Suggestions on what my next step is on getting better.

[Tyrannus Libris]

I have recently been pushing myself to slow down and really work on the miniatures I have been painting. My first problem was the pictures (which I think I have licked for the most part, still would like to get a camera with a larger Mega pixel but oh well). Secondly the smoothness of the transitions and contrast.

If anyone has any free time I would love some feedback on what I need to work on from here as well as things I need to watch out for. I have two to look at in particular:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/351667

View attachment 25937

and

http://www.coolminiornot.com/351610

View attachment 25938


Again, thank you for your time!

Chris

 

[Zab]

I think you are on the right track. You know to push the contrast and smooth the blends. Female figures are probably the hardest thing to work on because you have to give their flesh life without too much definition. Too much and they look old or like drag queens. Lots of broad very heavily thinned highlights help. You CLEARLY have great brush control, did you mask those leggingings on Alice?! Your base work is very nice too. I would say to just keep pushing the contrast and try to paint everything from women to wizards and scifi stuff too. Maybe pick a few figures you wouldn't normally paint and try pushing the contrast past the point you are comfortable with just to see what it looks like. Best is they are metal so you can strip them if you hate how they turned out

 

[Bailey03]

Yeah, you've done a nice job with these two. Focusing on Kriemhild, you've done a very nice job with the shadow and highlight placement on all those folds in her clothing. Now you've got to work on those blends and use more intermediate mixes to smooth them out. That dark colored cloth on the right for example has some really start contrast between the different colors you used. You can try to fix that by using thinner coats and more intermediate layers. Or you can try your hand at wet blending.

Female figures are tough. As Zab said, doing too much with the shadows and they look old or like dudes. But my thought is you can still have contrast on the major shadows. For Kriemhild that would be under her chin and the undersides of her arms. Keep the shadows on the rest of her features, all those fine details, subtle. It can also be a matter of relative values. You could certainly take the contrast on her hair up and make those shadows more dramatic. If the contrast on her hair and clothes is bigger than the contrast on her skin, it will help keep her features subtle and feminine. If you leave the hair and her dress the same you'll be much more limited on what you can do with her skin before it all starts to look 'wrong.'

You can take a look at the White Speaker figure in my gallery. Some areas of her skin are much more dramatic than others. Overall I went a little farther than I needed to since I wanted her to look like a tough warrior. So for a figure like Kriemhild I'd tone it back a bit. Also notice that the contrast on the hair and clothing (well, what little she has) is in proportion to the range of light to dark on her skin.

You're definitely on the right track. Shadow and highlight placement is not easy, especially on all those folds, but I think you've done a great job with it. Just continue to work on your blending and, as that improves, up the contrast. My general approach is to paint to a contrast level I'm comfortable with and then go one or two steps beyond that. Everything looks more dramatic when the mini is right up in your face. But step back and all that contrast seems to fade away. You clearly know what you're doing, just keep practicing and your results will keep improving.

 

[Tyrannus Libris]

"did you mask those leggingings on Alice?!"

Actually I didn't... thank you!!

When I think about things I need to do to improve it seems to always revolve around certain things that I want to be able to accomplish.

1) Clearly blending is an issue and I need to take more time on it, I haven't gotten to the point where I would feel comfortable with two brush blending, instead I use more of a progressive glazing, but I see a time where that wont help me much.

2) While there isn't alot of metal in this one I need to get busy on more of the True Metallic Metal work, I love the look of it and I think it really pops when done well.

3) Skin is driving me up the wall, it always seems to come out abit more flat than i want. This time it worked out for me because both Alice and Kreimhild are fair skinned, but darker skin still is craptacular for me.

4) Colors and complimentary blending to produce more complex highlights and shadows.


To say the least I have alot to do, but so far so good!

 

[Zab]

Larger scales or vehicles are great to practice 2BB. A lot of GW figures have those broad open spaces for 2BB (space marines, ogres, etc). It's not that hard and totally worth trying. It's easier with bigger brushes as the paint stays wet longer so think size1 and up. With regards to metals, lots of thin glazes of interesting colors between highlights will give you nice effects. In fact if you highlight all the way up and then use glazes to make your shades you can control how dark, where and what color your shadows are with TMM. Then have fun photographig it

 

[Yuggoth]

Great Work! I think that some parts of the minis could benefit from a bit of definition-enhancing darklining (subtle, not the krass blacklining one would do for a comicbook-look), like the border between apron and blouse. Other than that, I think you should try giving additional interest to the skin with coloured glazes (I find purple tones more forgiving than blues and greens, which tend to look sickly if not done 100% right, especially on the ladies.