Bailey03's WIP

[ten ball]

This is real quality mate, really impressive light placement. You haven't gone over the top with the highlights (eg in places like on the sword blade) which would of been a real temptation for me if I was painting it. The subtle painting of the highlights works much better. The glint in his eye is knockout also

 

[KruleBear]

Absolutely beautiful. I do not even think he needs a fancy base. A nice black plinth would let him shine.

 

[Zab]

Damn. That is really really convincing OSL.

 

[Demihuman]

Yeah very very convincing! You got the temperature of the reflections to match the light perfectly! Masterful painting!

I bet you could have fun with a little forest scene. Some silvery moonlit bushes and trees with stark black shadows...

 

[Kretcher]

Really nice work, will save some pictures to have as a reference when I try out OSL for the first time. really nice work so far.

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks, Canny, ten, Krule, Zab, Demi, and Kretcher! For whatever reason now was the right time for an OSL project. I'm sure if I'd tried this a year ago it would have been a train wreck.

Demi, a forest scene was my original plan for the base. I really liked the idea of placing some tree trucks and then painting long shadows away from the lamplight. I get the feeling he'd benefit from a solid dark backdrop though. I can think of a couple ways to do that with a forest scene... I just don't want the base to become too large.

Canny, I hadn't thought about doing a town scene but that's another interesting idea. Creeping through some dark alleyway at night, lots of possibilities. The Figone scenery that Zab pointed out also got me thinking about doing a Moria themed base. I might start on a couple different bases and see which one I like the best, then just finish building that one.

 

[KruleBear]

Or sneeking through a garden to liberate some treats from the neighbor .

 

[Bailey03]

He might be a little over equipped to be stealing pies from windowsills. :smile:

So I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing with the rest of the figure. I thought I'd paint everything else in shades of blue-black to give something like a moonlit feel. I wanted enough contrast to give definition to the shapes but not let the highlights get so bright as to interfere with the OSL lamplight. It seems alright from the front and sides, but from the back I feel like it needs brighter highlights. What do you all think? Should I push the highlights further or just clean up what's there and leave the highlight level alone? I did a blue NMM with the opposite side of the dagger. I could do the same with the rest of the metal on his back (the pans, the buckle, and the lining on the mug) but without upping the rest of the highlights that might stand out too much. I'm still making up my mind so any suggestions are welcome.

View attachment 29247 View attachment 29248 View attachment 29249 View attachment 29250

 

[KruleBear]

The blue is perfect on the backside of the blade.My mind says the pot is cast iron, so keep it dark. The ladel could be anything even colored enamel ordarker shades of the blue nmm.

 

[Sproket]

Bailey, the paint job your doing on this mini is freaking awesome! I'll be following this one closely!

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Bailey, I think it was very courageous of you to keep the back side bathed in that level of darkness. While it is not too dark on a realism level, I think some contrast is required on this scale and for the type of miniature that it is. I'd start by HLing some areas on the left side, because I think that light source could reasonably be assumed to increase the color on that back left side. Otherwise, stick to edge HLing the metal areas where appropriate, and for other materials just the slightest glaze of color in areas. So where you'd normally glaze an area up with ten or twenty layers, just do 2-3 barely perceptible layers of color in places. Make the viewer unsure if he even sees the color. My thoughts anyway.

 

[Milosh]

you are in a quandary, but I agree with BFK about hinting at the color. The front is so freaking good that you don't want to take away it's awesomeness by not getting the back right.

 

[Gandalf the Grey]

Playing devils advocate here, how about defining the rear with some subtle colours change ?
im thinking a hint of colour here and there, literally only a hint. Like a dark brown on the rucksack, a different shade on the keg and the merest suggestion of some NMM on the spoon and so on ?
my thoughts on this is that if your looking at moonlight, then at least something would be picked out by a full moon.

 

[Alexandra]

Awesome work!! I can help looking at it and thinking of a illustration made in 3D, if you get my meaning. Very rich color and love the dark side as well.

 

[AndyG]

Wow!! That's just amazing! Hmm I think your right if your going for the moonlight feel then I would definitely go with cool glaze colours on the back. It should also help contrast with the warmth of the osl from the lantern. Yet again wow!

 

[Khonner]

Crazy good.

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks for the feedback and ideas, everyone. It's really nice to hear how well received this project has been. When I started I figured there was a pretty good chance this would be a complete mess, destined to be stripped and put back on the shelf for a few more years. So I'm really surprised that he's turned into something I can be proud of!

I started to rework his back last night. Nothing to show yet. I'm switching over to the colors I used on the 'dark' side of the dagger, though definitely not going as bright. I also gave the dagger a couple dark glazes so the dark side isn't nearly so bright. My reasoning behind a more monochromatic back was you need at least a certain level of highlights to get the necessary contrast, as a result it's never going to be as dark as I want it. Instead my hope was taking away the color and not the highlights would give me that nighttime feel while keeping the back at least somewhat interesting to look at.

All that being said, you guys bring up some interesting points. BFK, as you suggested I think I will let the light creep around on his left a little more. Strictly speaking the edge of the cape should block the light from hitting anything else, but I've been flexible with that rule on his front so why not here? Looking at him from the left I think it might be better to have a little bit of light hitting the satchel on his back, some of the folds in the cape, etc.

I'm going to hold off on the subtle color glazes for his back, at least for right now. I want to make the fixes I think it really needs and then see how everything looks before deviating too far from my original idea. I'll be taking him with me to the SCAHMS meeting this weekend so I'll be curious to get their take on him as well.

 

[Milosh]

spoken like a true engineer.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I think that is certainly the way to go about it. Proceed with caution, just doing the minimum and then reflecting. Let me reiterate that it is indeed brave of you to keep it do dark. Most of us are so conditioned to the way we treat light that it would tempt us to take things too far. Looking at the figure again, I see now what you mean by the "colorless highlight." I think you may be setting a technical standard for painting in full shadow. If any color is used, though, I'd suggest that you use the tone that would be used for the next to darkest shadow in normal conditions as a highlight. Hope this sentence makes sense. So for instance purple with a lot of black added might be used as a highlight here instead of a shadow. But as you say, even this may be too much and a minimalist approach is appropriate.

Agree with what what you are doing to the shaded part of the blade. It struck me as too luminescent, but looked nonetheless too good for me to suggest a change. A darker glaze, perhaps more purple (?) may do the trick. BTW your NMM is as flawless as your TMM.

This is gentleman has a WIP here on CMON where he paints night shades. Maybe it will help you with your decisions. The artist has other WIP threads of the same theme too.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/showthread.php?56940-Malifaux-midight-theme&highlight=Malifaux

 

[Bailey03]

spoken like a true engineer.

Yeah, sometimes it just slips out like that. :tongue:

Thanks for the link, BFK. I like what James is doing, though I want to go even more extreme.

I redid the back of the figure, this time using the same mix as the dark side of the dagger (though not going as bright). Even so the highlights did go a little too far, so I used some dark glazes to knock them back down. I did the same with the dagger as the dark side used to be about as bright as the light side.

View attachment 29294 View attachment 29295 View attachment 29296

And for the back here's what I've got...
View attachment 29297 View attachment 29298 View attachment 29299

I'm still tweaking, got some blends to fix and will probably restore a couple of the highlights, but I kind of like it without any other colors. Sort of like that day for night filming where they'd use a blue filter to simulate a nighttime shot. Oh, and keep in mind it's unlikely you'll get a clear view of this figure from the back once he's on the base. He's going to need to have some sort of solid dark backdrop to help maintain the OSL illusion. Take him to a show or put him on a shelf where he's got something bright behind him and it disrupts the whole effect.

What do you all think? Has this new version changed anyone's mind or do you still think he'd like better with some subtle colors on the back?