New to figure painting- feedback welcome

[LeesKeys]

This is my first venture into oil based miniature painting and my second figure. It's Rommel's head from the Tamiya 1/16 Erwin Rommel kit, circa 1999. I wanted to work on an old cheap kit to develop basic skills. I previously finished the Tamiya Japanese pilot using Vallejo acrylics. Really did not know what I was doing and I found blending to be much more challenging using acrylics (as expected). I was only marginally satisfied with the results. I think I'm going to stick with oils for most of my overpainting.

Comments are welcome. I'm looking forward to learning from PF members and improving my skills.

Lee

 

[WarhammerAdjacent]

You've done a good job with these old(ish) figures, they've come out rather well. I think if I had any feedback on the painting it would be to look at using glazes to tint different parts of the face, I like the 'yellow, red, blue' rule (i.e. the forehead tends to get yellowish tones, the cheeks pink and the chin blue, at least on men).

Aside from painting though, my main advice would be to get some nice figures and have a play. I fell into the same trap and spent ages struggling to paint 'so-so' figures with results far worse than yours, I was never satisfied and almost abandoned figures. Then I picked up some nicer ones and found them a lot easier to paint. It turns out that it's much more straightforward to paint a face if it actually looks like a face already.

Check out the market on here, there are usually a variety of bargains that are worth looking at.

 

[LeesKeys]

You've done a good job with these old(ish) figures, they've come out rather well. I think if I had any feedback on the painting it would be to look at using glazes to tint different parts of the face, I like the 'yellow, red, blue' rule (i.e. the forehead tends to get yellowish tones, the cheeks pink and the chin blue, at least on men).

Aside from painting though, my main advice would be to get some nice figures and have a play. I fell into the same trap and spent ages struggling to paint 'so-so' figures with results far worse than yours, I was never satisfied and almost abandoned figures. Then I picked up some nicer ones and found them a lot easier to paint. It turns out that it's much more straightforward to paint a face if it actually looks like a face already.

Check out the market on here, there are usually a variety of bargains that are worth looking at.

Thanks so much Warhammer. I really appreciate your input! I have a couple of higher quality resin figures on order now. I'll also search for articles/posts about using glazes.

 

[theBaron]

Welcome to the Planet, Lee! I second Stefan, I think you've done a nice job with those pieces, too.
For me, the secret is the punch line to the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall: "Practice, practice, practice!"
I'm of a different mind regarding practicing on older figures, though. I like the old Tamiya 1/35 figures, for example, though most people today wouldn't touch 'em. I find them good for practicing basic techniques, though, experimenting. Like a glue bomb in scale modeling.
I look forward to seeing your next project!

Prost!
Brad

 

[LeesKeys]

Thanks for the feedback Brad! Yeah, I've found these Tamiya kits to be a good starting point. I plan to finish Rommel, then maybe a more current kit. We'll see.

 

[NigelR]

I'd say that's a pretty good start, not much wrong with that at all for a first figure. The big choice is oils vs acrylics, and it seems like you are sticking with oils. If that is the case, you need to search out every post by phil_h on here, because he is a master with oils and posts the most wonderful step by step threads on how he paints with oils. Here's an example: https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/young-miniatures-arabian-knight-bust.694685/

Just spend your time working through Phil's posts and you will get a lot of useful advice.