GD entries from australia/NZ o6

[Bill]

Beautiful and amazing :wow: You are certainly one of the best painters in the world right now Seb (in my opinion possibly THE best), and this is your best work yet!
Aragorn is a great study in zenithal lighting and muted colour tones, the elf even more so (with some of the most perfect NMM I\'ve ever seen),
and the Ork is just plain amazing. All voted and commented, 10 10 10!
Elf and Ork are on my favourites list too. Really inspiring stuff man, thanks a lot for posting it here!

~Bill

PS. Do you have any pics of the conversion work on the Ork and Elf? Thanks
Oh, and the gorgeous bloodstains too - I\'d love to know how you did them

 

[supervike]

I have nothing to add but slobber and drool.

In a good way...

Amazing stuff!

 

[automaton]

thanks so much for the comments, I really can\'t tell you how much it means to me - hearing that you all really like the minis, as fellow painters, is so much better than winning a demon!

sanjay - for the jade coloured oxidation on the elf\'s sword, I started with some very thin glazes of GW dark angels green + GW jade green (jade green is an old colour, I don\'t think they have it anymore...you can see what colour it is though, it\'s very bright). These first layers went quite far down the blade of the sword - probably 1/4 - 1/3 of the way down. Then more glazes adding more jade green, and moving further towards the hilt - then pure jade green, then adding white for the final layers in very small amounts, just round the hilt.

bill - the blood, well, it\'s a variety of colours - I used a dark red of mine which is my own paint mix, it\'s something like blood red mixed with a little dark blue, some scorched brown, a little black - it\'s quite strong, but not primary like blood red. ANyway, this colour, mixed in different amounts with black, dark blue, black ink, red ink - there is no set formula, just variety. I think this is the key - using a variety of different reds, it looks more natural than the one-colour blood you often see on minis. And an important part also is to include some very dark spots in the main blood-splatter area - albert suggested this to me on the spanish team site. THe contrast gives a more real look - like on the ork\'s signpost, that\'s a good example from these minis.

oh yeah and some gloss varnish - I used a bit mixed in with the paint, although you don\'t need too...and there is no point if you dullcote your minis after painting the blood. I mixed some gloss varnish with water and applied it after the varnish...although I also added some more blood after dullcote haha...either way, it\'s goood to have a more glossy finish on the blood areas! especially the most gory parts haha

 

[Bill]

Thanks a lot!

I\'m going to try an ork and blood all of my own now

Another question (sorry)... what head did you use for the Ork?
It\'s the nicest Orky head I\'ve seen

Cheers

~Bill

 

[Beelzebrush]

Astonishing work!

Congrats on the trophies!

These are faultless minis. My favoutite is probably the dark elf. I love the neutral colour schemes you\'ve used. And, the blending is incredibly smooth. Very inspirational work indeed.

 

[TAB Studio]

You deserve every comment and the demon, Your work is a sight to behold and headed for my favorites list. Love the color combinations.

 

[ZaPhOd]

Really great stuff. I like the Orc\'s damaged armor and the metals and the Dark Elf especially. not fond of Aragorn\'s sword, but the rest rocks out!

Awesome minis

 

[demonherald]

I\'ll avoid saying you should have got the sword as that just seems a silly thing to say I wasn\'t a judge.
What I will say Is I prefer the look of your Ork to the Winning Model Don\'t get me wrong the winning model was sweet just not as technically brilliant as the work here.
Reards the Dark Elf it\'s funny how the too rackhamesque argument comes up a lot..Funny because only GW would say that. In a Rackham comp a model painted in a GW style (eavy metal) would get the same praise as a Rackham style or any other. I love all threee but the ork just hits me there something new to look at on it everytime I go back.

The Aragorn was a Very Brave thing to do but absolutely jawdropping effect.The base really looks great..

stunning work all round.

 

[olliekickflip]

Wow, that ork is sooooo coool. I love the banner and the blood effects are amazing!
Thats all I have to say...I am going to go burn my brushes!

ollie

 

[automaton]

again, thank you all for the kind words!!

bill - the ork\'s head was actually one from a fantasy savage orc boar boy - the one with the open mouth and the leather cap, from the command groups - usually the standard bearer I think. But I sculp[ted on the helmet and gave him a bigger lower jaw, and added on the horns as well haha.

demonherald - thanks mate, hehe the rackham thing...well the judges never actually said that, so it\'s ok - were were half expecting them to either dq the dark elf because of it, or just not give it anything....but I spoke with each of them about the mini afterwards, and none of them mentioned anything about rackham or anything like that. THey just said that the subdued colour scheme meant that the mini did not stand out well enough amongst the others - that it would not stand out well enough \'on the table top\' etc. ANd because the face was similar in colouring to the armour, it lacked a focal point. SO basically, it wasn\'t what they were looking for this year - the winner, by rob sakaluk (rob jedi) was painted with bright, eye-catching colours - a bright turquoise and red - and the judges loved that. So there you go!!

And the sword winner, well it was a fantastic mini, but very different in style to mine - the winner was very very GW, eavy metal style of painting - it was like the ultimate in that style. And again, the judges absolutely loved that about it - they said it was as if it had stepped right out of the black templar codex.

So it was a worthy winner!

 

[Avelorn]

Awesome stuff! I actually like the dark elf the most!

I have one point of improvement. The blood is very nice, but more frome a stylished pov. On the dark elf it works excellent as the rest of the mini goes in purple tones, the more warm nuance of the blood is enhanced. But on the Ork with its yellow and warm tones the more magenta aspects of the blood is enhanced. Thus it looks more candy coloured. So while keeping the overall style of the blood, on the ork I\'d mix in some yellow to the blood (I often use chestnut ink as well). It\'s more noticable on the axe as the yellow on the armour and the sign shines through the transparent blood. ( a quick reservation though.. it might have to do with your camera as well as red is a difficult colour to photograph)

I like your Aragorn very much. The work on the cloth is some of the best I\'ve seen on a lotr miniature. Not sure about the eyes though, they look kind of big. But they\'re difficult to see on this photo as well, I guess you intentionally painted them dark because of the overhead lighting. What would have been a cool effect I think is if the light dots of the eyes would have been a bit more pronounced.

Inspiring work, and congratulation on your awards!

 

[Trevor]

On the day I liked the DE the best and Aragorn the least, but with these pics I\'ll change my mind.

Aragorn looked VERY dark in the cabinet and I clearly missed out on all the detail, here I can see it perfectly and he looks awesome, really awesome.

Can\'t wait to see what you come up with next and for the 2007 GD

 

[automaton]

thanks avelorn and trevor

sven, yeah I take your point about the colours of the blood, good thinking! I\'ll try to take that into account in future.

And trevor, yeah those cabinets at parra are quite dark and shadowy, I feel like I keep saying this to everyone like an excuse hahaah, but it\'s true! Everyone\'s minis looked very dark in them - darker than they should be at least - and all the colours were toned down...not great for me coz I love the dark colours hehe! But anyway, we should organise a day to meet up in the city to have a talk or do some painting or something, and I can bring all these minis along for you to look at properly, eh? Then you judge for yourself!

 

[Avelorn]

Great idea Sebastian! And I know the best place to have it... in Umeå, Sweden!

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by Avelorn
Great idea Sebastian! And I know the best place to have it... in Umeå, Sweden!

Cheeky!! But, should it happen against all odds, I\'m going up there!!! lol

 

[automaton]

haha, you guys

I would love to come to sweden actually - well, maybe one day! THe only problem is that I would probably have to sell all my minis to get there, and then I would have nothing to show you! haha

 

[Avelorn]

lol well.. same about Australia for me I guess. But we can always meet half way...! Paris Open next year for example! Or UKGD...?

Well.. great job again! Sorry for the hijack.

 

[Ogrebane]

WOW I guess I better learn how to paint if Im gunna get to the GD next year. Fantastic stuff I really love the Ork but Id have to say the DE is my fave. Congrats on the win

 

[automaton]

sven - well I am actually planning to come to at least one of the europe GDs next year - UK or spain I think (or both!!) - so perhaps there actually is a chance! It would be great to meet you - I want to meet EVERYONE haha! I really hope I can make it - it would be a dream come true for me...

and ogrebane, thanks mate - bad luck with yours, I was very disappointed when I heard. But oh well, next year - and at least you have a nice mini for yourself, that\'s the main thing!

 

[hashmallum]

Congrats on the golds!

Stunning work on the Dark Elf and the Ork is very hmm crispy and orky!

Btw , do you use glazes? washes? And how (yeah - I do know this is a stupid question...)