Greetings all:
I just got back into miniatures after an absence of...good grief, has it really been over 20 years?!
I used to paint using those nasty Testor\'s enamels, and I\'m really liking the acrylics that are available. It\'ll be fun to turn on the creative ideas again, especially since I have access to some nice doodads (dissecting scopes that can magnify up to 50X, small tubes for holding paint mixes, etc...It\'s good to be a biology professor, since there\'s some really cool equipment that can be used for painting).
Anyway, before I ever picked up a paintbrush again, I read MANY many websites and forums and I looked at many many miniatures, including many on this site. Well, to my question:
I see very few, if any, people painting as if there is a distinct, positioned light source. After all, if the figure is outside, and the sun is shining, wouldn\'t there be shadows on the figure? Wouldn\'t the base have the figure\'s shadow on it? Wouldn\'t this be much more realistic from a display point of view? For example, Bobby Wong\'s article on NMM shows a fantastically well-painted miniature with very believable glints of sunlight on the halberd it carries...and it isn\'t casting a shadow! What is the figure, a vampire? It just seems to create the sense of disbelief that, as miniature painters, we\'re trying to avoid; after all, don\'t we want the viewer of our art to really get caught up in the believability of that mini and it\'s setting?
I realize many people paint because they\'re using the figures for tabletop gaming (I\'m not), but it still seems like it might be a really interesting experiment to try. Has anybody done this, and do you have any tips, pointers, or suggestions?
SkyDancer
I just got back into miniatures after an absence of...good grief, has it really been over 20 years?!
I used to paint using those nasty Testor\'s enamels, and I\'m really liking the acrylics that are available. It\'ll be fun to turn on the creative ideas again, especially since I have access to some nice doodads (dissecting scopes that can magnify up to 50X, small tubes for holding paint mixes, etc...It\'s good to be a biology professor, since there\'s some really cool equipment that can be used for painting).
Anyway, before I ever picked up a paintbrush again, I read MANY many websites and forums and I looked at many many miniatures, including many on this site. Well, to my question:
I see very few, if any, people painting as if there is a distinct, positioned light source. After all, if the figure is outside, and the sun is shining, wouldn\'t there be shadows on the figure? Wouldn\'t the base have the figure\'s shadow on it? Wouldn\'t this be much more realistic from a display point of view? For example, Bobby Wong\'s article on NMM shows a fantastically well-painted miniature with very believable glints of sunlight on the halberd it carries...and it isn\'t casting a shadow! What is the figure, a vampire? It just seems to create the sense of disbelief that, as miniature painters, we\'re trying to avoid; after all, don\'t we want the viewer of our art to really get caught up in the believability of that mini and it\'s setting?
I realize many people paint because they\'re using the figures for tabletop gaming (I\'m not), but it still seems like it might be a really interesting experiment to try. Has anybody done this, and do you have any tips, pointers, or suggestions?
SkyDancer
