Critique my submission (your opportunity to hammer me!)

[Tyrannus Libris]

Hey folks,

I have been painting for awhile and this is the first mini that I have posted to CMON in a long time. If any of you have a moment or three could you take a look and really give your honest opinion. I know it isn't the greatest but Im having a hard time justifying the current rating.


http://www.coolminiornot.com/345841


Thank you!

 

[TrystanGST]

My first bit of advice is to not put too much stock in the score. Scores are subjective, and can vary wildly by day or hour. There's also vote rigging, sniping, and other issues.

On to the mini -
It's got a nice base and good color choices. The white could use some smoother transitions, and the yellow could use a little more contrast. Yellow is a very tricky color to get to work, so points for picking it.
The left arm being way back like that seems a bit off, since there isn't as much of a sense of motion from the rest of the figure.

 

[Zab]

Hmm, the only hammer I'll hit you with is the contrast hammer. The rocks the yellow and the bone armour all seem really flat and washed out. They may not be, but next to the metals and tubing which have a very nice contrast to them, it's draining the lighter colors. I do like the base work too. I think you just need to take more time with the blends on the armour and stone and exaggerate the contrast on those areas with some washes in the recesses. That said, the rating is a bit harsh. I would say more like 6-6.5 which is a good tabletop standard. The photo is a bit washed out too, maybe a darker BG will help define it more - though I am having my own photo battle with my latest mine right now so I'm being more critical of photos as a result. At the end of the day if you are happy with it then don't let the scores take that from you

 

[Canny]

As trys and Zab have said dont worry about the score, its really confusing and hard to take in some times, Im sure its getting harsher and harsher or just me looking regularly in the site and not quite understanding why some things so similar are marks apart. I think you have a good mini with a lot of nice touches.

Nice basing, I particulary like cog and leaves.
Good brush skills, tidy and smooth. Its true about the yellow its harder to get contrast and harder to photograph it. I also think the arm is a bit too far back and out of sync with the legs. Every one will say contrast and its the biggest thing I have learnt while on here, it makes a huge differnce to the animation and flow of the mini.

Just keep experimenting and to start with read and replicate tutorials. Most importantly HAVE FUN!

 

[Bailey03]

I agree with the others. The scoring on the gallery is really a poor way to judge your work. Considering the quality of work on this site, getting 9s and 10s is really really tough. And often I find the 1-10 scoring isn't sensitive enough. Maybe I think something deserves an 8.5... well, my only options are voting 8 or 9, so what do I do? When you've submitted several pieces you can start to look at trends... are you getting mid range scores of 5-7? Are you moving towards the higher ranges of 8-10?

But yes, I agree the score is too low. I'd rate this somewhere between 6 and 7. You're painting is very clean and you've done some nice free hand with the rose and the checkerboard pattern. What I think is hurting your score is the low contrast on your shading. Work on adding some stronger shadows and highlights, along with smooth blending between them and this will easily jump up into the 7's and perhaps into the 8 range as well if you keep up with the freehand. You can do other things like weathering (paint chipping, rust, dirt, oil stains, etc) which will help move towards those 8s, but the contrast is what I'd focus on first. Take a look around the gallery at some of the recent 8-10 rated work. Pay attention to how dramatic the highlights and shadows are.

If you do want to share your work, consider starting up a work in progress thread. It's a great way to get feedback (much better than the gallery in my opinion) and you can avoid the harsh scoring that comes with posting to the main gallery.

 

[Zab]

To give you an example of the scores fluctuating... I submitted my little gobo last night. http://www.coolminiornot.com/345866 I gave him a 7. He jumped up to a 7.8 before bed (thanks guys, you flatter me) then he went active and dropped to a 6.8 by morning and now i see someone gave him a 9 in the comments bumping him back up to a 7. It's all uber subjective. I would also encourage you to start a WIP here. The feedback & advice has helped me improve far more than simply submitting my work and wondering why the scores are so varied. :smirk:

 

[Tyrannus Libris]

Thank you all so much for your critiques. The more you all mentioned the contrast issue the easier it is to see for me. This seems to be a ongoing issue for me as well because every time I try to get really severe contrasts they all seem to wash out abit. Not sure what I am doing wrong except maybe that I am using too bright of a basecoat.. dunno. I will continue to work on it and see where it goes!

Thank you again!

 

[Bailey03]

A lot of us feel the same way when it comes to contrast. My general rule is to take the contrast to where it seems like enough, and then go one or two steps further with it. Shadows and highlights seem more obvious when you've got the figure right up by your face. Once you set it down and take a step back those dramatic highlights and shadows seem to fade and don't look nearly so big. I find if I take the contrast a little farther than I feel comfortable with I tend to be happier with the results.