GW Wardancer Musician WIP, Updated 07-02-07

[Ayla]

It\'s been a while since I\'ve posted, so Hello again!

I\'ve been working on this musician and desperately trying to master \'blended highlights\'... I\'ve had some sucess, but am not totally happy with it

If anyone want\'s to comment and offer advice I\'d be very grateful!

Have only really tried the blending on the blue and the drum base and top, and I *think* where I\'m going wrong is having the paint too thick. Have been using three different \'shades\' and trying to \'blend\' them wet.

Anyway, comments welcome!:yes:

 

[gaspode]

Hey Ayla!

That is a nice model you are producing there. Looking great so far.

Are you going to be doing some more highlighting on the skin? I think it could just be the picture, but it looks a little flat. (saying that, my skin tone\'s suck)

Overall.. superb and I really like the hair colour. What colours/paints did you use for it?

 

[Ayla]

Thanks for the compliments Gaspode!

Yes, I do still have work to do on the skin- have only just started it really.

I use citadel paints as my cousin kindly gave me pretty much every paint in the range to \'start me off\':bouncy: (Bless him!) The hair is graveyard earth, then Kommando Khaki, higlighted with bleached bone- I was quite pleased with how it turned out myself

 

[misterjustin]

Well I don\'t know how much help I can be -- but let me first chime in with a compliment on that hair. That is quite possible the only blonde hair I\'ve seen painted that actually looked, well, like hair. It\'s fantastic!

Having been playing with blended highlights myself I understand the cry for feedback. Overall I think you\'re doing a fine job on the blue.

I think that you could go a touch darker in the shaded areas -- and it\'s not too late to do that now. Adding a touch of black to your original base colour and making a near wash consistency would work fine. Just apply it carefully.

If you\'ve only painted four models I\'m sure we can look forward to some truly amazing updates on this and future projects.

 

[Highbulp Billy]

After just 4 minis you seem to have a much better grasp of blending and highlighting than I do after a big shelfload ( ). The blue and pink look great as does the hair (one of my favourite GW colour combinations). I think you\'ve already realised that the key is to get the right paint consistency and, as far as I can tell, this only really comes with practice and experimenting. Good luck...

 

[Ayla]

Thanks for the feedback guys, it\'s very much appreciated.

As Jondalar has so kindly pointed out :redface: I\'ve only been painting literally three months, so any and all feedback is welcome!

@misterjustin- I agree that the blue could do with going a bit darker in the shaded bits, but I haven\'t got any of the original paint mix- I tend to mix it on a palette, and of course it then dries up and I can\'t remember what it was

Should I be investing in lots of mixing pots so I can keep the mixes for later use?!

Hoping to do some more work on this later, so will photograph and update tomorrow.

 

[Onis Lair]

I wouldn\'t worry about the mixing pots to keep colors unless you intend to mix a large amount for painting several models with the same color, like an army. I transfered all of my old GW paint to dropper bottles so i have a ton of empty cleaned paint pots for mixing, and never use them. You have excelent brush control for painting for such a short time and a good eye for colors. It\'s cliche but the truth, make sure to thin your paint. As Whiz once told me, you can never really thin your paints too much but you can definatly not thin them enough.

 

[philologus]

Pink and blue wood elfs? Rock on. Looks good so far. The only thing I notice is that the flesh color needs another lighter shade on top.

 

[Starks333]

invest in a wet palette, you can keep mixes alive for days, sometimes a week or more, sitting there waiting to be used, so even if you forget, you just look at your palette and the colours on it already, and you can figure it out

her top needs to be brighter as does the teal and the pink, the hair could use a little more shading it all seems to be highlighted/shaded the same while the robe seems to be affected by light

as for her skin try mixing in blues/purples for shades, reds for tinting

looking good for only 3 months

Starks

 

[Ayla]

OK, well I\'ve read and digested all your advice, and have done a bit more to this mini.

Think I\'ve wrecked the skin tones- doesn\'t look as \'ghoulish\' IRL, but the photos make it look nasty!

Have attempted to wet blend on the \'ribbon\' and have just inked the weapon blades.

More work to be done obviously, and as usual any tips or advice would be appreciated

 

[Jericho]

The ribbon looks great in that photo! Very smooth indeed.

It\'s really hard to believe that\'s just your fourth model... as I\'ve said elsewhere I didn\'t really start to get better until after a couple full armies of ugly models.

I quite literally thought that only people who paint for a living can realistically do more than simply \"coloring inside the lines\" on models. My first attempt at impriving involved painting pure white edges on every single edge of the old Marneus Calgar... straight over top of Ultramarines Blue. Lovely, as you might imagine :|~

Anyway I notice there\'s a big difference in the color of the two photos, the second one is way brighter. Which one is closer to the real thing? The first photo looks quite a bit more natural.

 

[emopainterguy]

Looks stunning for a fourth model... I think if anything needs improvement it\'d be the flesh. Maybe give it a wash of a darker colour and reapply some of your highlights after. As for what colour its up to as different colours will give different feelings to the skin (blue = cold, etc.)

 

[Onis Lair]

You can help that skintone by doing a trick Whiz taught me. Take a terra cotta color and a Rose brown (I think that is the color from vallejo) and mix the two togeather into a thin wash. It should be a very pale terrs cotta fleshtone color and wash that thinly over the skin. It will help even out the skin tones and add a bit of depth and color. I do this using Adikolor\'s Scar Brown and Terra Cotta... mainly because no one in this hell hole of a town carries anything but GW paints.

 

[Ayla]

Thanks for the feedback guys

@ Jericho- This really is only my fourth \'serious\' model, and only about the tenth I\'ve done at all- the first few were some of Jondalar\'s \'cast offs\' that he kindly gave me to practice on! Regarding the photos- the first set are probably nearer to reality- the second lot were taken in full sunlight, hence they are a bit washed out. Photography is something I need to improve on too!

@emonpainterguy & Onis Lair- thanks for the tips- I\'ll try a wash over the flesh- it certainly needs *something* doing to it!

Goning to try to finish this in the next couple of days- to be honest I\'m lacking enthusiasm for it.. it\'s very badly cast (not unusual for GW I understand!) and I\'m itching to start on the Hasslefree minis I got last week...!

 

[Ayla]

OK, think this is just about finished- here\'s the first set of \'finished\' photos.. I always spot something that needs attention from the first set, hence why there\'ll be another set!

So... apart from the obvious areas that need \'touching up\', is there anything else you guys would suggest that I can try to improve this mini?

Thanks in advance