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Hello! This is my new painting blog. I have been painting warhammer for about 2 years and have recently started doing a lot of freehand work. I'm hoping to take on commission work and become a successful ebay seller. I've sold a couple of tanks already and have been working on some more.
If you could look at my models and give me any feedback or ideas then it would be appreciated.
There are more photos on my other blogsite http://miniartstudios.blogspot.co.uk

Thanks!

Jo

Very nice work. That freehand is impressive.

 UnCool Villain wrote:
Very nice work. That freehand is impressive.

Thanks for the complement!

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve my work or any thoughts on what other images I could try freehanding onto tanks/models?

I thought I'd share this pic of my work in progress for my dark angels rhino freehand. I always start of with a rough sketch of what I want to do, then paint flat colours of the basic outline. Even in rough form this gives me an idea of how it will look in the end (see finished article in red square). I always have source material to hand, such as a picture of a skull/ codex and gradually build up the picture with light and shade.

You sir are amazing. Do you have any advice/tips for those of use who have very poor - poor free hand ability

Looking forward to more

PS why not try and do a whole skeleton on a tank?

Pretty impressive, had you not said it was your first attempt I would have assumed you were a deft hand at it

 Nashbashem wrote:
You sir are amazing. Do you have any advice/tips for those of use who have very poor - poor free hand ability

Looking forward to more

PS why not try and do a whole skeleton on a tank?

Thanks, It's "miss" not sir! lol. My advice would be , like I do, sketch out and plan what you want to do first so you get the position right, use very thinned paint and build up in layers, and don't panic!! if you've gone too dark/light you can always change it. Always get lots of references to look at while you're doing it, codex art/ google images. If I find a good image I save it to a folder on the desktop of the PC so I can access it.

I start of with a mid range shade to do the initial outline, then apply the darkest and lightest areas (I squint at the reference picture, which makes it stand out more). Then keeping the colours wet on the palette, mix in black and white to the main colours and blend them, using wet blending, on the actual model.

It takes practice, some of my earlier work (you can see it on the blog) the paint was maybe a bit too thick in places, and I had to make slight alterations as I might have got carried away. I've also striped a big black paint line through a model out of frustration before!! so it does take practice.

The skeleton idea is a good one, I might try that, thanks!!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
Pretty impressive, had you not said it was your first attempt I would have assumed you were a deft hand at it

Thanks for the complement! I've not been doing it long, I started about 2 years ago and that was just because my son had a started paint set with some goblins in, and he let me have a go!

I was good at art at school, so I suppose I've just transferred some of those skills.

I'll keep posting my progress on here, and on my blog, hopefully I'll keep improving!!

Thanks for looking!!

Wow, great freehand Jo, particularly like the terminator on the side of the Land Raider. I was really impressed by the death company rhino on your blog as well, the skull seemed really striking. How about an eldar vehicle? I don't much about the eldar, more of an imperial fan myself but some eldar vehicles have lots of body work like this:

You have awesome skills, no doubt about that. It's really impressive
That being said, I think you have a bit to go on catching the right size and image. The raphael angel on the blood angel tank image seems out of place in The Grimdark (The 40k gothic setting), where angels are either Dark, Blood or freaks made by the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Therefore, the innocent and perfect angels seem, to me atleast, out of place in The Grimdark.



This is an example of what I'm trying to talk about, english not being my first language.

In that regards I think your Blood Angel Predator with the twinlinked assault cannons on your blog is much more on the spot, with the image of sanguinius (or something) on the rear-hatch.

Also the Ultra-marineshere is really good about the placement of the images.

I'd say that while your art is just that, art, they seem out of scale somehow. It seems more like you wanted to paint something really small, than painting a miniature. You seem to ignore the layout of the tank, something the 40k artist (that is, the guy that painted the image on the tank "in-game" so to speak) would properly not do. In that regard I'd say that painting on miniatures is different from painting on canvas/paper, in that it is 3d, and you need to work with this, not ignore this. For instance, you dont do weathering around the top hatch that goes straight through the image. While it might pain you to be spoiling the awesome image you paint on the tank, I'd say that for the image to work as something a space marine/adept painted on the tank, it needs some weathering in down the middle, where the 2 hatches meet. It would get wear and tear there.
So either "obey" your own weathering rules, and give the whole tank the same weathering (including the areas where you painted on the freehand designs OR paint up the tank like it is fresh out of the factory, and do no weathering at all.
The awesome freehand designs look like they were painted on after the weathering, and if they are too bold and stand out as paintings insted of part of the miniature.

I hope I'm getting my point across, and not just raining on your parade. I'm trying to point out what I think isn't working as well as it could, and what could make the tanks work even better than they do now.
Something to think about, or ignore if I'm blabbering =)
Either way, hoping to see loads more!

Very impressive freehand!

Thanks for all of the feedback and comments!! I am thinking about doing something Eldar, I noticed they have a lot of space on their tanks, and I've done dark eldar before and so could go with another harlequin theme, or try something new?
And thanks for the suggestions about weathering. I think it would look a lot better if the images looked like they had some age to them, I will probably try painting the freehand before weathering at some point, I don't mind weathering the image I'm not precious about it! I'd sooner it look good as a whole.

I will update when I've done some more painting!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I should also acknowledge that my knowledge of the history of 40K isn't great, That may make my image choices a bit odd perhaps. I should probably try reading the codexes instead of just plucking artworks out of them and making assumptions. I know Dark Eldar though as I have (tried and failed!) played them and so read up on the background.

I would like to do some more DE freehand as I quite like the "darker" stuff!

Well, even without knowing the fluff, you can't go wrong with:

Skulls

Angels

Swords

Reapers

and that works for 98% of all marines, really.

Your stuff is a pleasure to look at. I can't offer tips since you are so much better than me, but I'll enjoy looking at more of your work.

Hoping you meant *can't* go wrong with:...

Fantastic stuff Jo.Thanks for posting, i look forwards to seeing more.

Just thought I'd add a few pics of my stormraven WIP. It still needs possibly more adding to the sides? and some bits still need finishing off with airbrush (the jets, weathering etc etc). I used references from Google/codex to do the faces. Sanguinius' face is actually from a sculpture by Breker!

That is freaking amazing! You are the Goddess of freehand I am yet to try doing freehand as big as this but it will suck compared to this

Great job

 Nashbashem wrote:
That is freaking amazing! You are the Goddess of freehand I am yet to try doing freehand as big as this but it will suck compared to this

Great job

Thank you! It's nice to be the Goddess of something!!

That freehanding is uncanny. My god, it's beautiful.

Excellent! I enjoy a good paint job. At the moment, I don't have any tanks to paint as I've just started my army but do you mind if I use some of your designs?

Words fail me...........
Damn that,s some good freehand.

Wow, very impressive. For sure subbed, can't wait to see what else you do!