Does this effect look okay to you?

BloodFather of Kharnath

BloodFather of Kharnath

Active member
Before I proceed with painting the entirety of this Khorne Exalted Hero, I'd like to ask if you think the lightning effect I have chosen looks okay. Or if you think I could improve upon it. A few additional considerations:

-It's an exciting time in my painting evolution, as I am making daily strides in improvement. How does the NMM gold look to you?
-The shield this guy will be holding will be shaded using a lot more of the dark blue, and so the lightning bolts on the shield will be the color of the lightest blue seen on my WIP. I like this color much more, but I couldn't use it on the shoulder pad because it has so much light blue in it already.
G

-I realize the blending needs a little cleaning up and I promise to provide more pictures from different angles.

http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/b...Uploads/image_zpsf6876eb8.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

I believe this link worked. Please tell me if I did something wrong. I tried to do it from manage attachments but that link wouldn't work. Cheers..
 
Wyrmypops

Wyrmypops

New member
The lightning looks too thick to me. I favour it thickest at its root, shrinking in size as it branches off. Also, some branches becoming less absolute in strength, play with the opacity.
 
BloodFather of Kharnath

BloodFather of Kharnath

Active member
Thank you. I think you verbalized what I knew in my heart. I think as this portion of the mini is going to define the entire figure, I should just strip it and start anew.

Opacity. I am struggling with this. I used a very light grey initially , then highlighted in areas with a pure white. The effect wasn't what I had hoped for. Maybe I need to use a yellow and more uniformly apply it across the lightning strokes. And highlight the thickest parts, or the base of the lightning, with a bit of white?? Either way, I believe it needs to be overall bolder all around, I just don't want it to be so bold as to look fake or overly cartoonish. Does anyone have any suggestions here?
 
BloodFather of Kharnath

BloodFather of Kharnath

Active member
Another quick note/question. How does one go about stripping just a portion of the mini when it comes to primer? In other words, I will strip with a Q-tip and nail polish remover, but what then? Paint on a thin layer of chaos black?
 
Wyrmypops

Wyrmypops

New member
The Q-Tip and remover sounds like a cunning plan.

Chaos Black is actually just a paint though, not a proper primer. There are paint on primers. Chaos Black or any paint would be fine if the area isn't going be touched too often, or used as a display piece but if its going to be picked up with a thumb against the shoulder it'd probably be best to pick up something more primer-y.
Most paint ranges include a pot of primer, though the folk that favour paint on primers go for Gesso I think.
 
Demihuman

Demihuman

Active member
You know, you might want to try blocking in the rest of the colors on the mini before you strip. Some times things like this look way better with the other colors added to the mini. Also, you should be able to shape the lightning with the blue pretty easily.

That NMM looks very bold maybe some more of that will make the lightning look less drastic?
 
BloodFather of Kharnath

BloodFather of Kharnath

Active member
Demihuman said:
You know, you might want to try blocking in the rest of the colors on the mini before you strip. Some times things like this look way better with the other colors added to the mini. Also, you should be able to shape the lightning with the blue pretty easily.

That NMM looks very bold maybe some more of that will make the lightning look less drastic?
Click to expand...

Good point. Many time I have found a particular effect/tone/color off-putting in the beginning, but once the mini took shape it made sense. A micro example of this would be that part of NMM where you have shaded and highlighted everything and it just doesn't look right, then you add that final tiny white highlight and all is well. But here in this case, I think change is in order.

I just returned from the hobby shop with a Reaper kalinsky sable super detail 10/0 brush. I am going to go with a purple lightning. Maybe white highlights in the dead center of each stroke. So I'll practice on the mini, then strip it. The way I see it, I could use the practice.

I think I will add one more darker brown shade to the gold. Just a bit in the deepest places.

Additionally, I think I will go with the whole universe, star dust, galactic landscape for his cloak. I saw an awesome tutorial on it once, maybe I saw this on CoolMini. But it fits with the color scheme and feel of the mini. Lastly, this guy will likely be my BSB so I will convert a standard attached to his shield. On it will be the skull-rune of Khorne, with a flicker of electricity across its surface. This will be surrounded by demonic faces. Yes, I am an ambitious beginner. Pics will follow.
 
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BloodFather of Kharnath

BloodFather of Kharnath

Active member
Ok so here is a test of a few squiggles for lightning on a tiny shoulder pad. I think I am going to go with light purple inside of purple. Although I may just do light purple with no highlights. I also plan on doing a wash around the bolt itself of purple just to have a sort of hazy glow around each bolt. At least...I PLAN on doing that, but you know what they say about plans...

http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/benjibaird/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zps9e5cb2b5.jpg.html?filters[user]=139410096&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

Going for this:

http://s1329.photobucket.com/user/benjibaird/media/Mobile Uploads/image_zpsa912e7ca.jpg.html?filters[user]=139410096&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0
 
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