55 replies to this topic

[klyons99]

Thanks to some great advice from the wonderful folks here, I've picked my next project. Overall, the goal is to paint two minis prior to watching the Haley/Forester DVD collection, then paint those same two again after to see how much I can improve things.

As always, C&C is appreciated,

Setup is pretty basic, using all Reaper paints from the Learn To Paint Kits (1-5) with the addition of the Army Painter Strong Tone and the Fair Skin Triad. Brushes are from those kits supplemented by 2 W&N Series 7 (2/0 and 4/0) and a new Reaper size 2.

Got a start on the first last night, 03547 Juliette, Wizard by Bobby Jackson.



Started with the eyes, which were a ton easier on this mini than any of the previous humanoid ones. They're nice and big, and the right (our left) is easy to access. The other is slightly hidden behind some hair, so it was a bit more of a pain. Eyes were done by painting the socket Walnut Brown, then coming back in with thinned Linen White, with Walnut Brown again for the pupil.

Skin that's been done is all the Fair Skin triad, done as outlined in L2PK4, just enhanced a bit. Started with the shadow colour (Fair Shadow oddly enough), then layered up 50/50 Fair Shadow/Fair Skin leaving blocked out bits of the Fair Shadow to suggest muscle. On top of this was straight Fair Skin in a smaller area, then 50/50 Fair Skin/Fair Highlight, up to straight Fair Highlight.

Just to bring a little more detail to the face, I took Blood Red and thinned it down about 1:10 paint/water, then used that to layer up some red on the lips. Turns out this was pretty messy (she ended up looking like a bad Joker ripoff there for a while...), so I had to do a fair amount of touch up to get that right.

Once I was done with all that, I tried to darken the shadows a bit with a wash of the Army Painter Strong Tone, but that appears to have been pretty messy.

Notes to Self:
1. Primer (Krylon) didn't cover near as well as it appeared, need to touch this up with the Reaper Brush on Primer
2. Fix the right (her left) leg, shadows are too big at the top and under the knee
3. Fix the left (her right) hand, wash made it awfully messy
4. Cover up that awful Strong Tone mess on her chest/neck

[pocketcthulhu]

the eye's are nice, that's the thing with the #1 kit that's giving me any trouble.

[klyons99]

the eye's are nice, that's the thing with the #1 kit that's giving me any trouble.

Appreciate it, thanks! Made me notice that I've got a little tiny white spot out of place in there that I'll need to fix up...

I know exactly what you mean about eyes. It ended up taking a little over an hour to finally get those done, and the non-visible one here isn't all that good. Fortunately, it's hidden behind some hair.

[ced1106]

See how far you can get with blending on her coat!

Lemme know what you think, as a n00b, about using W&N's for the first few times!

[Pole]

Looking at the mini, the Krylon doesn't look like it stuck well at all. One thing you can try when priming is get an old sock, ask buglips if you need one, put it over your hand. Stick the mini on a spool or bottle cap or whatever, go outside and hold the mini in the covered hand when you spray it. You can move the mini around that way and hit it with primer from just about every angle.

Your eyes are great for just coming off the LTPKs. Hell my eyes pale in comparison to the visible one on this mini!

Make sure you clean up the top of her chest too. The shadow there really draws your eye a bit much and will keep the focus off the rest of the mini.

This is such a fun mini to paint, good choice! I actually started on her last weekend.

[klyons99]

See how far you can get with blending on her coat!

Lemme know what you think, as a n00b, about using W&N's for the first few times!

That's the plan, part of why I (re: my wife) picked her out. There's a lot of great open area to play with blending on that robe/tunic so I'll see what all I can do up. It should be great practice.

As far as the W&N brushes go, they're an absolute dream. Very springy, and they hold a point like you wouldn't believe. I feel like I have a lot more control with them than any of the other brushes I've tried out, and they're holding up pretty well. I've done 5 minis with them so far and they still look and feel like they're brand new.

I'm still pretty curious to try out the Raphael brushes that I've been hearing about, but I'll likely wait for a while before I pick any more up. I should probably focus on actually painting a few more minis before I buy much else. Only been at it a couple of months and I already have a backlog...

[klyons99]

Looking at the mini, the Krylon doesn't look like it stuck well at all. One thing you can try when priming is get an old sock, ask buglips if you need one, put it over your hand. Stick the mini on a spool or bottle cap or whatever, go outside and hold the mini in the covered hand when you spray it. You can move the mini around that way and hit it with primer from just about every angle.

Your eyes are great for just coming off the LTPKs. Hell my eyes pale in comparison to the visible one on this mini!

Make sure you clean up the top of her chest too. The shadow there really draws your eye a bit much and will keep the focus off the rest of the mini.

This is such a fun mini to paint, good choice! I actually started on her last weekend.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, much appreciated!

I did spray using an old sock actually, I just didn't attach her to the old pill bottle I use for painting before I primed. I was going for a "less is more" type of thing, and as you can see, I got the less part down....

Fortunately, I've got 4 bottles of the Reaper Brush On from the L2PKs, so I can touch that priming mess up without any hassle.

You're absolutely correct on the chest, that's on my list of things to clean up. Still learning how to control washes, I'm afraid.

And you're certainly right, she is rather fun to paint. If you happen to have (or want to take) some pics of your work on her, feel free to post 'em up here. Always great to see how other people work!

[CashWiley]

I would recommend a bigger WNS7 brush. I imagine at some point I'll use a smaller brush, but I've used the #2 and fell in love with it's big old belly and razor sharp tip. When I picked it up, I bought 2 of the #2 (for the '2 brush blending' thing), a #1, a #0 and a miniature #0 (all WNS7). They're all awesome brushes, but all but the 2s sit in the brush rack, hopeful little sluggers sitting on deck mini after mini. For reference, the WNS7#2 compared to the flat brush from L2PK1 (I should do a shot of some of the various brushes I have, with a scale object for reference):



Anyway. This project is off to a great start, the face looks great. Maybe focus on blending a bit, the high tone on the leg has a pretty stark demarcation.

[klyons99]

I would recommend a bigger WNS7 brush...
Anyway. This project is off to a great start, the face looks great. Maybe focus on blending a bit, the high tone on the leg has a pretty stark demarcation.

Thanks much for taking the time to comment, it's appreciated!

You're 100% right on the bigger brush. When working on detail work, it's fairly common to have the paint dry on the brush before it gets to the mini, which I understand is not an issue with the larger size brushes. While I can work around it, but it does make doing things like eyes take a lot longer.

I'll be working on the blending on this mini, to be sure!

[klyons99]

Didn't get much of a chance to work on this project over the weekend, as I was finishing up my mini exchange paint job, but fortunately got a chance to do some work last night.

Did some touch up on Juliette's skin and decided on a rough color scheme. Going to try a dark green with yellowish highlights to see how that turns out. So, started her robes off with just a straight Leaf Green.



Also started on 14324, Herryk Aesir, Not sure where I want to go for color scheme yet, but I'll likely go for a fairly traditional blue/gold or blue/silver.

Tried something new with Herryk's eyes, rather than using the Bette Davis Eyes, I did brown liner for the eye socket, followed by only painting in a portion of the eye with Linen White, leaving a portion for the iris rather than trying to paint it on later on. Worked pretty well here, though he did end up looking somewhat cross eyed.



Once I got the eyes done, I worked up what little skin this guy has using the Tanned Skin triad. It was a small enough space that I didn't end up using 5 shades (shadow + 50/50 base + base + 50/50 highlight + highlight), I used ended up using the triad as is.

[chaosscorpion]

The eyes are looking good.

[ced1106]

(for the '2 brush blending' thing)

Thanks for the tip. 2BB doesn't sound like a far jump from LTPK2's highlighting and shading, and looks like a good fit for small areas that need shading and highlighting.



EDIT: 2BB vs. other similar techniques and a 2BB double-ended brush for $17 including shipping
http://plarzoid.com/...ending-methods/
http://handcannononl...-sided-brushes/

EDIT EDIT: 2BB with a sponge instead of your mouth
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/465804.page

Klyons, I'm posting here to ask if, as a fellow n00b (: you can try these techniques at let me know which ones you like best and why!

[CashWiley]

This is where I learned, it may look familiar :)

[Adrift]

I like the eyes on Herryk a lot, and from the picture he doesn't appear to be cross-eyed at all.

Amazing how the green robes toned her skintone down to a cooler shade, but that's what it's likely to accomplish. They're both looking great!

[klyons99]

@CashWiley: I thought that looked familiar, I'll be going over that vid for sure. Thanks for the link!

@ced1106: I'll give two brush blending a try on Herryk and let you know how it goes. Might be a bit advanced for my skill set, but it can't hurt to give it a whirl.

@adrift: Thanks very much for the c&c, and good point about how the green cools down the skin tones. I hadn't been trying for that effect, but I like how it works, and I'll be filing that away for future reference.

Got lucky tonight, and the wife decided to play Guild Wars 2 while our son slept this evening, so I got a chance to do some work on Juliette's robes for a while. Initially I tried to start with the Leaf Green and blend up to a Sun Yellow, as I thought the transitions would make an interesting highlight. Turns out, not so much...

Ended up going back over the robes and lightening the green significantly, as I'm finding lighter colors easier to shade and highlight for the tmie being. I'm hoping that'll change as time goes by, as there are some pretty wonderful darker color schemes.



Ended up with a midtone of 1:1 Leaf Green and Linen White, shadow of Leaf Green and a highlight of Linen White. Also got some practice and learned that I've got a long, long way to go on blending. Looks decent from tabletop distance, but man it's awful under the camera.

Good thing I got some great suggestions for new things to try out.