Am I so disillusioned?

[Rodnik]

I realize I\'ve been bitchin\' a bunch lately....and I\'ve pretty much decided to just give it up....

That aside...
Am I so disillusioned by my own skill that I have absolutely no idea where my work should score? I tend to think I\'m my own worst critic....but I think I was wrong...

Would you guys take a look at this and let me know what you think? I don\'t care if you vote or not, I\'m more curious of the merit of the mini. Apparently, I can\'t seem to guage my own work.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/70011

 

[No Such Agency]

He looks pretty good, I think the current score of 7.5 is justified. The photo washes out his face a bit, and your NMM could use a little more contrast but overall a very good mini.

What do you think a fair score would be? Keep in mind the photo issue I mentioned, which could easily knock 0.5-1 points off. We are too close to our own work, of course, which makes us very poor judges of its quality. Either we become ultra self-critical or we think we\'re goatman the moment we learn to drybrush

 

[Ritual]

Voted and commented...

There\'s nothing wrong with your skill. There are, however, more painters with the same skill here on CMON than a few years ago and the standards are constantly rising. See my comment for a few suggestions and don\'t bother too much about the scores.

*edit* One thing just occured to me. I think it\'s a good idea to include several views of the mini in the picture. That way people can better judge the quality of your work.
-Anders

 

[tidoco2222]

You are worrying to much

Your mini is very good and your score aint bad either, forget the score and look at your miniwith confidence as you definately have a lot of skill.
To become disillusioned is easy but you should never give something up just because of what others may or may not think.
The analogy is if you like it then that is all that counts if others like it then that is a bonus, if some don\'t like it well who cares.
Oh voted and commented by the way.

 

[Micha]

Well, that´s certainly a nice mini, but the score seems justified to me, this is between seven and eight, i think the skin could have used a bit more darkness it seems a bit flat for my taste. I also think the paintjob seems to lack some definition, it looks fuzzy if you know what I mean, I assume it´s the photo as the NMM and details loook very nice. Be proud of it!

 

[Rodnik]

Ritual...
Here is the multiple view picture

http://www.coolminiornot.com/70010

and my current gallery, if you feel like lookin\'

http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse/submitter/Rodnik


As far as what I think it should score....well, frankly, I feel like I don\'t know.

I just peruse the other figures on the site and try to get an objective point from where folks are scoring on similar paint. Most everything I found was in the mid eights---not the low sevens.
My main concern is in the fact that I\'m trying to take my work to the \"next level\", and apparently I\'m a bit off-base in the direction I\'m working.

 

[ZaPhOd]

No dude, it is as good or better. You just need more \"buddies\"

 

[borg]

I think the score is pretty accurate with that piece. A little on the low side, I would vote 8 on it. However, 17 votes is not really a good number. I would wait till more votes come in.

And Zaphod, don\'t you even start lol go give your buddy a 10 or something

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by Rodnik
Ritual...
Here is the multiple view picture

http://www.coolminiornot.com/70010

and my current gallery, if you feel like lookin\'

http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse/submitter/Rodnik

I browsed through your gallery and I think you\'re very skilled! I wouldn\'t bother too much about points if I were you, since you\'re obviously a better painter than most. The best mini, IMO, is Pilzenbehr, where your NMM is stunning. Compared to that, your NMM on your most recent mini looks a bit flat.

It\'s hard to raise one\'s level of painting once you\'re this good, but I guess it will happen sooner or later as you try new things and new techniques.

 

[ZaPhOd]

Originally posted by borg
I think the score is pretty accurate with that piece. A little on the low side, I would vote 8 on it. However, 17 votes is not really a good number. I would wait till more votes come in.

And Zaphod, don\'t you even start lol go give your buddy a 10 or something

Haha! Yeah I was only kidding. I agree an 8. 8.2 maybe....

 

[E-Arkham]

For starters, your picture has some obvious artifacts due to jpg compression. If this isn\'t due to CoolMini compressing it, then you can address this by tweaking the compression rate. On PaintShopPro (what I use), it\'s located in the \"Options\" whenever you use \"Save As\". I think I have mine set to 5-7% or so, which helps keep the size down slightly but not so bad as to generate obvious artifacts.

Also on the picture, you have a large blue space at the top. Get rid of that and fill the space up with a larger image of the figure. The picture is ever so slightly blurry, so you want to correct that.

The figure itself has very good technique. Sadly, good technique and blending on its own doesn\'t seem to do much score-wise here no CoolMini. You have to have a bit of \"flash\" as well. In this miniature\'s case, a tattoo on an exposed arm, subtle designs on the belts, sharper shadows on the sword\'s grip and bow wraps, or a pattern on his pants. Once you reach a plateau with technique, you have to add some artifical visual interest to reach the next one.

Only real nit I could find was the blue arrowheads. They seem a bit dull compared to the rest of the figure. Maybe some stripes on the flights.

It\'s a good figure, though. Don\'t let the rating worry you. It\'s definitely a bit on the low side IMO.

Kep

 

[supervike]

cool stuff...

I guess I\'d never seen your gallery before Rodnick...that\'ll give me something to look at for a while...lol

 

[Rodnik]

Thanks for the input guys. I guess some of the reference models I\'ve been looking at have extremely inflated scores. I felt like he would fall in the 8.5--8.7 range---but then, like everyone knows, it\'s hard to judge your own work.

All this aside, In your guys\' and gals\' opinions, what makes a model a model a 9+?

edit--
Thanks E-Arkham. I saw the artifact when I posted it. Pic looked fine in Photoshop...but fuzzed on the post. I had no idea how to fix it. I\'ll take that advice away with me. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Legacy Account]

Better photos! That would bump the score on this one imediately. I would like to see close-ups and less compression. People can only judge what they see before them and a photo can tell a thousand lies

As to what makes a 9 plus mini? Your mini has to be technically superb AND stand out from the crowd I reckon. There are GD winners on here that haven\'t scored nines. I wouldn\'t worry about it!

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by Rodnik
All this aside, In your guys\' and gals\' opinions, what makes a model a model a 9+?

The most obvious things are probably scratchbuilt minis, advanced conversions with scratchbuilt parts, intricate and sharp freehand. Otherwise I guess it\'s a matter of out-of-the-ordinary stuff. I did an emperor\'s champ completely in NMM once, that made 9+. But it\'s hard to say for sure what makes a mini break 9.

 

[Rodnik]

As to what makes a 9 plus mini? Your mini has to be technically superb AND stand out from the crowd I reckon. There are GD winners on here that haven\'t scored nines. I wouldn\'t worry about it!

I didn\'t mean to give the impression that I was \"worried\" about it. I\'m just more interested in what folks like to see in a well-done figure.
I know that one of my shortcomings is the lack of freehand---and I\'ve been working on that just recently. I\'m relatively new to the hobby, and am really at a loss as to what is \"pleasant\" to the viewer. The question about the 9+ was more of a general question---just a friendly brainstorm to get ideas as to what skills I might could work on.

To qualify this a bit....I started painting about 12 or 13 months ago. For all intents and purposes, that was the first time I picked up a brush. It\'s my intention to try and compete at the GD level within the next year----and I\'m just lookin\' for insight, I guess---as I\'ve spent the majority of my studio time just learning how to put smooth paint on a figure--and not much of anything else.
Kev

 

[Ritual]

Wow! That\'s a pretty quick rise in level you\'ve made there!

However, I wouldn\'t worry too much about pleasing the crowd. Also, the \"crowd\" here is not the GD judges. As Spacemunkie said, there are GD winners who don\'t score 9+ here and there are GD entries who didn\'t get an award that score higher than those who did. I always paint for fun and do the things I like to paint and that I think looks good on a particular mini. Sometimes it pays off with a high score and sometimes not. As long as I had fun painting it and I like the result, I\'m happy.

-Anders

 

[Dragonsreach]

I\'ve taken this image and done a couple of things that I think might help.
I\'ve cropped the picture so that there\'s less blue background and made the figure dominate more.
I\'ve also enhanced the face and skintone shadows a little so that there\'s more of a tonal range showing.

But this is just my opinion.

 

[Rodnik]

Thanks DR. I\'ve got a pro photo studio, with absolutely no idea how to use it. It\'s really sad.
I plan on messing with it tonight, based on some of your guys\' input. I\'ll work on gettin\' closer photos, reducing the compression impact, doin\' away with the \"white space\"....and generally tinkering with it. I haven\'t tweaked the figure with software much at all in terms of color/contrast---and my photos do lose something in the translation.
I definately appreciate the advice (and other that may be offered), and I\'ll put it to good use very shortly.
Thanks,
Kev

 

[ipaintminis]

id vote the mini DR posted a very high eight, but the one you posted to me was more of a low eight

its all in the pictures baby! :flip:lollollol