OK guys I'm feeling the love here.
But in all seriousness all I'm trying to do is share in a bit of the knowledge I've picked up over the many years I've screwed up, and believe me I've screwed up a lot!.
So here's a few thoughts about things to consider for mini for competitions that I wish I'd thought about.
Bases are the support and or story grounding for a mini, slapping sand and Drybrushing may be "OK" for gaming but in competitions we need to be more effective, your base shouldn't "drown" out the mini, simple yet strong. For a Bright mini try to darken the edges slightly so that the figure looks kinda spotlighted, doesn't need to be stage bright just a touch will do.
Try to keep bases as much in keeping colour wise with the materials they are meaning to be, metals = metals, Earth stick to natural colours as much as possible. For example with BaM's I'd be recommending using a combination of VMC Flat Earth with tonal washes an glazes of chocolate brown, Burnt Umber and German Camo Black Brown.
AND most importantly ensuring that there were just tiny touches of colour like the cloak green and shirt's red in there as well (not huge or prominent) just enough for the human eye to pick up subconsciously, that does add a surprising harmony to some figures.
Over the years one thing I've learned is that observation is the key to understanding, look around at the world and the people in it. Buildings have character, some of the older buildings round were I work and live have colours in them due to age neglect and humans. An old redbrick building I pass by daily was built in Victorian times and the bricks due to weathering and the fact it was directly beside a Railway line are a "Deep Red-Black" and the mortar around them has gone black. Yet another built 1901 that I used to work in has bricks which vary between Brick red to purple-black and huge amounts of salt staining from water leaching out of the mortar. The sandstone has algae growth patterns and Budlea plants growing in the cracks.
Here in Bolton, some of the older buildings have damp and algae staining at the bases making them darker below knee level, and the cobblestones that get dug up sometimes vary between Blue grey to slate to green grey.
Last thing for today, think about people in context of what and when. Like I said about BaM's figure think about the character in relation to the period, the action, the background and context. In a drawn out campaign everyone's gonna end up scruffy, battered and bruised.......unless you're a 'Silk Swaddled Messenger Boy'.
Here endeth today's lesson