Improving my painting

[Polymphus]

So I\'ve decided that it\'s about time that I took some major steps in improving my painting skills. So I\'ve got here some pics of stuff I\'ve painted and I\'d like to know exactly what it is I\'m doing wrong, and what I can do in order to fix it. So any advice/constructive criticsm would be greatly appreciated.

All of this stuff is fairly recent. So yeah, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Poly
Out

 

[david 56]

1st things 1st u need to practice.on the skin u should layer and water down your paints!by layering im mean like using gw paints start by a base coat of tanned fleshfirst high light use tan flesh and dwarf fles in a 50/50 mix 3rd high light use jus pure dwarf flesh the last hilght wich is fourth should be a mix of dwarf and el flesh hight once again a 50/50 mix!remember always keep your paints watered down!

 

[funnymouth]

dark lining will do you a world of wonder on your small figs by giving them definition.

 

[Hygmer]

Mini nr 1

Many thin coats on the skin would make a huge dirrence, you also need to put down some more time on your basing.

Also, highlights! I see way too few, you\'ll see major improvements if you start to highlight every area on the model.

One more thing:

Considering the color of the base, the weathering on the pants should be darker.

Model nr 2

Highlight the model, blackline and use less weathering.

Model nr 3

can\'t see much Im afraid

Model nr 4

Use a basecoat, the grey plastic \"shine-through\" is really a killer, and a common mistake made by those new to the hobby, if you are to improve, it\'s time to spend more time.

 

[GreenOne]

Link

Go there, click the english flag, choose model color twice, click introduction, and read all of it.
That\'s where it started to work for me^^

They all seem to lack a bit of contrast, shading should go very dark and highlight very bright at the edge.

Darklining and edging ( Light line on the outer edge of cloaks and so..) would help a lot.
Don\'t use ink to shade fabric, it shows most on the first mini.

Hope this helps

 

[kinjesus]

Advice

My first piece of advice to you would be to avoid GW paints like they contained polonium 210,instead invest in a complete set of vallejo game color,or Rackham paints,but make sure to get the whole set,as this will help you in building highlights.
Next,you need to use thin layers of paint,and definitely spend the time to undercoat your minis properly(i use black,but you can use lighter colours if oyu prefer).If you use black,and take your time with the colouring,leaving a little base coat showing between different colours,you can avoid blacklining.
Another important thing is to invest in a good set of brushes,you will need at least a 00 brush as your smallest,and tey to have at least 6 in your set with 2 of these being larger ones(size 2 or larger),cheaper brushes are fine for undercoating,or you can use a spray.

I hope this helps you.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Well with respect Kinjesus your advice regarding ditching GW paints is not really all that helpful.
Some people will not have the immediate cashflow advantage to buy complete stocks of some 200 plus paints.


Polymphus

I\'ve taken the liberty of capturing your first picture to show some of the areas that you need to work on.
Highlights: As you can see I\'ve emphasised the highlights especially around the face. This is easily done by adding Bleached bone or Elf flesh to your Bronzed flesh main colour. You can add several levels of lighter colour to acheive hreater highlights and varying skintones.
Shadows; I\'ve darkened the shadows again mostly arounf the face to show the areas that need to have greater definfition. A good example would be to used watered down Dwarf Flesh as a dark tonality. Generulpoleaxe and I both use extremely dilute washes and gazes to paites mixed with purple and green to give variations around skintones. (Ever looked in a mirror first thing in the morning and seen the dark shadows under your eyes? They sometimes will have a faint purple tone to the skin. (depending on the type of fluid intake the night before. )

I would suggest that your ink washes are too strong and that they are pooling in ares that don\'t help the model. Try diluting them until they are little more than coloured water and apply several layers very carefully. (Adding a tiny amount of washing up liquid also helps to stop them pooling and forming hard edges.)

One thing to try and remember is that most of the 28mm figures we see on here have extreme contrast between highlight and shadow in order that the naked eye can make out the detail. Remembering that will help you get a head start.

Hope that these suggestions will help.

 

[matty1001]

Originally posted by kinjesus
My first piece of advice to you would be to avoid GW paints like they contained polonium 210,instead invest in a complete set of vallejo game color,or Rackham paints,but make sure to get the whole set,as this will help you in building highlights.

What a load of bollocks,any colour can be mixed from the 3 primary colours, so even with 30 basic GW paints you will be able to mix more than enough colours.