Greg\'s WIP\'s - help is always appreciated

[Greg Ellis]

Well, I decided to go back to the intended colour scheme.

Wow, what a lot of coats of blue-purple to cover orange! I even undercoating with grey and it didn\'t help that much at all.

Once I had the blue-purple where I wanted it, I backed off on the purple in the mix and layered over progressive shades of mostly blue (mixed from a navy and an ultra blue).

Unfortunately, I think the first few blue mixes were somewhat darker than I expected (i.e. darker than the blue-purple base coat). It looks to me as though I\'ll need to redo the purple (shadows) with a deeper shade - I hope that works.

I\'m surprised at how long it\'s taking to build up to the highlights. I\'m accustomed to much quicker methods (base, wash for shadows, dry-brush for highlights, tada!), but I guess the quality is worth it.

The orange covered the pale blue much more quickly; two or three coats was plenty. I started on shadows here, but I think I botched it; the brown/orange mix seems far too stark against the orange. I guess I\'ll see if I can blend away the harsh transition using a more intermediate tone? All of this is new to me.

Any input or guidance much appreciated as always. What do you think of the idea of using purple as a shadow tone for blue?

 

[Greg Ellis]

Yesterday was a real mix of ups and downs.

On the plus side, I found a new art store, not too far from where I work, and found that it\'s very well stocked.

I bought up my first Kolinsky Sable Brush (not a Series 7, they didn\'t carry those, but a decent substitute, the W&N Cirrus Series 110 Short-handled Round 0).

I also got myself some W&N Acrylic Flow Improver, some brush cleaner and a couple of el cheapo multi-well plastic palettes.

The brush is a real treat to paint with - it\'s got a very different feel when compared to the cheap Taklon brushes I\'m accustomed to. And no hook! Woohoo!

The Windsor & Newton Acrylic Flow Improver label recommended 10:1 or 20:1 dilution with water before mixing the product into the paint. I tried a 10:1 solution in an empty Visine bottle I had rescued from the trash can.

Then I mixed up a dark purple-blue-black colour, using only the 10:1 flow improver solution as a thinner, to line-in the deepest shadows on the purple-blue sections of the fig.

Wow, the new brush made a huge difference. I was able get a razor-sharp point, and control the width of my stroke by varying pressure. Very cool.

Quite happy with that result, I tried some lining on the orange areas, using a thin mix of walnut and orange. Something went wrong, and the paint become sort of jelly-like and far too transparent. I left that task to try something else.

And here the serious issues began.

I mixed up a highlight tone for the blue-purple sections, from ultra blue, wedgewood (light) blue and the flow improver solution. As I painted it carefully onto the highest upward-facing surfaces I saw a number of problems:

- the paint tended to collapse into tiny spheres on the mini

- where I managed to paint a line, it would dry as a ring, with more pigment toward the outer edge and less toward the centre

- after some practice, I could control the beginning of the stroke alright, but the end was always a little blob of paint with much more pigment than the rest

- when I tried to fix all of the above by feathering the paint into the surrounding area (with a second brush), I got a chaulky dry-brush effect instead of a smooth gradation

- I tried drying my brush, to various degrees, before touching it to the mini. This helped to prevent \"flooding\" and allowed me to paint thinner lines, but the lines still had the problems mentioned above

Thinking that the problem was coming from the paint mix, I tried again, mixing up the same colour using glaze medium in place of the flow release, then a third time using Future instead. All three mixes behaved pretty much the same way.

So I\'m at a bit of a loss - is this just an experience thing? I need to keep working at it to learn to control the brush and the paint better? Or am I missing something?

Strangely, I managed to get a nice \"glow\" on the orange highlights (just orange mixed with a strong yellow and thinned with the flow improver solution). It\'s fairly subtle, and I might need to retouch, but it\'s a lot nicer to look at than the purple-blue sections.

Could it be that I\'m working with a highlight colour that\'s too light for the basecoat?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Oh, and to top off the negatives... I spotted another mold line! Arrrrgggh!!

 

[charlie121]

I think you are doing really well mate your certianley putting the work in but it does take a lot of time and pateance to get as good as some of the amazing painters on this site, so dont be hard on yourself, off the three figures i painted recently only one was any good the others had to bestripped to start again. I cant really offer much advice as im not that great at painting sorry

 

[Greg Ellis]

Thanks Charlie.

I think your stuff is pretty good, actually. Better than mine, anyway. The blindfolded guy with wings is especially cool.

Funny thing though - don\'t you think the witch hunter lady looks a bit like Queen Victoria?



At this stage in my painting struggle, I\'m happy to get advice from anyone, trust me on that.

I just wish I had more time to practise. I think a lot of this stuff probably comes with time. And painting time isn\'t something I have a lot of.

 

[Quiksilver]

Greg, for a beginner your pretty good. A white undercoat is a bit adventurous for even some more experianced umongst us here. Try a black undercoat and dont bother with thinners just use water with your paint, works just aswell.

When you painted the cloak on the wizard i saw you painted it orange, then purple?! Try to avoid this as the colour will be different to what you hoped for!!!

On the other hand, your metals look really nice

Regards

JC :drunk:

 

[Greg Ellis]

I left the orange and purple sections behind for a while to work on some other elements - boots, gloves, staff and the yellow trim.

Am I right in judging that the shading on the gloves and boots is far too subtle at the moment?

Any advice on how to handle the yellow/purple boundaries would be much appreciated. Should I be lining that edge? With what colour?

Also, does anyone know what that thing is on his back? It looks like a pair of disks hanging from a strap, beside the spellbook on his back. Is it a frying pan or a cooking pot or something?

 

[Quiksilver]

Simple inking techniques or blacklining will help bring out the detail

Mix 1:7 Water 1:1 inks/paint 1:1 Washing up liquid 1:1 Water effects or PVA/Woodworking glue to stop your inks pooling in the crevices!?

Hope this helps.... (this will do just as good for the boots and gloves aswell!!!)

Regards JC

 

[Greg Ellis]

Boots and Gloves, Boots and Gloves

Yes, I\'m still struggling along with the boots and gloves. Some spots on the surface are working out really well; I like the way the shadows blend from dark into light.

But in some other spots (between the fingers, for instance) I haven\'t been able to get it quite dark enough yet.

I\'m scared to mix up a darker colour and try to paint a thin line in there - I\'m worried I\'ll botch all the work I\'ve already done.

I\'m curious what method you folks use to get the deepest shadows - is it something you do early on and then blend up through lighter shadows into the midtone?

Do you paint a dark base coat and then go over top of it with the midtone leaving only thin dark lines?

Or do you just keep going over and over the shadows until it drops down to the dark tone you want (as I\'ve been doing here)?

 

[charlie121]

Sometimes il work up from darkest colour mainly dark colours others il start half way and use glazes to create shafing in the recess for gloves and boots i start darkest colour like scorched brown and work my way up sometimes just adding bleached bone bit by bit. Have a go at darkening between fingers if you dont like how they look use thin paint and dont overload brush good luck mate :beer:

 

[Quiksilver]

Simple inking techniques or blacklining will help bring out the detail

Mix 1:7 Water 1:1 inks/paint 1:1 Washing up liquid 1:1 Water effects or PVA/Woodworking glue to stop your inks pooling in the crevices!?

Hope this helps.... (this will do just as good for the boots and gloves aswell!!!)

Regards JC

I OFFERED YOU GREAT ADVICE :cussing::cussing:

 

[Greg Ellis]

Originally posted by Quiksilver
I OFFERED YOU GREAT ADVICE :cussing::cussing:

Sorry, I\'m not following. What are you trying to say?

I already know how to mix up the paint so it sticks or flows as desired.

I was asking about the workflow - do you generally start light and work down to dark, or start dark and work up to light, or start with the midtone and work in both directions?

Before that I was asking whether I should line the edge between the yellow and purple and with what colour.

And also whether anyone could identify the thing hanging from the belt.

Your response was a formula for a paint mix.