Meg Maples Intermediate Class

I recently attended another painting class run by Meg Maples.  The focus of the class was on more advanced theory and techniques, and there was a projector where a number of slides were presented and we discussed a lot of colour theory and concepts.

We were each given a bust, Romero the Cat, sculpted by Raffaele Picca.  You can purchase it here from FER Miniatures: Romero!



The idea with the bust was we had to consider the environment and atmosphere that our chap would be found in.  Having already done a class with Raffa, talked with Meg and read a lot of articles about this type of considered painting, I already had planned out in my head how I would paint Romero.  I wanted him standing over a pit of lava, basically wondering to himself how he got into this situation.


I started with a very simple basecoat from the top right with a grey colour, and then I simply airbrushed bright red from underneath.  That gave me my basic sort of colour ideas.

From this I glazed a lot of colours over this, blue for the cloak, skin on the face, brown on the leather armour and so on.  These were thin layers, allowing the translucency to come through from the layers of airbrushing.  Next step was creating more contrast, so I considered the dark moonlight above, and used cool colours for the highlights on top, and then warmer colours for the highlights below.  I took the face up very high, almost to pure white.  Again, these were glazes, but I did use a bit more opaque colour towards the highest points.

Once I had established the basic colours and framework, I went back with the airbrush and sprayed another layer of that red, although a lot thinner.  Just to reestablish the colour and atmosphere.  I considered adding a bit of orange, but I didn't want it to feel like torchlight, or a warm sort of colour.  I wanted like a cold red, like the darkness of lava with the black edges.



All up, I spent just over 4 hours on him.  He was a pretty simple paint, the model has real quality and easy textures and surfaces to paint.  His face is absolutely filled to the brim with character.

More photos here:

http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/12938



Highly recommend attending one of these classes with Meg.  Very informative and really challenges how you consider colour choices and theory.  A lot of people as I looked around the room were really having a lot of ahah moments.

I tried to help out the other students with my spare time, and in a lot of ways I got as much out of this as I did about the class.



You can find out more about her classes on her website:

http://www.arcanepaintworks.com

Urkin Bloodrage Shaman, Finished!

Took some feedback from a few other great painters on board, and here is the finished model.

You can see more photos and vote for this guy on Putty and Paint:

http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/12737



And he is also for sale, along with all of my other pieces:

http://bigdenopaints.blogspot.com.au/p/models-for-sale.html

Twisted Urkin Bloodrage Shaman, Part 2

After sleeping on the look of the tree, I came to the conclusion that it was ruining the impact of the model, and changing the dynamic of the piece.

However, it was really important that the piece have some height.  One of the really interesting things that I learnt from Meg at Crystal Dragon earlier this year was the discussion on plinths.  I've never really considered them too much, I just try a few out until one feels right.  Meg basically said that if you measure the top of the model all the way down to the bottom of the plinth, roughly the centre point is where the focus should be.  A larger plinth will often draw the focus down towards the feet of a model instead of the actual point it needs to be at.  By removing the tree, I dropped that focus point to the water at the base.


I threw it out to Twitter and asked for suggestions, and there was a great suggestion of a signpost from @Megagribix, and I immediately had inspiration.  I carved it out of plasticard, attached it to an interesting twig, and stuck it down.  I plopped a pumpkin up there as well.  Really happy with the aesthetic of the piece.

I started by airbrushing some brown to the tree, and started highlighting up through the brown and orange tones.  The next step which really brought it to life was adding some shading with green, particularly focused on rivulet type areas where the water would run down.  I painted little bottles and bits and bobs, then spent a bit more time adding some moss and green tones to the base.  Added more flocking and got it all to a stage I was happy with.

I went back to working on the dude.  There is a lot of detail on the model, and getting the right balance of colours, contrast and focus points was not easy.  Naturally your eye is drawn to a models face but this one has no real easy facial details to focus on.  So it made it more difficult.  I had to try and really up the contrast around the head area to draw the attention there.

You can see I am really trying to balance the colours, trying to keep in mind the rule of three, where a colour has an appearance on a model three times, in a roughly triangular shape on the model.  Focus on dragging that attention up.  Things really started working when I added the orange bit to the hat, and then added the bone coloured areas.  The face wasn't really popping enough, but it was ok.

I tried this patterned idea on the front of the hat, again in an effort to draw attention, but after looking at it I really didn't like it.  Made him look more circus like than voodoo sort of theme.

I switched back to black and white, and tried a chequered pattern and this really worked well.  I painted the mice, and started all the various little bits and pieces.

I was happy with how everything was looking, so I varnished it, painted the metallic sections, and then glued it to the base. 

Looking at it now I want to add some gloss varnish to the eyes, and add some blood around the mice.  A bit of gore I think will work nicely there.  Overall I think the model looks pretty good, but there is not enough contrast between the focus points and the lower areas.  There isn't enough real texturing on it to bring it to life.  I think I've also got a habit of using too much dark in my shading, and it creates an unrealistic cartoon sort of look.  

I will do those last touchups and additions and I will take some studio shots!

Twisted Urkin Bloodrage Shaman: Mammoth Part 1

It has been a while since my last blog post!

There is a good reason for that.  I went away for a week to Melbourne and while I was there my usual painting while travelling didn't come together.  The lighting was terrible and I couldn't get excited when the colours were so inaccurate to my eye.  I did some small stuff but by the end of the week I really lost motivation for it.

I came home really excited to see my fiance and we headed up to the beach for a few days, with my family.  It was a great way to unwind.  Another thing I had agreed upon with her was that I would take some time off painting.  I do spend a shitload of time painting, researching techniques, model ideas, purchasing bits and bobs and just fucking around really.  So I promised her a week of no painting.  We played some computer games together (she recently got into WoW and I have been dabbling a bit also), and after the week ended I didn't really feel like picking back up.

So I stalled.  I left the table for a bit.  I finished off the Beastman but I was unhappy with the model after the Melbourne fail and so I didn't end up enjoying it much.  I started mucking around with the present for my Best Man at my wedding which is getting quite close now, a Skink Shaman from the Warhammer universe.

But I still felt myself struggling a bit.

In the end it came down to two things.  I have a commission job that I cannot get excited about right now, and I felt like I needed to cut some chaff, and clear things out of my desk to give myself a space that was more exciting, and less demonstrably fail filled thanks to all my incomplete projects (if only Knechty could see me now).

The moment I cleaned my desk, removed a lot of stuff that I was not excited about from my sight, I started getting more excited for painting.

The Skink started coming back together a bit, but I am not rushing the finished product there so I put it aside for a little bit.  Istill have the commission models but I know that painting them will be not great for my motivation so I pulled out a model that I think has been my most exciting in a while:  The Urkin Bloodrage Shaman from the Twisted Game.

This was my first attempt at putting together something interesting for this model.  It is different to how I normally approach a base, and you can see that it has a nice flow from the shape of the weapon down along the curve of the log.

I added some more detailing and put a tree on the base as well.  Looking at the tree now (it is a little more progressed) I am not sure that it is adding anything to the scene.

I undercoated the base and airbrushed some colours and then just sort of mucked around with colours and shades and more airbrushing and pigments until I reached this:

Felt too browny and orangy without any cold colours.  I initially was going for a desert vibe, but somewhere along the way I changed my mind and started thinking like a bayou scene, with water.  I realised it needed a lot more green.

A lot more green!

You can see here that I have added my first layer of envirotex.  I have had mixed success with that product, but I persisted and I finally felt like I got a handle on its properties now.  Funnily enough, you practice with something for long enough and you get better at using it... who knew?

At this point I started painting old mate.  Again, had no firm idea on where to go, but I wanted the skin to look vibrant and filled with lots of different colours, including green.

There is a lot of depth in the skin, but I am not finished the highlights or shades yet.  I need to get some more basecoats of other areas down so I can see what it actually looks like.

Starting with blue.  He sort of reminds me of a British sea captain or something.  Anyway I can see a little bit more of the colours now, and it gives me a better frame of reference for the contrast needed on the skin.

Back to the base, and I did a second layer of envirotex, and did a lot better job this time of sealing it.  I also managed to remove the bubbles more effectively this time also.  It is just a much better finish all round.

Back to the tree.  It has been a bit frustrating for me that I have not been able to effectively make a willow tree.  I can see it in my head, but I cannot seem to create that vision in a model.  I tried again, but it looked rubbish, so I went back to the product that is most consistently good, the JOEFix branches.

I sprayed hairspray on the tree and sprinkled basil on it, until the foliage looked a lot thicker.


I felt like it was way too overpowering, so I crunched it all together to try and make it less sizable and distracting.

This is where I left it tonight.  I think I am going to have to scrap the tree altogether, it feels way too distracting for the whole model.  Unfortunately taking it off makes the plinth feel a little bit too large to me, so I might need to come up with an alternate idea for something with some height to add to that back area.


I'd love some suggestions, on Twitter or on here, because I really want to keep this positive energy and motivation going.

Thanks
Trent