Planning a miniature - Before bringing it out from the box

[boubi]

Hi Everyone!
I am on this forum since a while. I think I posted my first mini almost 9 years ago.
I had a steady level increase in the past 3 years starting painting and investing more time. I paint much faster than before after watching lots of videos and painting lots of miniatures, I have tried different techniques and invested a lot of time trying them. You can visit my gallery and realize it.
But now, I am feeling that I am at a improvement stall. I am simply painting faster, my technique reached a certain level which allow me this, layering, wet blending, oil painting, airbrushing, etc... But this are tools, not much else.
I start to realize that I am missing a certain preparation phase, I never had artistic education, color theory was a total mystery, and so on... I need to prepare a mini more carefully, I often read that the mini you paint needs a story and you need to create an atmosphere, I am missing this, so much...

So here my question to the great painters of this forum:
What do you do in order to prepare your mini before putting it out of the box?
How do you define your story? Where do you get your inspiration?
How do you define your color scheme? and make your contrast?

There are a lots of video about how to paint but few about how to create a real atmosphere, and adjusting your above parameters before starting painting.

I will also restart my WIP to get help from the community on this path to improvement.

 

[MAXXxxx]

What do you do in order to prepare your mini before even before putting it out from the box?

??? I have no idea what you mean here, so I'd have to say: nothing

How do you define your story? Where do you get your inspiration?

For me it's the other way around. First I have a story/scene I usually look for a mini that goes well with that

How do you define your color scheme? and make your contrast?

I make a quick note about what part should be what color, then look at a color wheel to see if there is any conflict (by colors, values, temperature, saturation mostly) and adjust my plan accordingly (and then during painting it could change again if I don't like what I see in the wip pics).
For contrast I mostly use the greyscale trick I first read on the massivevoodoo blog from Picster.

 

[ten ball]

What do you do in order to prepare your mini before putting it out of the box?
Ive usually done a few hours research into the scene / mini from other painters / real life reference etc.

How do you define your story? Where do you get your inspiration?
same as above or just thoughts rolling around in my head

How do you define your color scheme? and make your contrast?
Colours depend on the mini so its hard to answer.

 

[Boguz]

Max -- do you have a link to this 'greyscale trick' on massive voodoo? I can't find it but I'd like to read up on it.

 

[MAXXxxx]

Not 100%, but I think this was it (also not MV, but PB and picster):http://masterminis.blogspot.de/2012/05/contrast-is-more-than-light-and-shadow.html?m=1

Also useful:http://www.juliencasses.com/2013/10/contrasts-who-are-they

 

[Boguz]

Thanks MAXXxxx!

 

[Dragonsreach]

So here my question to the great painters of this forum:
1:- What do you do in order to prepare your mini before putting it out of the box?
2:-How do you define your story? Where do you get your inspiration?
3:-How do you define your color scheme? and make your contrast?
.

1:- Procrastination usually, followed by Caffine in large doses. BUT a lot depends on the mini itself, for example the Freebooter Huntress I did as a "Warm up" before tackling the 'Ambush' tableaux for Crystella, I considered carefully how 'organic' and natural I wanted the tones to be, in order for her to fit in with being a Hunter and not wanting to stand out.

2:- Sometimes a Mini just is 'locked' to a specific genre/game mindset and you just have to follow with the "Grim Dark Future" thematic structure, other times a figure will suggest a story such as "The Purple Orchid" series I did umpteen years ago. http://www.coolminiornot.com/90334

3:- Normally I aim to keep my colour scheme within believable tones, for Fantasy Figures in rough working clothes I tend to stick to natural dye colours. For Characters like Elves, well the pointy eared tree huggers get forest based colours, the toffee nosed ones get more fancy colours. Dwarves get metallic tones.

Hope this helps.

 

[boubi]

??? I have no idea what you mean here, so I'd have to say: nothing

For me it's the other way around. First I have a story/scene I usually look for a mini that goes well with that

I make a quick note about what part should be what color, then look at a color wheel to see if there is any conflict (by colors, values, temperature, saturation mostly) and adjust my plan accordingly (and then during painting it could change again if I don't like what I see in the wip pics).
For contrast I mostly use the greyscale trick I first read on the massivevoodoo blog from Picster.

Thank you MaXXxxx, It was a mistake, I corrected my first question. Sorry for that.
Normally I always pick up a mini because I like it, then make the story. I rarely did the other way around!
For the note taking and preparations, I am trying now on a new mini I have started, found some work online, checking it, and taking note of which part of the mini I like and where it can go to the new mini. I also found natural references helpful. I have printed all the pictures and kept them for references. This is a new process for me, I will start a WIP to show this pre-work and see how it applies to the miniature itself!

What do you do in order to prepare your mini before putting it out of the box?
Ive usually done a few hours research into the scene / mini from other painters / real life reference etc.

How do you define your story? Where do you get your inspiration?
same as above or just thoughts rolling around in my head

How do you define your color scheme? and make your contrast?
Colours depend on the mini so its hard to answer.

Thank you 10! But I often get stuck in the color scheme, I often try to pick the basic colors, this will be red and this blue etc... Then I try to make each details popping out, with saturated contrast, you can see it clearly in my gallery. But I lack of "color refinement or details" I believe that's a learning process. But I don't know if people are using simple trick for their mini, based on their own experiences. For example, with more complex and details miniatures, with 2-3 layers of cloths, many small details around, how do you pick up and create your contrast?

1:- Procrastination usually, followed by Caffine in large doses. BUT a lot depends on the mini itself, for example the Freebooter Huntress I did as a "Warm up" before tackling the 'Ambush' tableaux for Crystella, I considered carefully how 'organic' and natural I wanted the tones to be, in order for her to fit in with being a Hunter and not wanting to stand out.

2:- Sometimes a Mini just is 'locked' to a specific genre/game mindset and you just have to follow with the "Grim Dark Future" thematic structure, other times a figure will suggest a story such as "The Purple Orchid" series I did umpteen years ago. http://www.coolminiornot.com/90334

3:- Normally I aim to keep my colour scheme within believable tones, for Fantasy Figures in rough working clothes I tend to stick to natural dye colours. For Characters like Elves, well the pointy eared tree huggers get forest based colours, the toffee nosed ones get more fancy colours. Dwarves get metallic tones.

Hope this helps.

Thank you DR, I understand. This is quite new to me, I focused a lot on painting technique. I will try to make a storyline and an atmosphere for my next display mini. I will experiment a bit more and not necessarily look for the absolute contrast but more into subtle changes (including contrast) guiding toward this storyline and atmosphere! more I write about it more I am excited to try.

BTW, if any of you have some time to check my gallery and to point out on some of your favorite mini I have painted, what you like and dislike and the reason of it?
That would be great!

 

[Dragonsreach]

http://www.coolminiornot.com/383841?browseid=13161664

http://www.coolminiornot.com/360557?browseid=13161664

http://www.coolminiornot.com/345816?browseid=13161664

http://www.coolminiornot.com/360071?browseid=13161664

As requested I've had a look through your gallery and these four I've listed above seem to me to be the essence of what you are asking about.
In each of them there is an element of a Story, not just "Character stood on a Rock".
Goliath has a "Bring it On" aspect.
The Orc Shaman works in his environment.
The Gaoler has the "Damn Kids, playing skittles at my door." grumpy old man air about him. (No comparisons to me please)
and the Reaper Pirate has the dockside down right.

 

[boubi]

Thank you DR! I really appreciate...
It is funny because for most of them they were the least planned ones and just came like this! For example, the pirate was almost finish in one sitting because all my other projects were lagging I needed a quick mini for achievement and motivation, then I did a quick base.
For Goliath I didn't have any references, but I like the final color rendition and the saturated side of the mini vs the rest of the base.
The Shaman, I did basic mistakes and the Orc doesn't really fit the base and environment, but it is true that my goal was to have a thinking Shaman at the border of a cliff lost in his thoughts.