GreenOne\'s WIP (Now with more vampiresque barbaric mayhem) FINISHED!!

[GreenOne]

Hi Y\'all
Here\'s the next project that I\'ll invest way too many hours in and score poorly with lol
This one has been waiting in it\'s primed state for a long while and It\'s now it\'s turn to be painted.
On this one I\'ll go a bit further and make a little scene, along with a diorama base complete with destructed wall, rubbles, human remnants and blood in the gutter... all that nice stuff
So far skin is done on the horse and the dudes face is done too, I\'m quite happy with the face and the little montage as well...


This dude was given to me by one of the guys I paint for as he was not using him... not quite sure what it is (Besides a vampire obviously.)

C&C at will on my signal...
... Now!

Edit: Changed the pics for better ones.. but a mismanipulation ( Read, dropping on the floor), caused the loss of a spike
Oh well, gotta fix that tomorrow.

 

[GreenOne]

Hard at work on my barbarian invasion
Today mostly finishing the skin area and putting some colors on that base.
I think there is a notable improvement on my skin and face details work...

Still soooo slow...

 

[Starks333]

still need more level of value

you dont have enough transition, so the shapes are very basic, or the whole model is equal, so there is no feeling of depth to it

you need to brighten further in some places, and darken further in others depending on light...you could also do with more colour contrast in the transitions, especially the skins

also the skin of the vampire is too close to the horse, and will likely blend in too much, so you might have a hard time displaying the rider

 

[GreenOne]

It\'s a shame, cause I do spend a lot of time trying to do exactly that
When I try putting more contrast I feel the transitions are too harsh, so I try too make it smoother and it ends up like that. Not sure how I could work around that...


Maybe I\'ll try glazing the horse towards some other color, I dunno.

 

[Starks333]

Originally posted by GreenOne
It\'s a shame, cause I do spend a lot of time trying to do exactly that
When I try putting more contrast I feel the transitions are too harsh, so I try too make it smoother and it ends up like that. Not sure how I could work around that...


Maybe I\'ll try glazing the horse towards some other color, I dunno.

look at automatons work, he goes to white often...its about the transition...the slower more gradual the more soft, the fast the transition the more reflective(like NMM) this is where you get that harsh effect

harshness also comes from using colours too far apart on the colour wheel...for example yellow shaded with blue(not mixed)

the closer together the colour, the less harsh it is

so for example...you have a cool grey....using colours closer to it will allow you to affect lighting...while using say a blue green to contrast slightly, and then a colour on the opposite side(a red) to contrast more heavily...this will help you \"exaggerate\" contrast without making \"darker or brighter\"

now you can most certainly choose nicer colours, those were just quick picks...and control the colour nicer, its hard to edit an improve with proper lighting and placement if you dont have the actual object

i resized it smaller to show you how much contrast it will have

so basically the red and blue green are what i use to define shape and gain contrast in areas...if i just used the greys and blues, i would have nicer shadows, but i wouldnt have nice intermediate shadows because the colours are too similiar

 

[GreenOne]

Cool.
Thanks for taking the time sir
I think I see where you\'re getting at. Been trying similar things lately but I lack the theory part so It\'s pretty much random.
I\'ll retouch these areas later on.

There is a bit more colors on the models, greens and reds, but the pictures fail to show it. Same for the victims face, there is muck darker brown in the recesses that\'s been lost along the way... I got to improve my pics too to get a clearer idea of where to improve my painting

 

[GreenOne]

Update on my vampire.
This week has been pretty busy, with christmas and all, so I did not have much time to get seriously painting, but it should be better from now on.

I tried to fix the horse as per Starks generous advice.. not sure if it helped or if it hurted, I think it kicked the contrast a bit, but also lost a bit of neatness (Not that it was very neat to start with lol )
It would have been better if I applied this theory as I was first doing these areas. Oh well...
I also finished the rubbles on the base, some parts on the victim and basecoated the horse barding black as it\'s going to be metalized on the next session (I\'m thinking bronze probably.)

Included a close up of the victims face so you can see his f*cked-up eye better


Edit: These pics are a lot more true to life, altough I might have overdone the contrast a bit...
EditEdit: No, those pics we\'re too aggressive.. changed for better. Sorry bout that still trying to figure this out.

 

[ScottRadom]

Love the victims face! Great work on that eye amigo!

 

[GreenOne]

Thanks Scott, I couldn\'t find access to do a proper eye (Cause It\'s pre-assembled) so that\'s kinda rewarding my lazyness lol

Happy new-year everyone, that\'s right, I\'m posting WIP even during the new-year\'s night, shows how dedicated I am.

Anyway, did the horse barding over the last 3 sessions, with a new approach; trying to learn automaton\'s dulled shadow technique for metallic, hardly successful but I feel it\'s going somewhere. Lights are a little rough, but I should get my light tent soon, before final I hope.

I got a couple areas to redo on the horse cause I got careless with all those glazes, what a shame

 

[mickc22]

don\'t worry, you weren\'t the only one posting WIP pic last night What are we like?

this is coming along nicely

 

[boristfrog]

I think the improvements to the horse skin has made a big difference. Good on you for trying something new and taking a risk!

 

[GreenOne]

Thanks dudes, glad to not be bashed

@Mick: We could say Lifeless, or passionate, which ever sounds better to you

Looking at the pics, I think I\'ll need to go and redo some extreme highlights, maybe I\'ll use polished gold . And I glazed the whole thing with some dark skin, a bit smoother now, I think.

 

[GreenOne]

Did some more metallics today.
Slightly improved the barding, with more highlights and glazing; dunno if there is some noticeable difference on the pics.
Also did the metal parts of the victim\'s armor, a lot more satisfied with them, gold pickups are only basecoated.
Included a top view, featuring my trusty painting hand

 

[ScottRadom]

Looking good. The barding does look improved, I love the vampire flesh, but the highlight of the piece for me is the victim. I just like the flavor of the dude as well as the painting.

Metals are tough. Your\'s are looking good and improved. I applaud your patience for going back and re-doing a part of the model you weren\'t happy with (The horse flesh looked fine by my eyes!). Keep it up.

Are you working on an army or are these strictly bound to go from unpainted on a shelf to painted and on another better shelf?

 

[GreenOne]

Thank you mate, I appreciate the feedback, makes the patience thing worthwhile. I wish to become a well known painter some day so I have to make efforts.
It\'s true the poor helpless brit guy is getting the spotlight so far, I\'ll have to figure something to make the vampire stand out more.

The piece is destined to collect dust on the top shelf of my painting station, being looked at once in a while until I make a better one.
I do wish I would game one day, but vampires wouldn\'t be my first choice.

 

[GreenOne]

Finally starting to feel some progress on this one; fixed the messy bits on the horse, did the hooves and hairy bits on the legs ( I might redo the highlights there.) and begun painting the actual subject... The brown corduroy-ish part are done, the red is partly shaded. Still pondering on the cloak but I think I\'ll go with this purple-black highlighting towards grey...

 

[ScottRadom]

Nice, is this part of an army or a stand alone. Did I already ask that?

 

[GreenOne]

Haha, yeah you asked, and I answered
The little army painting I do so far is for aquaintance who play WHFB.
I only know the very slow and painful process of trying to achieve my best and push it forward, and this doesn\'t suit army painting very well. I have two cavalry unit that are in the WIP stage and I really rarely feel like getting to those. I need to figure a way to do fast TT painting, but so far, my top-tier is most people\'s tabletop lol

 

[GreenOne]

Slowly but surely...
I did the reds, and basecoater all the remaining metallics. Those on the victims are finished, and I\'m pretty pleased.

At this point I\'ve decided I will not do the diorama base as first intended; base is telling enough as it is, and this mini already took so much of my time.
Was worth it tough, I learned a lot, and, I think, greatly improved my metallics and skin works.

Thanks for bearing with me so far. You might have guessed but the wip thread is much of a self satisfactory thing for me

 

[ScottRadom]

The metals are quite nice, and I think the vampire flesh is ridiculously good.

My eye is still drawn to the base though. The victim, the handpainted woodgrain, and general coolness of the base make it hard for me to focus on the figure. Not an awful thing for sure, I just find myself studying the base everytime I see a new pic. It\'s awesome.

Maybe some kind of brighter color for the part of the cloak in his hand might bring the focus up? I dunno, and I don\'t really think it\'s a problem anyway. The base is super cool!

Let\'s get this done and on to something else. Onward and upward! Speed, speed, speed!

(PM me your address and I can send you that primer.)