Medieval Raider (Workshop Figure)

 At the beginning of this month I attended a workshop with Ivan Hortal in the bay area. It was a 2-day class where we worked on this bust sculpted by Lucas Pina Penichet (Spira Mirabilis). It was a fantastic class and I learned a lot on painting textures as well as some nuances of light placement that I will definitely be using in my future work. I (and most of the class) painted the majority of the bust during those two days. I was very happy with the progress and, since he was almost done, I wanted to complete the figure at home.

Here's a look at the piece after the class. I had done a little more work on the hair the night I got home, but otherwise this is what I finished during the class.

And here is the piece after more work at home.

I painted the leather belts and redid the NMM. I really liked the approach to NMM taught in the class, I just spent a little more time refining those parts and adding a little more ambient and reflected color. On the skin I painted the neck and made some tweaks to the face (reflection under the nose, redoing the area under the eyes, adding some light reflection on the lips, some glazing, some highlight adjustment, etc.). I also worked on the chest, adding a little more hair texture and then using glazes to develop the shadows and add a little more color nuance. I wanted to add a bit of weathering on the shirt, so I add some small flecks of dirt. Finally, on the fur cloak I worked more on the highlights and did a little more ambient color glazing on the right, shadow side.

I'm extremely pleased with the end result. Here are a few additional views of the final piece.

Completed Vesha and Elmer Ellsworth

Rounding up a couple recently finished pieces. First, the most recent, is Vesha from Bold Miniatures. I had a blast working on this bust, just a really fun piece to paint. I started her with the intention of practicing female skin. But this also became a piece for me to focus on painting light. I tried to push myself to be bolder in my use of color in the primary light, working with Lemon Yellow for the highlights rather than just a subtler off white. I also played with adding blue to the shadows, though I know I could have been bolder with the color there. Finally this was the first piece I made a serious stab at painting cast shadows on.

The second finished project I wanted to share was Col. Elmer Ellsworth, a 75mm ACW figure from FER miniatures. I painted this piece as a gift for my dad, a Civil War buff and the person who first introduced me to miniature painting. I tried to take the lessons I was learning from Vesha and apply them on Ellsworth as well. Again I worked with a warm yellow light, which was interesting to paint onto the dark blue uniform. And I worked in cast shadows which you can see on places like his forehead from the hat, his shoulder from his head, and on his leg and shoe from the sword.

Vesha Part 1

 Taking a break from orcs and monsters like Frank von Stein, I decided to shake things up with the half-elf Vesha, a bust from Bold Miniatures. My goal here, aside from painting a pretty model for a change, was to improve my use of light and shadow as well as work on my skin tones.

So far I've focused on the face and hair, then moved onto the weasel around her neck. The rest is just a sketch for light and shadow placement (though the fur around her neck has started to get a bit more refined). I just attached her left hand and it's only base coated so far. Her other hand has some very delicate figures which I'm sure I'll accidentally break while painting her, so I'm leaving that one off until the very end.

I've learned several things (or reinforced previously things learned) with this project:

 -  First, the importance of reference pictures. Especially if you want realistic light and shadows, take pictures of the figure under the desired lighting conditions.

 - Second, I need to be braver with my light color. While I understood the idea of using a specific colored light for the entire figure I would go with an off white rather than a more saturated color. I think I got too focused on making sure the highlights were bright and as a result they'd end up looking white regardless of the color I intended. On this figure I'm using much more yellow in the highlights with just a bit of white mixed in. I also need to switch to the highlight color sooner. If the skin tone paints get as light as the yellow before I start to add in the light color, it forces me to use more white to lighten it up. I think I was much more successful here getting those warm lights, especially on her skin. This is something I want to continue to work on with future projects and push for stronger effects with my lighting.

 - Third, working with colors in my shadows. The idea here is to bring in some of the ambient colors, in this case blue from the sky. You can see it most easily in the sketched on shadows in her shirt and the fur, though it's also in the coat, her hair, and her skin. I'm sure I could have done a lot more with the blue, especially in her skin. But this is still a step in the right direction and one I'll try to build off of on the next project.

 - Fourth, I'm starting to try to paint cast shadows with this piece. Yeah, there aren't any super dramatic cast shadows, but you should be able to see some under her nose, under the hair on her forehead and cheek, beneath the weasel's head, and on the back of the weasel. I'll continue on with them as I paint more of her. This is an area I've been tentative to try, but I'm glad I did on this project. While I'm certainly still learning, I can see the importance of making sure those shadows aren't too dark. They're still getting hit by ambient light, just not the main light source. This also means you should include the color of the ambient light in those shadows. And I want to balance the relative darkness of those shadows, so the shadow on the coat has the same step down in light relative to the base color on her coat as shadow on her face or on the fur beneath the weasel. The shadows don't need to be the darkest spots on the figure and making them too dark will look off. Save the darkest tones for areas that are blocked from the primary light and would also get minimal ambient light (like a combination of cast and occlusion shadows). And finally reference photos are extremely helpful in figuring out the placement of cast shadows.

Well, those are my main take aways from this figure so far. I plan to continue to keep those ideas about light and shadow in mind as I paint and refine the rest of the bust. But overall I'm very happy with how she's going.

Hera Models Orc Bust

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've updated this blog! Over the next few posts I'll try to catch up on the projects I've completed. The first one I want to share is my most recent, the academic orc bust from Hera Models. I think their academic line is a neat idea. It provides figures that are great for focusing on a technique or skills such as shading, blending, skin, etc. They also provide a nice base figure that could be converted into something unique by adding clothing and equipment. While I didn't make any modifications to the orc, it's something I'd like to try on some of their other busts at some point.

I've seen this bust painted up quite a few times. It's a popular figure and, having now worked on it, I can easily see why. It's a dynamic piece with a lot of great shapes to work with. Unfortunately, since he's already been painted by so many artists, I struggled a bit to find a way to do something unique with him. In the end, I decided to focus on lighting. Most of the versions I've seen use traditional zenithal lighting, so I decided to move my main light source off to one side. It's a bit like 3/4 lighting, but perhaps a bit farther to the side that even that. I also liked how this lighting throws half of the face into shadow and, in my opinion, makes him look even more menacing. I think I also angled him a bit farther forward that most of the other versions I've seen. He feels a bit more feral this way. And, it's a bust, so there's no clear 'correct' angle like you'd have with a figure on foot.

With the main light source off to one side, I added a secondary light source from the other side and below. This helps provide some definition to the shapes on the shaded side of the face and, in my opinion, just looks cool. =P Working with multiple light sources is something I still find very challenging, so the academic bust provided a great opportunity to practice. I painted the entire bust with the primary light source before added the secondary light. I did a rough sketch of the secondary light to check my placement, did it look like the right surfaces were being hit? I went through several iterations of that. Refining the sketch with some rough blending, allowing me to start to vary the intensity/brightness. Stop to see how it's reading. Some parts would look good, other parts wouldn't feel quite right. So back for another round. As I became happy with regions, then I'd go in and refine the transitions to smooth them out. It took some time, but in the end I was happy with the final result.

Count Melenth Part 4 - The Count Returns!

Wow, it's hard to believe my last post on this figure was a year ago!  I got a bit stuck on how I wanted to approach the OSL on his clothes.  My problem was the location of the OSL source. The glow on his face had gotten a bit too bright, so I couldn't get any brighter as I moved down the body. This makes it hard to have an unseen light source below the figure and thus I want to sculpt a hand holding a light source closer to the face.

By the way, for future reference, there were two mistakes I made here or at least two things I did which lead to this dilemma. Having the glow on the face too bright was one. The other was making the main light on the face so bright (and skin so light). In order for the OSL to read well, I needed it's brightness to be at least somewhere near the main light. If I'd made the main lighter dimmer and darkened the face more, then I could have more easily made the OSL dimmer and had somewhere to go in terms of brightness farther down the figure. I suppose I could try and repaint a good portion of the face to correct that, but I've done so much work I really don't want to redo it all (hence my attempt to sculpt a solution instead). Still, it's a good lesson to learn and if I do something like this again I will approach it a bit differently.

Anyway, a few months ago I made a first attempt at sculpting a hand. Well, technically third attempt, but first actually completed hand.

I was pretty happy with that, but I still felt it wasn't good enough. The figures felt a bit boxy, the pointer still looked off, and it just didn't seem to match the figure. In testing it's placement, I also felt that no matter how good the hand looked, it's positioning would still feel awkward. So I decided to try a different approach. Instead of the right hand holding a magical blue flame, I'd have his left hand holding a cane with a glowing orb on the end. I think I can position this so it won't look awkward and will still provide a logical source for the light. I started sculpting this weekend. I've still got a ways to go, but here's how it's looking...

I began with an armature, slightly different than the last one but I liked it better for positioning the fingers.

I then started sculpting over it. I began with a very thin layer for the main body of the hand and baked it so I had something to work over. I then did a second layer where I started the figures and added another wire for the thumb, then baked that. Reasonably happy with the structure, I started to flesh it out and further develop the shape and start adding details on the back of the hand. That's the current state and I plan to work on it more before baking it again.

It will be positioned so that the main view is of the back of the hand and upper part of the fingers, so those are my main focus. Once those are done, I'll do the rest of the fingers and inside of the hand. Still got a ways to go and, if it's not good enough, I'll give it another try (and perhaps another try after that). But I'm hoping if I continue slowly and carefully, this one will be decent enough that I can use it. Fingers crossed!

Time, Practice, and Some Help

I posted this on Facebook yesterday, but thought I should share it here too.  I started this blog back in 2014, but my painting journey began long before that.  I was thinking about what a difference time, practice, and a bit of help can make....

A few recent conversations had me reflecting on how far I've come with the figure painting hobby. So I started looking back at some old projects. I took a few representative pictures for comparison. These are all close ups of faces from busts (so similar scales and all display figures). I painted my first gaming figure around 20 years ago, but it wasn't until 2010 that I got interested in display/competition painting. So this is a look back at some of those early display pieces and a comparison with more recent work.

Practice and a desire to improve (including critically evaluating my own work and seeing what needed improvement) played a big role. But, perhaps just as important, was attending shows/competitions to see what others could do (so I had something to strive for) and all the amazingly helpful artists on the online forums and blogs. Thank you to all of them for the advice and the inspiration. And, whether you're a pro or an amateur, keep sharing your work. It's a wonderful resource for all the people in this hobby!

Count Melenth Part 3

I'm continuing to refine the face on Melenth.  I did some more work on the skin under regular lighting, painting the back left of the head and his neck.  I also tweaked the shadow on the right of his forehead.  There was a section that was a sharp line which just didn't look right, so I smeared it out.  Then I painted the teeth (nice and yellowish).  And finally I did some work on the OSL.  I adjusted some of the placement and upped the brightness of the highlights (leaving the rest pretty dark so you get a more dramatic transition).  There are a few very minor things I want to tweak, but mostly I'm very happy with the OSL.  Oh, and the OSL on the neck is still unfinished, I need to bring up the brightness there to match the work on the face.

Here's a look at an earlier version and then the most recent one.  You can easily see the change in brightness and some of the other adjustments I made.

Count Melenth Part 2

I've taken my sketch on Count Melenth and started to smooth it out.  The OSL section is still in the early stages, but I have been working on the skin under normal lighting (along with some of the shadows on the dark side).  Of course even that is still a work in progress.  I'm still making tweaks to the shadows and highlights as there are a few parts I feel aren't quite right.  When that's done (along with the OSL sections), I'll go back in to add further detail with glazes (and maybe a few other things I want to try out).

Count Melenth Part 1

I got this fantasy bust from a new company, Polaris Minor.  They've got several sculpts for sale and they all look quite nice, but this one in particular caught my eye.  It's an evil looking fantasy character, so there are tons of possibilities for the painting.  I decided to try something new with this figure and make this a bit of a learning project.  In addition to the fantasy stuff I have planned (unnatural skin, fun with colors, etc), I'm going to try to play around with lighting effects (OSL).  The main light source will be above the figure and slightly to his left.  The secondary light source will be below and to his right.  To help me in the planning, I took pictures of the figure under each of these lighting conditions.

This will provide a (hopefully) useful reference as I work on the painting.  Speaking of painting, I began that by just sketching on the colors.  Using the pictures as a guide, I placed the main shadows and highlights without worrying about blending.  This will help me get see how it should look in the end and whether or not the effects are working as I planned.  Sure, I've done OSL before on the hobbit piece... but I really don't feel like come close to mastering the technique.  I still find it very challenging, so getting a bit more practice is a good thing.  Everything is still rough and, as I begin to blend, I'm sure I'll continue to tweak the OSL.

In general I like where this is headed, though I feel like it's not entirely right.  Hopefully I'll figure out what's bugging me as I go!

Hussar Bust Part 2

I spent some time this past week working on another painting project... but it's not far enough along to make it worth sharing.  So instead here's a brief update on the Hussar bust.  I've continued to make minor adjustments to the face.  I've also taken the first pass at his hair.  I really don't like painting hair.  It takes a while and is not that much fun.  It's getting there, though I want to go in and fix some of the blends.  After that I'll hit it with some glazes to tie it all together and reinforce some of the shadows.  Then back in to redo highlights as needed.

For the colors, I started out with some dark browns (Brown Liner, then Blackened Brown).  From there I went into more of a medium brown (Muddy Brown) and then used skin colors to highlight (Tanned Skin and Fair Skin).  I work up to roughly a 50/50 mix of Muddy Brown and Tanned Skin, then I start to add Fair Skin to that.  The skin tone colors are a nice highlight for browns.

Scale, Contrast, and Bad Advice

I wanted to share a few thoughts on painting today.  I enjoy working on a variety of different scales: 28mm, 54mm, 75mm, 90mm, and busts (150mm or 200mm).  If  you just want to paint for gaming, that's fine.  But, if you want to focus on display and competition level work, I think that experimenting with different scales can help you push yourself.  Larger figures give you the chance to work in a lot more detail, experiment with the larger area, and plenty of opportunities to work on blending and color transitions.  Then, when I work on smaller figures, I try to figure out how to apply the lessons I've learned to the smaller areas.  If there is a size you really like to work with, there's nothing wrong with focusing your efforts there.  But, from time to time, try something new.  I know my larger scale work has helped improve my smaller scale painting.  And, if you look at the galleries of the top artists on CMON or Putty and Paint you will see that a lot of them work on a bunch of different scales.

One of the things people often ask when trying a larger scale for the first time, like a 54mm figure, is how is painting that 54 different from painting a 28mm?  And, most of the time, someone will offer the advice that for larger scales you need less contrast.  In theory, yes, this is true.  On a full scale figure you wouldn't need any contrast, so we can assume as the figure gets larger and larger, the amount of contrast should get smaller and smaller.  However, in practice, I think that is terrible advice.  When you go from 28mm to 54mm or 75mm you are still working on a figure that is 1:35 or 1:24 scale.  That is a hell of a long way from 1:1 scale.  Furthermore, when people look for suggestions on improving their work one of the most common critiques is the figure needs more contrast.  So, unless you're already being told you've got too much contrast, do not intentionally dial it back when you're working on a larger scale.  Okay, the 'right' amount of contrast is subjective.  Some people don't like high contrast painting and that is fine.  Paint the way you want to paint.  But high contrast painting is the hot style these days and does well online and at competitions.  So I see absolutely nothing wrong with continuing to push the contrast even when working on bigger figures.

As an example, let's look at the bust I'm currently working on.  This is 150mm or 1:12 scale.  It's about 5 times the size of a 28mm.  The range I have on the face has a dark shade of roughly 70% Mahogany Brown, 20% Rosy Shadow, and 10% Burgundy wine.  You'll see this in the dark shadows around the eyes, under the nodes, and on the right side of the face.  The highlights go all the way up to Fair Highlight and even Pure White in a few spots.  I would say this is a big contrast range, even for a 28mm figure and certainly for a 150mm one.  But, at least to me, this doesn't look wrong or out of place here.  There's nothing wrong with high contrast on a larger scale figure, as long as it's combined with variation in the level of the shadows and highlights.  While I may use that dark shade in the bigger shadows, on the smaller features like the side of the nodes and wrinkles around the face I use a much milder mix of Rosy Shadow and Fair Skin.  A deep crease in the face would be darker and a shallow crease.  So vary those shadows to get a more realistic effect and remember that applies to any scale you want to paint.

Before I sign off, let me give my response to the question of 'how is painting a 54mm or 75mm different than a 28mm?'  I would say it really isn't that different.  If you've painted a 28mm ogre or troll, that's about the same size as a 54mm regular human.  The biggest differences are that the figure (if metal) will be noticeably heavier, so you may want a decent holder while you paint, and you should expect to spend 2 to 3 times as long painting the figure (more if the figure is even larger).  My approach really doesn't change for 54, 75, or 90mm figures.  As you get even bigger, then other tools such as an airbrush or oil paints can make your job a lot easier.  But I'm focusing more on 28 to 54, 75 or 90mm figures (not stuff like the 1/6 scale garage kits).  The only thing I really change in my approach is, as the figure gets larger and I have more room, I try to work in more details.  The eye is an obvious place to spend more time.  But also it's easier to develop subtle details like wrinkles in the face or just better define the major line and shades.

As a final example, below are the faces from four reasonably similar figures ranging from 54mm up to 150mm.  In terms of contrast, there's no gradual decline with scale and I'd say the one I've pushed the contrast the most on is the 150mm figure.  In terms of detail, you can clearly see that increasing as the scale goes up.

Hussar Bust Part 1

There's still time left to get in on the contest.  I will choose the winners tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've started a new figure.  This is a bust of a Prussian Hussar from Young Miniatures.  The last time I painted a bust was a little over 3 years ago and I've learned a lot since then, but there's still a lot of adjusting to work on this larger scale.  I've completed the initial work on the face, however there's still more I need to do.  I've got some shadows and highlights I want to tweak.  And, once I finish the hair, I will go back and apply a variety of glazes (reds, blues, and purples) to the skin to give it some more color variation.

I also got a surprise in the mail today, the Child Thief from Terrible Kids Stuff.  It's a great looking kit and one I hope to start soon.  They only made 200 of them, so if you want one get it now before they sell out.

EDIT: I just applied some glazes so I thought I'd tack on the updated photos.  Some red, blue, purple, and a touch of yellow glaze.