Last mini of the year!

[boubi]

Happy New Year to all fellow painters!
I have finished this mini for a Chinese online painting competition, the deadline was 31 Dec 2013, I achieved to post it at 11.20pm on the 31st... One hour earlier I was still trying to get the spider web effect done out of my airbrush using Krakelee varnish from Pelikan used by Massivevoodoo with my airbrush. It was a pain but when the web appear you feel a kind of joy of achievement! I will post a longer thread on my understanding of this technique and my learning that you don't find in the explanations of Massivevoodoo (Forged monkey) when buying the varnish from their webstore. But I can say that the result is quite surprising and really realistic, it deserves the pain going through the process..
So I had to rush and didn't really achieve the results I was hoping especially on the base, nevertheless I am happy to have finished it on time!

Here the voting link

View attachment 24704

 

[ten ball]

nice one, voted

 

[Zab]

Epic way to finish the year!

 

[AndyG]

Voted and commented. One of your best without a doubt. Just a personal observation here I feel your at the stage were to improve any further you need to constantly try out new techniques push yourself try the hard difficult to do stuff.

 

[Canny]

Awesome work love the green under the armor and cloth on the horse, took me a second to see the death he brings with him, (which is good he will catch you unawares!)
On the constructive side I feel the stones could be a tad smaller to get more imersion.
keep up the great work.

 

[Judging_Jester]

Fantastic work. I'd love to have that sat on my desk

 

[Milosh]

this is really nice. I agree with what Andy says, you are right there it is just gonna take getting out of the comfort zone and accepting a fail or glorious triumph by trying something that is out there for you. Great work and good luck in the comp sir.

 

[boubi]

Thank you all!
Really appreciate!

Voted and commented. One of your best without a doubt. Just a personal observation here I feel your at the stage were to improve any further you need to constantly try out new techniques push yourself try the hard difficult to do stuff.

Actually Andy this is exactly what I am feeling, I reached a step, where I can use most of the different techniques without big difficulties in a smooth way and still quite fast. But I am stuck to improve my work further... I believe that it comes from 2 main areas:
1. Impatient, painting faster make you also impatient. So I try to finish my projects in a faster way compared to what I was used before. Then sometimes I don't take the time to make it perfect, but only good enough. I will start a project where thinking the mini through and taking my time will key! Let's see the result.
2. Color theory, I lack of knowledge and experience choosing my colors. Having good technical painting skills is definitely not enough and only a quite small parts, the easiest one to acquire when you don't have any artistic background. I am reading some color theory book, but applying it to miniatures is not as easy as it seems

 

[AndyG]

Yep colour contrast and glazing also sitting down and thinking I am going to do every last part of the project to the best of my abilities. Here is a great link for colour theory http://www.ttcreation.org/modules/articles/lire.php?id=6&langue=en great site full stop well worth having a look at the English language bits (my French is of the two beers and a baguette variety) hope this helps!