WIP Critique Sumothay

[Bailey]

So here's a figure I started way back in June of 2012. I painted the face, but didn't get much farther than that. Usually when a figure sits for that long its destined for the pile of never-to-be-completed projects... but even a year and a half later I'm still pleased with how I painted the face, so I decided to dust him off and try to actually finish him this time. I did need to touch it up a bit and do more with the highlights. From there I finished the hair and started working on the armor. My last couple projects have increased my confidence in painting metals, something I previously dreaded. This sculpt has a lot of detail in the armor so it's another great project to continuing experimenting and learning with. It's the same approach I used on my hoplite just a little more extreme: black heavily mixed into bronze, gradually going to pure bronze, then starting to mix in Vallejo Model Air Gold until I'm at pure VMA gold. And of course placement of those shadows and highlights to mimic metal as best I can. Lots of highlights along edges, strong contrast between light and dark, stuff like that.

He's got a really interesting outfit, lots of detail and stuff strapped on him. I'm at a bit of a loss for what I want to do with it though. I know there will be some browns but I want to add more color, just haven't decided what that will be. That's one of the reasons I'm starting with the armor. Hopefully as I do more of that the rest of the picture will come into focus. Until then I'll just keep making it up as I go along.

 

[Bailey]

Oh, and for anyone not familiar with the sculpt (and I imagine that's most people), he's a 54mm figure from Enigma miniatures. Although the scale is 54mm, he's got a pretty big body so he's really closer to 60mm.

 

[swralph]

Nice metal'sMaybe see it finished in a couple of years

 

[Ferris]

Metal parts are looking really good, very convincing!

Adrian

 

[megroot]

Nothing to complain about , he is really looking good allready.

marc

 

[Pilgrim_uk]

I can understand going back to this something really nice about that face.

 

[Eludia]

Looks good to me. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.

Cheers,
Billy

 

[Nicolaos]

I know the figurine, hope to see at least the same quality work as in the hoplite case. Excellent start untill now.
Good luck!
Nicolae

 

[Bailey]

Thanks, everyone. I did some more work on Sumothay this weekend (it's nice not to wait over a year between painting sessions). I started out with a green theme to his colors but just wasn't happy with how it looked. So redid those parts with a red/purple color. I think it gives him a bit of a regal look, so now he's Sumothay - barbarian king. At least that's the vibe I'm getting from him.

 

[Nicolaos]

I think your Purple/Red colour is a better choice, at least in my opinion. A well looking barbarian king!!
Cheers!
Nicolae

 

[Eludia]

Looking good Bailey, he makes me think of a mediaeval Judge Dredd.

Top job

Billy

 

[Maki]

Great work on the face, I like it a lot. Nice color choices for the robe... Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Mario

 

[Bailey]

And now he's got hands! Swords too. The cape and banners will come later. For the swords that white metal has been giving me trouble. For whatever reason I find it much more difficult than the yellow metal. The blends just seem more finicky. They'll look fine, then I'll tilt them so the light changes and the transitions will be obvious. I'd like more light-dark variation especially on the right sword but that's about as good as it's going to get for now. I'm going to have another go with glazes and inks and see if that can get me the look I want.

 

[saruxaxa]

Very nice face painting! I´m follow your post.

 

[Bailey]

I've made more progress on Sumothay. He's got a very complicated outfit, lots of little bits to paint. Almost finished with those. Then it's on to the banners and the base.

 

[saruxaxa]

I´d love to know how you do this fabulous skin tone. It´s very natural and realistic.

 

[Bailey]

Thanks, saruxaxa. I use a lot of Reaper paints for my skin tones. They over a really nice variety of shades. Most of the colors come in sets of three (shadow, base, highlight) however I don't like to just use these sets as is.

For the deepest shadows I used Reaper's tanned skin plus Vallejo Hull Red (close in color to Reaper's Ruddy Leather below, maybe a little more red than that) in about a 1 to 1 mix. This is just in those deeps shadows under the cheeks

+

From there I worked to a mix of Tanned Shadow and the 1st Shadow from Andrea's red set (again, Reaper's blood red is a close approximation). This was closer to 4 parts tanned skin to 1 part red or perhaps even 8 to 1. This was most of the shadows, around the eyes, in the cheeks, etc.

+

From there I went to Tanned Skin, then Tanned Highlight, and finally fair highlight just to get some extra pop on the tops of the cheeks and tip of the nose.

->

->

And of course there were plenty of inbetween mixes as I moved from one color to the other.

I'm continually tweaking my skin mixes. Another mix I was very happy with was this:

Good for fair skin, female figures, elves, etc. I used it on my White Speaker. Be aware, that figure is pretty scantily clad so you might not want to open it at work. No nudity but better safe than sorry.

 

[saruxaxa]

Thanks a lot for this skin tutorial. You have a great painter skills.

 

[Bailey]

So I've started working on the banner patterns. These are still very much works in progress. The left one was done without a lot of planned so the spacing on the left and right ended up uneven. I will be adjusting the dragons back to even that out. I was going for a samurai sort of look with the banners and I initially thought the simple design on the right really fit that. But, now that I look at it next to the dragon I think it's too simple. I want to add some sort of representative design on the right and some sort of geometric element to the banner on the left to help balance them out. I'm thinking maybe a vertical sword in front of or behind the circle or I could do crossed swords. Part of me is tempted to do a dragon above and below the circle (horizontal instead of vertical) but with such limited space I'm worried it would just end up looking like a squiggle. For the banner on the left I'm thinking a pair of horizontal lines at the top and bottom or a thick diagonal line behind the dragon. Oh, and for these new elements my plan is to use a dark blue-black to contrast with the lighter color for the other elements of the design.

What do you all think? Sound like a good plan? I'm open to other suggestions if you have some.

 

[saruxaxa]

i think the banner like this is pretty awesome already.

Maybe something inside the moon? like a japanese kanji or somenthing like that could be great.