How do I achieve beautiful realism like these submissions?

[redarmy27]

Fellow painters,

Well I\'ve been back in the fold now for a few months and I\'ve been getting better and better. Recently I\'ve been obsessed with achieving realism in my models. I mainly paint Warhammer 40k models and sell them, but rather than making them all shiney and pristine, I\'d rather go for the realistic effects such as these brilliant submissions:

Huron Blackheart By Corvus
http://www.coolminiornot.com/174680

CHAPTER MASTER RELICTOR By Artur
http://www.coolminiornot.com/180143

and another one of my favorites:

space marine chapter master By Robacek
http://www.coolminiornot.com/179326

Now what I want to know is how do you achieve this effect?

I\'m starting with a white basecoat and then move from that point onto black lining. Would I simply add a solid layer of desired color, highlight then dirty it up? If anyone has a tutorial, that\'d be excellent.

Lately I\'ve been having trouble with adding layers and having them look chalky, but that\'s a different story.

-Jake

 

[Ritual]

Have a look at the articles section here on CMON. There\'s a good article by Kaple on weathering (he\'s mainly doing it on a cloak, but it\'s essentially the same technique), and you may also find Cyril\'s article on painting a space marine head useful.

About your problem with chalky paints... That is probably due to the paint being too thin so that there isn\'t enough binder in the paint. Some paints get this problem easier than others. You can try adding a glaze medium or a flow improver to the paint, or alternatively, thin them less and use more steps in you layering process. Mix a little of your highlighting colour into the base colour and add a layer, then add a little more of the highlight and add another layer, and so on... This doesn\'t require quite as thinned down paint.

 

[redarmy27]

Thanks Ritual, I\'ll start scowering those articles right now.

I\'m using Vallejo Game Color paints, which are by far the best ones I\'ve used so far. The funny part is that I was using paint that was too thick previously, now I\'ve gone just the opposite end of the spectrum. I\'ll check my kit for some glaze medium of flow improver. Do you recommend any certain ones?

I\'ve been trying to keep my paint to the consistency of milk, so I\'ve been told.

By the way, great gallery, Ritual!

If anyone else has any tips or suggestions, let me know!

-Jake

 

[Shawn R. L.]

One thing I noticed about the three examples you showed are that they have a direct, un diffused light source from above. This can add a lot of drama to a piece. How you shoot something can make a lot of difference.

 

[PegaZus]

I don\'t know how obvious my suggestions will be, but I\'ll make them anyway. Hopefully \"duh\" won\'t come out.

Stay away from bright colors; use muted earthy tones. Don\'t mix in pure white for a highlight.

 

[redarmy27]

Originally posted by PegaZus
I don\'t know how obvious my suggestions will be, but I\'ll make them anyway. Hopefully \"duh\" won\'t come out.

Stay away from bright colors; use muted earthy tones. Don\'t mix in pure white for a highlight.

Very good point. When I was \"younger\" at painting I did this. Now I simply just take a color that\'s only one or two shades lighter as a highlight. Anyone here every put your main color down, highlight the extremes and then just put a watered down medium over the two to create a transition? I heard this works pretty well as well.

 

[elouchard]

Start with black primer for sure. It will take too long to get the dark effect starting with white primer. Layer on dark colors up to light ones but don\'t highlight up to white, maybe at most a bleached bone.

You can do your glaze transition also. It will work fine. The black primer will help you the most though.

 

[mattrock]

I agree that priming black would help alot in the more gritty, moodier jobs like the ones you\'ve shown. When I want this type of effect I start from black and paint my midrange and then glaze in both highlights and shadows (beginning with shadows). I also find that 75% of the time or so shading to this type of moodiness can be accomplished simply by adding touches of black to your original mix. You can get an altogether different but still effective moody look by mixing in the complementary color to shade. For example, shading reds by adding green to your base color, etc.

 

[mattrock]

one other thing...on the chalkiness I\'ve found that mixing in a bit of matte medium will often help eliminate that look because it helps to suspend the paint pigment, giving you more translucency but not less consistency.(viscosity)

Edit: I don\'t mean that you won\'t have a less viscous mix, but only that you can can slightly increase the viscosity of your paint by adding medium. This helps if you shade and highlight like I do at a dilution of around 10:1 water to paint.

Something else you want to be sure you do if you thin to that extent is wick off pretty much all the paint in the brush on a towel or the like (I use an old t-shirt) so that you have so little paint that by the time you get to the end of your brushstroke, the beginning is dry.

 

[redarmy27]

The only problem I find with black primer is that I have a harder time getting defined colors. I feel like the model loses it\'s edges in a way.

 

[mattrock]

Originally posted by redarmy27
The only problem I find with black primer is that I have a harder time getting defined colors. I feel like the model loses it\'s edges in a way.

If you mean that your colors seem less vibrant and saturated, then that\'s exactly the thing you\'re going for in the realism. Leave a touch of the black in the areas that you would normally blackline and then allow your shading/highlighting/weathering define the \"edges\".

 

[Gussy]

Originally posted by PegaZus
Stay away from bright colors; use muted earthy tones. Don\'t mix in pure white for a highlight.

Why?

 

[redarmy27]

Thanks for the tip Mattrock .


Gussy, by adding white you make the color a little too viibrant. You want to make a gradual, more realistic transition in the color spectrum. By adding a color that\'s only a shade lighter you ease into that transition

 

[Ritual]

Primer colour is very much a matter of preference. I agree that if you want mainly dark colours white is not a good choice. But, I also agree with what you say about colours getting too dull over a black primer. In many cases this won\'t be a problem, but there\'s often some places on the mini you want a bit brighter. I find myself using a grey primer most of the time. It\'s sort of a bit of both worlds...

As for flow improver brands... I don\'t use them myself that often. I have the Liquitex one and it\'s quite good AFAIK. I\'ve heard good things about Vallejo\'s glaze medium too, but never tried it myself.

 

[Gussy]

Thanks! Well, if you don\'t add white...what do you add?

 

[PegaZus]

Originally posted by Gussy
Thanks! Well, if you don\'t add white...what do you add?

You add a color, not just white. For example, say you\'ve got a dark green. Use a yellow or a light green to mix into it. I forget what the general guidelines are for the others.

 

[Ritual]

You can use light greys, light pinks, light greens, light beiges, light ochres, light skin tones etc. I often find myself using VMC Ivory for highlighting. Bleached Bone is useful, as is Ghostly Grey.

 

[demonherald]

you can do it the opposite way as well introduce some different colours into your basecoats to get more muted tones as you highlight..
e.g try a little dark Brown in a green basecoat..
a little black in blues

 

[redarmy27]

Now my main question regarding this mini:
space marine chapter master By Robacek
http://www.coolminiornot.com/179326

is how does he successfully add the effect of dirt and grime without losing the details of the armor and such?

Does he paint the mini like normal (highlights, shadings, the works) and then simply add washes over the model in key areas like \"reverse-highlighting\"? Any of the pros here have any advice on how to do something similar to this?

 

[squig hunter]

Looks like MIG pigment powders to me

Squig