Thanks a bunch for the comments everyone, they\'re much appreciated!
@airhead - I do use a high magnification Optivisor. I got bifocals this year, but they\'re pretty weak and I really wish I\'d asked for stronger correction.
I paint a bit thinner than some painters I\'ve seen, but from the descriptions I\'ve read my paint is definitely thicker than juices for most stuff. Most of my gray based NMM is done by glazing down the shadows with thin layers that is probably similar to juicing. (I will confess that I haven\'t taken the time to study this hot new technique enough yet!)
I do probably 3-5 mixes to go down in the shadows, going a few layers with each, and 4-7 on highlights, depending on the colour and so on. The pale green cloak on the one figure started light and had probably 8 or more mixes of shadows and only 3 or so highlights, but the shadow colour tended towards streaky.
After taking classes with Jeremie and studying his techniques over the past year or so I am starting to be able to work with much thicker paint than I have in the past and still get transitions I can be satisfied with, but I don\'t think I had the brush control to do that a few years ago.
@Hinton - I went back and played with custom white balance again. I had done that when I got the camera, but I had not gone back and done it after I changed what I do in Photoshop. I also bump up the exposure compensation a notch or two to brighten the images, my pictures were a little on the dark side and losing some details I think.
@funnymouth - finally got a ruler and the fig here together. He is intended to be standard RPG fig size (28, heroic, whatever we\'re calling it these days) I think. He comes in at about 34mm to the top of his head. He\'s sculpted by Tom Meier, who goes for something more proportional and realistic looking, so he might look a little thin next to very bulky figures of a similar height.
@Avelorn - Thanks for the tips! Contrast is really an on-going challenge for me, and colour\'s become a new one as I try to get a little more complex with it.
what scale is the second figure?
