I Want to Improve My Painting

[sea.man]

now the contrast is much better!

[arctica]

I agree the contrast seems much better, i feel that some of the lightest parts look very chalky and bleached, one idea to bring the rich colour back to the lightest bits is to use thin watery coloured glazes. I find colours such as pink/red and purple usually need a bit more of those as they are usually quite vibrant colours to start with.

[huitzilopochtli]

It's been a while but here's another batch of photos. My continued thanks to everyone who has commented and given advice. I am trying to implement it as best I can and I hope at least some improvement is apparent. I've been working on preparing my models more before painting however this model had been undercoated before I began this. I'd especially like to know what you think of colour choices as this is a tester for the model in the last picture.





Lastly, I'm trying to get the metal smooth for this model. It has been sanded and filled with milliput and I'm not sure if it looks right. How should I proceed from here? Also, is metal polishing wool better than sandpaper/easier to use? And is there any specific kind I should get?


Thanks for your comments.
H

[Pandadosmares]

Much better the last one, clear and simple you can try to give a last highlight of pure white just in the edges of the "white parts"

[mahon]

wow, that's some big improvement! good smoothness (even if some transitions are not perfect, they're very good) and thanks to much smoother painting and better preparation the paintjob seems MUCH neater!

regarding your question - the paper we use is of the very fine kind. I think like 1000 or so...
you could apply some kind of primer spray on your model to see if it's smooth enough for you. all I can say is that your smoothness improved very much!

[huitzilopochtli]

Thanks for the feedback Pandadosmares and mahon. I'm very excited about how smooth metal polishing wool gets models, but I'm worried that it may be too smooth for the paint to stick effectively. Should I go over the polished metal with sandpaper to roughen it up a bit before priming? Or am I good to go straight after polishing?

Cheers,
H

[mahon]

that's why you use primer.

if you use a real primer and not just paint, it will stick to your model very well. just allow it to dry well. some say that most paints used for painting models dry like this:
- after several minutes you can touch it
- after several hours (or a day) it is dry enough to be resistant to damage and not interfere with next layers
- after several days it's fully dried, but it doesn't really matter to you. but yes, the paint achieves its full durability then

so if you allow your primer to dry for 24 hours it should be dry and hard enough to allow for safe handling

check for primers on some modeling websites or in such stores. alternatively you can go to a do-it-yourself/hardware store and look for acrylic primers in spray cans (eg. car primers). we often use these and they're really good.

and don't forget to wash your model with soap to remove any remaining grease which would make your paint adhere much weaker than on a clean model

[huitzilopochtli]

Cheers mahon! Really appreciate it!

[huitzilopochtli]

OK it's time for an overdue update. Here's a bit of what I've been painting.










It's a mixed bunch. I'm finding it difficult to stay focused on one model. I get started, pick a few faults and either rush to finish it (as happened with the skink) or move on to something else (which is why I have so many things on the go at once). I guess that's just a discipline issue but it's frustrating as anything.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts, particularly on the cloak of the damsel and the commissar.

And I have one question: how the hell does she do this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd_Ukscp ... re=related (Teclis bit)

I stumbled across this the other night and it's amazing. What perplexes me is that her paints don't appear to be thinned very much, or at least not as much as mine are. I tend to water my paints down to the point where it feels like I'm glazing every single layer... sort of like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfnmDVfgxSM.

Can someone please elaborate on the technique illustrated in the first video? What exactly is she doing to get those results?

Many thanks!
H

[huitzilopochtli]

Update on yarrick. Pretty happy with him so far.