Forge World Renegade Psyker

[Tinweasel]

I'd appreciate it if I could get some feedback on a figure I just recently finished and posted:
http://coolminiornot.com/245973

This is the first thing I've touched a paintbrush to in over a year - our son was born in February of '09 and I packed my painting station and materials down to the basement in December of '08 or so to make room for the nursery.

The base is more or less self-sculpted, and I was aiming to make some sense of the figure's pose, other than the de facto "I've got a migraine" appearance he'd likely have if I just slapped it on a plain slottabase and had at it. Painting-wise, I was aiming for a zenithal-style lighting approach, with the highlights warming and lightening the further up the figure towards the head and face I went. This is also the first time (original underlying base and figure both) that I've painted anything resin, and I have to say I love the amount of crisp detail it carries!

All of this is new to me (base and resin and painting style), so I'd really like it if I could get people's opinions on how he turned out - votes on the figure page would be nice, too!

Like I wrote up in the figure's description on the voting page, he's a first test of a tentative color scheme for my work-in-progress mostly converted Renegade 'n' Heretic IG force, The Shriven (I was inspired by their depiction in Dan Abnett's "First and Only" novel). I eventually plan on having them as allied troops to accompany my Chaos Space Marine warband, The Disciples of the Four - they're more of a "back burner" project, though, as I get together a playable army of Chaos Marines.


Thanks!

 

[cheelfy]

This is a nice guy but some areas, like the blue or the metal, need to be more highlighted.

 

[freakinacage]

Sweet. I really like him. Especially the base, gives a real sense of energy to it. Plus I love gaunts ghosts

 

[ScottRadom]

I really like it, and gave it an 8.

What I love....
-Base. It's awesome and it was apparent immediately that it was the psycher pushing the stuff away. Very well done on the execution.
-Gem effect on the lenses. Flawless!
-Nice choice of colours too.

What I think needs more...
-HIghlights everywhere. As mentioned, if you went a step or two higher on every part of the model I think you've got a 9 mini here. Specifics for me are the metalics, the folds in the clothes, and the scar on the chest. But in general I think a step or maybe even two more would be what the doctor ordered.

Congrats on the son! I know I didn't get much done when my kids were newborn either. Very nice mini to welcome you back form such a long break. Well done!

 

[Clint]

Hiya.

FWIW, I like the sculpt. Very different and evocative. As for the colors, take my opinion with a grain of salt as I can't actually see color.

I'm not seeing much contrast in the scheme. Don't know what hues you've selected, but in terms of value, they are very similar. If that's what you were shooting for... good job. :good:

- C

 

[Tinweasel]

I adjusted the contrast and color balance of the pics I took of him so (hopefully) the figure looks a bit closer in a revised CMoN posted image as compared to how he actually does in person:
http://coolminiornot.com/245973

@ everyone - Thanks for the comments and feedback so far, folks! It's nice to hear that I captured the "dynamic" feel I was aiming for in basing him. As to the overall highlighting and contrast, hopefully those are a bit more accurate in my adjustments to the original pics and the repost in my Gallery - I think I may have finally figured out how to properly read and use the data in the Histogram function of my photo editing program.

There's highlighting across the entire figure, generally about 3-4 blended steps. I started from a white base and essentially painted him from lightest areas and highlights down to darkest, working my way deeper into shaded areas as I went along. I then went back and accentuated the areas that would be lit from a top-down illumination source. The thing I was aiming for in this guy was "zenithal highlighting," using cooler colors mixed into the highlight colors lower on the figure and warmer colors gradually working up to more or less warmly tinted white on his chest scarring and brow/nasal cavity/upper forearms, and so forth.

He does have a decent amount of weathering with pigments, as well as some deepening/enriching of colors in some areas (like his jacket, to represent exposure and staining of the fabric) with a couple different colors of artist's oil colors. (This is a first try at using oil paints for me on a "display" piece - a test figure I used for my first attempt wasn't so lucky and ended up looking a lot more patchy and with a semi-gloss finish. Heh.) This might explain the somewhat "even" color towards his lower parts as well - it was intentional, since I wanted him to look like he's, um, been through rough times. (I mean other than losing most of the flesh off his face, having his eyes replaced with augmetic implants, and getting a rebreather permanently mounted in the remains of his mouth, that is...)

I'd greatly appreciate it if you guys could have another look at the revised posting in my gallery and give me feedback on the updated/rebalanced pics. Thanks!

 

[Clint]

Better. Skin tones are popping much more to my eye.

- C