Limited edition Sicarius

[Dominus Ex Machina]

Hey guys, I recently finished and posted up my version of the Limited ed. Sicarius and he\'s not doing so well. Right now he has the by far worst score of all my minis that I added to my gallery. I didn\'t expect him to be perfect seeing as I tried out several, for me, new things like the water and zenithal lighting. And that\'s why I\'d love to get some constructive criticism and tips for improving!

Cheers

 

[Joek]

Maybe you\'re being a little harsh on yourself - currently the figure stands at 7.6, which is still a good score.

Ironically, I really love this figure of yours - I think the rather \'loose\' style suits the piece perfectly, and there\'s something rather impressionistic about it (not that I\'m going to go all \'art-critic\' on you ). I suppose it may well be that looseness which might have lowered the scores a bit.

The only critique I\'d make is on the use of resin on the base - it seems altogether too much there, and doesn\'t really add anything to the piece as a whole. I think you could have quite easily not had it on at all, and the piece would not have suffered - possibly it might have been enhanced.

Anyway, quite why I\'m giving you advice when I\'m really only now becoming consistant enough to get into the mid-high 7s (only a couple in the 8s so far ), I don\'t know! As I said above, I think this is a lovely figure and has real life to it.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

main point, contrast.
at the moment the zenithal lighting isn\'t strong enough to be recognized as such.

second, scores aren\'t just down to painting. the miniature itself counts for a big part of it.
and this miniature is not one of the more popular space marines.

don\'t worry about this one, start a new miniature and let people know what style you are trying out.
make sure you only do one step at a time in between posting and getting critique, then adjusting it based on that critique.
at the end, hold this miniature and the above marine up next to each other and compare them yourself.

hope that helps.

 

[Dominus Ex Machina]

Thanks guys.

Joek, I admit that I didn\'t put much thought into the use of the resin, I just wanted to try it out for fun. I don\'t think 7.6 is such a bad score either, which is why I didn\'t bring it up in the opening post. I don\'t want it to seem like I\'m complaining about the score, I just want to improve. Most of my minis are around 8 - 8.5 with the few odd ones going higher.

I\'ll keep the contrast in mind the next time I try my hand at zenithal lighting, thanks for the advice generulpoleaxe

 

[Dragonsreach]

There are a few things that struck me when Ilooked at this.
Firstly the pose that Sicarius is in doesn\'t work with the base. He\'s looking down and to his right (our left) but the base gives us nothing to follow his gaze to target.
Second, to me the brown rusting metal he stands on is too even, there\'s little or no variation on the colours as I would expect to see.
As has been said the water effect has lost some of it\'s impact as its a bit too much and too murky for some of the details you\'ve hidden in it.
Lastly (bet you glad to hear this) I think your photos are to soft and lacking sharp focus.

 

[Ocelot]

The whole mini lacks contrast for a higher score.

The shading could do with being deeper on the face because it is too flat at the moment and really needs much stronger highlights, especially on the very top of the head. Some stubble on the head and jaw would look good too.

On the armour, the shading is good apart from the backpack. The zenithal light source you are using does not translate well onto the backpack, I suggest doing a top down light source. This will mean the shading will look uniform and match with the shading on the rest of the armour. The armour also needs more highlights on the backpack and the shoulderpad because the highlights on those areas do not match the intensity as on the leg with the damage. This is quite noticeable to someone looking at the mini because it is confusing as to why the highlgihts are stronger on the leg than on the top of the backpack and shoulderpad, it can make the mini look unfinished.

The gold needs more shading and highlighting. Look at people painting gold NMM and copy their technique, only with metallic paints. This makes the shading deep and matches with the light source affecting the entire mini\'s highlights and shades.

The white parts of the fists confuse me, they are the only part of the Marine\'s armour to have battle damage on them. I suggest either removing the damage and painting them like the U\'s (only with a tad more shade) or damaging all the armour so it ties in well.

I would suggest adding spot-colours to all the surfaces. Shade the blue armour with red and the red fists with purple or blue.

If you can, remove him from his base and re-attach it so his feet are flush with the object he is standing on, he is floating at the moment!

I hope these tips have helped! I think if you add some of these suggestions then you may get a higher score of a 7.8 or an 8

You could even look at the highest rated Sicarius mini\'s on the site to see how they have done it.

Cheers

 

[cassar]

the only thing i can see wrong with it is the right lightening claws appear to have been bent, other than that i would be proud to post such a mini

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by generulpoleaxe
main point, contrast.
at the moment the zenithal lighting isn\'t strong enough to be recognized as such.

Pretty much exactly what I was going to say.

Other than simple contrast I think the main thing I\'d suggest needs work is definition - sharper edges where appropriate. This goes hand in hand with contrast to give a \'crisper\', more defined overall look.

Einion

 

[phreak0]

to me it looks unfinished, saw it at another forum first and it just doesnt look like its done.

this is (to me) mainly because of contrast as mentioned but also because the rivets arent painted differently or marked out as being there at all, just plain same blue all around.
the skin could use some other shades aswell and definitely a sharper hilite, maybe stubble as mentioned.
theres no definition between parts, this makes it look like the colours melted into eachother.

and when it comes to the floating of the mini theres also some residue from the mouldingprocess still attached to the mini wich makes it look weird, this is most obvious in the first two images where his feet meet the tabard so to say.

i know youre an awesome painter normally but this just isnt up to par.

 

[Dominus Ex Machina]

Thank you guys for all the invaluable advice, I\'ll try to soak it all up! I am very thankful for the criticism as usualy on forums people only post when they see something they like! You have provided some solid advice for me and tips for improvement, I am most gareful!

Again thanks!