3 replies to this topic

[Lionheart12]

Basically, I'm almost done with this figure. I've showed it to my roommate and my mom, and they both say the same thing: that there needs to be something else added to it to make it look less "cartoony". My roommate suggested a brown wash using either Citadel's Gryphone Sephia or Orgyn Flesh, but I'm honestly not sure...especially since washing it would make me need to redo all my highlights. What does the board think?

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[MonkeySloth]

When you use a wash you don't have to cover the whole miniature. Just whipe some of the wash off your brush, you can do this in the pot so you don't waste it, and target the areas you want to change, in this case all the areas you'd want to darken.

[Lionheart12]

Thanks for the info, but I (think) I know how to wash. What I'm looking for is advice on how to make the figure look less "cartoonish", and more realistic. Something to really make it pop, I guess?

[MonkeySloth]

More contrast. You're only barely shading and highlighting so your miniature looks "Cell Shaded".

This may seam like common sense but it's what you're missing:

For shading you're only following the contour of the sculpt, meaning if there's a recess you've got a darker color, but you have to go past that and actually think about where light wouldn't be hitting as well and actually darken things that would be in shadow. You'll want to have more then one shade so your can have your darker and lighter shadows, as the darker recesses you have been following will still be darker.

Highlighting is the opposite, look for where the light will be the brightest. You're already doing this quite well in the face but it doesn't stand out much because you don't have much shade.

This image is a winner in our recent forum contest, look at how Adrift uses his shades to define muscles then places highlights to make them contrast with other parts of the skin. It looks like he's only using one color for his shade but is using blending to make the darkest areas be 100% the shade and the darker areas a mix of shade and base coat.