Shadows and highlights

[Willow]

Okay so, I am pretty new to the hobby and I have joined a club which is great. We went to a show and I am all inspired and it is awesome and all and I had a ton of great ideas and colors and fantastic little fantacies of my figures being shown....then I get home and realize that while I have all of these great ideas, I don't yet have the skill.

I realize that practice is key, and I have a bunch of figures to do that with. I am currently using cheap brushes and when I can afford them will upgrade to nice ones but for now I am poor as poor can be so I make do.

The current challenge I am working on now is an improvment in shading and highlighting so that there is a better impression of realism with the figures. I cannot seem to figure out what washes to use and how to layer to get that fantastic realistic impression I see in so many of the figures I admire. Any advice would be really appreciated.

 

[housecarl]

Have a peep here and here.
Other than that ask away here,
Carl.

 

[Einion]

Hey, welcome to the hobby.

I am currently using cheap brushes and when I can afford them will upgrade to nice ones but for now I am poor as poor can be so I make do.

Cheap synthetic brushes aren't a big handicap except when it comes to painting some fine detail (due to the tips hooking over) so it is worth getting at least one decent Kolinsky brush for that purpose as soon as you can manage. No problem with using synthetics for everything else if you need to, although sable and Kolinsky are lovely to paint with.

Here is a post of mine with a brief guide on how to select a brush (including the all-important snap test, to check for pointing ability when the brush is wet) as well as lots of brands to keep in mind. Just to note, that post was from 2005 and W&N have done little to improve the quality control on their Series 7 range so I would still advise not getting one sight-unseen, but if you're buying in person and can select a choice one they're a viable pick... as long as you can stomach the price - RRP for a size o is currently £10.50 and it only goes down to £9.35 for a 000, which is far smaller (see relative sizes here).

The current challenge I am working on now is an improvment in shading and highlighting so that there is a better impression of realism with the figures. I cannot seem to figure out what washes to use and how to layer to get that fantastic realistic impression I see in so many of the figures I admire. Any advice would be really appreciated.

I would recommend using conventional washes minimally for the quality of finish that you're aspiring to. The standard wash method - flooding with very dilute paint - really only works decently at a small scale and there is always a problem with the dark colour settling very broadly into recesses, being indiscriminate it doesn't replicating how shadows work IRL at all. You'll get much better results painting in your shadows using layering, although it is much slower of course.

Here's a good prior thread for help on visualising highlight and shadow placement:
http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/question-on-highlight-shade-placement.46535/
This thread mentions the 'stop-sign rule' and there's a link given in post #17 so you can see a graphic of it from one of Shep Paine's old books.

Not sure what particular difficulty you're having with layering but in case you haven't read these yet the two main bits of advice usually given are: thin your paint and don't have too much of it on the brush - think damp, not wet.

And two general tips on painting to finish off:
if you're not yet using one I strongly recommend trying a stay-wet palette, see this current thread for more.
Start using a double-bath rinsing system so as to get into some good habits with brush rinsing early on; rinse your brushes thoroughly and often and you'll reduce the need to actually wash a brush by quite a lot, greatly improving the lifespan of natural-hair brushes in particular.

Einion

 

[Bailey]

The first tip is always listen to Einion.

What sorts of figures and scales are you interested in painting? A lot of the tips and tricks are universal, but some approaches may change whether you're doing 28mm fantasy figures, 120mm historical, or the really big vinyl kits. Also what paints are you using?

For shading and highlighting there are two things to worry about: blending color transitions and correct placement of shadows/highlights. As Einion said, when it comes to placing your shadows and highlights, Shep Paine's stop sign rule example is a great guide. Often in war gaming figure circles its called zenithal lighting, but its the same idea.

 

[Willow]

First off, thank you all for your help, I am still in the process of reading all of the fantastic material at the links you all provided. To answer some of the questions, I am currently sticking to acrylics. I have 2 resin figures I haven't tried yet. I have several metal, some plastic, and some of that new rubbery plastic I am currently working on. I tend to paint mostly D&D, Reaper, and some Warhammer figures for my games D&D game but the resin ones are purly for the joy of painting them and for display purposes (or will be when I am done) and will be hopefully able to enter it into a competition next year (one should have goals I always say). I am actually happy to paint pretty much anything and once I can afford to, I will likely scour any resource I can to find anything I can to paint just for the fun and challenge of it. Ultimately, once I get the shadows and highlights down, and faces perfected, I want to move into free handing. For now I will start small and work on the color blending and the shadows and highlights and really get those down solid. I remember seeing a book that mentioned the stop sign rule but sadly I was just looking through a book one of my hobby club members let me look at and didn't have time to study it.

I think my main problem thus far for layering has been that I have not been thinning my paints when I use them. I think a bit of impatience has played a part as well as I realize it has been 7 hours and I am getting that crick in my neck but I just want to finish so splash splash and poof there is a "done" figure that looks okay but nowhere near what I want.

 

[Bailey]

In addition to getting advice and input from PlanetFigure, you might also consider starting up a work in progress thread over at coolminiornot. That site tends to lean more towards the fantasy/sci-fi figures which works fine for what you're doing. Doing a WIP thread is a great way to get feedback and advice, it can be very helpful if you're looking to improve your results. I will say the main gallery at coolmini can be harsh, but the forum (and WIP section in particular) is much nicer and more helpful.

 

[Willow]

Oh awesome, I think I will give that a shot as well. Quite honestly I am happy to get information from all quarters and to be honest I also do models and I will probably also do military figures for fun. On the model side of things I have a little plane, a misquito, which needs some good simple camo paint on the top and I frigged my first attempt up so bad it looks like a giant sneezed on it then smeared the boogers. Suffice it to say that I was not pleased with my first ever try at camo.

 

[Einion]

The first tip is always listen to Einion.

TVM.

...you might also consider starting up a work in progress thread over at coolminiornot. That site tends to lean more towards the fantasy/sci-fi figures which works fine for what you're doing. Doing a WIP thread is a great way to get feedback and advice, it can be very helpful if you're looking to improve your results.

Sound advice this. Willow, if a WIP sounds like too much you can just post pics of your work on Painting & Conversions and ask for critique. You're much more likely to get critical feedback when you ask for it on CMON than here.

Einion