Lucas DP's painting thread

[lucasdp]

For the brush, invest in a Winsor & Newton size 1 (Not the miniature, but the regular one!).

I think that's what I'm using aleady? So maybe it's not the brush, I just need more practice. Which is to be expected.


This past Saturday, I knocked out Garrick the Bold, aka Sir Ragnar. I haven't exactly been timing myself, but this guy seemed to take less time than the others. He's admittedly smaller than that big Orc and "Skulmar" so maybe that's part of it, but I think I'm getting faster and more confident as well.

Here he is with most of the basecoat applied:


And here he is completed!



I had some fun with this guy. The bronze accent on the helmet; I didn't even notice that detail on the mini until I put the base coat on! Once I saw it, I had an internal debate to paint that detail bronze or just leave it silver with the rest of the helmet. Well, as you can see now, I challenged myself to make it a detail that stands out a bit, and I think it turned out great!
I'm very proud of this one, and I really don't think the pics do it justice. It looks even better in real life!

[Anderas]

That's what I love about painting. You see details that you wouldn't notice otherwise, and then you can decide for letting them stand out or you can hide them. Love it!

A little spoiler for the HQ minis, some of them have details missing. Then you start to think if you should add them via painting or not. It's difficult! I am looking at you, dwarf.

Your mini is definitely a good one. Keep them going!

[knightkrawler]

That's a fine mini indeed. Quite a step forward! Courage is paying off and the end result is really a reason to pat yourself on the shoulder.
I'm looking forward to seeing all the minis in the exchange, including yours.
I've never seen that Cotman print on the brush... probably the importer.

[whitebeard]

That looks fantastic!! Great job. It is quite rewarding to see the finished product.

Painting all of the orcs and goblins can be a chore, but when they are all done it is amazing to play a game where only painted miniatures make it onto the board. Keep it up!

[lucasdp]

Thanks for the encouragement, gang! Having fun and keeping at it. Here's a couple more Reaper Bones I've done recently. These are going to be used in Ravingspire, a deck-building dungeon game I backed on Kickstarter that came with tokens for the characters.
Here they are with base coats:


Reaper Bones Halbarand the Cleric as Ravingspire's Garsome Cinderheart


Reaper Bones Julliette the Sorceress as Ravingspire's Dawn the Righteous

And here they are completed!



I'm pretty happy with these two, but I still need practice doing eyes. I think his turned out pretty decent, especially considering how new I am at this, but as you can see, I kind of gave up on her eyes. I still think she looks good, though. "Hey, she's magic user. She kind of goes into a trance when casting spells," a friend of mine commented.

I'm finally going to tackle some HQ minis soon. Gotta at least do one for the Xmas Exchange! Since I've been painting Reaper Bones, I haven't been priming, but I'll need to with HQ minis (and most others), from what I gather. Any recommendations (readily available in the USA, preferably )?

[Anderas]

The eyes of a mini in that scale normally are not a lot more than tiny black or brown dots.
If you want to do more, put an even tinyer white dot in a corner.

If you want to update your knights eyes, you could probably make a dark skintone line to cover the lower part and make him looking less surprised.

Generally, if you really really want to make eyes with white and color and black and reflection and everything, it can be a good idea to paint them first before you finish the rest of the face: as they are the most difficult part, it is likely that you have to redo them once in a while. And then it is nice if you don't have to repeat half the face.

The HQ models are special in that regard as some of them have extra large eyes and some have no eyes nor details. So they are a bit difficult. It is one of the reasons I am slow to paint them, in fact.

[knightkrawler]

You're on your path, dude.
I really like the light in the lamp. That looks very very good.
Did you use some purple for the dress' shading or do my eyes deceive me? If you did, that's already a secret tip only given to the innercircle of illuminati painters.
Her hair could take some deeper brown shading.
The red around his torso looks a little dirty, you could practise blended highlighting towards the top on that big round surface if you want. It lends itself to it.

In regards to the eyes, did you start with a dark dot that you then left as a rim when doing the white/offwhite?
It looks like it on him, but on her it doesn't.
Cause that's the way to go; start with the dark, it makes the eyes look not-crazy or -tranced.
Your developement as a painter is definitely there, and I like where this is going.

[lucasdp]

...Did you use some purple for the dress' shading or do my eyes deceive me? If you did, that's already a secret tip only given to the innercircle of illuminati painters.

...In regards to the eyes, did you start with a dark dot that you then left as a rim when doing the white/offwhite?
It looks like it on him, but on her it doesn't.
Cause that's the way to go; start with the dark, it makes the eyes look not-crazy or -tranced.

Thanks for the kind words. I actually used a very dark blue wash for the dress's shading, but I could see how purple would look good. Thanks for the tip!

That is what I did for his eyes, yes. On her, I tried to start with the dark dot, but either it was too watered down or my hand slipped, or both, and the paint spread over her entire face! I quickly wiped it off, touched up her skin tone a little, and then decided not to risk it again on her eyes.

I really appreciate Anderas's tip to do the eyes first. I'll try that on the next one. Eyes are really difficult, but I've seen (some) professionally commissioned painted minis with eyes that really aren't any better than my man's here, so I feel like I'm doing pretty well.

[tasoe]

nice lookin figures, haven't noticed this thread before.

by the way, on your name what does the "dp" stand for?

[lucasdp]

nice lookin figures, haven't noticed this thread before.

by the way, on your name what does the "dp" stand for?

Thanks!

Just my initials. Nothing clever or dirty.