Reaper Wizard - Toxonimer (Picture heavy)

[BarstoolProphet]

There are some WIP pictures of this one in the Painting and Conversions section, but now he\'s finished, and is being submitted.

I worked really hard on this one, spending almost two weeks (of regularly scheduled painting time), which is considerably longer than I usually put into a mini.

The picture posted for votes appears to have shrunken significantly, and I\'m not sure what I did to make that happen, so here in this forum, I\'m posting the four separate pictures that made it up, so that you can see it all more easily without the use of a magnifying glass.

He\'s been thoroughly varnished, so going back to fix things won\'t (to my knowledge) be possible, but any criticisms or advice will definitely be applied to the next miniature I paint.

Here is the compiled picture posted for votes, first.

And here are the four normal sized ones.

And, lastly, the voting link.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/189721

 

[Avelorn]

Looking good!

First about the picture, does your camera have manual whitebalance? Experiment some with those setting so that the photo does not have such a yellow cast.

Then we have the miniature! Great work with the blending! Some smooth transitions overall and I like the grey especially. The colourscheme is decent but still an area which I think you can improve on. For this miniature making the beard more white and the ball is holding dark might result in a more striking scheme, as it would give more contrast in light. Another thing you could think of is having approximately the same warmth in the highlights to create a \"mood\" Especially with similar surfaces as with the cloths. As it is now the green is mosty highlighted in yellows while for example the purple is highlighted in blues. I guess it is a bit about taste as well, but it is a tip non the less.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

Avelorn, thanks for the comments.

Yes, I think my camera has a white balance. I\'m still learning how to use all of it, as it\'s still quite new. I shall keep practicing with it, and hopefully will get that straightened out. That yellow cast may also come from my lights. I still have to get my light tent.

I may also try taking pictures with natural sunlight, when the weather is good. Would that help at all? I\'ll experiment and see.

I\'m not quite sure I understand what you mean about highlights creating a mood. Could you maybe elaborate on that a little more?

 

[airhead]

change the bulbs to reveals or to halogenA\'s

That will help a bunch.

 

[Manus]

I think this was two weeks well spend - it\'s a beautiful mini and a great paintjob

 

[Avelorn]

Originally posted by BarstoolProphet
Avelorn, thanks for the comments.

Yes, I think my camera has a white balance. I\'m still learning how to use all of it, as it\'s still quite new. I shall keep practicing with it, and hopefully will get that straightened out. That yellow cast may also come from my lights. I still have to get my light tent.

I may also try taking pictures with natural sunlight, when the weather is good. Would that help at all? I\'ll experiment and see.

I\'m not quite sure I understand what you mean about highlights creating a mood. Could you maybe elaborate on that a little more?

The whitebalance will adjust the cameras perception of what is white so then the lighting matters less, even if as white and natural light as possible is prefered.

Highlights often represents light and thus the colour of the highlight will tell something about the colour of that light. If you use yellow + white in the highlights and a bit of purples in the shadow the representation will be of a mid summers day approximately. If you instead use colder tones in the highlights and desaturated midtones and shadows you might get a feeling of the miniature being hit by moon light. Note thought that the colour of the material will greatly affect the highlight of course as well. White light on orange will not have the same final colour as white light on blue.

When you instead use yellow for one colour and blue for another two different moods are mixed. It might awesome for an OSL effect, see Shawn RL\'s OSL stuff for cold vs warm tones. But on a miniature like this it is a better idea to be a bit more consistent. But for example the yellowish highlight on the ball works because it is another kind of surface than the cloth and you can even imagine it being some kind of inner glow instead of light.

Note though that highlights are not always ment to be light reflecting but instead say wear and tear, and this logic does not apply. So you don\'t have to be anal about it so to speak. You don\'t have to use the exact same highlightcolour either..

If we take reds lit by a white light for example. They can be highlighted with more yellow then other colours like blue or green so they don\'t turn out pinkish, but the last highlights should be a bit more white-ish to not disrupt the mood of white light. My friend for example he did an excellent rich red by highlighting it all the way to yellow but then took pure white for the last highlights.

This is a more naturalistic way of thinking about highlights though. More cartoonish and artistic renditions might experiment with entirely opposite colours to get a result. But it is always good to know and reflect about the \"rules\" before breaking them.

Hope that came out understandable, I haven\'t really sorted my thoughts out on the subject.

 

[BarstoolProphet]

@ airhead: Thanks. I\'ll try some different bulbs. They\'re fairly cheap. Experimentation will eventually get it right.

@ Manus: That\'s the nicest thing anyone\'s ever said about one of my miniatures. Thank you.

@ Avelorn: Yes, it makes pretty good sense. It gives me a lot to try to think about on my next miniature, and I\'ll probably keep this thread open while I\'m thinking about highlights and shadows.

Thanks for taking the time to explain.