Getting away from line highlights

[Megapope]

This one is for the really good painters out there!

 

So since coming here I've been generally blown away by the level of skill demonstrated by various forum members.

 

I guess at this stage I would put myself in the 'average' level of skill. I can get the paint where it's supposed to go... to give you an idea, here's my Ultramarines WIP thread.

 

I'm kinda realising that the two stage line highlights that I learned from going through the Games Workshop website will only take me so far in terms of looking awesome, and I was wondering what the pros might suggest in terms of new directions to try out. I've seen things like airbrushing and top to bottom highlights and wet blending and so on but I'm kind of at a loss on where to start out to take my guys to the next level. I don't currently have an airbrush so whatever I try out I'll be using my brushes and a good collection of GW paints.

 

Any tips, advice, rants or links would be hugely appreciated. ;)

[Hemal]

your models are good, but i would first learn to prep better, mould lines, filling gaps etc. Once you have this, multi-stage highlights are not that difficult, espeically with ultramarines where really line highlights are the only effective way of doing this. Your mult-stage highlights will add depth oncurved surfaces, but a thin hairline extreme highlight is still required on harsh edges. basically the muli-stage I use involves layering multiple thin coats above the base to create a garduation of colour, best example I have of this is Teclis, which is not board relevant unfotunately. FOr example for blue, I started with mordian blue for deepest shades and almost completely overpainted and highlighted up with various mixes of mordian blue / UM blue to UM blue with Ice blue and then ice blue + skull white for extreme highlights. There were about 10 graduations, all applied really thinly, and I glazed with the shade coat (thinned to be almost clear water...) to unify the colours. The key id learning brush control, and adding the paint in "swashes" of really thin paint with very little paint on the bristles, so as to be translucent

[Megapope]

That gives me some things to think about, cheers. :D

[IdOfEntity]

If I can give a product recommendation?

 

There's a DVD set called Hot Lead that helped me. The first few lessons are pretty basic in nature, but the second and third discs have some great pointers for moderate/advanced that I'd have a hard time describing. You look like you're at the point to start looking at those discs.

 

Also you may have heard of a forum called CoolMiniOrNot that caters to the painting and conversion side of the hobby. Every skill level is welcome, but a lot of pro-level painters are accessible on that site. Heck, you can spend months just perusing the archives to find an amazing amount of information.

[Megapope]

If I can give a product recommendation?

 

There's a DVD set called Hot Lead that helped me. The first few lessons are pretty basic in nature, but the second and third discs have some great pointers for moderate/advanced that I'd have a hard time describing. You look like you're at the point to start looking at those discs.

 

Also you may have heard of a forum called CoolMiniOrNot that caters to the painting and conversion side of the hobby. Every skill level is welcome, but a lot of pro-level painters are accessible on that site. Heck, you can spend months just perusing the archives to find an amazing amount of information.

 

 

Neat! Thanks a lot. I've "subtly" shown the set to my girlfriend under the heading of Christmas present ideas... :)