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[Mrs.Fizzes]

Hi all!

So, now that I've gotten a working SD card reader, I can post some pictures of things that I've sculpted and painted. However, after looking all over these forums, I feel as though my painting might be a little... plain. I'm not sure. So I'm here seeking some advice as to what other things I could do to make the minis I've made look a little better.

Bear in mind, I've only painted a few more minis than what you'll actually see here, and since I've taken these pictures, I have noticed certain things that probably need to be fixed, but I'm not entirely sure on the over all paint jobs. Please be gentle!




These are my first sculpts. I was working with a terrible volcanic-ash clay that just... didn't go together as smoothly as I would have liked. So, blobs were born! I tried to paint them using the same color scheme. They're going to eventually be painted with a gloss coat to make them slimy looking, but while I'm waiting to buy that, I figure I might get some advice on what to do with these guys now.


Another sculpt with the ash-clay. It's an elephant squirt from Bastion! In some of my other pictures, I noticed that the black colors didn't seep into all the crevices of the clay, so when I take a picture using a flash, I see lots of little white specks that are lit up. Kind of a bummer.


This is one of my favorites, and one of the first things I made out of sculpey. I'm going to base an army off of him because he's so neat. I feel like his body is a bit too plain though, and I'd like for it to have a bit more depth. I'm just not sure how to accomplish that.



A giant, bloody leech thing. I think I need to do a few more coats of white on the teeth, or maybe make them yellowed? He's also made out of sculpey, but his teeth are made out of greenstuff.



I think it's pretty much safe to say that most of the rest of my sculpts will be made out of super sculpey, as I'm trying to finish up using the last of my regular sculpey. This guy is definitely not done being painted. I was trying out a tutorial for making a humanoid thing in a cloak, and tried to make a face for it, but it didn't go well at all. I'd made the cloak to big, and the face didn't look quite right, and when he wasn't going together, I decided to just stick a bunch of tentacles in his cloak, and make it look like he was some kind of monster masquerading as a person, and the horrible face is only a crudely crafted mask. I wanted the tentacles to be purple with pink suckers, but the paint dried much darker than I intended.

That's about it so far! I have a few other monsters that are completely unpainted, so I might post those up and ask for tips later. Any help that any of you probably much-more-intelligent-than-I-at-painting people can give me is greatly appreciated!

[Midnight Lurker]

Welcome to the boards Mrs. F!

First off, allow me to say congrats to you.  This is very very good for your first works.  Not only painting, but sculpting too?  Bravo!

I am not a sculptor at all, so I can't comment on that part much.  I do see a marked improvement when you switched away from the ash clay on the mushroom man.  Perhaps the ash clay has a porus nature that contributed to the rough surface texture?

I love the mushroom guy too.   I think the next step for you would be to play around with highlighting and shading.  I agree that the body needs something more.  Perhaps try  painting in some darker ivory or brownish tones into the recesses on his trunk to simulate shadows and emphasize the detail of the sculpt.  I could even imagine a little bit of traditional pinkish flesh tones around the face.

The spots on his cap look a little gray.  If that was the intended color, awesome!  If they were supposed to look purple then they might need a touch up.

The leech looks great too.  I think what you need here is to go more yellow on the teeth like you said.  The pink cast that have right now makes them blur into the flesh of the gums.  A medium yellowish or yellow-greenish tan color right up next to the gums, and then just the tips in a lighter ivory or white color will do wonders.

Your cloak monster seems to be headed in the right direction.  Since you mentioned the tentacles I will point out that you can still make the suckers pink if you want to.  Give them an undercoat of white to help neutralize the purple and you will have a fresh canvas.

This is really impressive stuff, Mrs F.  You seems to be off to a wonderful start in our squirrely little hobby.  I look forward to your future work.

Jen