which do you prefer? sculpting or painting wood grain?

[cybersquig]

ok, so I\'m quite happy that I can paint my wood grain and I can sculpt the detail onto the surface first or not, but for me the jury\'s still out on which get\'s the best effect. Do you guys and girls have a preference for one or the other? do you think that one or other is the sign of a better miniature?

The reason I\'m asking this is the simply wonderful pirate mini that won bronze at the UKGD08 open by Mike Anderson. I don\'t know whether he\'s on here, but I look at the pics on the gw website and I\'m seeing some sort of (maybe?) combination of the two that is just awesome and produces a really sweet effect - I don\'t know if he\'s on here or not.

So, wood grain - sculpted or painted out of preference?

Cybersquig

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by cybersquig
ok, so I\'m quite happy that I can paint my wood grain and I can sculpt the detail onto the surface first or not, but for me the jury\'s still out on which get\'s the best effect.

Totally depends on the scale and the style for me (fantasy v. historical).

With historicals, if realism is being aimed at it\'s mostly gross exaggeration to even suggest grain, except at very large scales. Wood that\'s heavily weathered can have a pronounced texture that is worth trying to create in miniature but the kind of weathering I\'m talking about would be softwood boards sitting in a field for ten years, not just a shield back that\'s been rained on a few times lol

For fantasy stuff that rulebook goes out the window! If you like the grain to have some three-dimensionality then by all means go for it. Generally speaking I think if the style of the sculpting generally is a bit \'big\', exaggerated or cartoony then 3D grain looks good and can even look better than painting alone (depends a bit on the painter though!) but if the style is more towards being realistic - e.g. Enigma\'s stuff - then it\'s just a matter of taste, with no right/wrong IMO.

Einion

 

[Ritual]

What do you mean? If the grain is sculpted, it still needs to be painted with shadows in the cracks and highlights on the ridges. If it\'s just left with a base coat it\'ll look pants.

I prefer sculpted grain, BTW. But, only if it is well done. I do prefer a smooth surface, to paint freehand grain on, over a poorly sculpted wood grain.

 

[cybersquig]

I don\'t mean to just leave it as a base coat, I would highlight/shade the same amount if it was sculpted or painted freehand. I was mainly wondering whether you look at a mini and are more impressed with it painted freehand, or sculpted initially and then painted appropriately.

btw, any idea how Mike Anderson got that wonderful wood effect on the floor/boxes?

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?community=true&catId=&categoryId=700003&aId=10800001

 

[Ritual]

It might be drybrushed. I\'ve drybrushed wood with similar results.

 

[cybersquig]

interesting...I\'ve always steered away from using balsa/equivalent in my minis, being worried about losing definition in the grain or having too big a grain for the scale. Maybe I\'ll give it a try after all...

 

[Ritual]

When using real wooden strips you might need to \"enhance\" the grain a bit before painting, using a scalpel or x-acto. You could also try rubbing a steel brush against the wood.

Also, in my local hobby store they sell thin strips of walnut wood. I find those better as the wood is harder and you can get sharper textures on it. The hardness makes it tougher to carve, though, but with a bit of effort and care it is doable and gives better results, IMO.

 

[cybersquig]

awesome, will give that a try (and I\'ll see if I can get a few different woods to work with too). Maybe this would work better at a larger scale than a smaller one. Meh. Thanks so much for your input!