My Second Submission

[yxalitis]

http://www.coolminiornot.com/280367
Based off a lot of feedback on my first I:
Set up 3 images as a marquee
Fixed all paint errors
made sure exposure and contrast were good.

Result...same poor score!!

LOL, it would be nice if people made comments, instead of just chucking up a 5 or 6 blindly.

 

[gohkm]

Mate, I don't know if you intended the chitin bits to look like that, but in the pic, they look really splotchy, as if you basecoated them and then just roughly stippled highlights more or less randomly, with a huge size 100 brush. There's no evidence of blending on the chitin at all.

The blue flesh is slightly better, but the blending still seems rather rough. Especially in the last pic, if you look at the shoulder area caught between two chitinous bits, It looks splotchy. And in the pic above that, on the inside of the Scythean's left arm, right before the scythe itself, it looks like you got a lazy and dabbed on highlights instead of blending accurately.

I'm sure it looks better in real life, as well as it probably looks good at 3 feet away, but these flaws show up quite clearly when you magnify the pic like that. Perhaps a bit more work on blending is in order? And, also, perhaps a spritz of matt finish? Some bits look a little glossy on my monitor. Not sure if that's the case, or my monitor is shot (probably the latter, I know my laptop is turning into a lemon).

 

[kathrynloch]

I've got to agree with gohkm. First, it appears as if you're shooting the picture in front of a white background. That only makes the overexposure worse. While score isn't based off of photography exactly, you want to show off your work as best as you can. Try to pick a neutral color like a tan, brown, blue, or soft green. If you have a color printer and a photo/drawing program you can print out a background that will work nicely on a single sheet of paper.

The painting does appear quite flat. There's a lot of texture on the mini and instead of accenting it you've just gone over it - but this is how it appears in the photo. I think I read in your other thread you don't care for the sharp and contrasted painted minis, correct? Many times sharp and contrasted show off depth and highlights better that's why they are so popular. You've heard the saying, the camera adds 10lbs - well it also shows everything that's there with an unflinching eye. Even if you can't see it while you're sitting there with your nose practically pressed against the mini, the camera is not only going to pick it up, it's going to make it look obvious.

Unfortunately, you're pic is still over exposed, the white background washes it out even more, and this causes your painting to appear as if it has no depth whatsoever. Did you use a dark wash or glaze the back ridge? I see the white on the lower ridge around his head and neck but that looks like you took thinned paint and allowed that to sink into the cracks, which doesn't add depth. The teeth appear to be one color and wow are they white. The sculpt has a lot of scarring on it's front scythes but I see white glaze across the top that descends deep into a couple of the slashes, that needs to be dark wash then lightly add the white glaze to the top only and don't let it run into the slashes and scaring. On the toes it appears just the opposite. I can see where you did a dark wash but it appears as if you didn't do any highlighting at all.

So stuff like that is what will drag your score down. It's a very nice mini and you've got a great start. I think once you work through some kinks, you'll start seeing your scores rise.

 

[TrystanGST]

Comments can help tremendously, if you have a thick enough skin and an open enough mind to accept them. The forums are the best place to get them. I know when I'm voting on minis I just put up a score and keep moving - unless it's something that makes me really stop and stare. It would be nice to leave feedback on each one, but it's just not feasible when there's so many minis to rate.

 

[yxalitis]

Comments can help tremendously, if you have a thick enough skin and an open enough mind to accept them. The forums are the best place to get them. I know when I'm voting on minis I just put up a score and keep moving - unless it's something that makes me really stop and stare. It would be nice to leave feedback on each one, but it's just not feasible when there's so many minis to rate.

Well, I browsed though some of the other Carniveans (not one other Scythean..really!), and must say, the scoring is quite harsh.
It seems everyone really is pretending this is a Golden Demon competition, and looking for every little flaw in either photography, painting, colour choice, or construction, and dropping scores as a result.
This is fair enough, but scoring is a little inconsistent, to say the least. The same mini photographed twice can get wildly different scores.
Take the Titan Dragon, there is one shot over a workbench, which scored well, but comments made about the untidiness.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatm/Rackham/id/192205
So he had the mini shot professionally, and reposted:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatm/Rackham/id/218570

Despite the fact that this is the SAME EXACT mini, it scored LESS.

LOL, dude musta been pissed after paying a professional!

 

[gohkm]

It's well accepted that scoring has gotten harsher over the years. It's also been said repeatedly that the most important aspect is to paint to make yourself happy. If you're trying to progress to the next level, then you will have to allow yourself to be subject to criticism. Unfortunatetly, some criticisms are hardly helpful, and there's plenty of snipers around.

So, I would say to you, mate, open yourself to critisms, take what you want from those criticisms and discard everything else. At the end of the day, only you can make yourself happy or unhappy.

But keep on painting - you'll get there eventually. You show enough potential that you'll probably get there before I do .

 

[yxalitis]

It's well accepted that scoring has gotten harsher over the years. It's also been said repeatedly that the most important aspect is to paint to make yourself happy. If you're trying to progress to the next level, then you will have to allow yourself to be subject to criticism. Unfortunatetly, some criticisms are hardly helpful, and there's plenty of snipers around.

So, I would say to you, mate, open yourself to critisms, take what you want from those criticisms and discard everything else. At the end of the day, only you can make yourself happy or unhappy.

But keep on painting - you'll get there eventually. You show enough potential that you'll probably get there before I do .

Thanks Mate, and yes, I look at my minis with pride, I'll never ever ever win (Or even place) in a Golden Demon, but I have gotten 3rd prize in a couple of little store comps over the years. My more subtle shading effects are also not the best for photography, and I still don't really know how to take a good photo to start with!

 

[Chrome]

Take the Titan Dragon, there is one shot over a workbench, which scored well, but comments made about the untidiness.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatm/Rackham/id/192205
So he had the mini shot professionally, and reposted:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatm/Rackham/id/218570


Despite the fact that this is the SAME EXACT mini, it scored LESS.

LOL, dude musta been pissed after paying a professional!

In defence of the score difference there, in the first submission you got sharp close ups showing the handiwork, lots of angles and what looks like pretty good natural lightning. It makes the detail easier to spot and it's easier to see the effort put down into the model.

The second pic is a studio shot, granted, but with a mini that big and no close ups there's absolutely no way to appreciate the finer details, you can clearly see that is a good photograph of an awesome mini but you can't see WHY the mini is so awesome...