Comments on Work
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Jim Patrick
A Fixture
Brian, a few pointers. So that we can see all your pics in one thread, next time try posting the the pics in the same thread. It makes it sorta hard for people to evaluate your work when they have to click on 5 or 6 different threads. No big deal, I merged them all for you but just think of it as a "one stop shop" sort of thing. Second, try removing all the seems. It's a tough thing to do and sometimes I still don't get them all. Look at the back right arm and you'll see what I mean. The flesh paint has a sort of "caked" on appearence. Not sure what caused this but again, it's a fault that I still struggle with too. OK, on to the better parts 
. The flesh colors actually look pretty good. Not bad at all. Are you using oils or acrylics?. The metalics also are looking like you are heading in the right direction. Just take your highlights and shadows a bit further. For that matter, take them a bit further on the rest of the figure. Make no mistake, it's a nice looking figure. Just a little tweaking and you'll have a figure most of us would be proud of in no time at all.
Keep us posted on your progress,
Jim Patrick
. The flesh colors actually look pretty good. Not bad at all. Are you using oils or acrylics?. The metalics also are looking like you are heading in the right direction. Just take your highlights and shadows a bit further. For that matter, take them a bit further on the rest of the figure. Make no mistake, it's a nice looking figure. Just a little tweaking and you'll have a figure most of us would be proud of in no time at all. Keep us posted on your progress,
Jim Patrick
Thank you for the comments. I used oils on this with enamels for the metalics. I might go back to enamels though because they don't seem to cake like oils. I thought I had put all of the pictures on one thread. Could you tell me (in detail) how to do that> Thanks again.
Brian
Brian
Jim Patrick
A Fixture
Brian, no problem at all. To post more than one pic in a thread, you simply need to keep putting your pictures in BEFORE you click on the "Start New Topic" button (or whatever it says). Just keep clicking on the image (IMG) button. Are you sealing your enamels? I'm assuming this is your basecoat. If your aren't, then that's the problem with your paint "caking" up. The oils are lifting the basecoat. If you are or want to use acrylic paint (if you use oils, you SHOULD use an acrylic basecoat) remember to thin them out first with water then apply them in several very thin coats. This way you build up the coverage without covering the detail or get the dredded "caking effect".
Jim Patrick
Jim Patrick
Einion
A Fixture
Hi Brian, like Jim one of the first things I wanted to mention was the seam lines - the one running down the back of the right arm is especially obvious because of the way it catches the light. Incidentally that's a good way of finding them, even very fine ones you really can't feel you'll can usually see if you rotate the part under a desk lamp; even if a seam is very slight you need to give it some attention, the painting process will not hide one in fact it makes them easier to spot! Some modellers will give a model an undercoat and use the matt surface to look for flaws they missed 'in the metal' as the reflective surface can make it hard to spot some things - I imagine everyone here has missed something during the prep stage and only spotted it during or after painting.
We all have our own ways of dealing with seams using craft blades, files, abrasive papers and various attachments for craft drills (Dremels etc.) including my favourite, rubber 'polishers' of various shapes, that are very good for larger surfaces and/or worse problems in soft materials like white metal and resin; you need to try a few things and see what works best for you. I use all of the above.
The right arm/shoulder join also needs attention as there is an evident gap visible in the fourth photo. If the fit of the parts was bad (not that uncommon, even with some well-known brands) you'd need to fill this area with putty. Most of us use one of the two-part sculpting putties for this kind of thing these days - MagicSculp, Apoxie Sculpt, Kneadatite (Duro), Milliput or A+B.
On the painting, as Jim has said you really need to work on the amount of paint on the surface - you want to aim for being unable to see any brushmarks at this sort of enlargement. Paint slower, use less paint, softer brushes and preferring opaque colours (and better brands) will all help here. A nice smooth acrylic or enamel undercoat in a colour close to the finished colour you're looking should help reduce the amount of oil paint you need to apply, although some oil painters work directly on primer so this is something to work on for yourself and see what suits.
On the highlighting and shadowing generally, a lot of people have trouble deciding on where and how much to shade and highlight, a common mistake being to highlight the edges of creases instead of their upper surfaces. A number of painters developed ideas about how to highlight and shade in a more regulated manner and these are probably best described by Shep Paine's 'stop-sign rule', once you learn it you won't have to worry about how to tackle certain areas (there are tricky exceptions but they're relatively rare). The zenithal/overhead lighting idea from the Continent is basically the same idea.
Overall the fleshtones look pretty good but it looks like there is a colour cast in the photos so I'm not sure I'm judging them as well as I could. Watch out for shadow mixes contaminating areas you don't want them in during blending.
I agree with Jim on the metallics - on the right path. The heavily-oxidised appearance you see in a film like Troy and in some models is very unlikely so a degree of shine is almost always going to be appropriate. The reinforcing bands around the edge of the scutum would probably have been made of bronze or brass too by the way.
Metallic paints are a difficult area to master and take some work, most of us have experimented with numerous types looking for the best/our favourites. There are a number of options for white metal paints that give good results but for yellow metals since you're an oil painter already I think that printers' inks are probably your best bet. In addition to giving excellent results (perhaps the best you can get) you're already used to something like their working nature already (oil-based, diluted with spirits) and some need a small addition of a medium like linseed oil, stand oil or Liquin which you might already have.
Hope that helps.
Einion
We all have our own ways of dealing with seams using craft blades, files, abrasive papers and various attachments for craft drills (Dremels etc.) including my favourite, rubber 'polishers' of various shapes, that are very good for larger surfaces and/or worse problems in soft materials like white metal and resin; you need to try a few things and see what works best for you. I use all of the above.
The right arm/shoulder join also needs attention as there is an evident gap visible in the fourth photo. If the fit of the parts was bad (not that uncommon, even with some well-known brands) you'd need to fill this area with putty. Most of us use one of the two-part sculpting putties for this kind of thing these days - MagicSculp, Apoxie Sculpt, Kneadatite (Duro), Milliput or A+B.
On the painting, as Jim has said you really need to work on the amount of paint on the surface - you want to aim for being unable to see any brushmarks at this sort of enlargement. Paint slower, use less paint, softer brushes and preferring opaque colours (and better brands) will all help here. A nice smooth acrylic or enamel undercoat in a colour close to the finished colour you're looking should help reduce the amount of oil paint you need to apply, although some oil painters work directly on primer so this is something to work on for yourself and see what suits.
On the highlighting and shadowing generally, a lot of people have trouble deciding on where and how much to shade and highlight, a common mistake being to highlight the edges of creases instead of their upper surfaces. A number of painters developed ideas about how to highlight and shade in a more regulated manner and these are probably best described by Shep Paine's 'stop-sign rule', once you learn it you won't have to worry about how to tackle certain areas (there are tricky exceptions but they're relatively rare). The zenithal/overhead lighting idea from the Continent is basically the same idea.
Overall the fleshtones look pretty good but it looks like there is a colour cast in the photos so I'm not sure I'm judging them as well as I could. Watch out for shadow mixes contaminating areas you don't want them in during blending.
I agree with Jim on the metallics - on the right path. The heavily-oxidised appearance you see in a film like Troy and in some models is very unlikely so a degree of shine is almost always going to be appropriate. The reinforcing bands around the edge of the scutum would probably have been made of bronze or brass too by the way.
Metallic paints are a difficult area to master and take some work, most of us have experimented with numerous types looking for the best/our favourites. There are a number of options for white metal paints that give good results but for yellow metals since you're an oil painter already I think that printers' inks are probably your best bet. In addition to giving excellent results (perhaps the best you can get) you're already used to something like their working nature already (oil-based, diluted with spirits) and some need a small addition of a medium like linseed oil, stand oil or Liquin which you might already have.
Hope that helps.
Einion
Thank you all again for the commetns. I will take them to heart. I'm still considering returning to enamels as they seem to capture the best of acrylics and oils. They dry slower than acrylics therfore allowing time to blend but they dry faster than oils. I'll keep experimenting and posting some work to get your valued feedback. Thank you again.
Brian
Brian
Einion
A Fixture
Well there's a lot to be said for enamels, Bill Horan, Mike Blank and Marijn Van Gils all use 'em and you can't argue with the results!
If you missed it have a look at this thread touches on some of the strengths and weaknesses of different media:
http://www.planetfigure.com/forums/index.p...wtopic=6678&hl=
Einion
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