UPDATED! Highborn Sorceress v2.0

[Avelorn]

I\'m finally done. piuh. It\'s a gift to my girlfriend, and I really wanted to do my very best effort.

The sculpt was a joy to paint, but some uneven places on the cast did make it a bit harder. I experimented with various techniques trying to push my painting into the next level.

If you see something I should change, let me know, will you. I still have a couple of days to touch up the mini.

EDIT: I have uploaded a new version of this model! Thank you so much for the nice constructive comments!

vote & comments here

v2.0:

v1.0:

 

[ralfmetal]

been and voted. very nice sven.

 

[EricJ]

You always give me such good feedback, I felt I better do the same in return! First of all the dress color is outstanding, very bold and eye catching without overpowering the rest of the mini, your entire color scheme is well planned and orchastrated. The blending is outstanding, the face very lifelike and the sword perfect, especially with that faint green reflection near the hilt. Also the base is spot on, nice work

There are a couple things however. The gold still looks too yellow, it just doesn\'t feel like metal to me, which stands out more with the excellent nmm sword. I think it could use with a bit more brown and darker toned recesses, As well as highlighting all the way to white.

A couple other spots might look like they could benifit from one more subtile highlight, however take these lightly perhaps, as I tend to like to have extra highlights. But the rod between the nmm golds in her hand, the red cloth from her belt and her redish hair.

And now to really pick at details! Her tiara on her forehead doesn\'t look at convincing nmm as the sword, I think mainly due to less dark tones. And finally in the WIP the black line along the edge of her neckline seemed a bit out of place on your more subtile painting style, and it doesn\'t bother me as much at this angle you\'ve photographed here, but is a small concern of mine.

However it is outstanding work and I\'ll vote it a 9, mostly because I reseve 10\'s for minis that really knock me out of my chair. Definately a step forward in your painting as well, you have a lucky girlfriend to get such a gift.

-Eric

 

[Avelorn]

ralfmetal: with some aid of fine brushes!

EricJ: Thanks for that extensive feedback. I agree with the gold, I\'m definatly changing the recipe for next time. The gold would have fit better with a more \"cartoony\" (okey nobody likes that word) paintingstyle. NMM gold has been hard for me to figure out.. I have tried to go all the way to white but really contrasted highlights didn\'t work either. I think it\'s a matter of the colours I choosed.

I think you spotted the places that could have used some more highlights. The darker areas are however more dark then they are IRL. I agree with most of the nitpicks too. But It\'s always good to have something to improve upon..

 

[Legacy Account]

I think she looks lovely. I don\'t think that the colours on the gold bits are wrong as such, they are just a little too bright compared to the subtlety of the rest of the mini. The staff top really draws your eye away from her beautifully painted face.

Good sword too.

 

[Modo]

Very amazing! I like it a lot!

I think you really have made the colors work well together, and the nmm just blowed me away!
I gotta say, you have an eye for making it look fantastic and realistic each time- that goes mostly for the steel nmm.

Great job!

 

[Drake Farstrider]

The sword is incredible as if the dress and the skin tones. The one area that I am unsure about is her brow, why is it yellow? Is it supposed to be makeup?

I like the darkness of the reds as it really helps to tone down the feel of the mini. Not sure if that was what you were going for but in my humble opinion it really makes the mini. If the reds were really bright I think it would look way to pastel.

Thanks for sharing such a bueatiful mini. I am sure the the girlfriend will love it. And when it really comes down to it it is her opinion that matters.

 

[Einion]

Hi, I think the painting is generally well done, with nicely-done blending with good colours overall; the green makes a good combo with the hair. The sword blade is excellent, but you already knew that The smoothness of the blending is top notch and the colours from the dress and hair on the facing facets superbly tackled. I would have done the shaft of the staff a little lighter in colour but that\'s a personal preference only. I think you could go just a touch lighter on the hair highlights on the top of the head, as well as changing the hue somewhat (adding in a smidge of yellow or orange).

In common with some of the other comments you\'ve already received the gold doesn\'t work for me; I know this is hard but you either need to use different colours or dull some of those you\'ve used, with small touches of violet, brown and/or black - the vivid colours in yellow metals tends to be isolated around the highlights and in reflected lights, if any; otherwise it can be relatively low key. Studying how master painters have tackled gold in paintings might help get a feel both for the colours and the placement of highlights and darks, as in the chair finials in Velázquez\'s portrait of Innocent X for example.

Einion

 

[Avelorn]

Thanks for the comments! I\'m in a hurry but..

Drake: yes that is make-up. It stops where the brows shold have begun. the colour bleeds somewhat to surrounding places due to some.. I don\'t know photographic effect. But that is the best shot I got. the reds are a dark hue, but not as dark as in this picture.

Einion: the shaft is a bit lighter IRL and so is the straps, not much. but just a bit. I might add some highlights on some places, the hair is such a place. I have used both orange-brown and red-brown highlights but I guess it doesn\'t show up enough.

The gold issue, the problem I face with contrasted highlights is smoothness. It is rather small places to do that kind of highlighting as on the picture. It is a 28mm after all I can however try what you said on another mini as the gold areas on this are far to much colour on to do a vital change.. I think anyway. I like the reference picture very much.

I will touch up the mini slightly and then maybe repost the mini depending on how much the change is. If there is a major change, I\'ll remove these pics and upload new ones.

 

[sebrushworth]

I\'ve been following this mini in the WIP thread and been blown away every time I\'ve seen it. She\'s beautiful!

 

[Broke n English]

She is...

...she\'s beautiful! When I scrolled down I actually went.....\"Oh...oh\"......which was a bit camp but what a cool figure! Nice one Avelorn,this is one of my favourite pieces of yours to date. I love the tone of the dress,it\'s so delicate,and the sword,painting and reflections of dress and hair look awesome,really lifelike! My only quibble (I don\'t get to say that everyday!) is the blackline around the breast area,that definitely needs toning down a touch I\'d say,and that\'s me being really finnicky for the second time today! I love this mini,and this base,the tiny spots of colour on the base look good. Your bird\'ll love it I\'m sure! Great work

 

[kmdl1066]

I didn\'t get to see your submission before you took it down, so I don\'t know if you included a close up of her face. If you didn\'t you should consider having a closeup on your new submission.

I\'ve seen the face in the WIP and it is incredible. Definately deserves a bit of extra attention.

Let us know as soon as we can vote for real!

Sean

 

[Avelorn]

Thanks!

I\'ve updated with a slightly repainted version of this mini.. Thanks again for all contstructive comments!! :bouncy: A special thanks to EricJ an Einion. I did pretty much what you told me and it came out much better. :]

She\'s recieving it tonight, I think she\'ll be pleased..

All the best
/Sven

 

[EricJ]

I like the changes, I think the best improvement is actually along the gold on the sleave, that is really looking like gold now, not yellow! The gold on the scepter I think could have benifited from a layer of white highlights, I think that white really makes gold look gold, which is why I think the sleeve works so well. I also think reducing that blackline along the edge of the neckline of the dress helped a lot, my eye was getting stuck on that dark line and not flowing with the mini.

Nice results!

 

[frenchkid]

amazing job love your mini. especially the face. Got a 9,5 from me

 

[Avelorn]

Thanks!

EricJ: I like it more now, too. The highlights goes too white on the sceptre too.. but more subtle, smaller spots. I wanted to tone it down a bit though so it wouldn\'t draw so much attention from other parts of the mini. My personal opinion is that the gold of the sceptre works better then the gold of the dress.

frenchkid: thanks, did you vote twice?

 

[Equus]

Nice work! I remember seeing this as a WIP on one of the other threads. I really like the improvements since then. The sword and dress are awesome!

 

[EricJ]

You may be right on the highlights, I am kind of a highlight freak, perhaps too much. Overhighlighting the septre probably would have drawn too much attention.