First Freehand - Does It Need More?

[Wren]

Hi all, I\'m hoping to get a little advice. I\'ve done my first serious freehand on the mini below. I\'m pretty happy with what I have so far, but I\'m not sure whether it\'s enough for this particular mini. I know kimonos are usually highly decorated. I\'m debating adding some flowers (undecided on with or without stems) to either side of the crane and maybe on the bottom of the sleeves. Would more decorative elements enhance the mini, or am I better off leaving well enough alone and leaving it as it is?

(PS - please don\'t suggest I bump up the highlights on the dress, as these have become the bane of my existence. There is more highlighting than is apparent in the photo, but the paint I used on the basecoat seems to physically repel my attempts to add more highlights. So I added more shadows and am calling it a day on that score. )

 

[TAB Studio]

Wren
That is beautiful
If my eye wanted to see more it may be above the waist like the fan? Thus a ying and yang.
Fantastic eyes and skin you should enter this in a contest somewhere

 

[douglasgreen]

Firstly,the figure looks great as it is,nice one!I feel it though,in my gut.....yes!Definitely my needs more free hand feeling.Just a little perhaps as you said on the sleeves.The freehand as it is,is clear I think,easily identifiable,well done!(Don one-Solo mafia)

 

[Trevor]

The face and freehand are excellent. I think it looks fine, if you do do more keep it small and simple or the mini will become too \"busy\".

 

[Wren]

Lol, I originally painted her for a contest. I thought she looked pretty good, but she received the fewest votes of the entries in her category. I wasn\'t upset about that or anything, the contest was fun and I enjoyed painting the mini, but it made me take a second look at it and decide that freehand was a missing element - I figure the nature of the character demanded more ornamentation.

Thanks TAB, douglas and Trevor for the compliments, it means a lot! The feedback is also very appreciated. I\'d love to get a few more opinions, since you two are a bit conflicting on where more freehand should go.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Whoa! When you PM\'d me saying you put a little freehand on the mini you were seriously hiding your light under the bushel! That is very nice work..

As to any additional Freehand the only place I would suggest, is to consider the sleeves. But this will not be an easy area to paint on due to the folds of the material.

In thinking about the subject you\'ve used for the freehand, I think that the Japanese paintings I\'ve seen all have Cranes with either Bamboo or Clouds. As the two on the lower part of the Kimono are near the hem, Bamboo would be ruled out. Therefore it would just be Clouds, but I don\'t think that would work either.

I still consider that the dress needs a contrast colour Yellow/Gold on the Collar & Cuffs which may help out the balance of Shadows & Highlights.

I\'m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

 

[Legacy Account]

Impressive! Be sure to show us the finished article

 

[Mark]

Hello Wren,

your Freehand is excellent !!! Beautifull and clear. I like it much and it looks super on your Mini.

Many Greetings

Mark

 

[t_haye2]

sleeves, defenetely, use the design on the corners on the edge of the sleeves, that would work, lovely stuff!

 

[freakinacage]

i think it looks fantastic. if you want to add more, maybe something lining the sleeves or the hem

 

[LavronYor]

IMHO, humble who\'s he kidding.

I agree with DR about some color to contrast on the sleeves. I also agree with everyone that it looks great. I had an idea if you want to paint a design on the fan and a great many oriental fans are decorative. Find and print or draw an oriental image on a piece of paper, then fold it accordian style, like the fan and see where to paint on the mini. You could also do this in theory for the sleeves as well. Just an idea.

 

[Wren]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback. I\'ve gone in and added some freehand to the fan, which some people had suggested (and also fits TAB\'s above the waist suggestion). Thanks very much to LavronYor for the folding up paper as a fan idea, very helpful, and I would never have thought of it!

So here\'s how things look with the fan. The back is unchanged, so I didn\'t include another photo of that. Time to stop, or should I add cranes or flowers to the ends of the sleeves in the back? (Or sides?) I\'m still pondering the idea of a different collar colour. If I change that I feel like I would need to change the trim down the front, which would be hard to do without mucking up the cranes at the end of it. :~(

 

[Drake Farstrider]

I think that it looks great as it is. If you do decide to add anything else I would have to agree with Dragonsreach and only do clouds or bamboo. You might consider adding some cranes onto the sleeves, maybe flying. I agree that changing the color of the collar might make it more dificult than you want. The fan looks real good.

 

[airhead]

I agree with duplicating the front cranes on the bottom of the sleeves. The fan was my first thought and it looks much better. Not sure about the color choices in the fan. They kinda clash with her.

The only other place I might add would be some \"happy\" (or something) caligraphy icons on the end of her hair ribbons.

 

[Wren]

Thanks everyone for all the feedback! I got nervous about the thought of adding more, so I decided to leave well enough alone and post the final version. I think the fact that I went at the freehand piecemeal instead of with a cohesive design hampers it a bit, but overall I\'m very happy with this. I think someday I\'ll take another crack at this sculpt and look at contrasting trim, more organized freehand, and something for the ribbons.

I\'ve also posted a tutorial on doing freehand on the web. I went back and painted another crane and took 18 step-by-step photos. I\'m not sure how helpful my text is, but the photos should be. Feedback on any aspect of the tutorial is very welcome!

Airhead, could you expand a bit on how the fan colour choices clash with the rest of the mini? I went with orangish flowers and green stems to pick up on other colours in the mini, though I did deliberately not use the exact same oranges and greens for a little variety. I\'m still working on my colour use, so I\'d love to know more about how I can avoid that in the future.

 

[Drake Farstrider]

NIce little Tutorial. Never thought that painting a Crane would be so easy.

 

[Hoblit]

Nice tutorial, and I think the model is fantastic. I just have one question. How did you get the old ivory look on the hair piece as that is the sort of look I want for the armour on my Sisters of Battle?

 

[airhead]

The purple and orange just don\'t do it for me. Not a color combination that my eyes are used to seeing.

It is ok in the fan, but wouldn\'t want to see it in the dress or something

Overall, I really like the mini. she is painted very well. Her face is great. But the purple in the fan just draws my eyes.

 

[supervike]

it is wonderful...

but I agree it could use some of that magic touch on the sleeves!

Great stuff Wren!

 

[Wren]

Hoblit - I started with a base coat of GW Bleached Bone on the crane, then washes of Vallejo Smoke. That was my first time using Smoke, I think I only thinned it moderately, and I applied it pretty liberally, the crane looked almost brown (and a little blotchy, which I think helped give it a natural look) when that stage was done. Then I just went back and highlighted with GW Bleached Bone, Reaper Ivory, Reaper Linen (very nice and useful colour) and a smidge of pure white.

Airhead - thanks for answering my question, it\'s much appreciated! And here I thought I was playing it safe with my colour choices. ;-> I picked one based on the colour theory info I\'ve read, which says green, purple and orange are a triadic colour scheme of the secondary colours. Also I\'ve got a few fantasy art books that feature the scheme a lot, and I\'m just always looking for more ways to paint green. ;->

Drake and supervike - Thanks for the comments and positive feedback, much appreciated!