Critique my painting please!

[flamingdog]

I\'ve been bored recently so I picked up a box of five Space Marines and a basic GW paint set, having been curious about miniatures painting for a year or so now. I\'d expected to end up with a pile of crap at the end of it, but I was pleasantly surprised.

I\'m not really interested in gaming with miniatures, so I really want to be the absolute best painter I can be, and the standard set on CMON is what I\'m aspiring to, so I\'m hoping you guys can give me some pointers.

Here are the links to my pics, in the order I painted them:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/164036

http://www.coolminiornot.com/164038

http://www.coolminiornot.com/164037

http://www.coolminiornot.com/164039

http://www.coolminiornot.com/164040

Thanks for looking.

 

[Bill]

Nice work! I think you\'ve got off to a really good start in painting. The colours are great and everything is neat, and the bases are very nice too - solid tabletop quality. I think all you need to work on is paint thickness. Water your paint down and do lots of layers, and your minis will look a lot better. Then you can start to use smoother highlights, and expand on techniques such as freehand... I\'m sure with the help of the site and a little practice you\'ll become great in no time!

 

[flamingdog]

Originally posted by Bill
Nice work! I think you\'ve got off to a really good start in painting. The colours are great and everything is neat, and the bases are very nice too - solid tabletop quality. I think all you need to work on is paint thickness. Water your paint down and do lots of layers, and your minis will look a lot better. Then you can start to use smoother highlights, and expand on techniques such as freehand... I\'m sure with the help of the site and a little practice you\'ll become great in no time!

Thanks mate. I did water down for these, I guess I need to thin them even more?

 

[darkartminiatures]

What Bill said. I can see from these that you will improve loads in no time. Everything seams to be in the right place and red isn\'t the easiest of colours to paint. Take a little more care on the cleaning though. Mould lines can destroy a mini.

Happy painting

 

[Avelorn]

My advice would be read lots of articles (start with those here) and when you find something you like you ask the artist how they did it. Becoming better is about motivation more then anything else.. so be sure that the place you paint are the most comfortable spot in the room!

Your work so far is nice! And for someone who hasn\'t painted very long (so I read in your text) They are a great start. Spacemarines are however not the best miniatures to try out newer and more advanced techniques imo as they have many curved flat surfaces that are difficult to paint. So pick a really nice miniature you like, start a wip thread in the forums and go from there! Another thing you can try is to pick a miniature you like and try to copy the artists techniques.. can be quite disheartening though so stay clear of 9.7\'s

Oh. And remember that most of us do things a little bit different from each other. There are several ways to blend colours for example. And setting the mood of a miniature, selecting colours etc. is really what sets us apart. So you might get a wide range of answers from articles to the same question.. just listen to them all and find what works best for you..

 

[matty1001]

One thing iv found useful for leaning highlighting was cloth. Painting cloaks etc... lots of folds so you can get deep shades and light highlights.

Avelorn mentoined colour choice, I have a tutorial on that on my site (shameless pimp ) so you can have a look if you wish (link is the banner on my sig), then email me with any questions.

 

[OrkyDave]

A great start, and there is improvement from mini 1 to mini 5!

Just echoing what the others said really, thin the paints a bit more as there is a texture to them in places. As tedious as it may be, the mould lines do need removing, especially when painting for display rather than gaming.

The highlights look a bit stark, and jump right out at you on the first 2, but they definatley do get smoother and more subtle by mini\'s 4 and 5.

Welcome to CMON and look forward to seeing more from you!

 

[airhead]

ok,

1. No punches pulled, don\'t get mad, I\'ll buy you a drink later....

2. Prep. Pay attention to mold lines. You did drill the barrels (+1 point there). Get an emery board from your mom/sister\'s/GF\'s set (don\'t let her have it back) and polish off the mold lines.

3. Brush control: Very good. No missed spots. No overpaint/splash.

4. Color selection: Red is not the easiest color to paint/shade/highlight. You\'ve done a good job here, great for a first time mini painter.

5. Shading/Highlighting: Your yellow/orange highlights should be on the tops of the armor, not down in the creases of the shoulder pads (unless you were trying to give it a pinstripe job?) You got it right on the helmate. A darker red (blood red/maroon) is needed to darken the shadows. Thin this a LOT, then thin it some more. Put it on the armor and watch it sink into the recesses and create shadows and depth.

6. Nit pics: The area under the shoulderpads should not be white/grey.. paint that a black first. It looks very unnatural showing there, especially since you can see it from the top view.

7. basing: Great, you did some. more bonus points. Most new painters are afraid of it and won\'t do anything more than paint the base.

8. Metalics: Here you are very weak. The gun looks like it is very old and has had all the blueing worn off. (and there is a mold line on the top of it.). More paints are required than black & grey to make it look right. If you go with metals, they need to be shaded and highlighted just like you did the armor - bright silver (mitheral) to metal to a black metal (gun metal?).

9. Thin your paints more. I know you think you did. GW paints generally (each painter had their own forumula) are thinned one for one. That is one part paint, one part thinner (water). Don\'t use your good brush to mix the paint with the thinner. Get a thing of toothpicks - cheap and disposable.

10. Overall. Not bad. Way above standard tabletop. Much better than some of my early minis.

11. Improvement: paint. Improvement comes with practice.
Read the articles here.
Use the WIP forums.
Find a painter you like the style of and ask for help. Most of the regular posters here will answer U2Us (if you can figure out how to send them)
Find a painter that is better than you and sit and paint with them. Either in regular sessions or at game conventions. That is by far the best way. Nothing beats actually watching a better painter work.

 

[flamingdog]

Originally posted by airhead
ok,

1. No punches pulled, don\'t get mad, I\'ll buy you a drink later....

No chance of me getting mad, I really appreciate the encouragement and opinions you\'re all giving me. I\'ve surfed CMON for a year or more, marvelling at the work you all do, so to get such positive feedback from you is an honour, and I will take all your advice to heart.

Many, many thanks for taking the time to critique, and please, keep it coming.