Chest of Colors forum

atacam wrote:I think one issue is the expanse of red. I have to stick to the concept as much as possible.

It's like with translations. Voltaire said they're like women: faithful or beautiful

I fully understand that having to stay true to the concept art can be a seriously limiting factor...

I think in drawn pictures you can probably get away with stuff that doesn't transfer to minis as well, yes/no?

Good point!

Sometimes it's difficult to recreate concept art with a sculpt, then to recreate it with the paintjob and still make it look good. Transfering 2d art into 3d has its own difficulties...

Please, let me know, here or by PM, any advice can only be a good thing.

Not trying to comment on any particular paintjob, but more on the general subject of painting "official paintjobs". There are quite a few people who do great jobs in this field. Angel Giraldez comes to my mind as the first example. He's definitely good at what he does, and it seems quite a few manufacturers noticed it already. Then I would add the painters painting for Dark Sword Miniatures, Knight Models and Kabuki Models, too, although they are less restricted with the concept art color schemes I think (I may be wrong though).

If I was trying to improve at doing good official paintjobs I would try to analyze why I consider their works good.

What I think is: they all work with more saturated colors (it looks good on pics), more contrast than you use, and they present good photos. I fact I often prefer Angel's photos to the official ones. Now what do you think should be improved in your case first? If anything needs change at all...

mahon wrote: What I think is: they all work with more saturated colors (it looks good on pics), more contrast than you use, and they present good photos. I fact I often prefer Angel's photos to the official ones. Now what do you think should be improved in your case first? If anything needs change at all...

First of all, learn how to paint as well as him

second, learn to take pictures better. I have a problem with it and just dont know how to correct it. I think it may be the camera I use to start with, as its a compact, its now 4 years old so that although not the only issue, probably doesn't help.
When I look at the mini, the transitions are there, maybe more subtle than they should be for photography, I just wish the camera saw what my eyes see.

atacam wrote:Thank you very much. I wouldn't worry about if you have or dont have more ability than someone else, you have an eye for this and you know what you like. The feedback is gratefully received. I thought as much it was the red. As I said it does look better in RL, maybe I should go darker even more in the shadows?

Well, glad it help
For the red, I would go darker in the shadows yeah, not too much, but a little bit more so that they would be more marked and perhaps try to make it more pop on the faces or on specifics points where light is supposed to be catched, and as I said, try to have a more neutral background for the pics, cause colors are definitely eaten there

atacam wrote:First of all, learn how to paint as well as him

bear in mind he is not the only painter in the Studio Giraldez. so it can be done.
still they all have pretty consistent style, even if quality is often recognizable.

I think it will take some time to browse and analyze some pics to nail the few crucial things which will do the most improvement in your painting. I would say: contrast and saturation first.

atacam wrote:second, learn to take pictures better. I have a problem with it and just dont know how to correct it.

try contacting Maru, send him the name of your camera and describe the problem. this guy knows most technical details about the popular cameras, so he should be able to give you some tips that can help you change some things.

and the sad thing is that whenever you showcase your minis in the internet, you are not presenting your miniatures but only photos. sorry to say it. without good photos you can win every painting contest and still be unable to earn appreciation for your works in the internet

I think it may be the camera I use to start with, as its a compact, its now 4 years old so that although not the only issue, probably doesn't help.

mine is like 6-7 years old, and it usually does the trick.
one can take decent photos with many cellphones now

and doesn't the manufacturer provide better photos of your paintjobs? Aren't they used by them as the official ones sometimes?

When I look at the mini, the transitions are there, maybe more subtle than they should be for photography, I just wish the camera saw what my eyes see.

generally, and unless you're using good photo equipment, you will have to overdo things a bit at the stage of painting if you want them to look good on photos. overdo colors, overdo contrasts.

alternatively you can fix it in post processing. but it takes additional work with your photos.

then remember that you will never know what people see when they look at your photos. do they have settings of their monitors set properly? do they have their monitors calibrated properly? do I? do you? do others?

you touched a subject which can start an avalanche, but if you want to dig a bit deeper - start a separate topic for this purpose

but if you want your paintjobs to look faithful on a screen you have to go through it all...

Sorry for my short and not that helpfull constructive comment but I just think this is one of the few Allan Carrasco sculpts that I really dont like, its just quite bland. The dual head concept is also something not that interesting to sculpt and the concept art is MEH. With so many "problems" the painjob in this case is just a consequence... I mean no matter how you paint a ugly sculpt at the end of the day its still going to be one ugly sculpt.

They're giving away a nice gaming table at salute!

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

Nice. Simple but efficient

cost of shipping it overseas?

mahon wrote:cost of shipping it overseas?

Prolly higher than a DIY one

I recall a situation: one guy wanted to sell a beautiful modular gaming table on ebay after a large Polish convention. Cost of shipping was so insane that it made it all completely unrealistic...