Looking for some feedback

[Digitalsyndrome]

Hi all,

 

I've only ever painted with edge highlights and a bit of dry-brushing, probably because they're easy techniques. I put up a tutorial on the way I've always painted a few days ago and someone said I should consider glazing to tone down the highlights and enrich the blue, but I tried it and just didn't like the results.

 

So, I decided to try proper highlighting, with blending and so on. This is my first effort so far:

 

 

I'd like to ask for some feedback on how I can improve on it, if anyone would oblige. I'm not sure the blending is smooth enough, so some tips on that would be appreciated, and I'm not sure on the best way to highlight stuff that's technically in shadow. (My 'light' is front top right as you look at the marine from the front). Specifically, I think the bit under the chest-piece needs some kind of highlighting, and the bits under the arms, because otherwise it looks a bit dark and plain, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. I've had a go, but I'm just not sure about the way it looks at the moment.

 

Interestingly, I've found that when doing it this way (compared to the way I was doing it before), shadow seems to be much more important than highlight, so the key seems to be in keeping more of it dark and using gradients and highlights to raise the brightness on select areas, which is counter-intuitive to someone who's always painted the other way.

 

So there you go, any feedback and help would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

Rob

[nurglespuss]

I looks good, nice and clean :) All I would say is to consider a thin glaze to blend the highlights together :) keep it up!

[Digitalsyndrome]

Haha, yeah, thought someone might say that. I'll have a go later. (And cheers.)

[apologist]

It looks good – nice and solid, and the depth is developed well. You write:

 

I'm not sure on the best way to highlight stuff that's technically in shadow. (My 'light' is front top right as you look at the marine from the front).

I ran into this problem when I started moving away from edge highlighting and towards blending. My eureka moment was when I realised that the light source will reflect off the environment, so you'll get a less intense secondary light source from the opposite direction. Working this into your painting by adding subtle highlights from this reflected light will solve your quandary. 

 

I'd wish you good luck, but from your painting shown above, you don't need it. Crack on :)

[Digitalsyndrome]

It looks good – nice and solid, and the depth is developed well. You write:

 

I'm not sure on the best way to highlight stuff that's technically in shadow. (My 'light' is front top right as you look at the marine from the front).

I ran into this problem when I started moving away from edge highlighting and towards blending. My eureka moment was when I realised that the light source will reflect off the environment, so you'll get a less intense secondary light source from the opposite direction. Working this into your painting by adding subtle highlights from this reflected light will solve your quandary. 

 

I'd wish you good luck, but from your painting shown above, you don't need it. Crack on :)

Very kind of you. And that makes a lot of sense actually. I'll have a go at it this evening. Thanks for your help.

[Digitalsyndrome]

Done the legs. I'm pretty pleased for the most part but I struggled with getting his left knee pad to look right. Because he's leaning forward, the pad is elongated and highlighting the outside edge didn't look right, but highlighting what I assume to be the true front edge looks a bit strange as well, I think.

 

 

(You'll have to excuse the light on this; it's a bit yellow. Sat in my front room watching TV.)

 

Cheers

Rob

[Digitalsyndrome]

Still got work to do, but this is the dude so far. The photo's not great so you can't really see much of it, but I've carried on trying to blend as I go. I've learnt quite a lot already - like how far to water down the paints for whatever I'm trying to do, and that sometimes you need to highlight an edge to make more sense of the shadows - so I'll carry on in a couple of days and hopefully get him finished at some point soon. Then hopefully the next one won't take me so long!

 

 

Still interested in comments etc. if anyone has the time.

 

Ta

Rob

[Digitalsyndrome]

OK, so here I am at the moment:

 

[The_Chaplain]

You have some impressive painting skills brother- the blue is crisp and the highlights are smooth.  You've managed to put 3 to 4 different shades of red on a model (eyes, power sword, tabard, and purity seal wax) without it looking overused.  The whites on the helmet and combat shield are solid, and they aren't "clumpy" as white paint tends to be on models.

 

If you really want any criticism- I think the gold on the chest piece needs to be tidied up.  Some of the feather detail is lost, and it could use a once over to make it pop.

[Digitalsyndrome]

You have some impressive painting skills brother- the blue is crisp and the highlights are smooth.  You've managed to put 3 to 4 different shades of red on a model (eyes, power sword, tabard, and purity seal wax) without it looking overused.  The whites on the helmet and combat shield are solid, and they aren't "clumpy" as white paint tends to be on models.

 

If you really want any criticism- I think the gold on the chest piece needs to be tidied up.  Some of the feather detail is lost, and it could use a once over to make it pop.

 

Thanks bro, much appreciated.

 

That's a good point on the chest piece. I hadn't really noticed but you're right in what you say. I'll give it a wash and a touch-up later. I'm pleased you noticed the red thing as well. I almost went with purple for the sword because I didn't want to overload it with red, but I thought if I could keep it brighter than the tabard behind it then it'd help tie it all together, so I'm pleased that appears to have worked.