Rowwwsdower's WIP

[Rowwwsdower]

Hello, everyone!

I'm new to Cool Mini or Not and to painting, and I'm definitely looking to get better.

I've got a couple mini projects that I'm working on simultaneously. Here's a wip one that I painted up in between visiting the in-laws - was looking to get some feedback on it. I know there are areas that can be improved.

Comments on what's being done well and what can be done better would definitely be appreciated!

[Kallfa]

Welcome ! The gradient of the cloak looks fine, I think you can push the contrast on the other parts, by adding highlights on clothes, armor and hairs. You could apply some shades on the face too, to enhance the details.

[Rowwwsdower]

Thanks for the welcome, and for the suggestions!
I agree with your comments - the miniatures that I'm in the process of painting so far usually come out looking a bit less contrast-y and saturated than I'd like just because I'm trying to find the line between a good amount of color, contrast and saturation, and a look that's too bright and cartoonish, you know?
But pushing the contrast by adding highlights and shading the face to add details are both good suggestions and very doable!

[gorb]

Welcome! Your blends look awesome, the cloak for example but especially the yellow/red shading on the bird/phoenix.
Whats missing is detail, for me, for example her face just looks like a blank piece, I have difficulty telling her mouth apart from her lower face and cheeks. I am going to assume you are still working on the details, but if not a flesh wash might just bring out the detail in the sculpt and you can work from there.
Just my $0.02. Cheers!

[Rowwwsdower]

gorb, thanks for your comments! My favorite part of this piece so far has definitely been doing the blending/gradients.

Yeah, the face... I've figured out that I'm currently garbage at the detail required for faces hahaha. Face wash is a good suggestion, and I will try that out. Do you have any recommendations for eyes, lips, and other facial features?

[gorb]

gorb, thanks for your comments! My favorite part of this piece so far has definitely been doing the blending/gradients.

Yeah, the face... I've figured out that I'm currently garbage at the detail required for faces hahaha. Face wash is a good suggestion, and I will try that out. Do you have any recommendations for eyes, lips, and other facial features?

Any of the major paint brands have skin tones in their ranges. I have a bunch of Army Painter paints, and the set I bought contains 4 different skin tones along with a flesh wash, which I find useful to get started with.

Skin isn't always "flesh" colored though, there are multiple hues on the face, ranging from almost pure white to blue gray to warm red to pale yellow, and that is only for caucasian skin, so you may have to blend some of these other tones in.

As for technique, I'd recommend checking out some youtube tutorials, for example @KujoPainting has a bunch of really well done videos:

- Paint A Female Face In 15 Minutes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbnrH0kw10w

- How to Paint Faces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yH8QIdif54

and since you are already great at mixing and blending, maybe try

- How To Make Your Own Skin Tones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhP-reEFXe8

[ekipage]

One thing you can try (until you feel more confident with painting the face) is to base it and then do the eyes since if you mess them up you can just paint the base color over the eyes and redo them

The figure does look good though. I really like the phoenix and her clothes are looking good already

[Rowwwsdower]

@gorb, thanks for the pointers and the tutorials! I'll be painting skin for at least a couple minis, so I'll definitely check those out and apply those when I go to finish her face.

@ekipage I was considering that too, and I'll probably end up taking that approach - thanks for the suggestion and for the compliments!

Edited to add another wip:
I'm also in the process of basing another mage. She looked like she was conjuring something out of the ground - and when in doubt, make it lava. Any suggestions that you all have (especially on how to paint lava realistically haha) are most assuredly welcome!

[BloodASmedium]

K ..that’s cool as shit.

[Rowwwsdower]

Thanks BloodASmedium! Glad to know I'm not the only who's hyped about how that idea's turning out.

I've been adding some rocks (scraps of cork board covered in patches of pumice texture paint and crackle paint) to the lava streams, and I've been shaping/sculpting/strengthening (so much spray-on PVA glue lol) the streams in preparation for airbrushing them.

And speaking of, I think all of this is nearly ready to be airbrushed!





Edited to add my progress on the red mage:
I've been preparing her for an OSL effect with the phoenix as the light source (super psyched for that) by adding shadows and highlights in the appropriate places.
Thanks for suggestion about amping up the highlights, Kallfa - there are more of those coming.
Gorb and Ekipage, I'll be revisiting the face and adding extra details there soon as well.

[ekipage]

Can't wait to see you tackle that mage and flame/lava effect! That is a really cool base design for that. Looking at it right now though it really screams water to me (which would be an amazing base as well) since the cotton reminds me of white water rushing past her

That extra pre-shading you did for the OSL looks great!

[Rowwwsdower]

Ekipage, I know what you mean! Every time I look at that miniature, I keep thinking of the painting at the bottom of this post.
Edit: I guess I never noticed until now that the man in the painting isn't standing above an actual sea, but rather just fog.

I've considered doing water instead of lava - I just think that I'm after more of an over-the-top effect than water would allow. You know, lava allows me to really amp up the saturation/brightness of the waves, which will in turn allow me to try out some wild OSL. Not to mention that a mage conjuring explosive jets of lava from the earth as she stands atop an outcropping of rock amidst all the destruction just sounds so irresistibly metal lol.

But I do appreciate you pointing out how much the base screams water. It's nice to get others' perspectives and to consider all possible paths forward before progressing.

Thank you for the compliment on the extra pre-shading, btw! I really liked doing that part.

Speaking of others' perspectives, have people had issues with Neo Iwata airbrushes constantly clogging? I would've put a good dent in my airbrushing today had it not been for that.

[gorb]

Funny, the base also looked like water to me at first. I think water is hard to paint on a mini, given that it is naturally translucent if not fully transparent, and it is hard to capture the essence of the light moving through it. That's why I reckon lava is still the way to go

As for any airbrush clogging, what kind of paint / color of paint are you shooting right now? Some colors clog more often than others, red dries very quickly imho. You can mitigate the problem by thinning the paint (more), but then you have to lower the pressure and do more thin coats. From the research I've done there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop it, you just have to try and cope.

[ekipage]

hmm, seems I forgot continue my thought and add that: if you do another figure it would be cool to have similar construction but make it a water base to contrast with that figure or a duel

[Rowwwsdower]

ekipage, I really like that idea! I've been wanting to learn how to apply dynamic water to a base. That will probably end up as a future WIP hahaha.

And gorb, I agree that water is a bit beyond my skill at this point. I think sticking with lava for this initial miniature is a good piece of input - that'll stretch my skill enough as is. Water will be a future stretch goal for myself.

Regarding the airbrushing, I was attempting to use Vallejo airbrush thinner with several things: I tried it with a mixture of some Apple Barrel acrylic paints, with a Vallejo ink, and then with a mix of Medea airbrush paint and Vallejo primer. Each of those combos led to clogging - sometimes there would initially be paint that would come out of the airbrush, but it would splatter as it was coming out, and would clog within 5-10 minutes to the point that there would be no more paint coming out.

When the airbrush would clog, I would disassemble it and then put into my sonic cleaner (using only water) to clean off all the paint.

I read somewhere that what I need is flow improver, not thinner. Is there any truth to that?

[gorb]

I am learning a lot about airbrushing myself, but reading your description it does seem that you could use either flow improver or drying retarder. You can also try to play with your air pressure - sometimes a low pressure might cause tip dry because the paint accumulates and isn't cleared off the tip properly. Sometimes you can flick off the paint by temporarily shooting at full air / paint strength a couple of times, pumping the lever so to speak. Of course, without the airbrush pointed at your mini

[Rowwwsdower]

Thanks for the input, gorb. I just ordered flow improver and drying retarder today, so hopefully we'll be back in business soon.

And yes haha, I've been guilty of trying to clear the airbrush without first pointing it away from a mini.

[Rowwwsdower]

Finished off the majority of the shading and started in on OSL on the red mage. Good lord do I have a newfound respect for people skilled at OSL hahaha - this was my first time, and it was definitely a new way of thinking about things. Any suggestions for improving the OSL effect on future minis? Or anything that I did well that I should carry over to future projects?

Also, considering that a good portion of her face will be taken up with the OSL effect from the phoenix, how much detail do you all think would be appropriate to add to her face?

[Graishak]

OSL on the cloak is looking good. The first time for you? In this case: Big compliments,
you know how to use it.
Regarding face details: Eye, Eyebrows, mouth and ears would be the minimum.
I‘d recommend to do some shading on the skin ob top of it.

[Kallfa]

Nice start about your OSL effect ! About the face, I would say the same thing as Graishak, adding shading on the skin will allow you to define areas in a first step, before adding detail and light effects.