Eldar "Army in a Year" Project WIP - Please comment

[Ecolon78]

Hello all,

I've started a project to see if I can paint a whole Eldar army in one year. I've been out of the hobby for a really long time and just got started painting again. I've also started a blog documenting my process and progress. (You can see it here) I've come to this forum for I have seen that there are many great painters here and would love some feedback on my techniques. I've basically learned all I know from reading and watching tutorials online.

For now this is my avatar conversion WIP. I just got through painting the skin and now I'm headed over to the rest of the mini. Any advice on the skin and the next steps?
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Thanks,

 

[boubi]

Welcome back to a nice hobby!
First of all, and what most of people will tell you, you must thin your paint down. Don't use it as adviced by GW directly from the pot, try to thin it with some water. Base your part with a medium color, then shadow it with a darker one with several layers of diluted paint then highlight it by doing the same with a brighter color shadow and highlight according to "almost zenithal" lighting. In your case as you want to make a lava effect it will be a bit more difficult but you got already quite well where to apply dark and brighter areas, but the transition between both areas are too harsh you need to get a better blending, you can wet blend or feather it with several layers (you will find many post or videos (best are the ones you pay for it) on internet to have a real overview of these two techniques which are complimentary)
Be more precise with your brush, the yellow in the recesses seems a bit messy because often on the red parts or not even, try to use smaller, good quality brush, you will find many posts here talking about it (Raphael, Winsor&newton, ...)
Last advice, one of the most difficult part of painting a mini is to choose the right colors to make the best color scheme. I have personally underestimated it and concentrated only on painting technique... I was wrong, the color scheme makes to whole difference when you have a 'ok' painting technique! For this try to have a look at the gallery with best score minis... you will quickly realize but looking at the colors that they are often subtle changes of similar colors and well chosen contrast areas!

Good luck and happy painting to You! Keep us posted of you next steps! I will follow this thread, being at your position few months ago!

 

[Ecolon78]

More WIP on the avatar

New Update on the Avatar. Now It’s almost completely base-coated. The metallics and blacks are only base coat and the wraithbone is completed. The only thing not started yet is the sword. I’m not sure if it should be burning metal, like the body, or something completely different, like the glass on my wraithlord.
The wraithbone came out great. The blending on the top “horns” is really neat. I’ve been reading more tutorials on glazing and blending and I see improvement in my technique. The burning metal skin looks better in person but still needs some TLC.
Anyways, that’s it for now, comments, ideas and critiques are highly appreciated.

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[Meph]

looks good, man, keep at it. I like teh combo of the metallic and the wraithbone, that's a nice contrast.

 

[Ecolon78]

Here's an update. I decided to work on the base and take a little break from the mini itself. I painted a "sort of" cream colored marble texture to contrast the black stone. This also helps tie the base with the color scheme for the Avatar. Still WIP. need to do the flames and more work on the columns.

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