Aloha!

MPJ

MPJ

New member
Painted this Hula Dancer from Crunch-Waffle as my first attempt to break into the 8s. I didn\'t actually expect to make it and of course I didn\'t.

So, time for me to ask... What should I have done differently and/or better?

I\'ve gone some to overcoming many of the issues I had with my earlier posted minis (thanks to all the great suggestions in the past). Now I\'m hoping for more great comments so I can work towards the next hurdle.

Voty Thingie!
 
M

mrteal

New member
The mini is fine. Although I think for you to break into the 8\'s you need to work on the flesh. It looks really flat, perhaps it is the photo but the flesh needs more depth to it. It just is too pale. That I think should be what you should focus on next.
 
Wren

Wren

Member
Nice job on a delicately proportioned mini. And interesting tidbits about the grass skirt and lei colours!

For areas to improve, I\'d say overall level of contrast is something to look at, even if aiming for a natural paint job. This is something I\'m still struggling with, but taking the plunge on it is one factor that has helped my scores improve, I think. I think the trick is to keep the areas of extreme shadow/highlight pretty small. The level of shadowing on the skin looks pretty good, but I\'d experiment with bringing the highlights up several more levels, but in very tight areas - right under her eyes, where the bones of her bent elbows and knee are just under the skin, a few other spots. The hair definitely needs more highlighting, it doesn\'t have much \'shine\', and the texture is a little lost.

I like the base, and I think it fits the mini, but I think many voters expect a bit of display or story on a base to give higher votes. Even just a little touch like adding a starfish or shell or two. The problem with getting 8s is that you have to be doing stuff that at least some folks are willing to mark 9 or 10, so their votes counteract the 6s and 7s you\'ll get from very critical folks and those who vote anything that isn\'t their favourite manufacturer/faction/artist down.
 
MPJ

MPJ

New member
Great comments so far, this is the stuff I\'m talking about. :drunk:

I\'m going to describe how I did some of the various bits, hoping that those of you patient enough to read through might select areas that I could/should change.

Skin: Using Reaper Master Series I started with a basecoat of Golden Skin, 2 coats to give it a smooth colour overall. Shadowing was done with thinned down (roughly 8:1) Dark Highlight which was applied in about 4 layers, each slightly smaller than the last. Highlights were done with Golden Highlight in pretty much the say way the shadowing was done (only different areas obviously). After these were done I felt it looked a little to caucasian overall so I applied glaze of Reaper Pro Ink: Flesh Wash (basically brown). The cheeks and nose had a thin coat of Golden Flesh mixed with red applied to give them a rosier look.

Hair: Painted it black. Wanted it to look shiny so highlighted with a dark blue (Brieanne Blue I think) and black mix. One coat of highlight and already it looked to blue so I glazed some black ink to bring it down some (probablly to much).

Lai: These flowers were so small I took a quick and dirty approach here. Started with a greenish yellow, then highlighted up with two lighter yellows (don\'t remember which one). As a side note my research showd me that far and away the most common color for them is yellow and that they tend to be all yellow.

Skirt: VGC Caymen Green (I think) as a basecoat, then green ink wash, then scorpy green highlights painted on, then green ink glaze, then the same yellowish green used as a base for the lai, then green ink glaze.

I didn\'t really expect this to garner an 8+, mostly due to the skin which didn\'t quite turn out how I had initially envisioned though I am fairly pleased with it for my first serious attempt at that many layers. I see some painters\' flesh with very dramatic changes from highlight to shadow but such nice blending from one color to the next in such small areas, that\'s what I was trying to acheive.

Thanks, Michel
 
B

Beelzebrush

Active member
To be honest, I think the current score flatters this a bit. I would score it 6.0 - 6.5ish

It seems a bit rushed to me, the hair is very flat (photo?) The highlighting on the skirt needs to be more carefully considered... at the moment it almost looks drybrushed... you need to think about where your source of light is coming from - this applies to the flower garland too. Remember that whichever direction you choose your light to be coming from, you will need to shade and highlight accordingly and consistently.

To some extent, you\'ve done the light correctly on the skin but it\'s slightly inconsistent... for instance, there wouldn\'t be a dark band of shadow around the waist if the lighting is as suggested elsewhere.

The skintones aren\'t too bad but they seem a little chalky. Try thinning your paint using a drop of flow extender (a touch of soap will do if you don\'t have anything else).

The face is quite nice... but again, think about light... the forehead, bridge of the nose, tip of the chin and upper part of the cheekbones will all be lighter (upto pure white) as this is where the light will fall the most.

Not a bad paintjob, but a mile from being an 8 at the moment.
 
MPJ

MPJ

New member
Thanks everyone, espically Wren and Beelzebrush, for the top quality comments. It\'s stuff like this that really helps people raise their personal bar in painting.

@ Beelzebrush: The hair does indeed look flat, this is partly the photo and partly the ink wash I used to bring the highlights back down from the overly blue look I was getting. The skirt looks drybrushed because the final layer of highlight was indeed drybrushed (it\'s so darn hard to break old habits), I couldn\'t figure any other way to pick out the fine weave of grass in the belt line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back To Top
Top