Suggestions: Lilith (Hasslefree miniatures)

[wtnind]

Hi,

I've started on this mini diorama, it's my first time paiting a larger scale model. I am trying to do the transluscent dress effect but with a colder skintone than most examples I've seen. I've got a lot more work to put into it but I'm not sure I'm happy with the basic colours. Theres some things I would really appreciate some advice on:

1. Does the blue and green contrast too much? would putting a blue fade on the hand help? Any other suggestions about how to make it look more integrated?
2. I want to shade her skin a bit but I don't know what colour to use. I want her to look pale and I don't want it to clash/interferre with the dress... any ideas?
3. I think the bit on the back of her dress are wings... any suggestions onw hat colour to paint those so they don't distract from the main elements I want to focus (her head, her apple and the hand reaching).

Thanks for any advice would be very welcome (or any other advice in general about it).

View attachment 61138

 

[MAXXxxx]

1. I think your problem will be, that they don't contrast enough. The translucent effect is almost unnoticable as the light parts where the skin shows through can be interpreted simply as highlights for the dress itself. Imho you should add a bit of red/yellow to the skin to make it different enough from the cloth (normally I'd go with red, but as you have a red apple (and red-brown hair) + blue clothes, having a yellowish tint to the skin could help getting a color triad (of course the bones on the base could do that part, so not really needed on the skin)). Right now the parts that mostly sell the transparent clothes: strong abrupt end above the breasts and hands, sculpted nipples.
2. I'd try using purple. Especially if used on the warmer skin suggested in pt1
3. go with a really pale off-white (yellow-brownish tint, so basically like having Ivory as a base, shaded a bit with a bone color, highlighted towards white)

 

[wtnind]

Thanks Maxx that's really helpful and good ideas. Have made a start on this and definetly like the yellow, it makes her look quite ghostly in fact. Going to take a lot of layers to get it smooth though :hypnotized:
View attachment 61144

 

[MAXXxxx]

looks better. 2 things I forgot:

- I'd shade the arms simply like cloth, and change the color to the flesh only on the shoulder and the top part of the lower arm. I'd not really realistic in how fabrik stretches on the arm, but could look more dramatic.

- The part below the stomach. It looks as light on your pics as the skin parts, but for a flowing cloth that part is basically cloth with skin far away, so not really translucent. Unless of course you want to empathise the mound of venus, which even though lilith I don't really think fits this sculpt.

-------------------
Also with this yellowish skin I might go back on my suggestion of Ivory as a base for the wings (if they really are that). Maybe a cold version would work too.
In terms of VGC colors Ghost grey as a base, shaded with Wolf Grey highlighted with White. (prev. suggestion would have been: VMC-Ivory as base, Bonewhite as shade, white as highlight)


... now if I only had a good source to get HF minis... (last time I got on the halloween action from hfminis.co.uk, they haven't sent anything until january, haven't received anything until march, had to refund through paypal )

 

[wtnind]

Hey, thanks for the feedback... I have tried to strengthen the blends and contrast of the skin vs the dress. I am still struggling with the wings... I have base coated them ivory but I'm not sure it fits... I thought about putting some pattern or butterfly or a fade from black to white but I don;t really want to draw a lot of attention to them. Do you still think just grey monochrome?

Thanks

View attachment 61333

 

[JesusRanchal]

If you don't want to draw attention to her wings, you should indeed paint them in a neutral colour, but not necessary black and/or white...although it seems to be the best option given her scheme.

Man, this girl looks pretty awesome. Go on working!

 

[Chaotic Creations]

Looking pretty damn cool, great highlighting on the translucent bits of the dress. Although the more I look at it I find something not quite right, like maybe the colour of the dress doesn’t match the tone you have given for if it was pressed against skin ? In the past I found completing the shades/highlights of the cloth and then layering on the skin tones into the required translucent highlights gives a more flowing look.
but yeah I’m sure it will work equally as well doing it with the fleshtone first. I guess just keep playing around with the tones of both until you find the correct balance.

oh and for the wings I think the suggestion of a grey would work well. Although if you really wanted to push the boundaries you could give them a translucent effect like a real flying insect type wing. You know putting in the veins etc... although I’m wouldn’t even know where to offer advice on this effect, maybe someone has tried this before? Would look pretty awesome though.

 

[wtnind]

Looking pretty damn cool, great highlighting on the translucent bits of the dress. Although the more I look at it I find something not quite right, like maybe the colour of the dress doesn’t match the tone you have given for if it was pressed against skin ? In the past I found completing the shades/highlights of the cloth and then layering on the skin tones into the required translucent highlights gives a more flowing look.
but yeah I’m sure it will work equally as well doing it with the fleshtone first. I guess just keep playing around with the tones of both until you find the correct balance.

oh and for the wings I think the suggestion of a grey would work well. Although if you really wanted to push the boundaries you could give them a translucent effect like a real flying insect type wing. You know putting in the veins etc... although I’m wouldn’t even know where to offer advice on this effect, maybe someone has tried this before? Would look pretty awesome though.

Thanks for the positive feedback guys, I think next time I will do the skin after the dress like you say. I have put lots of blue in place of black for shadows since the skulls are all super blue I thought that would help and might help with the dress tone too. Also started on the wings... a blue gray with fly kinda pattern on the wings... it's not going so well >< but maybe with some more layers.

View attachment 61389

 

[Chaotic Creations]

It’s coming along quite nicely, with some more highlighting it will really pop... it’s a shame I just stripped 3 dark elf witches which I had done transparent tops on, I had some photos too but deleted them when I updated my phone about a week ago cause I needed the storage space. Bummer cause it would have been really cool to show you an example of how I do it (not that I am by any means a master at it).
can I recommend for the upper folds of the gown to blend from that base green to that yellow green colour you have used (at the highest points of the folds) but don’t introduce that whitish colour, cause you want to keep that as your skin tone/transparency (keep the paint super thinned though, it will help with that transparent silky look)... just a suggestion though, and please continue where your going cause you are doing a stellar job as is.

oh and that blue shade on the deep folds is great, I like where your going with that, sort of bringing the colour of the base through the dress... I like it.

 

[KruleBear]

I can't offer advice on the sheer effect, but I can say I like the direction you are taking with the wings.