Bailey03's WIP

[ArchArad]

He's a fabulous little fellow! I love models with character - I find them so much easier to paint because I get a feel for their "story".

And Bailey - to be perfectly honest, I am SO glad to hear that someone of your experience and skill still looks at something they're working on and sometimes thinks "oh hell no".

 

[Bailey03]

Ha, well I think a lot of us feel that way about our own stuff at some point. You just learn to not freak out and trust yourself to make it work in the end. That's part of posting WIP online... putting up the disclaimer that it's not done so please don't judge me! Have you seen my face step by steps? The figures goes from looking bad, to hideous, to okay but dull, to decent, and then finally to something I'm happy with. This guy just hovered in that dull state for a while and I started to get worried.

 

[fluisterwoud]

Thanks for the info Bailey. I guess it was the language that was throwing me for a loop. I never saw categories organized like that, and I'm assuming the competitors are called "exhibitors"? Usually exhibitors at cons are companies/people showing off new product but that's the only thing I can see could make sense.

 

[ArchArad]

Have you seen my face step by steps? The figures goes from looking bad, to hideous, to okay but dull, to decent, and then finally to something I'm happy with.

I haven't seen your step-by-steps Bailey - where would I stumble across such interesting information?

 

[Bailey03]

Yeah, shows like MMSI (and MFCA in Philly, NCMSS in DC, SCAHMS in LA, LIHMCS in NY, etc) treat themselves more like art shows than straight competitions. So that's why they call the entrants exhibitors instead of competitors. The judging is on the open system, so you are competing against a standard rather than directly against your fellow painters. If the judges feel 10 pieces meet the gold standard, then they had out 10 gold medals. And so on for silver, bronze, and certificates.

When they're only one gold per category, it makes more sense to have a lot of different categories (like Crystal Brush with their 14 categories or all the ones at Golden Demon). But here there's no need so you get just a handful of categories and they tend to be very broad (any scale, any time period, etc).

ArchArad, well a lot of informal ones are sprinkled throughout this WIP thread. However, you can find more polished versions over on my painting blog
http://powellminipainting.blogspot.com/p/tutorials.html

 

[ArchArad]

Thanks - I've explored some of your blog, but clearly missed that!

 

[Digganob]

Yeah your pirate dwarf is gonna look awesome.

 

[Bailey03]

Okay, very minor update. I toned down the shadows on the lines next to his left eye. Thanks for the tips!
View attachment 42471View attachment 42472

 

[Ritual]

Yeah, shows like MMSI (and MFCA in Philly, NCMSS in DC, SCAHMS in LA, LIHMCS in NY, etc) treat themselves more like art shows than straight competitions. So that's why they call the entrants exhibitors instead of competitors. The judging is on the open system, so you are competing against a standard rather than directly against your fellow painters. If the judges feel 10 pieces meet the gold standard, then they had out 10 gold medals. And so on for silver, bronze, and certificates.

Also, in the open system, you enter a display of models instead of separate entries for each individual model. If one of the models in your display are better, in the eye of the judges, then the rest they will only judge you on that one. But, if the quality of your display is consistent they will judge the entire display. You only get one medal, regardless of how many miniatures your display consists of. Of, course, if you enter displays in several categories you may get several medals.

Oh, and great looking stuff, Bailey! The samurai looks very promising so far.

 

[KruleBear]

I don't know kind of. Choppy transition on the chin going to the shadow....at 10,000 X magnification! issed-off: Lol. Seriously looks good and I like the purples you are working in.

And that pirate is an awsome mini...i am expecting awesomeness on the level of your hobbit display with him!!

 

[Scherdy]

Bailey you gotta stop it. Your colors always work so well together. Do you plan it all out ahead or start from a couple and then add to it as you go and see what is working?

The texture on the lip is so good. Do you do any stippling or tiny dots for your transitions in other parts?

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks, Ritual, Krule, and Scherdy.

Scherdy, are you talking about the colors for the different sections or the colors mixed together for highlights, midtone, and shadow? In terms of the general section colors, I try to go in with a general idea of what I want to do, but I give myself some freedom to make changes as I go. Often I'll know what I want to do with major sections, but then smaller details are figured out once I see how things look next to each other. In this case I knew I needed three main colors (one for his armor, one for the majority of his robe, and a final one for the left sleeve), so I went with a triadic color scheme... basically three colors equally spaced around the color wheel. Red-blue-yellow would have been another option, but I'm going with purple-orange-green. I also considered using a split complimentary color scheme (think of that like drawing a Y on the color wheel), but wasn't as happy with those combinations.

Regarding the colors for highlights/shadows... if it's something I haven't done before, I'll test out different mixes on my palette before going to the figure. I've been trying to bring more consistency into my figures by reusing colors, so in this case the Burgundy Wine paint is the darkest shadow for the purple, the orange, and will get used in the green too. There was just a hint of it in the skin shadow as well, but not too much. Similarly, Linen White was my highlight for the orange and the skin, it will possibly be worked into the green highlight too.

Yeah, I'll use stippling for transitions when I need it. It's not my primary method (though it's nice for textures like leather), but it can be helpful in breaking up the borders between different shades. So if I can still see a line between one color and the next, I can go in a stipple around it to break it up and help disguise the transition. It doesn't work in all cases, but if the transition is subtle it can help make it even harder to see.

 

[Arkhareon]

Northumbrian is amazing. Great job. Start of samurai looks great, we watch ...

 

[me_in_japan]

Hi Bailey - well, the samurai is looking awesome already. How you get those skin tones I'll never know. That said, reading your blog looks like it'll point me in the right direction

Oh, and for what it's worth, imho the toned down shadows are an improvement. Keep up the good work

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks, Arkhareon and me_in_japan! I really appreciate the background info you sent me, me_in_japan. I'm still unsure what I'll do with the design, but it's definitely helpful.

So this is a bit of a digression, but since I don't have any updates on the samurai I might at least share something! I was thinking about how I approach painting eyes. For larger figures (75mm, 90mm, and busts) I try to put more detail in the eyes. Since they're larger than 28 or 54mm ones, I've at least got a fighting chance. If you are attempting to actually paint the iris, give some thought to the color. For the samurai I obviously had to go with brown eyes but for a different ethnicity you may have a choice. When I have the option, I prefer to go with a lighter color like blue or green. The reason is that the brown tends to blend into the black pupil and from most distances you'll have no idea the iris was even painted. Here's an enlarged picture of the eye from the image a few posts ago. You can see that the iris is indeed painted, but it really doesn't stand out.
View attachment 42586View attachment 42587

Meanwhile, next to it is the eye from the Roman I started on a while ago. It's the same scale, but the iris stands out much more. Here's a look at the whole head. Notice you can still clearly make out the iris color while it was very difficult on the previous samurai images.
View attachment 42588

Of course you can use this to your advantage either way. If you want the iris to show up, pick a light color. If you're less confident in your abilities (or the scale is smaller) and you'd prefer the isis and pupil to blend together to hide mistakes... then go for brown. :smile:

 

[Teronus]

Hi Bailey thanks for the info, I never painter a 45 and above scales miniature, always 28 or 30 mm but I will remember this when I will get to it in the future. What if you put a bit of green in the brown iris, will that help make it stand a bit more without of course make the iris look to green?



A bit like this



View attachment 42591

 

[Bailey03]

Teronus, yeah, you can lighten up the brown but at a certain point it ceases to be brown and instead if green or yellow or whatever.

Today was our local clubs workshop day. We had a great showing and it was really fun hanging out and talking with all the other painters. I ran a hands on demo for painting faces. It was a chance to practice and work on some ideas for the Adepticon seminar. I brought a bunch of 54mm (1/35 scale) heads for people to work on. As part of the demo I did this one. Normally I'd take a lot more time, but I don't think this is too bad for maybe an hours worth of painting, probably less when I count the time spent talking and passing it around.
View attachment 42637
We covered the basics of highlight and shadow placement, strong vs soft shadows and highlights, expression, color choices, and glazing.

 

[Dragonsreach]

He's a fun little guy with a lot of character. It's a limited edition run, only 4 left on the M Proyec website as of this posting. He's somewhere between 28mm scale and 54mm (roughly 40-45mm to the eyes), so I should be able to enter him into the fantasy single category at Crystal Brush. I cleaned up most of the mold lines and then gave him a little more weathering (few extra chips in his hat, added the holes there too), used the Etch Masters fantasy sheet to add the hammer to his pistol, and drilled out the barrel.
View attachment 42462
I don't expect I'll start painting this guy too soon, but if I get stuck on the samurai it will be nice to have something else to work on.

DAMNIT DAVID!
I told my wife I wasn't going to buy anymore figures for a while!

 

[MAXXxxx]

Teronus, yeah, you can lighten up the brown but at a certain point it ceases to be brown and instead if green or yellow or whatever.

yep, certainly true. That's why I like painting fantasy busts more. There it's not a problem if the eye is red/yellow/brownishyellow. It stands out like the blue/green but from a distance is a bit brownish.

but I don't think this is too bad for maybe an hours worth of painting, probably less when I count the time spent talking and passing it around.

I think it looks great even for a face painted in a longer time. For about 1 hour absolutely super.

Btw do you still/always paint faces like in military-modellers / how in your blog is? That is roughtly blocking in highlights / shadows then refine with intermediaries + glazes ?

 

[KruleBear]

I told my wife I wasn't going to buy anymore figures for a while!

I am disappointed DR. I would think a man of your experience would not have made the mistake of making that promise...

Bailey...i am going to need to take your face class at Adepticon. That look great.