Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 4

 I got back from KublaCon the other day and had a blast at the show. I had a workshop on painting large scale figures using Gurkhan which I think went really well. It's such a fun figure that can be used to discuss a lot of topics (lighting, skin, leather, cloth, metals, etc). I'll be teaching with it again at NOVA Open in DC this Aug/Sept. That class will be a bit longer (6 hours instead of 4), so we'll be able to go even more in-depth in some areas.

I also entered this piece into the KublaBrush awards and got the Big Child manufacturers award for the best Big Child piece at the show. There were quite a few Big Child pieces entered and I thought David Diamondstone's painting on their Idril bust was particularly nice. So I felt very fortunate to end up with the win. I also took my Vesha bust which ended up winning Best of Show.

Getting back to Gurkhan, I wanted to share the version I brought to the show. I could say finished version, but since I was trying to get all my class figures prepped, I ended up being pretty rushed to finish the base. Since I plan to bring the piece along with me to NOVA too, I'd like to send a little more time refining the work on the base and maybe adding a bit more detail in spots. But I think these images still give you a pretty good idea how the finished piece will look.

One of the topics I discussed in the class (and plan to spend time on at NOVA too) is creating focal points on your pieces. There's a lot of detail on the sculpt, a lot going on, so how do you help the viewer focus? One way is by using brightness. If we strip away the colors and just look at the light, you can see there are some brighter spots in the piece that draw your eye and create some focal points in the scene. I tried to also use color to reinforce this, so you've got multiple things helping direct the viewer around the scene.

I might take a little break and try to finish up my Neko Galaxy project (Nancy) from a few months back. But I don't want to leave this sitting too long, as I'd like to get the quality of the base in line with the quality of the figures before NOVA.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 3

Work has kept me pretty busy this past month, so I haven't made quite as much progress on my painting projects as I'd like. So, with about a week and a half left until KublaCon, I'm working hard to get my pieces finished. The Gurkhan figure itself has been pretty much finished for a few weeks, but I wanted to create a little more of a scene around him. I thought I'd pair him with another figure from Big Child Creatives that I've had hanging around my collection since their first kickstarter. I liked their size difference and felt the poses worked well together. I picked a similar color scheme for the new figure, though leaning more heavily on the purple than the orange to help balance out the colors overall. I also went for a slightly different skin tone, introducing some Command Green and Grey Green into the shadows and midtone respectively. Just as skin tone can differ from person to person, I wanted to introduce a little variation between these two.

The base is certainly still a work in progress with just a simple first coat applied to get a sense for the colors. The scene is 3D printed. I mainly used the ship model from Loot Studios and clipped it down to a small section that would fit the 70 mm by 70 mm base. Then I added a few elements to go alongside the chest, representing some supplies they picked up (stole perhaps) and have now brought on board. Some of these are also from Loot and some are from Keta Minies.

I have some other work to do in order to prep for all my classes at the show, so I'm getting low on time. But I'm sure I'll find a way to get the base painted along with all the other stuff I have on my list.

Just for fun, here's a little comparison of the two figures from when the 2nd guy was mostly a base coat (plus some early shadow work on the face) and where they are now. I remember in my early stages as a painter I struggled with online images trying to understand what was just the lighting of the photos and what was actually painted. So I find these side by sides helpful as you can see the piece under the same lighting conditions (as you can see from the other figure) before and after the painting of highlights and shadows.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 2

 I'm trying to make quick progress on this class figure that I'll be using at KublaCon and NOVA Open. I'd like to have the painting on the figure itself done by the end of the month, so I have plenty of time to work on a base for him before KublaCon.

I've done a lot of the leather work recently, focusing on texture as well as light. While I intend to keep the class schedule flexible, so we can touch on the topics based on the interests of the students, I except leather and textures will be something we'll discuss. I spent some time on the chest yesterday and still need to finish the metal portions on the sides and back. After that I want to tackle the basket on his back. Then I'll finally feel comfortable attaching his other hand and not feeling concerned I'll accidentally knock it off while painting the other sections of the figure.

Class Figure (Gurkhan) Part 1

 I'm going to be teaching classes a KublaCon and NOVA Open this year. I'm covering topics on painting faces and skin, introduction to freehand work, and a longer class on painting 75mm display figures. For that final class I picked Gurkhan, an orc from Big Child Creatives, as the subject. I love the Big Child Creatives figures in general, so I'm excited to use one for a class. That all have so much character and are a lot of fun to work on. I picked this one in particular since it gives us the flexibility to cover a number of topics such as skin, cloth, leather, weathered metals, etc depending on the interests of the class and how much time we have. It's also a figure I haven't seen many versions of online, so we can explore something somewhat new.

While I'll obviously be painting one live at the class, I also wanted to paint a version beforehand. I think it's nice to have a finished one there for reference and what can be done when you have longer than a single class to work on him. And I can also work out some of the kinks before teaching the class. It's rare that I'm every happy with all parts of a figure on the first attempt. There's often areas that I will paint and, when I step back to evaluate, realize aren't working quite like I hoped. So I'll go back in and make adjustments. Better to learn those lessons at home so I can make the most of the time I have in the actual class!

Here's a quick look at the class figure about halfway done. I'm having a lot of fun painting him and am very excited for the classes!

You can find and sign up for my classes at the links below. The NOVA classes are about half full and the KublaCon ones just went live, so spaces are still available at each.

https://tabletop.events/conventions/nova-open-2023/schedule#?query=powell

https://tabletop.events/conventions/kublacon-211/schedule#?query=powell

Zoraida

Here's a look at this nearly finished project I'm doing as part of a miniature exchange. Back at the beginning of the year I started on Zoraida, a 75mm figure from Ares Mythologic's Draconia line. A bit of a older kit, though I guess that's relative, but one I've been wanting to paint since I first saw it. I stuck with a green theme for her clothing and equipment and then put in a pop of contrasting reddish orange to create a focus around her face.

She's got some cast shadows and NMM, as I'm continuing to practice both of those techniques. I'm pleased I've been able to get her nearly completed in just a month and half, since I feel like I normally work rather slowly. I plan to do a little more sculpting on the groundwork. With any luck, I'll have her finished in another week or so. 

Nancy (Neko Galaxy) Part 2

 October was a busy month, so not much painting happened. Things have started to calm down a bit, so I got back to painting over the past few days. I thought I'd share an update on Nancy from Neko Galaxy. She's different from my usual subjects, but that's made for a refreshing change. Plus she's just a fun figure, so how could I not enjoying working on her?

After painting the skin and body suit, I moved on to the hair. I tried to play up the shine effect with light reflecting off her hair. I then moved on to her armor. I'm taking more of a NMM approach on this one instead of my usual TMM. I feel like I've been slowly moving in the direction of NMM anyway. I still have some of Scale75's Heavy Metal in my mix, so the metal portions have a slight reaction to the light as you move the figure. But there's a lot of matte color mixed in, so the shadows and shine are pretty much frozen in place.

I started with a 1:1:2 mix of Strong Dark Blue (AK), Amethyst Blue (AK), and Heavy Metal. This formed my core shadow (steel mixed with a dark violet blue). Then I worked up to ~3:1:1 mix of Heavy Metal, French Uniform Base (AK), and Violet Light (RMS). This worked as my metal reacting to the ambient light. Then I shift to a 2:1 mix of Heavy Metal and Lemon Yellow (RMS), for my basic highlight. Then I introduced pure white to that for the top reflections. And, to some of the mid range mixes, I added carnage red so I could pick up some reflected light from the painted portions of her equipment.

Nancy from Neko Galaxy and Painting Skin

I just started on Nancy, a 75mm figure from Neko Galaxy. I've been focusing on improving my use of light and my skin work lately, so I thought I'd share some details of my approach for this figure.

I've been painting cast shadows on my last few projects and I find taking reference photos to be a huge help in making sure my cast shadow placement looks believable. A simple way to do that is to take the unpainted figure and place it under my painting lamp. I can then move the light around until I find an angle that I think works well with the figure. Be sure to keep in mind what your intended 'front' view for the piece will be when you picking your light placement!

For this piece I ended up taking two different series of reference photos, one with the unprimed figure and one after I'd primed her. Why? Well, on the unprimed figure you get more of a semi-gloss reflection off the bare resin. I wanted to create a similar shine when I painted the skin, so the unprimed pictures help me place those reflection points and understand their shapes. Now these reflections will change depending on what angle you're viewing the figure from, but if you stick with whatever view you think is the front, you should be fine. The second set is after priming. The figure now has a matte finish so it's a little easier to isolate the shaded vs lit regions. You can still get that information from the first image, but I think it reads clearer in the second. 

Jump forward to the painted figure and you can see the placement of shadows on the skin based on the reference photos as well as the reflection points. Of course you don't need to match them exactly, you can use your artistic license to make adjustments. For example, I've maybe pushed the shadows a little further towards the side on her face to keep it well lit. And I've added some small reflections to bring out the knees more. But overall I've stuck close to the reference photos and used those to help guide me as I painted.

As for colors, I recommend not getting too caught up in specific paints. You don't need this particular shade of red from this particular brand of paint to get similar results. Rather focus on the colors themselves (that blue was used here and yellow there, whether the colors are light or dark, saturated or desaturated, etc) and pick similar shades from whatever brand you prefer. Okay, end of disclaimer! ;D

I've got a mix of Reaper and AK Interactive paints. For a base, I used a 50/50 mix of Reaper's Rosy Shadow and Fair Skin. The darkest shadows were Reaper's Ruddy Leather mixed with Imperial Purple, Void Blue, and Rosy Shadow (something like 2 parts Ruddy Leather, 1 part Imperial Purple, 1 part Rosy Shadow, and a touch of Void Blue). Normally I'd substitute the blue for purple, but I wanted a more violet ambient light for this scene and hence the change. If I needed anything darker, I'd use the same mix but remove the Rosy Shadow and add in more Purple and Blue. From that shadow mix, I'd work in layers up to pure Rosy Shadow and then continue on until I reached the 50/50 Rosy Shadow and Fair Skin mix. For the highlights, I then began to add a 2:1 mix of Reaper's Lemon Yellow and Linen White into the 50/50 Fair Skin and Rosy Shadow mix. I wanted a yellow feel for my primary light source but if I worked up to pure Fair Skin first, that color would be about as light as the yellow is and thus it'd no longer work for the highlight. So I begin when I've still at 50/50 Rosy Shadow and Fair Skin.

For the reflection points on the skin, I started to add Pure White to the highlight mix but prior to reaching pure Lemon Yellow/Linen White. I liked the results better when I switched over to adding white while there was still some skin tone in the mix. 

Using the same approach as above, I also added red to the shadow tones and midtone (darker red into shadows, lighter red into midtone) and used that variation in areas like the nose, cheeks, and knees. However, I kept the same highlight mix rather than adding red there too. I then use intermediate mixes between the red variant and the main skin version to blend the transition regions. You'll see I still need to do some adjustments around the knees.

For the body suit, I switched over to mostly AK Interactive paints just because those are the shades I had handy. The base was AK's rock grey, a warm grey. For the shadows, I took a bit of Amethyst Blue and Strong Dark Blue (50/50) for a nice dark violet which will be used throughout the rest of the figure. I added some of that to AK's Neutral Grey. I began with that grey-violet mix for the darkest shadows and then gradually worked up to almost pure grey. I wanted the body suit to look white, not purple, so I tried to find a balance between adding in some of the ambient color without so much that it overpowers the primary color for the suit. Into the mix of mostly grey with a little violet, I then added Rock Grey. When I reached pure Rock Grey, I then started to add my Lemon Yellow and Linen White mix. Since the base color here was already pretty light, I switched up the highlight to a 1:2 mix of Lemon Yellow and Linen White (more white than yellow).

I'm debating if I also want to add pure white reflection points on the body suit to give it more of a shiny look. I'm going to hold off for now and wait to see how things look with the metal portions done. Speaking of which, the armor is based coated with that dark violet mix on areas that will eventually be metallic. Then there will be regions of painted metal, which I've based with a 50/50 mix of AK's Burnt Red and Medium Rust. I'm sticking close to the original concept art, but swapping the yellow in those for red just to make mine a bit different.