Nearly my 2nd Anniversary - Looking for advice and Wisdom :)

[Byronic]

(skip down a paragraph if you're not interested in me waffling )
Hi there guys, it's coming up to christmas '09, which is exactly a 2 years after I bought the BFSP set having painted up a few of my friends arrer boys and remembering how much fun I used to have dipping fanatics in paint when I was 13 I'd been missing doing anything artist as it was my first year of uni, and the first time in my academic life I hadn't had a class devoted to art, which I used to enjoy chilling out and just relaxing in, so I thought I'd start up again, and this time put some real thought into what I was doing, I painted up about 500 points of goblins, then dillydallied doing bits and pieces, and then the Warriors of Chaos spearhead came out, which was the start of my first ever 2000 points army, having finished that I'm painting up whatever the hell I like untill beastmen come out (as you'll notice I'm mostly a warhamerer-I've got a housemate who collects too, and it's nice to have someone ot bounce ideas of).

I've been trying really hard to improve with my recent painting, I'm building a 750point vampire army just as an excuse to paint up some of the lovely models, which I intend to sell at some point in the near future, and also indulging in a few single minis - some of which I've been ebaying to try and go towards the money I spend on paint and models.

I'll post up a few of my recent minis, going from slightly older to most recent being Queek (Beautiful model), if you're interested in seeing where I've come from please feel free to take a look at my back catalogue, I've not removed any pictures since I've started.
I'm just looking for any general advice on what to work on, common weaknesses running throughout my work etc, or anything you're willing to offer, I'll put a link under each picture incase you'd like to comment on them there, but I guess it's less effort if I put all of the recent ones in this 1 thread. Apologies for some of the pictures, I hope you're not hampered in offering opinions by them.


Winged Vamp:

http://coolminiornot.com/231604


First Vlad:

http://coolminiornot.com/232915


Konrad:

http://coolminiornot.com/235823v


Second Vlad:

http://coolminiornot.com/236397

Finally Queek, nearly finished yesterday :

http://coolminiornot.com/236899

I Managed to get a slightly better picture of him in good light this morning also:

Don't hold back with any advice, nothing is too harsh, I love getting feedback on how I can improve - any questions about how I do things welcome also!

Thanks for reading, especially if you've managed to get to the bottom of this,

Byron

 

[Hinton]

Overall, the painting looks pretty good to me. However - and this is something that a great many of us struggle with - the pictures seem to be letting them down. Maybe trying to get better photos is something to work on because, as it is, your painting looks pretty darn good.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

The top image - the wing, seems uninteresting. It can be hard to do a large surface, have it be interesting and not have it take over. Seems some subtle color shifting can help some of that. You may also want to try lightening the wing up overall a bit. - eg. below.....

 

[SkelettetS]

i second hinton, the pictures definitely let the paintwork, which seems pretty solid, down. seems you have to work more on your photographing than painting (well same thing for me, i guess... sigh...)

anyway its always great to see some goodlooking vamps!

 

[Byronic]

Overall, the painting looks pretty good to me. However - and this is something that a great many of us struggle with - the pictures seem to be letting them down. Maybe trying to get better photos is something to work on because, as it is, your painting looks pretty darn good.

Thanks man, I'll work on it, my camera isn't too bad, I think a good light would be more helpful (and possibly cheap) than a new one

The top image - the wing, seems uninteresting. It can be hard to do a large surface, have it be interesting and not have it take over. Seems some subtle color shifting can help some of that. You may also want to try lightening the wing up overall a bit. - eg. below.....

Thanks loads, I wasn't quite happy with that wing, I'll give it a go at the next opportunity I get.

i second hinton, the pictures definitely let the paintwork, which seems pretty solid, down. seems you have to work more on your photographing than painting (well same thing for me, i guess... sigh...)

anyway its always great to see some goodlooking vamps!

Tah, yeah they're beautiful figs, almost all a pleasure to paint, although I'd never be caught putting that stupid bit on the cloak of vlad if you know the bit I mean, so pointless!

 

[demonherald]

I echo what these guy have said r.e photography it really is a whole load harder than painting I haven't photographed anything properly for ages hence I haven't submitted stuff for a while ....

looking at the second Vla he looks very nice and an improvement fromthe first so bravo there although the pic of the second one is really difficult to see.
I like the top vamp wing but hve a look at a few exampes in the galleries.. so many people have done something showy with that wing that in comparison this does seem a little plain but that said it is very well painted .. aybe a few freehand very fineveins on it or a mottle pattern here and there would break it up a bit but still good painting...

as for advice .. working on your pics to get clearer shots will allow for more criticism to be inputted and with every constructive criticism hopefully a step of learning will occur.. keep enjoying it and keep improving ....good luck

 

[Hovis]

Cool stuff dood

I really like the blood on Queeks teeth, mind if I nick the idea?

 

[Byronic]

I echo what these guy have said r.e photography it really is a whole load harder than painting I haven't photographed anything properly for ages hence I haven't submitted stuff for a while ....

looking at the second Vla he looks very nice and an improvement fromthe first so bravo there although the pic of the second one is really difficult to see.
I like the top vamp wing but hve a look at a few exampes in the galleries.. so many people have done something showy with that wing that in comparison this does seem a little plain but that said it is very well painted .. aybe a few freehand very fineveins on it or a mottle pattern here and there would break it up a bit but still good painting...

as for advice .. working on your pics to get clearer shots will allow for more criticism to be inputted and with every constructive criticism hopefully a step of learning will occur.. keep enjoying it and keep improving ....good luck

I think the veins or mottling would've really improved him, should've thought of that myself, thanks

Cool stuff dood

I really like the blood on Queeks teeth, mind if I nick the idea?

No sure bud, it's a hair, with superglue on it to thicken it, attached and made glossy by gloss varnish +red gore, then a little blood red