New Crap from Midnight Lurker

[Midnight Lurker]

Hey Guys...

Thought I would share a couple recently finished figs with you all. The first one is Friar Stone, Traveling Monk from Reaper Miniatures. Tre Manor is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sculptors... I foresee myself painting many more from him in the near future! I absolutely love the character he puts in his faces!

Dude looked lonely on the base by himself, so I added a bunny for his animal companion. Let's just hope that Thumper stays on the path...

Click to see full-sized image

Next up is Callus Darklore, also a Reaper fig. I really wanted to do some sort of swirly freehand on the back of his cloak... I mean it's just begging for it... but once I put on the yellow glaze to shift the color I was too scared to try. My freehand is still a little sketchy, and needs a lot of clean up work. I wasn't sure I could match the background colors well enough to pull it off. If it hadn't been an already overdue commission I might have gone for it anyway. Next time...

Click to see full-sized image

Anyhow, I hope you guys like them. Brutally honest C&C is always appreciated!

Laters,
Jen

[arctica]

I like the neatness in your painting, but i think the first one the photos don't do your model justice as the good contrast in your painting makes the pictures seem a bit grainy when it comes to the highlights. Looking at the two models from a technical point of view the latter is better, as the zenithial highlights are much better on the second. For example the highlights on the first model are all the same intensity around the folds on his shoulders but this shouldn't be the case. The details such as the eyes and face are a great focal point and i think to solve the issue of highlights is to just glaze a little of your base colour to his clothes so they aren't so white, this will also help give the model more focus to the face. But saying that it's still a very good piece and the blending is good, especially on his round tummy.

The second model is good from a technical perspective however it isn't as eye catching as the first one, or possibly not as interesting. Again i love your eye for detail on the face and the skull he is holding they are done so well. I think what makes me prefer your first model is that this second model is nice and well done, there isn't much that makes him a cut above the rest and although done to a high quality just seems like any other generic fantasy model. I think if you were to push some freehand on his cloak and/or gave him a dioramic base would give a much better story and atmosphere to suit the model. I still like the model and you've done a great job on both so well done.

[Nameless]

very nice minis Jen apart from what arctica said:
- monk: I love the material texture you painted on monk's bag, I wonder what is this pink drink he has (medevial cosmo?) and I'm still not completely sold on american way of painting eyes (big 'anime' eyes).
- necromancer - snake on the base is lovely addition purple robe could use some more midtones.

oh, and don't be afraid of freehands. you're too good for that

[Pandadosmares]

Very cool, love the bases and the cloath of the monk.

But just one question, what happened to the photos were they edited? they lost definition

[Maru]

monk got gigantic pupy eyes

secound photo a litle to dark end off of WB
twicked it a litle bit but dino how correct this is

Click to see full-sized image

[Midnight Lurker]

Thanks for the input you guys! I really appreciate hearing your opinions. Once again, the honesty of this collective bolsters my faith.

Arctica: Yeah, I tend to forget the rules with zenithal lighting sometimes. I get distracted easily and end up going too far with the highlights. I totally agree with you about the highlights on the monk's shoulders. At the time I was doing it I kept going back and forth, glazing them down and then thinking it looked funny and bringing them back up again. I must have done that about 3 times. I think the shoulders are the part I am most unsatisfied with.

My original idea for the base of the necromancer was to create a spell effect shooting from the skull's eyes blasting a small demon in flight. I ended up backing off from that because it was supposed to be a promotional paint job for Reaper, and I have a tendency to get carried away and the basing can take over the focus. I stalled as long as I could, praying for inspiration, and in the eleventh hour I settled for something kinda simple. I really wished I had gone for it with the freehand. He needs something more, that's for sure. Unfortunately both minis are now gone to their new home in Texas so tweaking can't happen.

Nameless: Hahaha! Fooled ya! The bag texture is sculpted on, so I can't take any credit for that. And you're right about the purples. It's a color I'm still getting used to using. My next one (a Dark Sword Angel) will have a lot of purples and teals and indigo so I will get some more practice.

Pandadosmares: To be honest, I'm not sure what happened. If you remember from my WIP thread I'm still learning how to shoot and post-process stuff. I have all of the original, unaltered RAW images. (That's one thing I learned is to never ever mess with the originals!) Should I post them? It might have been the aperture, it might have been me screwing it up in Photoshop. I really need to get better at shooting. Maybe I will start a thread dedicated to my photography misadventures....

Once again, thanks for the feedback you guys! Keep it comin!
Jen

[Midnight Lurker]

Yeah Maru... That is a little closer to what he really looks like. Thanks!

Jen

[mahon]

I think the friar is the better of the two. Probably because I like the sculpt much more. Callus just looks a bit goofy to me. Not the paintjob, because I like your smooth and bright style very much. I mean the sculpt...

Just love these deep recesses and contrasts on the friar's robe. And on Callus you painted these cool color transitions and used pretty interesting choice of colors. Still I prefer the friar. And did I mention that I think Callus' face looks goofy? Probably not yet I don't know what I like less - his face or the skull. None of which is your fault though

[Maru]

To be honest, I'm not sure what happened. If you remember from my WIP thread I'm still learning how to shoot and post-process stuff. I have all of the original, unaltered RAW images. (That's one thing I learned is to never ever mess with the originals!) Should I post them? It might have been the aperture, it might have been me screwing it up in Photoshop. I really need to get better at shooting. Maybe I will start a thread dedicated to my photography misadventures....

You got RAW s cool
submit them somwer
(um not on photo bucket as thous are not exacly photos .. )
some file share service
ther is a lot of data in RAW format so yes we could maske in depth analise of problem

[Midnight Lurker]

Hi All!

Long time no post, eh? Been fairly busy and a lot of things have fallen aside. I'm trying to catch up!

So here's a few minis I've messed around with in the last few months.

First let me post a couple Reaper pieces. Nothing incredibly impressive, but they were both fun.

Vermina, the Rat Queen:

(gotta love the man hands!)



and The Mockingbeast:



Next up is my Thief of Hearts #3, the Fallen Angel. A few months back I posted WIP shots of her here, and some of you may have already seen her on CMON. She was my first official commission for Dark Sword Miniatures. I was pretty intimidated by the feathers, but I think they came out okay. I had trouble with the join on her back so I ended up having to sculpt a few strands of hair to fill in the void.

I've got to work on my transparent fabric skills! The soiled sheer fabric effect I was going for on her skirt doesn't read very well at all. I think I needed to push the contrast more.



And last but not least is the new Mole Alchemist from Dark Sword, sculpted by Dave Summers. He was a top secret project released for the first time this past weekend at GenCon.

I had such a blast painting him up! I think I'm turning into a real Dark Sword junkie. I was going for the standard gem look on the eye glasses, but a happy accident resulted in what looked like enlarged eyes in the lenses so I decided to just roll with it. I think the goofy look it gives him suits him fairly well.