Rackham for a new painter

[shoe]

I just wanted to introduce myself, and say a few things about the two pieces I put up. First off, I have only been painting models abut two weeks or so. My husband is the gamer. He actually plays Warmachine.

Imagine his thrill when I told him, when and if I did paint, I really really really liked Rackham. Hint hint.

So with my husband\'s advice in hand (stay in the lines, pick good colors, and don\'t kill your brushes) I picked up a few Warmachine minis, and few Reapers, and finally a few beloved Rackhams.

The first Rackham came out actually okay. I\'ve got to get a better picture of him. The macro lens on our camera was way too harsh:

The second one just had better skin tones (especially around the eyes) and looked a little smoother.

I really want to get pics of them in natural light, because between the desk lamps and the macro lens, every error invisible to the naked eye screams \"Look at me! I screwed up!\"

At any rate, I was wondering if any one had any words of advice. They are probably figures number 9 and 10 that I\'ve painted (I paint relatively fast, I\'m told, spending about 6-7 hours on a figure.)

thanks for any input!
shoe

 

[green stuff]

First of all, welcome to the forums .

Concerning your painting, overall you seem to be able to to control your paint, with a special mention for the eyes. I think the next steps you should explore are the following :

1) thinning your paints a bit more to get smoother transitions. The skin and blade are the zones that make me think this;
2) working on contrast. His right foot is a good example of what I think should be done. The rest seems a bit flat;
3) taking pictures with \"daylight\" bulbs. Here the pics look dark and washed out. Either a sunny summer day or \"daylight\" bulbs (special blue bulbs) can fix this.

Good luck with your next minis. This one already looks promissing!

 

[generulpoleaxe]

hello shoe, you picked a nice range of minis to start with.

when thinning your paints more, as greenstuff has mentioned, remember to wipe the excess paint from your brush.
either onto the pallette or a rag.
otherwise you will flood the mini.

the work in progress part of the forum is good to use as you can work on the mini step by step and get advice as you go along.

good luck with the painting.

 

[Highbulp Billy]

Welcome to our world Shoe. Great start and excellent choice of minis/manufacturers too.

The first thing you should do is to talk with my wife and tell her how great mini painting is as a hobby and how husband\'s should be allowed as much \"quiet time\" as possible to pursue it

Secondly, definitely start using the WIP forum as you can get some great support and advice there. Most importantly I thnk is that people will urge you to keep the painting momentum up which can be quite a challenge.

As I said, you\'ve made a great start with the minis but to complete the package you may want to work on your basing - simple painted sand and small rocks etc will make a big diffference and help to set-off your minis.

Thirdly, practice the photography using a range of mehods - some macro, some from further away then cropping etc until you find what works best for you to show off all your hard work.

Most importantly, keep painting and keep enjoying it as that is what will ultimately drive improvement.

Look forward to seeing a lot more of your work here.

 

[shoe]

Thanks all. Took my husband about 10 years to get me to finally sit down with a mini. I had all sorts of excuses. Then I spotted the Rackhams, which I think are just gorgeous. There are some Ophidians waiting for me. I\'m going to wait till I get a little better though.

Daylight bulbs... good idea. I had been using the really bright light of the painting table.

I am trying to get the whole feel of the brush (I finally got some halfway decent brushes... I kept filching Mr. Shoe\'s). I mostly remember to wipe a lot of paint off. Mostly. But I know the thickness thing is something I have to work on.

shoe

 

[GAR]

First off, Welcome. happy to have you join our merry ranks.

A couple of things I have learned over the years.

1) take your time. Mini painting is not a race, enjoy what you are doing.

2) learn to take constructive & even not so constructive criticism. There is always some moron out there who thinks he is ( insert diety of your choice) gift to the painting community, but there is also some folks out there with very sound advise or simple a different perspective than your own.

3) practice pratice pratice. I don\'t mean paint lots of minis either. Experiment with new techniques and color palettes and ideas. you don\'t have to do it all at once either. A little bit here and a little bit there. Currently I am in a red phase where I am doing all manner of things in red, just to improve my use of the color. I had a green phase & a blue phase as well as mixing nuetrals & greys. Try using glazes and washes, just to see what they do and how to leanr to better use them.

I wish you the best and hope you enjoy this hobby.

One thing though, if you ever beat me in a painting contest I will have to kick you in the shin

Seriously, good luck and enjoy.
GAR

 

[Onis Lair]

Welcome and thanks for posting. It looks like you have a good idea of what your doing, better control then my first dozen had. Again parroting everyone else, thin your paints, learn good brush control, more contrast, daylight bulbs for photos and most of all practice, practice, practice.

 

[TAB Studio]

Along with the others welcome
My 2 cent

Magnifying light set up is the only way I can paint eye etc so that the camera picture come out better , but I am a coffin dodger and that may be why, I use a daylight bulb in mine and it helps alot as well

Banshee gave advice that the largest amount of paint will be where your brush stroke ends, for some reason I had not figured that out and it helped quite a bit

Magic wash (1 part future floor wax to 3 parts water helps me but many here find it unnecessary and get great results with out it

 

[WingZ]

I & welcome. .. I noticed that everyone is telling you to thin your paint but not really telling you how..Im not a good painter but being on this board has helped alot.. what i have found to work best for me is to get about half my brush loaded with paint then rub it off into my palled ..then i dip the brush into a pot of clean water just enough to get it wet & mix. but thats just me.. Oh licking your brushs will make you a much better painter lol .. umm what color are you priming your minis? I was on a white kick for a long time but found its only really good for doing flesh & bright colors like red & yellow.. but again thats just me. So anywaysbest of luck & all that rot

 

[shoe]

Thanks again all for the great advice... I have been working harder on this last Mid-Nor fella, trying to get him a little bit thinned down.

Mr. Shoe showed me a nice trick... Washing his flesh with purple (which I was doing) and then applying a bit of midnight blue. He suggested it to make veins, but instead I made bruises on the little guy. For some reason, it helped me gage, as I did more highlights on him, exactly how far I should go. When the bruises looked \"right\" it was most likely time to stop.

He\'s coming out a bit better than the other two...

I\'ll have to try the magic wash.

take care
shoe

 

[OrkyDave]

welcome to cmon! my wife actually picked up a brush for the first time today and painted her first mini! It was really nice to be able to share a hobby together.

Very nice work for your first few, keep at it and I\'m sure you\'ll be showing Mr shoe a thing or two in no time!

 

[J2FcM]

I\'d say shade some more. Looks like there is only highlights. I can\'t tell if the skin is suppossed to be purple-ish, or white-ish? Add some dark colors and boom

 

[Dragonsreach]

Welcome to the Forums Mrs Shoe.
And a hearty congratulation to you for joining your husband in this hobby.
(I\'ve suggested painting to my wife but she\'s not interested in joining in, just happy to be my immediate critic.)

Everyone has already posted their suggestions about your painting, so the only thing I\'d like to say is paint another, taking onboard all the suggestions and post the picture. We\'ll be here waiting as always.

 

[shoe]

Thanks again for the warm welcome. I have the third Mid-Nor guy up (or going up soon), and a group shot. Pictures come out so much better when taken in a sunny room during the day. (I\'d take them outside, but it\'s FREEZING).

The third Mid-Nor dwarf wasn\'t much better than the second, but I hadn\'t gotten all these great suggestions at that point.

So I\'m off to play with some Reapers next, and some terrain (which I am much better at currently than mini painting, but I hope I can change that.)

take care
shoe