Shade vs. shadow ...

[Russ]

I don't know how else to put it just now, but my question isn't about painting shadows in folds or creases. It's about contrasting shade and light.

I'm about to start the Young Miniatures bust of the "Raven Sorcerer" (YH1862). You'll note from the attached thumbnail that the box art shows the front of the bust in comparative shadow, with what feels like firelight coming from behind. I found some roughly 360-degree pics online which seem to support that perspective. Frankly, I'm not entirely sure how much of the effect is painting, and how much is lighting and photographic magic.

Which really doesn't matter, because I want to try painting it to match the box art. So here's where I am: I've cleaned and primed the bust, black from below and white from above to establish basic shadow patterns. The way I see it, there are two major approaches to mimicking the box art.

1. Paint the bust "as normal", i.e. with the overhead-halo method, then apply glazes or washes to create the effects. In my mind, that would likely be a thin, dark-bluish glaze in front, and a yellow-orange glaze/wash in the back. This approach feels good, but there's the need to control the glazed areas, most specifically where the dark and light meet.
2. Paint the bust from the start in the desired final colors. That would mean mixing and applying the actual end colors, of which there would be many tints and shades of one color or another. I think it can be done, but whenever I imagine it, I see a paint-by-numbers picture.

SO - I'm turning to this experienced community for some ideas. Has anyone here done this type of paint job? Is there another strategy I'm missing? Are either of the two approaches I've described reasonable?

Any help, advice, or references will be appreciated!

 

[Warren SMITH]

Out of my league, but I'm interested to see what advice is offered and how you go about achieving the results you want..

 

[Russ]

Out of my league, but I'm interested to see what advice is offered and how you go about achieving the results you want..

I'll be especially pleased if it involves me receiving millions of dollars and a tropical getaway property in the Bahamas ...

 

[milbenplage]

Uff ... I have no idea what you painted before or on what level you paint. Therefore I can only write down how I would approach it like this.

Primer-Sketch:
1. Black Primer overall
2. Redish or orange Primer from where the fire would be.
3. White Primer from the general light.
4. Take as many pictures as you can. Make sure to minimize cast-shadows of your desk-lights (or whatever).
You can also use some intermediate tones if you have some. Here is a link of what that would like.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEARnhRILou/
This is what you would end up with if you follow the "sketch" that you'll get by that approach.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvhJPskn2YN/

Light-Sketch: For Photoshop/Camera-people only!
1. Clean the miniature. Leave it as it is or use a light primer and cover the whole miniature.
2. Set up the miniature and some lightsources. Ambient light, Spot light, source light. Make sure those lightsources are fixed in place. Leave enough space for the camera on a tripod
3. Set up the camera, use manual mode. Take a pictures from with each light source on.
4. Do the same with some more angles you might find helpful.
5. Use photoshop to sum up all pictures. Align those pictures with the same perspective in a layer staple.
6. Try to merge all pictures with the sam light situation for easy layer-visibility manipulation.
7. Play around until you're happy.



You'll end up with something like this. You can actually skip everything above and try to setup everything in one photo per perspective. But since I'am a photoshop-dude I like to play around with that. I can manipulate the the visibility of each lightsource.


For the painting:
Go for your second option. That gives you much more control. Don't waste any time and start in sketching-mode. Dilute your paints a bit. You should be able to see what is happening but you don't need opaque layers for the start. If so ... you can build up opacity by adding more layers on top of the previous. Try to sketch everything ... basic color tones, lighting ... check if it works for you. If it doesn't work, keep on sketching ... if it works start refining the sketch. It means a lot of mixing. But the boxart only use some tones. It's mostly brown, grey, orange, red. You should be able to mix everything. While sketching you can skip a lot of intermidiate tones ...
Your miniature has a lot of sculpted textures. Of course you can use light washes instead of trying to add depth with classic painting/layering.



Here's a pretty early sketch of the skintones. I used the reference picture above alot (I have more angles).
I was happy with the sketch and started to refine the face:



P.S. I changed to OSL-color later. See the picture with the orange OSL.

Here are some pictures of Marc Masclans work. He uses the sketch&refine "technique" a lot. As you can see he establishes the general feel of the miniature very fast.
You'll see that there are (nearly) no major changes to sketch in the end. This really reduces your painting time.

 

[Russ]

Thanks for the info, all! For what it's worth, I've pretty much decided to paint the bust in "true" colors, and have a go at creating the effects I want using glazes. I'll post the results whenever I get done with it.

 

[Blind Pew]

Thanks for the info, all! For what it's worth, I've pretty much decided to paint the bust in "true" colors, and have a go at creating the effects I want using glazes. I'll post the results whenever I get done with it.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the process.
It might be an idea to practice your technique on some rubbish kit or figure that you might only bin anyway - make your mistakes on that before you start on the 'real thing.'