Gamezone Wizard guy

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ScottRadom

Shogun of Saskatchewan
Started this one in March, then my appendix blew up. I was out of the loop for a coupel months and couldn\'t really paint at all. I was doing him for a competition over on WAMP and since I missed the contest I had zero inspiration to go back to him. There was a thread here a week or so back that got me thinking of going back into the box of shame and polishing off some of those projects, and I am glad to say this guy is done.

I am super happy that I am not super happy with this model. This was the very best I could do in march. I pulled out all the stops, spent hours on each seperate segment of the model... and I don\'t think it is all that great. So that in itself makes me feel happy that I think if I started him today from scratch I could do WAAAAYYY better. So why submit it? Well I am kinda looking forward to a then vs. now comparison in scores and such, and I don\'t mind throwing up a fig like this for everyone to beat on. If we pick at this fig it might help someone, right?

http://www.coolminiornot.com/229004
WIPS001-13.jpg

WIPS003-10.jpg

WIPS004-3.jpg


So I\'ll start with what I see.

-Generic \"Not enough highlights and shading\" style comment would be totally appropriate. The barding in particular looks weak as all hell.

-The face on the squire kid was meant to be kind of shock as he tussles with the horse. Whatever I wanted it to be, that ain\'t it. There\'s a good article by Dragonsreach on facial expressions in the CMON painting guide I could\'ve utilized I think.

-Base could use some more highlights. Okay, I just did that part today, and I experimented with a lot of mig pigments as washes and didn\'t bother bringing the highlights on the cobbles back up. Can\'t blame that shortcut on time.

and theres more. Feel free to jump in! So another thanks to all who\'ve been helping me along the way. I know if I had finished this when I began it I would\'ve been super impressed with myself and worn my hand out patting myself on the back!
 
kathrynloch

kathrynloch

New member
Oooh HORSE! I can help with that part at least! lol You did well on the basic color for him but more highlights will help. To really make him pop, you can make the mane and tail either black with brown highlights and his legs to the knees black. Or the main and tail can be a flaxen color, sort of an off-white with brown streaks.

Also a lot of horses have what is called pangere, a lighter brown or yellow color on their flanks and barrel. That will help add depth.

You did well with the white marking on his nose (but I can see a big mold line) but rarely do horses have just a solid white nose. They will usually have a streak of white moving up the front of the face. Or some times just a small snip on the muzzle. The hair on the muzzle is very thin and you can usually see the skin underneath so a tiny bit of pink on the muzzle will help add depth too.

I Google horses all the time when I\'m working on my various resin models. You can get some really great reference pics.

I kinda like the squire - his expression looks more like :cussing: because he knows he\'s gonna hit the ground. My expression is pretty close to that when I know I\'m going to get planted. :D

I love this sculpt too!

Cheers,
Kat
 
Amazon warrior

Amazon warrior

New member
Absolutely agree with Kathryn about the horse, but still, he\'s not bad! Below is a photo of a horse that I painted that I hope illustrates what she\'s talking about.
(Sorry it\'s such an awful picture, I took it a while ago and my camera\'s broken so I can\'t take another!)

horse_muzzle.jpg


Usually (not always, but we won\'t worry about that here), a horse\'s coat colour correlates to the colour of their skin, so white fur=pink skin, dark fur=dark skin. I\'ve tried to show this by continuing the horse\'s snip as a pinkish white colour on the end of the horse\'s muzzle. In contrast, the muzzle is grey where I\'ve imagined the regular coat colour continuing. (Yes, you do get bonus points if you can read my handwriting! lol)

One other thing that leapt out at me is the squire\'s eyes. Did you do them white with a black dot? It looks like you did from the photos and they look quite stark as a result. With eyes, you can get a softer, more natural look if you use off-white instead (an ivory white is good), and maybe use a dark brown colour for the pupil (or whatever colour you want them to have).
 
Donga

Donga

Active member
I think you\'ve done your own critique!

You learn well the ways of the force young padawan!
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by ScottRadom
-The face on the squire kid was meant to be kind of shock as he tussles with the horse. Whatever I wanted it to be, that ain\'t it. There\'s a good article by Dragonsreach on facial expressions in the CMON painting guide I could\'ve utilized I think.
!
Click to expand...
Ok I\'ll leave the horse to the experts.
(\"pangere\" I finally learned what that was called. Thanks Kathryn)

Scott; as Donga says your self-critique is very accurate, well done.
But as to how you would apply the article to the handlers face, well there\'s a problem. The face is rather smooth (as befits a young lad) so the overall look of shock has to be \'driven\' by the eyes and their placement.
At the moment they are looking away from the horse instead of being concentrated on the animal.

I\'d suggest that you re-work the face to make it paler/fresher, without as much tonal work in areas like eyesockets cheeks as younger faces don\'t have the build up of age, like me.
So no baggy eyes, no shadowed eyesockets, no bloodshot eyes, no five o\'clock shadow and no crows feet.

If you really want the face to look \"young\" look at some of Mrika\'s work where she adds freckles. This really gives a \"Freshness\" to the face.
 
S

ScottRadom

Shogun of Saskatchewan
Freckles.... man, good idea!

I\'m not touching this mini again! It took every ounce of my willpower just to cover all the primer with paint and mount it on a base after such a long break from it.

It was interesting to work on a model that was done to my absolute highest standard some months ago, and realize it wasn\'t very good. That was nice, being able to hold evidience that I have improved some in that time frame.

I\'m going to try and eBay it (I think it\'s just fine as a game piece) and keep going forward.

But the tips are great! I\'ve got to paint another horse soon. Though I thin kit\'s mostly covered. And the point about the freckles is great. I\'ve got some of the Hasslefree kid models that will look grea with freckles I think!. Thanks again!
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by ScottRadom
I\'ve got to paint another horse soon. Though I think it\'s mostly covered.
Last Year I got the opportunity to paint the Frazetta Chaos Lord for my local store.
I used a simple technique; Base coloured the highlights in acrylic (3 levels, meh I was lazy) then used Water Soluble Oils (Burnt Umber & Payne\'s Grey) to get the tonal values closer to what a horse looks like. Gave a nice soft finish to the steed which contrasted with the armour & chaos symbols.
Click to expand...
 
S

ScottRadom

Shogun of Saskatchewan
Mike, you got a pic by chance?

I\'ve got plenty of actual artists Oils I use quite often for washes and stuff. Quickest way I know to do tabletop Nurgle stuff and great for Armor weathering, I\'m wondering how I\'d apply it to a horse.
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
Originally posted by ScottRadom
Mike, you got a pic by chance?
Not one I\'d care to post. lol
I\'ll try to borrow it and attempt some pics after Gamesday.

I\'ve got plenty of actual artists Oils I use quite often for washes and stuff. Quickest way I know to do tabletop Nurgle stuff and great for Armor weathering, I\'m wondering how I\'d apply it to a horse.
If I can get my enthusiasm back after Gamesday I\'ll try to do a Step by Step using the Gamezone Gloria Invicta.
Have to confess that this year I seem to have lost it regarding Gamesday entries.
Click to expand...
 
kathrynloch

kathrynloch

New member
Not to take anything away from DR but I have a friend who professionally paints horse resins in oils. She\'s doing a tutorial on her blog right now.

Keep in mind, these horses are much larger than our minis, but the principle is the same - except for us, less is more since we are working on a much smaller canvas.

But if you check out the tutorials, it might help you out. I know a big key with oils is to use large soft brushes for mopping and blending. The rougher brushes for doing this on canvas are too stiff for what we want.

Anyway, here\'s the link. She\'s an award winning artist. Just like we have various conventions and artistic awards, so does the model horse industry..

http://chinookstudios.blogspot.com/

Note: I haven\'t personally tried oils - I use powdered pigments and acrylics on my horses.

Cheers,
Kat
 
S

ScottRadom

Shogun of Saskatchewan
I\'ll check that article out later on tonight! Thanks very much Kathryn. My wife spells her name the very same way, so you are not alone!
 
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