Aulë's WIP - Update: Bifur (EfGT)

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Aug 12, 2014 9:18 pm

Well, I believe this is the right moment to say thank you to all the people who have helped me since march.
All of your tips have helped me to improve a lot my skills in the past 6 months! You're all great

Thanks to Gandlaf, Harfoot, mertaal, Hodush, bofur the dwarf, Galanur, D.M.S., Sithious, Rognarr, JamesR and PowerofWill.
You all rock!! eheheh

Hodush · **Posted:** Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:09 pm

You're coming along nicely, I should probably do the same thing to get more painting done!

mertaal · **Posted:** Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:41 am

You are most welcome! I didn't see Sam (I've been away) but I think you've done a really great job on him. When looking up close perhaps he looks a little rough, but your placement of light is excellent, and I can see that outside the scrutiny of a macro lens he looks fantastic.

My advice to improve your painting from now on is to add just a drop of water to your paint, and mix it on a palate, not paint straight from the pot. You're approaching a level of precise placement which means you can now concentrate on getting the right paint finish. A little bit of water helps to loosen up the paint, and it flows more easily, so it goes on more easily! When you highlight you'll find it much easier because the surface of the paint you're highlighting will be nice and smooth.

Couple of tips:

We are not talking about 50/50 water (that comes later). just enough water to loosen up the paint from the gluey consistency of GW paint to a more flowing consistency. The idea is that the paint will still cover as well (or almost as well), but in places you might have to go over it with a second coat.

Control: so watery paint is harder to control, and likely to come off the brush and flood your mini with paint in unwanted places. So, next to your palate keep a piece of kitchen towel, and touch the brush to the towel before applying paint- this way you will have the right amount of paint on the brush. I usually test the brush on my hand- the one holding the mini, before painting, to make sure I like the way the paint is coming off the brush. You'll get what I mean with practice.

Drying- as you're painting the water will inevitably evaporate, making the paint thicker again. One way to avoid this is to use a wet palate (a plate, kitchen sponge and baking paper on top. The other, more simple way, is just to keep testing the consistency of paint, and adding water as necessary to keep it the same.

I hope that helps!

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:39 pm

Hodush wrote:

:) You're coming along nicely, I should probably do the same thing to get more painting done!

Go ahead Hodush

I think it was the best thing I've made eheh

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:59 pm

mertaal wrote:

Control: so watery paint is harder to control, and likely to come off the brush and flood your mini with paint in unwanted places. So, next to your palate keep a piece of kitchen towel, and touch the brush to the towel before applying paint- this way you will have the right amount of paint on the brush. I usually test the brush on my hand- the one holding the mini, before painting, to make sure I like the way the paint is coming off the brush. You'll get what I mean with practice.

Drying- as you're painting the water will inevitably evaporate, making the paint thicker again. One way to avoid this is to use a wet palate (a plate, kitchen sponge and baking paper on top. The other, more simple way, is just to keep testing the consistency of paint, and adding water as necessary to keep it the same.

That's an amazing tip (the one with the kitchen towel), I'll certainly use it now on!! thanks a lot mertaal

About the wet pallete, I already use it... but i keep it in a tupperware for re-use... maybe i shouldn't do it that way?

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Thu Aug 21, 2014 11:24 pm

No issue using a Tupperware tub, just remember to change it every few days at most.

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:13 pm

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

No issue using a Tupperware tub, just remember to change it every few days at most.

ok, thanks Gandlaf

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Fri Aug 22, 2014 5:26 pm

Now it's nr 26. This is the Faramir that I painted for the last month's challenge.

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Sat Aug 23, 2014 3:45 pm

So, as I said before, I'm trying to evolve my highlighting.
I decided to go slowly because I don't want to ruin my minis, so the result isn't very notorious.
Here are the Uruk-Hai siege troops:

Gene Parmesan · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:44 pm

Been away for a while. Looks like you've come on really well in the last few months. Nice tones, good blending and smooth application. Keep it up.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:46 pm

To extend your highlights then deepen the shading, it will help create the depth. On the Uruk the shading can go to virtually black and with the bright silver highlight it will set the contrast.

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 4:52 pm

Well, Haldir just needs his base done.
The photo isn't probably the best lol

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:06 pm

No doubt about it Jimmy, your painting is improving. Much better brush and paint control.
You could add an extra highlight by adding orange to red and applying in small areas on the top of the folds.

Bartelomeus · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:10 pm

Really neat and tidy painting going on here, looking good.
I agree with Gandlaf though, more contrast would take it to the next level. Yeah, a picture of Haldir's front would be nice

Constantine · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:43 pm

Very nice Uruk-Hai skin tones, and Haldir's cloak and golden armour is excellent! How did you paint the armour?

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:01 pm

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

No doubt about it Jimmy, your painting is improving. Much better brush and paint control.
You could add an extra highlight by adding orange to red and applying in small areas on the top of the folds.

Well, I considered adding a little white to get a lighter red for the highlights, but obviously it would result on a pinkish colour so I didn't do it.
I didn't even considered the orange, but now that I know of it, I'll use it a lot on the reds xD

Once again, thank you Mally

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:04 pm

Bartelomeus wrote:

Really neat and tidy painting going on here, looking good.
I agree with Gandlaf though, more contrast would take it to the next level. Yeah, a picture of Haldir's front would be nice

Thanks Bartelomeus

Since I'm just starting to pay ultra attention to my highlighting, I decided to go slowly, mini per mini, so they don't end up with the wrong result xD

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:13 pm

Constantine wrote:

Very nice Uruk-Hai skin tones, and Haldir's cloak and golden armour is excellent! How did you paint the armour?

Thank you Constantine :rofl:

Well, for the armour I used a basecoat of Vallejo old gold. Then a mix of Vallejo Green wash and Black wash. And for the highlights a mix of citadel ironbreaker and vallejo old gold once again.

ps: for the uruks skin i used the old citadel dark flesh, and variations of it, mixing it with kislev flesh

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:16 pm

One little thing about using pure white as a highlight. it doesn't cover well and can be very grainy.
look to VMC Ivory instead. it works just like other colours and can stand thinning without going grainy. The colour difference is so negligible that even the top artists use this method for highlighting white.

Aulë, the Valar · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 7:23 pm

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

One little thing about using pure white as a highlight. it doesn't cover well and can be very grainy.
look to VMC Ivory instead. it works just like other colours and can stand thinning without going grainy. The colour difference is so negligible that even the top artists use this method for highlighting white.

Well, I use VMC offwhite, but i'll look for ivory

Aulë's WIP - Update: Bifur (EfGT)

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