It's been a while...

[Cyberpaddy66]

And I thought I should get the paints out and see if the new brushes combined with the new paints and my new calm nature would make a difference on my mini's so without further ado I give you my Human Wizard...

Primed with a brush and the face, gloves Boots and Belt almost finished
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

After doing the main material parts of the costume I'm going to have to re-do the gloves, boots and belt again but the face is good
Click to see full-sized image
Click to see full-sized image

Does anyone have any comments on what I might have done wrong so far or do you think it's coming out as nice as I hope it is

[Cyberpaddy66]

I'd love to post a big picture of the face but my camera's playing silly buggers so I'm going to have to find the light box and lights before I can do that!

[sea.man]

I think the beard looks best. I am not sure about the glasses, they look yellow-brown on the picture. I think you have just begun working on the cloaks, so I`ll just wait

[Cyberpaddy66]

I've tried to get the glasses skin toned but ther are a bit dark I have to agree.

Managed to drop him last night while packing away for bed, chipped a bit of the bottom of his blue surcoat (doh!) so a touch up will be needed, any other advice guys and gals?

[Cyberpaddy66]

Small update....

Got the light box out and tweaked the camera slightly for a better picture, the Mrs also adjusted it a bit on Photoshop (Auto levels and sharpened) but it's still a pile of poo where picture quality is concerned, we definitely need a NEW camera that dows more than 4.9 on the F:stop (like this one does).

If anyone knows how to get better pictures out of a Fujifilm A860 then please please PLEASE let me know!

So on to the Mini, I need to re-do the gloves and boots as I made a few minor slips with the brush and I lightened up the glasses a bit but basically I'm happy'ish with the blue and green bits and the face but I think I need to 'tweek' it a bit still. I think I've come on a long way since I first joined up here

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

Be brutal with me as I need both positive and negative feedback!

[Midnight Lurker]

I like his face already. He's got a ton of character and a slightly quizical smirk in the eye. He might benefit from a little more darklining though, like around his eyes and eyebrows? Just to make his features pop a little more. If you really want to go the extra mile what about a faint glaze of red in the tip of the nose?

I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason I'm not digging the blue yellow green combo... I can see that vibrant colors would be appropriate for a quirky wizard type, but something's off. Maybe if the green was a deeper forest green instead of a shamrock green it would work better for me. I dunno... I can't explain it.

Not sure I like the flesh tone on his glasses... what about trying a streaky pale blue/white combo to make it look more like glass?

I like where you're going with the highlights and shadows on the blue parts. The green could stand to come up a few more levels in the highlights (or down in the shadows) to make it match the value shift of the blue.

You might want to tighten up the transition line between the yellow "lining fabric" of the cloak and the green "outer fabric". The line you have right now is a little blurry. I would also suggest a fine darkline between the two colors, since there would be a natural shadow where two different fabrics are sewn together.

Overall he's coming together quite nicely. Just remember that glazes are your friend. They will help you with your blends and can add subtle areas of color shift for interest.

Keep it comin'!

Jen

[Cyberpaddy66]

I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason I'm not digging the blue yellow green combo... I can see that vibrant colors would be appropriate for a quirky wizard type, but something's off. Maybe if the green was a deeper forest green instead of a shamrock green it would work better for me. I dunno... I can't explain it.

I think I see what your getting at, maybe there's too much colour or like you say the bright green cloak doesn't quite work... I'll have a go at darkening it.

Not sure I like the flesh tone on his glasses... what about trying a streaky pale blue/white combo to make it look more like glass?

I was wondering that myself so I've dabbed a bit of white on there and see how I feel about it in the morning

You might want to tighten up the transition line between the yellow "lining fabric" of the cloak and the green "outer fabric". The line you have right now is a little blurry. I would also suggest a fine darkline between the two colors, since there would be a natural shadow where two different fabrics are sewn together.

AH this is what I need, didn't even think about that and I make costumes for real DOH!

Keep them coming, I got a very thick skin (and head by all acounts )

[Cyberpaddy66]

Bad news I'm afraid, I'm going to have to start again with the Wizard as he's been bashed about a bit in the mess I call a bedroom / PC Workstation... Too many chips of paint (right back to the metal) for me to think about a touch up job

He's destined for the Brake Fluid pot again (doh)!

On the up side I've moved on a bit with the Big Momma model and having gotten the skin where I like it I then messed it up doing the detailing on the armour, I think I have a long way to go with the amounts of watering I need for my paints and the brush control while getting better seems to suffer from either flooding of the model or dry brush syndrome and I can't have that happening to my new Kolinsky Sable brushes.

I am now using 1 drop of Fairy dish soap in a large jar of water (to break the surface tension) and a mix of water and Future floor polish (1 part future to 8 parts water) for diluting the paints but I'm still struggling with the quantities. My blending is also improving but I have a long way to go still and my wet pallete is not working out how it should, it either dries up completly or the pain starts to run across the whole pallete.

I've watched the Jeremie Bonamant DVD lots of times now and it's helping but very slow going due to my paint thickness not being right like his and whilst he uses a size 2 brush for most of his work I'm struggling with a size 0 (my biggest brush) and am even thinking of moving to a size 3/0 so the details are crisper and not so splodgy.

I'll post up some more pictures soon as I get some that are not grainy, no point in making you all squint at crap photography.

[arctica]

You should get some larger brushes i use between a 2 and 00 these days, but 1 is usually big enough for me. Still a fresh pot of brake fluid for a fresh start good luck mate, can't wait to see this start over again, are you going to try anything different for him this time around?

[Cyberpaddy66]

I'm going to use a spray primer this time, it shoudl hide some of the minor imperfections on the models cloth areas and as you say I'm going to get some bigger Kolinsky Sable brushes so I might have better luck with my paint flow. I think I'll do the head and face the same but I'll probably change the colour scheme a bit, I might even have a bash at some freehand on the cloak... fingers crossed.

I'm half tempted to change his staff as I don't really like the little familiar on the top but we'll have to see how I feel once he's out of the Brake Fluid.