virago

[automaton]

hello everyone,

I thought that some of you might be interested to see some pics of a new mini I have finished. Normally I would not post here in the forums, but it was hard to cram good photos into my voting submission virago pic for the site, so I thought maybe it would be good to share some better photos here in the forums as well.

First, I must say that the sculpt by jacques alexandre is so beautiful and masterful, it was one of the most pleasurable miniatures I have painted.

Trying to find some originality with my version of virago was tricky, because there are already so many fantastic versions here on CMON....furthermore, I did not want to try anything too risky with the colour scheme, because I was mainly painting this one for myself, and I wanted it to appeal mainly to my own preferences in terms of colour etc., so I stayed with a pretty \'safe\' sort of colour scheme. But I did try to be a bit more adventurous with the flesh colours.

As for the base, well I wanted to try something a bit different, so I opted for something larger to better \'set the scene\'. From the start, I had my heart set on a sort of autumn scene, with the leaves. In the end, the colours on the mini make her stand out from the environment a little more than I was originally intending - I tried to link her with the base by echoing the colours of the mini in the colours of the rocks on the base, and by adding the lavender-coloured flowers for some flashes of a stronger, colder colour. But she still stands out quite a lot. From the people I have shown so far, I have had mixed comments about this: some people like it, and think it is good that she stands out from the scene, giving her a sort of ethereal quality and meaning that more attention is focussed on the mini; others have felt that the scene would be more effective if she blended in more with the environment.

One thing I will say is that it was a nightmare trying to get good photos of the mini once she was attached to the base haha, so sorry for the poor photos of the whole scene; also, I feel that she stands out from the base more in the photos than is the case in real life, where the colours don\'t seem to have quite as much contrast with each other. That\'s why I included the photos of the mini on it\'s own, which is a more accurate reflection of the real colours etc.

Well anyway, that\'s enough rambling on from me! I hope it was interesting for someone hehe

I hope that you like the mini!


here is the link to the submissions voting page: http://www.coolminiornot.com/153559

p.s. sorry for so many pics, it is a bit inconsiderate to those with dial-ups or lesser connections; sorry about that.

 

[Ogrebane]

Awesome paint job. I think thats the best example of this mini I have seen to date.

 

[Jamie]

I havent seen a better version that this. The eyes are unreal. Amazing work Sebastian, I just dont know how you do it sometimes.

 

[lono]

I think the right leg is far from amazing.

Just thought I\'d be different! How come you stuck it in the Spanish Team forum so early but made CMoN forumites wait? We deserve some loving too!

Ah, I\'m just messing. It\'s a great bit of painting, your blending is crazy-good as per usual, but I have to be honest, this is the first one of your models where the overall colour choice and mood just doesn\'t work for me.

This is probably more personal preference than a fault on your part, but it just lacks the wow factor and impact of your other pieces. Various areas on the model seem to drift into one another and they aren\'t distinct enough... am I making any sense here?

I think what it is is that I really love the skin, but I feel that the tones of the elements around it, rather than framing it up and making it a focus point actually do the opposite and make the model a bit too bleak and monotone.

As I said, it\'s probably just me!

I\'d have to side with those who don\'t really think that the base is complimentary too. It feels like it has been done by a different painter. Also it all looks a bit out of scale to me if I\'m being honest and the tree is a tad unrealistic.

Sorry there is quite a lot of negative stuff here, but I\'m just almost happy to find a mini of yours that I don\'t like. It\'s nice to know that even the best can\'t please everyone all the time!

Anyway, it\'s still very good considering all of the grumbling I\'ve just done, and I eagerly await your next model as per usual!

 

[automaton]

thanks ogrebane and jamie, glad you like it

lono, hehe well I didn\'t post it here on CMON initially because I didn\'t want to overload everyone by posting it everywhere...I posted on a few forums already, so I didn\'t want to bore people or get on anyone\'s nerves by making it appear everywhere they went haha. Plus there is already the CMON voting pic here. But I am not totally happy with the CMON pic, cramming it all in like that as I said before...so I decided I might indulge myself a little by posting it here in the forums as well

Thanks for the criticisms - it\'s good to get some feedback and critique, I\'m always trying to improve my painting. It\'s a shame you don\'t like this one as much haha, coz I tried to really push myself with it...I thought it was probably my best work. But you win some and you lose some, eh? hehe

Originally posted by lono

...Various areas on the model seem to drift into one another and they aren\'t distinct enough... am I making any sense here?

I think what it is is that I really love the skin, but I feel that the tones of the elements around it, rather than framing it up and making it a focus point actually do the opposite and make the model a bit too bleak and monotone.

Just on this: I understand the comment, but I\'m not sure I really see the problem when it comes to the mini - you think the flesh doesn\'t stand out enough? I thought it stood out quite well, being lighter than the rest of the mini, and with the purple-ish colouring - although you said the mini looks a bit \'monotone\'...you mean you think the mini looks purple-ish - or the same colour - all over? I did use some glazes of the puple colour on other parts, but I thought there was still enough difference in colour...but what would you suggest then, to make it better? Stronger colours, for more contrast? Just so that I know exactly what you mean, so that I can think about it!


Oh yeah, and I know the tree on the base is crap haha...I think I will remove it an replace it with something better, it\'s annoying me more and more hehe.

 

[lono]

OK, as I said, I think the issue is as much my preferences as any potential fault on your part. I think your mentioning of the purple glazes has helped me identify exactly what it is that isn\'t working so much for me tough.

If I cover up the lower parts of the model and just look at the shoulder area I really like how the blue-grey fur offsets the skin. It is perfect.

Revealing the mid-torso, and the areas of fur that are much more purple, this is where I start to go off the look of it. The skin and fur colouration are too similar in my opinion, and it starts to merge a bit too much. Now it could be that you were going for some sort of refracted light, where the fur is reflecting some of the luminescence of the skin (if so I think it is overdone), but I get the feeling you just wanted to work some different tones into the fur to add interest. If so I understand that too, I just think you have gone too far with the purple, causing this to become an area that goes too monotone. It also has an almost bleached out look, because the purple just seems so unnaturally placed in that intensity on the fur.

Moving down again, the upper legs, the sword, the skin on the severed head and the green loincloth - the contrast is back. It\'s subtle, and not over the top, but more than enough, and I really like this area.

Then for me the lower legs and the fur on the boots are too similarly matched in tone and once again it feels faded out and less appealing to me.

In all though, I think the main problem for me is the mid section with the purple in the fur. It\'s only a relatively small part on the mini, but it really seems to strike a powerful negative cord (at least with me it does anyhow) and lowers the overall effectiveness of the finished product .

In contrast to that though I feel I should also say that in order to try and work out the above I heavily scrutinized these extremely oversized pics. In doing that I am now positive that your overall ability with a brush is terrifyingly perfect.

It\'s easy to forget just how scaled up these photos are, so I also reduced them to give myself an idea of how it looks actual size. Doing that, and knowing how much work you have put into minute blends and areas of detail, there\'s no way I can say you are anything but a freaky-scary, brush-wielding bad-ass (three hyphens in a row. Nice!).

Less purple next time though!

 

[automaton]

haha, thanks so much for that explanation lono - that really helps, now I see exactly what you mean. I really appreciate the time you took to explain! Thank you.

I think you are probably right about the problems with the fur...the idea with the purple glazes is to unify all parts of the mini more, but you are right that it was perhaps a bad decision to use the purple colouring round those mid parts next to the torso. THat\'s another good thing for me to think about next time!

I was also discussing the fur on another forum, and we were talking about the problems withthe colour vs. the lighting: I wanted the upper areas of the fur around the shoulders the be very dark, with some lighter areas further down...but this becomes problematic, because the lighting should also be stronger on the shoulders...so if the fur was all the same colour, say, the shoulders would be the lightest part because they are most exposed to the light. SO you see how it becomes a problem if I want the fur to be dark around the shoulders...it makes it more difficult to obtain a strong sense of lighting.

 

[Manus]

As for the time of year I think a jesus is in order - after some time here in the forums I rarely let out small cries here at computer, but this time I did. This is some of the best stuff I\'ve seen so far. I think the painting is absolutely flawless, and he base is just amasing, I think it looks almost scaringly realistic, and I don\'t think the tree looks crap.
I was looking at your gallery and saw your last submission was 5th of march, have to ask, do you actually paint that good that fast, or do you work several minis at once?

 

[charlie121]

Blimey:beer: and i love the flesh would love to know how you paint it

 

[forrix]

i\'m with Lono on this one.
I think the skin,metallics and face/eyes on this mini are unreal,as this is a 30mm sculpt and even in the blown up pics your bending/feathering is so close to perfect. It scares me and makes me wish you get stuck in a GIANT traffic jam on your way to the uk Demons his year, so we will have a chance lol great job!

 

[automaton]

thanks for the kind words guys, I\'m really glad that you like it

charlie - I was asked about the flesh colours on another forum, so here\'s the reply: About the skin colours: well, the main colours I used were GW fortress grey, GW electric blue (an old old paint, sort of like GW ice blue + a tiny bit of purple), GW kommando khaki, white, and two of my own colours I have mixed in pots - one is like GW terracotta + purple + white, the other is like GW scorched brown + purple + bark blue and black. These colours were used in different mixes with each other to paint the basic skin tones. The logic I tried to follow when painting the flesh was to have the colour become warmer towards to upper areas of the body, like the chest and the face, by having more of the yellow/orange type colours in the mixes; but towards the lower areas of the body I wanted the colour to become a little colder, by introducing more blue and purple colours. ANd with highlights, the lower, \'colder\' areas jsut used pure greys, but the upper, \'warmer\' areas of the body had a little kommando khaki mixed in for a slightly warmer colouring.


Manus - I\'ve taken up the habit of painting a couple of minis at once...so I often have a few things in progress. But a normal mini takes somewhere around 35 hours - usually done in a couple of weeks. But special things or competition minis take a LOT longer....this one, virago, wasn\'t too bad, probably about 50 hours I would say, not including the base...but I have spent up to 100 hours on minis for GD, say.

Then there were many, many glazes of different colours: light blues, with pure electric blue; glazes of dark flesh and bestial brown, purple colours like GW liche purple and other mauve-type colours, and dark blue colours in the shadows, like GW regal blue + black, and VMC dark sea blue. Again, I tried to work woth the colours while thinking about the \'cold\' and \'warm\' areas on the body, with a shift in colours between the upper and lower areas of the body.


forrix - haha man I had better NOT get stuck in a traffic jam or an aircraft jam or anything!!! I\'m just worried that somehow my minis will get confiscated by customs or something at the airport, it\'s my nightmare at the moment haha

 

[lono]

The worst you will get is probably some slightly confused looks. I\'ve traveled to the States from the UK and back again, armed with cases full of painted, unpainted and generally pointy minis, and never had an issue (and they are pretty tight about security in the US).

Best to be honest with them straight off though I\'d say as I don\'t know if they will let you take it on as carry-on any more, what with all of the crazy new security over the last year or so.

Of course you might bump into an unscrupulous customs officer who is also a hobbyist and decides he fancies an Automaton original for himself. If that happens you are screwed! lol

 

[forrix]

well as long as you don\'t use your display base to smuggle drugs or animal skins into the uk i think you will be allright haha

 

[generulpoleaxe]

sweet work automaton

did you make the tree yourself?
if so, cool mate, much respect.

if not, where did you get it? as it looks cool as hell.

 

[automaton]

hey mate, hehe the tree...I made it out of these fern things I found in the garden - stuck lots of bits together to try to make a fir tree shape! The problem was that it was a bit too fragile...I couldn\'t paint it as much as I wanted - I managed to do a little bit of light drysbrushing with different colours, but I couldn\'t do more because the whole thing threatened to disintegrate hehe.

 

[OrkyDave]

Beautiful work! I really love the skintones personally- very original take on a fantastic model, its such a shame they are not made anymore.

Love the base and look forward to meeting you at GDUK this year!

 

[generulpoleaxe]

Originally posted by automaton
hey mate, hehe the tree...I made it out of these fern things I found in the garden - stuck lots of bits together to try to make a fir tree shape! The problem was that it was a bit too fragile...I couldn\'t paint it as much as I wanted - I managed to do a little bit of light drysbrushing with different colours, but I couldn\'t do more because the whole thing threatened to disintegrate hehe.

definate respect, i\'m of into my garden to pull plants apart now.
thanks for sharing how you did it

 

[Bill]

Another fantastic piece, without doubt the best version I have seen yet. The tree is cool too, I use the same sort of moss for some things , but a whole tree is very impressive

Look forward to seeing you at GD too!

~Bill

 

[McKenna35]

Originally posted by lono
The worst you will get is probably some slightly confused looks. I\'ve traveled to the States from the UK and back again, armed with cases full of painted, unpainted and generally pointy minis, and never had an issue (and they are pretty tight about security in the US).

Best to be honest with them straight off though I\'d say as I don\'t know if they will let you take it on as carry-on any more, what with all of the crazy new security over the last year or so.

Of course you might bump into an unscrupulous customs officer who is also a hobbyist and decides he fancies an Automaton original for himself. If that happens you are screwed! lol

I had a minor issue one time when I was heading to GenCon with a whole unit of the old metal Dark Elf Spearmen. I had them in a box in two lines, head to head, and I guess when they saw it on the X-Ray it looked like some kinda freaky saw blade with lots of serrrations! Needless to say I had to pull the box out of the bag and show them what it really was! This was years ago before the current TSA hysteria. They\'d probably confiscate them now

 

[automaton]

thanks guys, bill, orkydave, I\'m glad that you like it! I think it\'s going a bit far to say this is the best virago out there; there are some truly awesome ones, and don\'t forget JAGs which gets extra points and respect coz he sculpted it as well! But I\'m happy that you think that mine lives up to the sculpt and reputation established by the others.

And as for the transport issue when going overseas, yes it\'s hard, because I would really prefer to keep the minis with me at all times, carrying them in my hand luggage on board the plane...but I don\'t think that will be possible in these times - they are pointy metal things and I guess they could be used as a weapon or something...if you\'re not allowed metal tweezers, I think a metal mini is out of the question also! So somehow I will need to construct asome sort of super safe packaging, and hope that it will withstand the roughness of the baggage handlers...and hope that my case doesn\'t end up in Hawaii or something by mistake! haha

I guess a lot of people are in the same boat though, travelling to GDs and other competitions, so it\'s ok.