Sarrazon's WIPs

[Sarrazon]

Alright, I've been avoiding this long enough. I got a brand new lightbox in the mail today, so my photos no longer look like something shot by a hobo. Anyway, the first piece I'm posting is Echidnox, from Reaper's Legion of Justice and Cake. He's almost done, but still in the WIP section because of some touchups, and a bit more work on the base that needs to be done. Although he's nowhere near Tanya's original, I'm pretty proud of him, with one exception - his sword is awful. I tried for the longest time, but this was the best I could get it (especially after its accidental meeting with mister floorboards), and I still dislike it. I really need to take some time and work on my metallics more. Also from the aforementioned meeting with the floor, there are a couple chips. I fixed most of them (including some of the ones I noticed in the pictures after I took them), but if you see one mention it. Oh, and the gems on his dagger got fixed, they're all red now.

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

[sea.man]

that`s really nice. I like the face, red parts and the fur.
I think you could work a bit on the metallics, but you already know that. You can give it a few washes.

[Sarrazon]

Thanks, I think the face is one of the best parts and the red was fun (and surprisingly easy) to work with. As for the washes, I was considering it, but the blue-black mix I usually use for steel might look slightly out of place in the red-brown color scheme of the rest of the model, and I don't want the dinginess that a black or brown wash would give.

[sea.man]

but still, without any wash the sword looks terrible...

[Sarrazon]

...Agreed. I'll tinker around with it some, and see what I come up with.

[mahon]

I think there are two things which could be improved:
- the white part of his face looks a bit flat and boring.
- the integral base should be merged with the base you made for the model. the division looks a bit unnatural now.

and besides those two things I think you've got a cool paintjob on a nice model there

[Sarrazon]

Thanks, I'm pretty proud of it. As for the base, I already planned on doing it I just haven't broken out the GS yet. The face is a bit trickier as while I see what you're saying about flatness, I kinda like it, and I'm not sure what I'd do to make it more interesting.

Edit to expound on the second point, as I was basically running out the door to get to work when I posted this - I've thought about a couple ways to make the face a bit less flat, but I'm not sure about either of them. The first, and probably simplest is to make the white-cream-brown transition take more space, which would look nice, but I question how much it'd accomplish except for making the white part smaller. The second thing I thought of was a tattoo, in this case probably the swirl he has on his shield, sword, and quiver, but I'm a bit iffy on how it'd look on the sculpt. Still haven't ruled either of these out, though.

[mahon]

I would pull the shading a bit further on the bottom parts of his 'cheeks'. Get it?
What I mean is something like this:

Click to see full-sized image

[Sarrazon]

Ah, yeah, I see what you're saying. I'm just getting home after being out of town, so it might be a day or two before I get to take a stab at it though. Saw Blue Oyster Cult, though, I think it worth it.

[Sarrazon]

Wow it's been a long time since I've posted anything in this. On-and-off painting had continued, especially interrupted by school and work. I've finished a few things, but I haven't had anything really worth posting for a some time. I got some nice pictures of what I'm working on at the moment, though, and I need some advice.

Click to see full-sized image

As you can see, I'm working on a half-ork monk unintentionally inspired by The Hulk (I didn't even realize the resemblance until a day after I'd started working on both the skin and the pants). The skin is what I'm most proud of on this him, and despite a few touch ups (there's a bit of a chip on the back, which is why I'm only putting up a picture of his front - he had a bit of an accident in transportation, as you can probably see on the pouch), it's basically done. Everything else is still fairly WIP - the hand/footwraps still need a few more layers of contrast, and the fur, red padded cloth, and pouches are basically at just a basecoat.

What I'm really stuck on is the pants/loincloth. As you can see, I've put some work into them already, with a mix of layering and glazing. My problem is I feel they still need... something. I'm just not happy with them as they are, but I can't quite tell where to go from here. I've tried taking the highlighting up further, up to white in places, but it just doesn't look right. I'd also like to smooth out the transitions a bit more, and am not sure how to go about it. Rather than continue fumbling about and risk messing up badly, I felt asking for advice here would be the way to go. Any suggestions?