I Want to Improve My Painting

[pae]

Milliput juice is basically milliput that has been thinned with water. You can paint this on a mini to fill pores, and then sand off the excess. You'll want to use an old brush for this.

You could also use brush-on gloss varnish to do the same thing (and smooth over mold lines that you missed before priming).

[LadyEyes]

Vallejo gloss varnish is great for filling rough surfaces and diminishing fine mold lines you can't reach to sand. I've also used other brands of gloss varnish and had similar outcomes. Just be careful to not get it on any detailed area where you want to keep the details.

[huitzilopochtli]

not with thinned paint! you need to use modeling putty or maybe the so-called miliput juice.

Well that could have been hilarious.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the advice. I will try to be more careful when choosing my colours and to get my painting more "crispy clean" (Maru). I will also work on improving the contrast in my minis (mahon). I really can't believe how flat the colours looked before. I will also see to spending more time prepping my next pieces (djinn24 and mahon). Lastly, thanks to Skrit for the complement. I think that covers everything.

On to the finished model. Basically I tried to shade and highlight more, concentrating where mahon pointed out but I'll admit I got carried away here and there. I'm happy with the result so I don't plan on doing any more with him (apart from a base, which is still to come). Any comments on how I can improve on the next model though would be appreciated.

Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

Finally, there's a "model of the month" painting competition in my local GW at the end of the month (will find out what model tomorrow). Does the same "crispy clean" style work for this small operation as for golden demon?

Think that's all for now. Thanks again for the feedback.
H

[pae]

One thing you have to be careful about in regards to highlighting is doing too much of it. You don't want your brightest highlights to have the same brightness on every part of the figure--just where you'd catch the most light.

[Marek]

Exactly. You have brighten all the feathers, will you should have concentrated the bright spots on their ends and certain edges. Look carefully on Mahon's pictures, they are good illustrations of what should be done. Now you have lost the shadows by overhighlighting.

[mahon]

I like what the feathers look like on the first picture. Well done (or better photo ^^)

Good point, Pae! Intensity of light is an important tool in your painter's arsenal, which allows you to control where viewer's attention goes...

[huitzilopochtli]

Well it's been a while. Exam preparation has been interfering with my painting somewhat so I haven't had a chance to photograph the few models I've done until now. Without further ado here are some warlocks I've been working on (my skink's base has been put aside until I being working on the next lizzie model):
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

From left to right they are in the order I started them in. The last on just has the purple robes done and all of them are waiting for their weapons. I'm quite happy with them as an experiment in contrast, although having seen the photos I think I may add more highlights to the last model's purple and the middle one's bone.

Anywho, here are some close-ups:

Click to see full-sized imageClick to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized imageClick to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized imageClick to see full-sized image

C&C are appreciated as always. Also one last thing, can anyone give some advice on how to make gems more...liquid-like? I've seen some that honestly look like they were poured into place and I'd like to know how to emulate that.

All the best,
H

PS, sorry for the quality of the photos.. they were taken in a bit of a rush.

[Maru]

hello
you just get in a "long weekend" time ... so not much responce
i would sey - contrast - you mey easly go to much higher - acenting curves on materia

the things thst wore me is strange facture under the paint - Granulated Base coat ??


other way to create a "rich" feel of color is to use colors near by or reversed to create shadows

purple material - shadows dark blue , or realy dark red - end so on

[mahon]

the texture of surface must be unpolished metal. that's why plastic models often look so smooth compared to their metal counterparts.
if you really want to do better with your smoothness you need to spend more time preparing your models - buy metal polishing wool, relax and... go polish your minis. then you can do final corrections with the milliput juice or surfacer.

as for painting - you could go much bolder, just like Maru said.

make a small exercise: take one model and paint it with overdone contrasts, overemphasize them. go from pure white in highest highlights to total black in darkest shadows. not because it looks good, but because you need to learn to get bolder with it.

you know the experiment with drivers who were told to drive at 60km/h, then to speed up to 150km/h and then (without looking at the dashboard) slow down to 60km/h again.
most of them slowed down only to 80-90km/h and believed it's 60km/h already. they got so accustomed to higher speed that their level of 'normal speed' was also increased.

do the same but instead of driving think about contrasts. overdo them, then go back to normal painting. you will see your contrasts will be bolder than before.

[huitzilopochtli]

Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image