Chest of Colors forum

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Hey guys, this is probably the first figure I've painted in about six years. I went with something a little more simple just to get back into the swing of things.

My personal feelings are the miniature could probably use another few layers of highlights and some inking/glazing to tie things together. The paint isn't as smooth as I would have liked, although I do generally water my colors down a bit. I think that will improve now that I've had some practice.

Anyway, feel free to posts comments or what not. I was actually an art major for a short period of time, so I'm used with the whole brutal critiquing process.

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Edit: Figured I would post a smaller picture as well since the large image seemed a little granulated.

LittleDave wrote:My personal feelings are the miniature could probably use another few layers of highlights and some inking/glazing to tie things together. The paint isn't as smooth as I would have liked, although I do generally water my colors down a bit. I think that will improve now that I've had some practice.

I think you have all your answers right there. What highlights that are their are in the right places you just need more of them. The black in particular could use more. In all other ways its a very clean paint job.

agreed - it's clean and decent paintjob!
if you want to work more on it I can suggest to add more colors in shadow areas - I think blue tone of shadows should fit the model
and maybe some warm tones on the face to make the battle-biatch look more living!

I love nuns with guns so hope to see more of them from you. I tried my hand at them a few years back to nu succes (just no army painter) but still love the models.

Some deeper shades as suggested and I personally am not fond of the yellow-ish details. Think bone colours would look better.

my suggestions would be to:
- highlight edges of red parts to make them look sharper
- paint eyes or at least shade the area
- paint shadows around the rivets and highlight the rivets

@Skrit - The shading was actually a very dark maroon, but I think I went too far with the red I used for the mid-tones. As for the yellow, it was based off of the Order of the Bloody Rose scheme. That's probably supposed to be a gold, but I decided to go with shades of yellow instead. I have about 60 sisters I bought to play with (granted I don't think I'll have the patience to paint them all), so I'm sure you'll be seeing more in the future.

@Demi - I never thought of using blues to shade red, I think that's a great idea! The face was also re-painted a good 3-4 times if you can believe it, but I would agree that it still seems very non-organic.

@Mahon - Would you recommend a lighter shade of red/orange for the highlights or would some bleached bone with red ink/glaze be more suitable? Also, would it be advisable to lightly highlight the areas that protrude or should I pull the paint back into the mid-tones?

I'm not sure I'll be doing anymore work on that specific figure since some of the paint was getting kind of thick and difficult to work with. I'll chalk it up as a learning experience and I'll be sure to keep all of this in mind for my next one.

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it!

as for using blue to shade red - this is the concept of shadows looking colder than the protruding parts. so if you add a cold color (eg. dark blue) to your shadows, you make it look more natural. moreover you will make your shadows less saturated and thus more natural.

if you check how it's done by historical or large-scale painters, they usually use the strongest saturation in the midtones, with shadows being less saturated due to less light, and highlights being less saturated due to being pale because of direct light falling there.

you can also add grey to your color to reduce its saturation, or complementary color for the same purpose (some green added to your red will make it less saturated, as the colors 'cancel out' each other.

as for the colors used for highlighting I don't really know. I'd add some bleached bone and maybe a little yellow to your base color, and then glaze it with a red ink. this will keep the color very rich and saturated.

as for placement of highlights, you can put them on protruding areas (the classic GW way of painting) or apply them where they would realistically be - for example assuming the light is cast zenithally. I think that for the convention you assumed for this model the 'classic' way would work. So I would place highlights on edges of elements (but I would highlight them slightly 'zenithally' - as if the light was coming from above), and protruding things like rivets.

paint getting thick? aren't you using the wet palette? It allows to keep your paint fresh for extended periods of time!

I really like the neatness of your painting. Now you only need to add the 'shiny' details

Definatly get rouself a wet pallet, it's helped me no end and I'm still learning to use it

As for the face, I'd personally go with a wash of a darker skin tone to give it more depth before you do the eyes (or after if your more comfortable with that idea), how many coats did it take to do the armour?

The armor was done in three coats up to this point and I think it's more visible in person. I was always taught a 'classic' style of painting by my peers, which generally involved old-school layering and no glazes. I started with black primer, then built the colors up first by mixing a couple dark maroons before leading up to the red I used for the main color.

I'm not using a wet palette currently, but I think it would definitely help. My paint issues seem to be a combination of the brand of paint, using a dry palette and I spent a bit of time trying to get things 'just right' on the figure which caused the layers to build up. The red is smooth, but I was starting to lose some detail in the cloth area since I couldn't figure out how I wanted to do the black.

Also, I realize you can't make my style decisions for me Mahon, but I appreciate the feedback none the less. You're probably right about the protruding highlights (GW style) and that's exactly what I wanted to know. I think I'll opt for a more natural style of painting from now on, it's just hard to break old habits.

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Sorry about the spam, I just want to keep this post separate from the last one.

Here's the next sister I started based on the suggestions that were made. I went with more natural lighting this time and incorporated a blue/purple glaze over the maroon color I used for the shadows. I'm fairly pleased with how it's going so far, although I think the image may look better than the figure itself.

I also setup a wet palette using some old socks since I didn't have any cotton (gross!) and I must say it's just amazing. I honestly don't know how anyone could paint without one.