Where do I go with this free hand?

Demihuman

Demihuman

Active member
Hi All,

I have been gone for a year or two. I got married, had a baby, and we bought a little house in the suburbs. Holy Crap! Some parts of my life have changed but not my weekly RPG sessions!


I have been lurking for the last week or so on CMON and trying to get back into painting. Dragonsreach and Boubi helped me sort out my camera and now I am stuck on some basic freehand.

View attachment 20721

I am working on the design on this guys shield. I like the design but I know it has some problems. Can you tell me what the problems are? And tell me what to do to make it better?

Some of the ideas I have are:

1. Shade the pattern. Seems obvious but the plain white on the blue really pops in person. I know I need to shade it a little but looking for some direction with the design first.
1.5. Clean it up. that is probably going to be part of whatever stage is next so I am with you, although I am close to the limit of my ability where it's at now.
2. Outline or black line the pattern. There is some dark green in the waves that might work good for this and maybe just doing the bottom of the white might work. I am just not sure if that will help.
3. make the design look more Celtic and fill in the empty space on both sides with knots. I like this idea and am going to sit down with the sketch pad when I have a minute tomorrow. But then do I outline? Underline?
4. Greenstuff rim for the shield? My eye gets kind of lost at the edge of the shield and maybe a physical boundary might fix that?

What do you think? I got this guy and a bunch of other Darksword minis from a cheap-o ebay lot so I don't have ton of emotion invested in it but I do want to improve my skills so let 'er rip.

Thanks!

Oh! here is the other mini I am working on:

View attachment 20724
 
MAXXxxx

MAXXxxx

Well-known member
personally I think the freehand is looking pretty good.

what you could do:
- shade it like you already said to help it blend in a little.
- make the lines thinner (IF you want a finer pattern) or add more 'detail' in the lines(like repainting it with yellows(gold) or greys(steel) for a NMM effect). But this may be unnecessary after the shading part.

I wouldn't do the black outline or the more pattern. Black would look too strong here and more pattern would make it look more crowded. BUT maybe you'd want to add some battledamage (scratches and such, imitated only with paint)

To close it I think painted-on steel-rim would be better than GS now. So a thin metal line all around (shaded of course, so bottom part darker metal, than at the top). Again could be gold or silver, your choice.

Both on the rim and in the pattern(if you choose to do it) I'd go with the gold. With the yellow in it setting up a contrast with the blue backgroud.

-----

Af for the 2nd 'mini': much better, much much more realistic :D

M.
 
Bailey03

Bailey03

Well-known member
I agree that black lining it would be too strong and more pattern would make it too busy.

Instead of a rim, you could paint a black circle around the edge of the shield (on the front side, but at the edge). It could be up right up to the edgeor slightly inside it. I'd paint it so the line went behind the pattern (break the line anywhere it crosses the fish-monster guys). Just an alternative to greenstuff... not sure if it's a better or worse idea, just a thought.

Another thing to consider is going back over it with the background color to make some of the white line thinner. If you make the upper parts of each figure thin lines and keep the lower parts thick (lower as in under the head, body, and tail) is will give them a little more 3-D feel and a sense of weight without actually shading them. Again, just a thought.

Overall he's looking good!
 
Demihuman

Demihuman

Active member
Thanks guys!

Maxxxx, I like the painted gold rim on the sheild. That will work and tie into the rest of the mini. He has some nmm gold little details on his armor and belt buckle that you can't see in this pic. I might have to move the top fish (heraldric dolphin) head a little to make the rim work but mabye I can keep it super thin. Bailey, I looked at your Phillip sheild Holy Crap, awesome!
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
I prefer without, because it is taking away from the freehand having the additional yellow when its no where else IN the rest of it.
 
Demihuman

Demihuman

Active member
Okay so i finished! Here is the post:


Image URL: http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img51b7b70105291.jpg

I would have liked to have a little more shading of the rim on the face of the shield but I am really trying to focus on getting stuff to a finished point and moving on. I feel like each new mini is a little better better than the last one but I find myself getting stuck reworking the same mini or section of mini over and over. So i am posting it and moving on.

Anyways, thanks for the help!
 
Zab

Zab

New member
That tuned out well. The battle damage on the shield ties it all together nicely as it passes through multiple elements. Clever ;)
 
B

Broke n English

Guest
Aye I agree there, the damage seemed to be a better colour choice too, like DR said the yellow seemed to distract the eye, wicked looking fella, thanks :)
 
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