How do I get my miniatures to 'pop' and take the step from basic to better?

[evl hmr]

Hello everyone. A small introduction. I first painted a miniature about 30 years ago, some black Airfix paint on a GW ninja, then stopped! ( I still have the ninja though) rediscovered the hobby about 5 odd years ago and I've been slapping paint onto small plastic miniatures on and off since then. I've backed a couple of Kickstarters, so I have a fair few resin monster, men and machines ready to paint on. I'm a pretty standard tabletop painter, ( 5 to 6 on here I would imagine) although I don't play any games and use the paintbrush as a way to handle my constant battle with clinical depression, it's my reality escape so to speak.
Anyhow, I subscribe to the Painting Buddha academy so I watch all these amazing video's, I attended a intensive painting weekend with Meg Soley (nee Maples) mid last year. so I have a rudimentary understanding on how to paint and what to do, what I do and don't like etc, but I cannot for the life of me get any better! I have spent countless hours ruining miniatures only to put them in a bath of Simple Green and start all over again, and the process continues....
In my head I know exactly how I want each and every miniature I own to look like, yet my skills constantly let me down and I can't seem to take the step up from basic beginner.

Anyway, these are some of what I have currently on my desk:



I use an airbrush for undercoating, sometimes for basecoating too, I have a variety of paints, mainly Scale75 though.
What can I do?
Help.....

 

[evl hmr]

Damn, how I remove the massive images?

 

[TrystanGST]

Well you've already got a good handle on the airbrush it seems.
The beasties you have here are challenging, even for people who paint for a living!
So that's an uphill battle right there.
Practice is really the key to not only getting better, but getting faster and finding your own "style".
For now, it might help to peruse the gallery, noting what you see on minis that catches your eye.
Is it dramatic colors? Stark shading? NMM? metallics? Basing?
This might give you an idea on where to start.

 

[MAXXxxx]

you need bigger contrasts. larges variation between deepest shadow and highest highlight. On all 3 pics what you have the base for the figure, now it's time to detail it and strengthen the shades / highlights.


For example on the first pic:
the red skin you have seems like pretty much the base color only. You could shade to deep red or even black leather (you mentioned using scale colors) and you couldhighlight it to a lighter red + skin color mix. Then there are scars on that body, that are not shown (scar being a lot lighter color surrounded with some darker shade to make them pop.
Then the armor is pretty much just a metal color, no shading to be seen. You mentioned the PB videos, just look at the Infamy video or the warjack one for metallics tutorial.
wings have a nice transition between purple and red, but the folds in each part could be picked out with a lighter shade.
While it's probably not finished, but hooves, claws, horns could be painted bone (whether a light one or a dark brown one is your choice) (because of color theory I'd go with a light yellowish tone (tenere yellow / white sands) as a base, as you have red with blue shades so far (the yellow would balance it to a triad color-scheme)

+ you'd need to make a focal point on the mini. A lot of the time it would be the face, but maybe you'd want to pick out another part and make the others support it.

 

[Webmonkey]

Most of us painters are never really "truely happy" with our work. Even those figures you see that you think are "perfect" or have some otherwise badass paint job,... I promise you that even those artists are looking at someone else's work and thinking "man,.. I wish I could have gotten mine to look like that". Believe me, they all have people they admire too. It sorta goes with the territory. But it can be a good thing to never be happy with your work,.. try to see it as a constant reason to struggle to improve, and not a reason for despair. I tend to have long periods where I feel my work has "plateaued",... but then I get an "ah-ha!!" moment and suddenly figure out a new/different way to do something.

 

[Terrafirma]

The first thing I noticed ,other than your introduction could be of myself , is there are no true absolute high light any where on any of your figures ,just for a test or experiment put some upto white highlight on the third models bone thing above his mouth and watch it stand out and then the bone above his eyes .What I am doing at the moment is playing with those highlights it may/may not work but you will only learn from your mistakes and you will figure out why something works not just that some one else did it so I will do it too.
cheers fello Aussie

 

[Bailey03]

Already lots of great advice. As Trystan said, those guys are all tough projects. Pick just one of them and I'd spend a month or two just working on that trying to get a decent result! Sort of in line with what he was saying, first thing is to figure out how you want to paint. What do you want your stuff to look like? Are there artists in the gallery or on the forum who you'd like to paint like? Or do you have your own style in mind but haven't quite gotten the reality to match up with what is in your head? Those can go together by the way, nothing wrong with taking inspiration from others and then tweaking it to make your own style. If you're trying to improve, look to the work that you admire and try to analyze what the differences are between your current state and where you want to be. Don't expect to get there on your next project, but break it down into smaller sized goals.

For me, it started out with working on more light/dark contrast and smoother blends (yes, two things but they go together). I'm still not done trying to improve that, but once I felt like I'd gotten a handle on it, I moved on to textures. So things like better metallics, leather that looked like leather, etc. Then I got into weathering (dirt, rust, blood, etc) and added that to my tool kit. My latest thing is colors. More effective use of glazing to create color variation, warm/cool contrast, etc. None of those are ever 100% finished, there's still room on all of them to improve. But breaking it down and saying hey, let's do more contrast on this figure than the last is a lot more manageable than trying to do it all at once.

Whatever your end goal is, more contrast, better blends, and correct placement of highlights and shadows are going to be some of the primary building blocks. I wrote a long post over in Khonner's thread two weeks ago showing my struggles and progress over the past 5 or so years. You might find that helpful as well.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums...-Khonner-s-WIP&p=771141&viewfull=1#post771141

 

[breff007]

Without contrast the model will look flat. The contrast can be from the colours – warm dark, the saturation, dark/light. I really struggled with this but I concentrated on pushing the dark light contrast as much as I could. I practise using the zenithal highlighting technique to see where I should be place highlights and shadows. Prime a mini black, then spray from above at a bit of an angle with a mid-grey, then spray again from directly above with pure white.

Another thing I learnt over the years is that your final highlight should (in most cases) cover a small area. I was covering too much of the area with the final highlight colour and it impact; I had more or less just wiped out the mid tone (the colour I wanted the area to be) with the highlight. A smaller final highlight can give much more impact.


The minis your are trying on are complex so don't feel disheartened, Krull especially due to his size. There are definite positives, good control with airbrush, good choice of colours, etc. Paint thinned correctly etc. Working on contrast will really improve them and is something the can be done quite simply with some washes and highlights.
For the metal on the demon, try using just thinned black paint for the shadows. You'll get contrast between light and dark and also between the shine of the metal and the matt finish of the paint. Give the metal a wash of thin black paint (even gently wipe it with you finger to remove the paint from the highest points), It will settle in the shadows and immediately make them look better.

For the Qaano all the colours look the same and are more or less the same brightness and so blend together when you look at them. Have a look at the official paint job and see where there is contrast for example, the face is brighter than the black metal around it - this draws your eye to it, the fur has been highlighted almost to white and is shaded brown (warm vs cold of the metal armour). The shoulder pad is mostly black with the smallest of pure silver highlights.

What will also help is to try and differentiate each part of the mini, for example where cloth meets skin or where an armour plate finishes. This will help break up the mini into its separate parts and will make it easier for the viewer to "read" Have a look at the chain on Krulls belly plate. The chain blends into the main plate, try giving this a thin wash of black/brown. This will make it stand out from the main plate.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

As others have said, hit yourself in the face with the contrast bat. You clearly know how to blend well, and this is evidenced by the fact that you smoothly blended two different colors (the wings). This is about as difficult as blending can get, and shows that you could blend a transition of dark color x to light color x. Since you already have this skill, the rest is just putting it to proper use.

I I think that if you feel you have plateaued for so long, you would most benefit from a 1 on 1 tutor. Someone that can look at you paint and say that is right or that is wrong. You could make a video of a half hour session and send it to a helpful tutor. I know plenty on here that would take the time...

As was said, find out how you want to paint. I often get obsessed with the work of certain artists, and their influence can be seen in my own work. For a long while, I couldn't stop looking at Sprocket's stuff. To me, a lot of his NMM stuff is gospel. I have also been attracted to Megazord Man, I love his color theory and his base work. Lately, I've had a thing for SkelletettS tho. His style differs quite a bit from many in that it's a dirty, grungy gothic style. But when you see the results of my latest project you will see his influence.

So basically try to emulate your painting heroes. Everyone I mentioned above has been extremely helpful in answering my questions. Don't be afraid to pester people for feedback.

 

[gohkm]

Mate, you're in Melbourne, right? Head down to Games Lab and look for Maria Armstrong (?) or Peter Overton. Bring along a model or two. They'll be able to point out where you might be able to improve.

 

[ten ball]

I have also been attracted to Megazord Man,

Yes he is nice but you have to buy him a bottle of wine first. :smirk:

 

[evl hmr]

Wow, thank you so much for all the help already! I have so much to digest. Contrasting is definitely what I don't get. I understand and I can see how and where etc, but when it comes to me actually painting highlights or shadows I never push it enough. As an example, the red devil fella has dark blue shadows and 4 different reds on him, in my hand he looks OK, but I know I need to push the contrasts to make them visible. I guess it's a matter of bravery, just keep going brighter darker. Thank you for the link Bailey, your post explains a lot, especially where I need to get my head.
To help with my inspiration as suggested, I have paid my $12 so I can add all my favorite artists to a folder and really scrutinize their work. Bohun is my painting hero, I love his style, but then I really like Scott Hockley for his skins, Sprocket and Tommie Soule for NMM etc etc. So for the next few days I will concentrate on the 3 figures I have and I'll post again when I have tried some contrasts......

 

[Paintforfun]

I'm in the same situation as you and red is a very hard colour to paint, I've also been stripping alot of miniatures because of not matching the image in my head...
uhm, what I will try next before I give in is practicing painting skills just.. become a better painter that goes not only for miniatures but the craft of painting, i found a nice guide to contrast here

http://platoonbritannica.com/index.php?threads/a-guide-to-contrast.3077/

set up goals for yourself, test your painting on paper before you move to the minis to prevent stripping

 

[infelix]

That's big improvement in my book, specially the skin. With the metal I would increase the contrast more but you are definitely on the right path.

 

[evl hmr]

Hello everybody. Well, after a week of battling the black cloud and trying to settle a 9 month old, I have managed to add some contrasts to my 3 figures. Shaetaan is the one I've worked on the most, but is it enough? I've added a basecoat brown to horns, hooves and underwear and a dark blue/black wash to the legs.
Am I on the right path?

Many thanks in advance

 

[breff007]

Wow! That's a great improvement! Skin and wings look much, much better, very impressed with the difference.
Try working the metals a little bit more, some thin, controlled washes of black, deep blue paint for the shadows. This will also help outline and separate the differnet metal eliments. Some small edge highlights of silver as well. Vallejo Model Air Chrome or Vallejo Metal Medium are great for bright metal highlights.
Really good work though!

 

[gohkm]

That is looking really good, mate!

 

[Scherdy]

HUGE difference. Wow! Yeah, once those metals get brought up to a similar contrast as the skin you've got a totally different model. Very nice.

 

[Alabama]

Thats underwear? Or a flame throwing cod piece? Lol I mean he is a demon. But damn. I wish I could paint that good.

 

[DMcc]

great article thanks!

I'm in the same situation as you and red is a very hard colour to paint, I've also been stripping alot of miniatures because of not matching the image in my head...
uhm, what I will try next before I give in is practicing painting skills just.. become a better painter that goes not only for miniatures but the craft of painting, i found a nice guide to contrast here

http://platoonbritannica.com/index.php?threads/a-guide-to-contrast.3077/

set up goals for yourself, test your painting on paper before you move to the minis to prevent stripping