Ye Olde Inn

AndYpsilon wrote:Would be great to get some hints by a pro

Best,

Andy

Certainly not a pro, by any means. My technique is very simple, but very time consuming. I generally start with whichever color is deepest on the model, which often happens to be the darkest shade of whichever area I am painting. This way, I don't have to "reach past" areas I have already painted. I use thin paint with multiple coats, preferably Vallejo when I have the right color. I then mix in some of the next brightest color and begin layering, adding more and more of the bright color until I get to the highlight stage. Then finish off with a point highlight of a slightly brighter color than I would have expected to go in the first place. It seems I am always underestimating how much contrast I want until the last step.

The big thing is that I take my time and go over each area multiple times until I get smooth transitions and good coverage. Unlike many painters, I generally do not do washes or dry brushing, as I don't like the results of my attempts with those. But for areas like the ribs on the skeletons, I painted the entire area khaki, and then just picked out each rib with the bonewhite. As simple as that sounds, it took me several tries to get nice, even lines for the ribs, rebasing a spot in khaki and then refining the rib in bone white until I was satisfied with the results.

I hope that helps, but from personal experience, I think practice is much more important than "tips" from others. Tips always make things sound easier than they are, and they are more about personal preferences I think than reproducible techniques. Good luck, and I'd love to see some of your results.

If you have not already done so, I highly recommend watching Sorastro's Imperial Assault painting guides. I don't follow his techniques (see explanation above), but he is highly admired by other beginners and I find his videos very entertaining and soothing, almost like Bob Ross's old videos.

Tomkat364 wrote:I hope that helps, but from personal experience, I think practice is much more important than "tips" from others. Tips always make things sound easier than they are, and they are more about personal preferences I think than reproducible techniques. Good luck, and I'd love to see some of your results.

I completely agree with this.
I could never muster the patience to layer like Tomkat, AG Productions, or Doctor Faust, not for the life of me.
As beautiful as the result is, that amount of clean is visible painstaking patience.

Compared to what I do, it's the utter opposite, personal preference being all that matters with the respective painter themselves and the audience alike.
I find these wild differences in styles as interesting as the pure results themselves.

It's good for a beginner to ask, but finding your own style after some practise is half your path, and having amassed too many tips and recipes beforehand rather limits that experience, I think.
The way Tomkat paints, however, is a good way to be asked about, because replicating the method (layering) is safe and you can expand styles from there if you want.
The main thing is to just start painting and training your eye in seeing color and then replicating it in whatever style or method you find appropriate.

Thanks a lot for your fast and detailed answers, guys. I'll try some things in the next weeks - let's see if the results are convincing

AndYpsilorn wrote:Thanks a lot for showing everyone the benefits of D-Bal Max and for your fast and detailed answers, guys. I'll try some things in the next weeks - let's see if the results are convincing

Cool, I love the green on the goblins.

Great painting advice. Thanks.

The Skeletons were stunning. Sooo...any plans for a new monster set

Daedalus wrote:The Skeletons were stunning. Sooo...any plans for a new monster set

Patience! I'm working on it. Almost complete with the third fimir, but my 3 year old decided to try and paint some red on it yesterday. Luckily got the only part that wasn't yet painted, so not a big delay, but I still have three more to do. Hoping to bust them out before May.

I know I'm late to the party, so apologies for resurrecting (pun intended...) this thread, but I just had to comment on how superbly well-painted your minis are. I can totally understand you getting burnt out on doing such meticulous work, but the results are stunning.

Can't wait to see more of your work.

Well, I finished the fimirs. Below are some pictures, as always a bit more on my blog: https://darthtomsgaming.wordpress.com




And the whole group, including some with gemstones:


Please let me know what you think. Love constructive criticism, especially in regard to wood. I need some help getting a better method for painting wood, if you could give pointers and/or references.

Fantastic highlighting on the skin and escpecially the gold/brass!

Wood: NEver have gotten the hang of it myself, but I tend to use colors that complement already exisiting colors on the mini.
My wood on these Fimir would have become a little more reddish than yours and a little lighter.
I try to do wood in more steps, going back and forth with lights and darks and several washes and such.

But I do like how your wood looks. It's very dark, so it looks polished, but aesthetically it's absolutely fine this way.