ArchArad's Corner (WIPs and Painting Goodness!)

[ArchArad]

Not enough contrast in your big guy with tusks, it's all hot, try incorporate some cold colors in there Do you have a color wheel handy?
Print one up and post it next to your station where you can see it.

I do have a colour wheel (basic one) that I really don't use enough.

Any thoughts on my frustration with skin painting?

 

[Teronus]

Ask BAM for skin, all these paint techs can answer better than me for you to understand. But use the wheel all the time will be a good start, I am always in there before I do anything and always during. Go in my thread and look at the way I shade my metals for example. look in all the threads there's bunk and bunch of talented ppl, you'll find your niche easely and in few months promise you will become a better painter better then in your wildest dreams.

do you have a wet pallet?

 

[ArchArad]

do you have a wet pallet?

Just put one together for this current project.

 

[Teronus]

Good, now use it all the time, you can cover it and keep your paint fresh, take breaks come back later

 

[Zab]

Aargh! I'm getting quite frustrated with myself. The colours for the She Warrior skin are just not working out as I'd like them to. It's taking forever to build up the mid-tones and I'm not sure if it's because 1) my colour steps are too close to each other, or 2) my paints are too thinned (about 1:10 with water with a drop of flow improver). I'm getting the paint on and using a second brush to move and blend it.

I also want to give her auburn hair so I'm worried that I've made the wrong choice going with a yellow toned skin colour. Maybe I should have gone with a bluer undertone.

Any advice would be very appreciated. Re-basecoating her and starting from scratch should happen now rather than later while she still has relatively little paint on her.

Please help! ray:

I think your thinning ratio is a bit high. Unless you where going in the opposite direction, light to dark with the glazes or using an airbrush. It's a bit early after the basecoat to glaze. You want to rough in your highlights and mid tones and then use glazes to smooth the transitions.

There are a few alternate techniques you could try, but they are pretty tricky and can make a bad situation worse. On a figure that big, bigger brushes can help with a wet on wet technique, but that is pretty advanced and requires a fair amount of retarder to keep the paint workable on the surface. Another approach would be to use pigments which can be blended wet or dry and sealed once you are happy, again more advanced than you make like right now.

I hope that helps a bit

 

[MAXXxxx]

I think your thinning ratio is a bit high.

1:10 is too high. 1:4 or 1:5 is more than enough. What important is is to have thinly applied glazes, not overthinned ones.

On a figure that big, bigger brushes can help with a wet on wet technique, but that is pretty advanced and requires a fair amount of retarder to keep the paint workable on the surface.

I agree that a big brush helps as is wet-in-wet. But it's not an advanced tech. In jarhead's workshop people used it who have painted 1 or 2 minis so far with excellent results. What's hard is finding someone to show it once.
So far the only 'online' resource I know of for it is JBT's second DVD (paintingbuddha's Ben uses a wet-in-wet that's quite different).
(for the lioness bust I have in my gallery I used Jarhead's fast version, the whole bust was painted in 2 or 3 hours with the wet-in-wet part being about 5-10 minutes at most.)

Another approach would be to use pigments which can be blended wet or dry and sealed once you are happy, again more advanced than you make like right now.

yep a wonderful way of working with pigments. so easy. I shaded/highlighted the astronaut's helmet in my wip with pigments only. No glazes or any water
(similar with the skin of the naked anime figure (the first where I used dry pigments for shading))
And again I disagree with the difficulty. it's super easy tech not really advanced imho.

----------------------------------------

I also want to give her auburn hair so I'm worried that I've made the wrong choice going with a yellow toned skin colour. Maybe I should have gone with a bluer undertone.

don't worry about that. you can always adjust the tones with glazes. And right now you are still missing a LOT of contrast. By using some cooler colors(even unlikely ones as spacewolfgrey (light grey with blueish tint) in the highlights you can change it.

As for the pic: I wouldn't strip the paint. you made yourself a lot of work with the dilution, but so far it looks good. what you need is more contrast like:
- extra shades with blue or purple mixed in the color
- extra highlights above the mouth, cheekbones, forehead, busts with ivory or even pale blue mixed in.

I don't think this blogentry will help as it's not in english, but: http://ma5xfestesek.blogspot.ie/2014/07/noi-arc-festese.html (at least the palette used for the face and some steps are visible)

 

[ArchArad]

Thanks for your responses. Zab and MaXXxxx - I'll definitely be trying to work with "thicker" layers from now on.

I appreciate you sharing your experience and knowledge with me.

 

[Aingeleag]

Hi there! I'm a newbie random hobby painter so I don't have much advice lol But I wanted to drop by and tell you that bust is gonna look amazing. I love the blending you've got going with the skin tone! Can't wait to see updates!

 

[ArchArad]

Hi there! I'm a newbie random hobby painter so I don't have much advice lol But I wanted to drop by and tell you that bust is gonna look amazing. I love the blending you've got going with the skin tone! Can't wait to see updates!

Hi Aingeleag - welcome to my little slice of painting insanity. Good to have you on board. Are you a newbie to the hobby in general or just to CMON?

 

[BloodASmedium]

OOk everything looks good tech the thing about layering (many thinned layers of paint-IN SMALL INCREMENTS-TAKE A LONG TIME ..BUT THATS THE NATURE OF LAYERING WEATHER BASE CO AT OR MIDTONE OR ETC it takes a bunch of layers with small additions of shades /highlights.now you can try using a thicker paint consistency but that is used more in my honest opinion for blending -where the paint is feathered in at the edge to the color beneath.I want you to take a look at something go read 2 articles.your homework if you will 1) on refers website "the craft"-the art of thinning paint.on here jen haley and ann forester will tell you what you need to get the perfect ratio consistency for what including basecolors,shades,highlights etc.
Your second article is highlight placement and this is on the -OZ painters-website and it's the basis of miniature painting called-THE STEP SIGN RULE-.READING THE SE SMALL ARRIVES AND YOU'LL BE ARMED WITH A WHOLE NEW UNDERSTANDING..IF IT WAS UP TO ME AND I WAS LAYERING IDE RATHER IT THE VERY THING ED CAN SISTER Y AS YOUR ALREADY USE TO IT AND YOU CANT GO WRONG,TOO THIN=AND MORE LAYERS-TOO THICK,CANT TAKE AWAY.pm me on any other questions well address them together shelagh ,I'll get you better if it kills me.

 

[BloodASmedium]

Anot her tip I can give you once you start using your color wheel enough you won't need recipes anymore.can't remeber the last recipe I used.but you shade models with cool complimentary colors -so reds are shaded with blu greens ,or purples ,and you highlight warm analogous coloes.complimentary colors are colors opposite the color wheel and analogous colors are those next to your target color in the wheel.

 

[ArchArad]

pm me on any other questions well address them together shelagh ,I'll get you better if it kills me.

Hopefully it won't come to that BloodASmedium! The rest of CMON would never forgive me!

But I do appreciate your enthusiasm and encouragement and I'll be doing my homework!

In fact to all of you great people - thank you for taking this geek girl newbie painter under your wing. It really is so amazing to have such talented people taking an interest and offering support....and a good chuckle on occasion as a bonus.

 

[ArchArad]

Online Colour Scheme Designer/Colour Wheel (free!)

While doing my homework from BloodASmedium I stumbled across this little tool which looks like it could be quite useful and fun: Colour Scheme Designer

I haven't played much with it yet, but you can pick colours as complementary, triads etc. Thought I'd share it in case someone can benefit from it.

Happy painting! :brushwave:
Shelagh

 

[BloodASmedium]

I use it itsgreat...this is how you progress shelagh,by coming across these tools and how many models and I fo pass through your hands...your gonna start seeing big imorovemen5s.the eyes look great btw.

 

[ArchArad]

I use it itsgreat...this is how you progress shelagh,by coming across these tools and how many models and I fo pass through your hands...your gonna start seeing big imorovemen5s.the eyes look great btw.

Thanks BloodASmedium. :highfive:

 

[Zab]

Maxxx is right. They're not that hard, but talking about them is very different than seeing them done live. They're not an easy skill to learn by trial and error is what i meant to say not that they are too advanced to learn. Poor wording on my part

 

[ArchArad]

Maxxx is right. They're not that hard, but talking about them is very different than seeing them done live. They're not an easy skill to learn by trial and error is what i meant to say not that they are too advanced to learn. Poor wording on my part

I got what you were trying to say Zab. The basics of a lot of the techniques are relatively simple - it's just that they can often take a lot of trial and error to apply and get right.

 

[Aingeleag]

Thanks for the welcome! I've painted stuff on and off for a few years now just for amusement, but I just joined up on here to see what delightful things people are doing and listen for any good advice I'd heard of CMON but didn't quite understand what all it was lol

 

[ArchArad]

Thanks for the welcome! I've painted stuff on and off for a few years now just for amusement, but I just joined up on here to see what delightful things people are doing and listen for any good advice I'd heard of CMON but didn't quite understand what all it was lol

Well, I hope that you'll enjoy what you find. Feel free to throw in an opinion or thought. I'm really always happy to hear what people think or know that I may not.

 

[ArchArad]

Light bulb Moment!

I've had a painting epiphany. To be fair, it's one I've had before. But apparently I'm a slow learner.

I paint best when I adapt new information and advice into my own style. I know this sounds really obvious, but allow me to expand on the thought. I believe that each painter has their own painting personality/style regardless of skill level. I'm referring to the way they paint rather than any signature colours or techniques that they use. My problem comes in when I read great tutorials and advice and then try to change the way I paint to use the new knowledge. I've got it ass backwards - it always works better when I find a way of incorporating the new information into my existing style. And I'm usually a much happier and relaxed patienter when I do.

So that's my light bulb moment for the day. I'm a relatively loose painter who enjoys experimenting with colour and techniques, so that's how I'm going to paint.

What's your particular style?