanted them, the glow I was looking for on the visor looks like he's had his face dunked in a baby blue birthday cake, and the cream parts have much less contrast than the rest of the mini.

Need to keep telling myself practice makes perfect and not to let it get me down!




Any pointers in how to improve him?

[Meph]

yeah, ditch the osl on the helmet. The reason it looks like a smudge is because you have no point of origin for the light. Recessed eye lenzes like that can not produce just a large glow on the face mask as they are, well, behind it and will only project light forward. At most they will light the rims surrounding the lenzes.

[William T.]

yeah, ditch the osl on the helmet. The reason it looks like a smudge is because you have no point of origin for the light. Recessed eye lenzes like that can not produce just a large glow on the face mask as they are, well, behind it and will only project light forward. At most they will light the rims surrounding the lenzes.

Especially on an Eldar helmet. On a Space marine it'll catch the upper lip of the eye since it goes just over the eye, but the design of the eldar helm, the lenses are set back even further which gives no possibility of light catching the edges of the top.
Hopefully that makes sense to you!

[johnynoi]

Especially on an Eldar helmet. On a Space marine it'll catch the upper lip of the eye since it goes just over the eye, but the design of the eldar helm, the lenses are set back even further which gives no possibility of light catching the edges of the top.
Hopefully that makes sense to you!

Thanks guys, it certainly does! Will paint over it tonight, thats one of those things that when someone explains it, you facepalm yourself for it being so obvious! I appreciate the feedback!

The link to the Shaman's gallery pic is here, 13 more votes and I get my initial ranking, be a useful to gauge to my improvement over the coming months and years (or see how long I can stay static for!)

http://www.coolminiornot.com/artist/johnynoi