Erasetheprocess' Thread

[erasetheprocess]

OK, everyone. I probably should have been posting these a little more regularly just so I could have gotten advice as things were happening, but you all know how it goes: you find some time to paint, you sit down, you get into the zone, and before you know it, you have completed a lot.

If you need a little background on me, please read this.

So, I am working on a Reaper Mini named Kale Nolan, Heroric Warrior (03317) for a gaming buddy, and finally decided to throw my shyness to the side, and share with the community.

Fair warning - my camera isn't that wonderful, and none of these images are photoshopped, so if there are color variances or blurry details, I apologize in advance. I am trying to figure out how to get more consistant lighting (and am actually working with a friend of mine who is a professional photographer) and reading tons of tutorials on how to do so.

Without further ado....

First, my workspace.

View attachment 17041
I am lucky enough to have an actual dedicated craft room in my house, so finding an area to work wasn't a big deal. My tools are located in a separate box, but at least you can see what I see.

Second, my paints.

View attachment 17042

I am a long time user of GW, but never got into blending, or even really thinning them down, because of the jars. I decided to eliminate one of the problems when coming back into the hobby (and because I have been hearing about them, and wanting to try them for years) by going with pure Vallejo. I have a few more on the way, and this case WILL be filled up shortly.

Now, because I haven't painted in about 5 years, I wanted to shake the rust loose off my skills by doing something simple, to get used to the paints, new brushes, etc, so I painted a treasure chest. Sorry I don't have any work in progress shots of this.

View attachment 17043

View attachment 17044

View attachment 17045

View attachment 17046

I think it turned out pretty well, I just wish I had thinned down my washes a little more on the coin stacks. Lesson learned.

Ok, so onto the Kane himself.

First, priming.

View attachment 17047

View attachment 17048

SLIGHTLY spotty, but I think it will work fine. This is not going to be a Golden Demon level mini.

I work in to out, so the first natural step was a skin basecoat.

View attachment 17049

View attachment 17050

By this point, with the very first basecoat done, I was already beginning to see the advantages of thinning my paints.

Next, the wash.

View attachment 17051

View attachment 17052

Way too red but that is to be expected, so I went over spots with another round of the basecoat color.

View attachment 17054

View attachment 17057

Now, I can't remember the exact order I took on this, but at some point I put on a basecoat of gunmetal for the armor, along with an armor wash, and began working skin highlights. I was kinda going back and forth. I also added some pure silver highlights to the edges of the armor to make them pop a little.

View attachment 17059

View attachment 17060

I was pretty happy with the way the muscles seemed to be popping on his arm, and on the back of his neck.

Now, to add some facial details.

View attachment 17061

Eye, eyebrow, teeth, bottom lip, and hair painted (hair was drybrushed as well, but I don't think you can see it at all. **I** can barely see it when I am looking at the mini itself.

I made 2 mistakes though, and I realize them now : I should have basecoated the eyes and teeth with ivory, beforehand. I just used the fleshtone. I will have to remember to NOT do that for the next mini I do up.

Now, it's time to add a little color to the guy.

View attachment 17063

The guy I am doing this for wanted the cloth painted in blue. I chose a really nice, deep royal blue for the basecoat.

Then I began to try to blend. This is 7 separate shades, including a round of washes.

View attachment 17064

The figure, as he stands, right now:

View attachment 17065

I also tried to repeat and balance the color of the figure by adding blue to the armband.

Now, with all of that to absorb, there are a few questions that I have, and a few more comments I would like to make.

1) I know the rule is to thin your paints. When thinning my metallics, I have noticed that there is a very big separation between the medium and the pigments, only a few minutes after I put them in my pallate, forcing me to constantly re-stir them. Is this considered "normal?" It is almost to the point where I don't want to thin my metallics, but I know that they will have super goopiness if I don't, I'm just wondering if there is something I am missing.

2) In preparation to begin painting again, I've been watching a few DVD's (P3 Painting, Hot Lead, and AGProductions Masterpiece Miniatures vol.3.) It didn't dawn on me initially, but in going back to review, I learned about adding flow improver to ink washes, which I plan on doing. Will that help at all with the slight 'graininess" in certain skin tones? I always seem to have an area around the neckline that seems like I dumped sand into it, and am thinking that the surface tension of the washes have something to do with it.

3) Again, in watching those DVD's, I learned about a blueish/black armor wash. I have always WANTED to have platemail with a slight blueish tint. Is blue/black a standard "armor" wash? I ask only because the basecoat is gunmetal, and then when you put a black wash over it, it really dulls down the sheen of the armor, and has a tendancy to make it darker than I would like.

4) Finally, "blending" is a relatively new technique to me, and I know for a fact I did the highlights on the cloth wrong, though it didn't hit me as I was actually painting it. There should not be bright lines that close to his body, or that close to the ground. I am PROBABLY going to re-basecoat that area, and take things in a slightly different direction anyway - I am going to be adding white and blue to his shield and the disc on his belt.

Anyway, all, more pics to come, but if you have ANY suggestions or answers fo mr, I will be grateful to hear them all. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

 

[Arne]

I'm not a big fan of figures which look like a N64 game, back when they went crazy with the colored lights. But, a slight hue changes here and there are great for breaking up the monotony of local colors (wood is brown, grass is green, skin is pink) and hue shifts can be used to give different color fields a harmonizing... commonality.

I like to use black-brown for metal armour myself, as I like a more rusty and grimey look. But for a heroic and clean silver, a blue tone might work. I'd couple it with a silvery highlight on the edges and chosen specular points/planes. However, on your figure, the thing I'd address first is the gleaming areas in the indents / gaps between the plates. I'd go in there and carefully black-line to create an illusion of plates separating. Otherwise the figure will look like the solid lump that it actually is.

 

[secretpaintgeek]

1) I know the rule is to thin your paints. When thinning my metallics, I have noticed that there is a very big separation between the medium and the pigments, only a few minutes after I put them in my pallate, forcing me to constantly re-stir them. Is this considered "normal?" It is almost to the point where I don't want to thin my metallics, but I know that they will have super goopiness if I don't, I'm just wondering if there is something I am missing.

As far as my limited knowledge goes there seems that there is nothing you can do about it. Some brands are better than others from what I hear but it seems as though its something you just have to put up with.

2) In preparation to begin painting again, I've been watching a few DVD's (P3 Painting, Hot Lead, and AGProductions Masterpiece Miniatures vol.3.) It didn't dawn on me initially, but in going back to review, I learned about adding flow improver to ink washes, which I plan on doing. Will that help at all with the slight 'graininess" in certain skin tones? I always seem to have an area around the neckline that seems like I dumped sand into it, and am thinking that the surface tension of the washes have something to do with it.

I'm not too sure what you mean here. Could be a couple of things I guess. Maybe you could post a pic of an example. One thing I will say for now is that if you decide to go with the flow improver route then make sure those brushes never go in your mouth! It isnt the best stuff for your health

3) Again, in watching those DVD's, I learned about a blueish/black armor wash. I have always WANTED to have platemail with a slight blueish tint. Is blue/black a standard "armor" wash? I ask only because the basecoat is gunmetal, and then when you put a black wash over it, it really dulls down the sheen of the armor, and has a tendancy to make it darker than I would like.

Black/blue is very popular on metals. Personally I like using greens/reds/purples. The black will dull the metal but you can solve this by only applying the wash where you want it rather than on the whole area or you could just go back over with your metal base colour again to lighten it up. Another option I have never tried might be to paint a lighter silver (Maybe Mithril?) where you want the highlights before applying the wash and hopefully it will leave you with lighter areas whilst toning down the mithril.

4) Finally, "blending" is a relatively new technique to me, and I know for a fact I did the highlights on the cloth wrong, though it didn't hit me as I was actually painting it. There should not be bright lines that close to his body, or that close to the ground. I am PROBABLY going to re-basecoat that area, and take things in a slightly different direction anyway - I am going to be adding white and blue to his shield and the disc on his belt.

Something that has really helped me recently is to think about shade and highlights in terms of saturation. For both the saturation of your chosen colour goes right down the brighter/darker you go with peak saturations at the mid tones. I suggest you look at a article or 2 on the subject as my explination is a little poor

Anyway, all, more pics to come, but if you have ANY suggestions or answers fo mr, I will be grateful to hear them all. Thanks for reading!

Hope at least something helped. Its all opinion though and i'm sure other will disagree with some if not all that i have said

Cheers!

My Pleasure