Graishak WIP

KruleBear

Active member
Zarbag looks cool. As BAM mentioned the lines on the free hand are a little heavy, but the work on the gobbo.
 

gorb

New member
The texture you've got on the metal ball + chain looks great!

The squig looks cool too. It's hard to tell from the photo, but is there a mold line running down its left leg? That is always easy to fix before painting, but a pain in the @ss to fix after, and will always remain visible...
The hard line of separation between the brown + white on the teeth & horns could maybe do with a touch of blending, but that is my opinion. A more cartoony style may need that.

But otherwise, I love the way you (and everyone else) are painting these guys, they look super fun!
 

Graishak

Active member
Thanks Gorb!
Your eagle eyes are right... I forgot that one mold line on the leg... on the back I detected it last second (after first basic layer), but I missed the one on the leg. It is a minus point on the Squig - agreed.
I need to discipline myself more to check on the minis, prior to start painting again! Honestly this is a working area for me, because I'm rushing through the assembling (if not doing conversions), because
I just can't wait until I can start painting ^^.
Regarding teeth and horns; another good catch. In general I tend to use three colours, this time I just used two. Let's call it an act of laziness, you're right the transition is a bit hard. Next squig will get again
a tricolour maintenance.
And yeah - this unit is superfun - 100% agreed.
 

Doc Zoff

New member
Hi Graishak,
Some great work here, and there's very clear improvement looking through your WIP. I notice that there is an element of paint graininess around dry-brushed areas appearing in your more recent builds, and particularly so in the green highlighting on your latest fanatic. If this is artistic/stylistic choice then ignore the following suggestions...

I was getting exactly the same graininess when drybrushing undiluted GW paints (as recommended by GW) and the graininess increases the more I dry brushed an area. Great effect for rocks and scenery, but I was really disappointed when trying for a more blended look on cloth, skin and armour. I think it is the action of pulling drying thick undiluted paint across the surface that causes it to form into tiny grains. I found than mixing GW paint with GW Lahmian Medium gave a much smoother drybrush finish because with a thinner dilution I didn't need to dry the brush as much to apply the same amount of pigment plus the Lahmian seems to help coats bind together.

Like I say, if the grainy look is intentional, then carry on painting with pride in the style that you prefer. But if it is an unwelcome result of drybrushing, thinning your paint might really help. You'll probably need to go through some trial and error to find a dilution, and brush dryness that suits you, so maybe give it a go on test pieces first. I posted a longer discussion re dry glazing (I made that name up) with Lahmian Medium on my WIP (bottom of page 1) with some photos of the results on some glazed wings (which you'll probably recognise as being recycled from the GW Crypt Flayers kit).

Hope this helps!
 
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Graishak

Active member
Hey Doc, indeed graininess is not really a desired side effect. So far Inwas processing dry brushing with undiluted
GW colors. Following advice from Eki and BaM I did edge highlights with diluted paint and the brush side.
Tried yesterday to cover up graininess with some ink and diluted darker color. Will post tonight a picture of the
result. Nevertheless thanks for that hint. Next time I will dilute paint, once drybrushing a cloak and investigate
how that works.
 

Kuribo

New member
Good to see you're keeping busy Graishak and I like the bold color choices on the Squigs. I wouldn't expect anything less from you :)
 

CyAniDe

New member
Hey Doc, indeed graininess is not really a desired side effect. So far Inwas processing dry brushing with undiluted
GW colors. Following advice from Eki and BaM I did edge highlights with diluted paint and the brush side.
Tried yesterday to cover up graininess with some ink and diluted darker color.

Would probably recoment to try basic layering. Although it always depends on what you want to achieve. If you want to get your minis painted as fast as possible to have em ready for the table drybrushing and washing are good techniques to get fast results.
That's probably why GW for example include these techniques in a lot of their paint guides.
Layering might take much longer but you'll get much cleaner and more controlled results.
On top you get a better feeling on how to thin your paints for good flow/coverage, train your brushcontrol a lot and learn how to mix paints for shadows/highlights.
Of course you can still use drybrushing, for example for highlights but I wouldn't recomment to use drybrushing without applying a clean base layer first.

Of course it's all up to you and depends on what you want to achieve but if you want to achieve an overall cleaner look I would recomment to try the following (maybe on a different model so the that unit doesn't look incoherent) :

In this example I would recomment to start dark and just work towards the highlights. Means, choose dark base colors and light em up in several layers. In my opinion it's easier in the beginning to work in one direction instead of starting with middle tone and work it into shadows+highlights.

1. Step: After priming lay down your base colors. Try to achieve an even coverage. For that thin your paints a bit to make em flow better. It might take a couple layers, depending also on the colors. For example yellow will not really cover over black! Try to be neat and work through the whole mini.
2. Step: When you have established all base colors mix a bit lighter tone of either the colors and start your first "highlight" layer. Leave your dark base color in the shadows.
3. Step: Like step two but this time with a lighter mixture. Repeat until happy with the result. -> the more tones you mix and the more layers you paint, the smoother the transition will become.

But most important is to have fun and keep painting :)
 

Graishak

Active member
Hey CyAniDe, confirming your statement.
Just drybrushing is fast, easy, but less professional. In general I mix those techniques.
Like the Squig I did... Basic layering blue, green ink... drybrushing lighter green...
Highlighting Turquise and another two green flavors.
Maximum professional is, for sure, layer by layer. I 100% agree.
I don't think that it will have a hard influence on the unit's view, if technique is going to be changed to more "layering" less drybrushing for the cloaks. So I will give it a try.
Will keep you posted on progress, The 2nd Squig is close to get finished.

And for sure... I will continue painting... and trying to improve. Therefore any hints are valued :)
 
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