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Shading looks brilliant. Nicely done. I like the blending on the sword. Looks very natural. Very Very well done.

Pyriel- wrote:Sorry for forgetting the final blade pics, here it is hot it looks after all was done

There ya go! Ok Sold! I am watching.

Pyri is back! And painting a whole smack of NMM... you are a more patient man than I!

Nice work Pyriel, I pm'd Nerdfest about painting NMM gold and he told me to check your blog out. Your technique is alot bolder than most but I really like it. Your stuff must look awesome on the table top.

I'm going to try some nmm gold.....nowish, so when you've got a sec and I post up an image I'd appreciate your thoughts on how I get on. If I can make it look nearly as good as yours i'll be a happy hangfire.

Having looked though things a bit more thoroughly...

- I find it really interesting that in the closeups you can clearly see the shading lines from one shade to the next, but when you pull back a bit they completely disappear and become a continuous gradient from dark to light. Very neat bit of optic trickery there. Are each one of those "bands" of color a single pass with a brush or the result of many passes with a much more dilute shade? (and I apologize in advance if you've mentioned this already and I've missed it).

- I really like the grey shades that pass through the blue... just a really pleasing effect (shoulder pad name plate I think is a good example).

- I'm amazed at the NMM gold because as I look at it in close up... it's not the least bit gold. Now I'm confident that in-total when taken into the context of the entire figure... it'll look gold, but I cant imagine reproducing the effect successfully myself because when you're looking at it close-up all I'd be able to see is "shades of brown" as opposed to being able to visualize it as "gold" and then painting it accordingly.

Really impressed as to how you can keep this all straight in your mind while painting. Nice work Pyriel.

Really impressed as to how you can keep this all straight in your mind while painting

You'd be scared if you knew what went on in that mind! I believe the painting keeps him sane!

A very very thin wash of a medium grey might help smooth out the transitions a bit more?

Other than that, these guys are looking great. An entire force painted up like that would look very different to the usual silver that you see around.

I dont know, I try to steer clear of washes as much as I can, in the beginning I used them but it has the same quality to it like using drybrushing, can be really nice if done right but never surpass the more advanced techniques.

Yes they look rather cool on the table, I have about 40-50 GK minis, 3 FW dreads with magnetized arms and a stormraven painted up so far. I´m aiming at around 8000 apocalypse points when finished, all painted to the same standard. A project that will most probably mean the end on my sanity.

Pyriel, I'm glad I found this thread. I've voted many times on your salamanders, especially the LR. I've been curious to see more of your work and when you posted those bone examples in Nerdfest09's thread I thought I'd track you down and see what you're up to. Pumped that I did. Now Subbed to this thread. Look forward to seeing where this one goes.

Cool and thanks. As for tracking persons, ask Nerdfeast, he knows all about being tracked down *mwahaha*.

I'm in. (pushes chips to center of table)

Damn you are in? The pressure, the pressure...

Shading looks brilliant. Nicely done. I like the blending on the sword. Looks very natural. Very Very well done.

Thanks. Next pics up will be the finished and assembled apotechary. Still struggling with taking pics of the metal minis, need a good sun light for those.

Pyri is back! And painting a whole smack of NMM... you are a more patient man than I!

Only way to handle those pesky sculpting hours is to bake in some fun painting in between.

Nice work Pyriel, I pm'd Nerdfest about painting NMM gold and he told me to check your blog out. Your technique is alot bolder than most but I really like it. Your stuff must look awesome on the table top.

I'm going to try some nmm gold.....nowish, so when you've got a sec and I post up an image I'd appreciate your thoughts on how I get on. If I can make it look nearly as good as yours i'll be a happy hangfire.

I admit, I go a little overboard with highlighting and the reason for it is the minis look nice from a little distance like the tabletop.
Highliting also gives a "scale" to the minis and I try to keep it balanced between looking nice on the table and looking nice from up close. Naturally pictures cannot tell the whole truth but people that met me in real life can answer better on how the result comes down when you actually hold the mini in your hand.

I look forward to seeing that pic of your mini that you have in mind.

- I find it really interesting that in the closeups you can clearly see the shading lines from one shade to the next, but when you pull back a bit they completely disappear and become a continuous gradient from dark to light. Very neat bit of optic trickery there. Are each one of those "bands" of color a single pass with a brush or the result of many passes with a much more dilute shade? (and I apologize in advance if you've mentioned this already and I've missed it).

There are several more things behind that.
One - I sometimes deliberately mix "effort levels" in the same mini. A perfect example is this one:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/62860-Salamanders%20TDA%20chaplain.html

Some areas I found boring are made really "quick" (ok, relatively quick then) like the black armour, whereas others I spend a lot of time on.
The result is parts looking gradient and parts looking really smooth.

Two - sometimes I forget to blur or "jagg" the borders between shades, those look more gradient.

Three - I balance the overall painting to look nice both from close up and from an arms lenght distance.
The few minis I have made smooth overall do not show banding.
If you want to I can show you in PM an example, I am unwilling to post it here since I plan on going to a golden deamon with it some day so dont want to advertise it to much.

As for each pass of a band, well those are in general the result of a first pass with solid paint and then if needed a second pass with diluted is added and if needed still and/or if I feel lazy a third pass that adds "jaggs" is made. Those blur the lines between bands really well at even a short distance away.

- I really like the grey shades that pass through the blue... just a really pleasing effect (shoulder pad name plate I think is a good example).

Hmm, I didnt realise there were visible bands seen on those, I like painting the blue steel areas so usually spend more effort on those.
If I was to really spend as much effort on every part of the minis my plan for an 8000p GK army would never be realistic.

- I'm amazed at the NMM gold because as I look at it in close up... it's not the least bit gold. Now I'm confident that in-total when taken into the context of the entire figure... it'll look gold, but I cant imagine reproducing the effect successfully myself because when you're looking at it close-up all I'd be able to see is "shades of brown" as opposed to being able to visualize it as "gold" and then painting it accordingly.

The secret to paint gold is really to be mentally strong enough NOT to paint gold lol
Every layer "gold" I do is a struggle to use ugly brown colours rather then "gold" trusting that the end effect will look nice.

Painting metals is actually all about cheating. Steel isnt boltgun metal, its various degrees of ugly blues and gold isnt burnished gold but various degrees of ugly brown.

You'd be scared if you knew what went on in that mind! I believe the painting keeps him sane!

Sattelites man, sattelites.






Dragios sword. Interesting thing to paint, everyone do it like a normal sword but purple in colour.
I thought why not try something different altogether.
The guy is in the warp banging away at a deamon weapon remaking it into a sword and I´m pretty sure he didnt have acces to a nice hightech forge with polishing machines and all that in the warp.

So I wanted to make something that still had marks of hammer blows on it, kind of like a zinc coating, purplish of course lol

This is a wip of the blade, looks really weird but I think I´m the first one in the history of miniature painting that tried something like that.





Next pics will be assembled and finished apotechary. I had to retake some of the ones Nerdfeast have already seen to make sure I couldnt have done them better.

Thanks for the excellent comments, lots there to think about and to look for in your future work. I do like that sword, fascinating technique. Would love to see that piece you mentioned by PM.

So the apotechary finally being assembled. I didnt want to cover what I spent so much time painting with those glass vials so I placed them on the base (for him to guard or pick up).
Also went for a white/red helmet to signify that he is an apotechary rather then having everything just being grey.

















Also got me those ornamental lines of text on the lower abdomen/torso and kneejoint guards that arent on the original plastic minis (and i hate that). I will do this for every termie I make.

That apothecary looks stunning, Pyriel! NMM looks great, especially the gold on the glaive and I really like the two grey tones you've used on the armor.

Glad you like it Moltar

I like him. "He doesn't suck." as they saying goes. (that's supposed to be a high compliment... second only to "He sucks, I hate you." which is the highest compliment you can provide.)

I'm thinking that a tiny bit of OSL on his left toe might be warranted from the crack in the floor and be a nice splash of color.

Like the free hand on the combat shield and in general the varying bits of color you've scattered hither-and-yon. The gradients are well done and the pale blue ridges are a perfect compliment to the grey underneath.

The head looks great in white, good choice.

Dude, I just love these GKs, my favourite I have seen painted, ever! I cannot wait to see more of these guys painted up like this, they are going to look utterly amazing on the table top!

8000 pts to this standard! Ohh shiny NMM is one of those techniques which can look beautiful and you really pull it off which is rare. Although the Apothecary needs his shopping list!

I'm very very impressed with your Apoth!

If I could do NMM like you I would to my force in the same way so I am very envious of your skills!

They feel almost cell shaded, which is one of my favourite visual styles in computer graphics.

The shading on the rim of the shoulder pad in the second image really shows off the effect and I really like the look of it.

They wouldn't be out of place in Borderlands.

Very nicely done, I'll be staying tuned!

Almost forgot my own blog.

Here is the Crowe mini finished. I must admitt I rushed this one as it was sort of a practice mini before I made Dragio, I wanted to try out a new way of painting cloaks so that was pretty much all that mattered to me on Crowe.

The picture taken are in a high contrast setting so this is why you see a very rough layering on the gray parts as well as the reds, the back of the banner looks smooth irl. Compare the layering on Crowe with the ones on the apotechary above, its painted the same way and look just as smooth but the contrast setting makes things look rough but it is deliberate to show the cloak in better detail.

Dunno if I succeeded or failed with it, the final non-practice piece will be seen on Dragio in a little while.













This is part of my GK painting blog so it goes in here despite almost necromancing the thread however since I need feedback on whats good and bad I´m posting it in the painting sections to since very few people tend to look in here.

The trim definitely looks good, but I fear the stippling you did loses a lot in the close up photographs. I have no doubt that it looks much better irl. Any particular reason you went with this technique?

I really like the cloak pyriel-, looks very much like a shiny metallic or crushed satin/velvet & the work on the trim is superb. I think it would be an outstanding technique in combination with your Salamanders which are very dramatic to begin with.

What's he stepping on? Looks like he squished some kind of little lava monster...

Velvety goodness right there Pyriel! that cloak is great! just like the beaten sword it's something i've not seen before on a mini like this! I love seeing you push the boundaries of painting (and pushing peoples buttons!) I'd say you've succeeded again with him, rushed or not he's a fantastic looking piece and as usual I just want to see more of your work!

keep painting dude!

Nerdfest09

The trim definitely looks good, but I fear the stippling you did loses a lot in the close up photographs. I have no doubt that it looks much better irl. Any particular reason you went with this technique?

Crowe doesnt have to have it but Dragio does and I used Crowe as a practice piece before Dragio.
I wanted to show what a cape could look like after having been in the warp for long and Dragio is walking around in there quite a lot these days.

I really like the cloak pyriel-, looks very much like a shiny metallic or crushed satin/velvet & the work on the trim is superb. I think it would be an outstanding technique in combination with your Salamanders which are very dramatic to begin with.

What's he stepping on? Looks like he squished some kind of little lava monster...

Thanks dude

The goo is part of the weird base Crowe has his foot attached to, I was stuck with it and I know, should have painted it black like the base but I forgot.
As Crowe is a practice mini I dont think Ill go over him again to correct these things.

Velvety goodness right there Pyriel! that cloak is great! just like the beaten sword it's something i've not seen before on a mini like this! I love seeing you push the boundaries of painting (and pushing peoples buttons!) I'd say you've succeeded again with him, rushed or not he's a fantastic looking piece and as usual I just want to see more of your work!

Now it´s your turn to do it better

What! you expect me to do it better? well, sleeping beauty if you instruct me in your wisdom then I shall at least give it a shot! :-) come on! challenge time big guy!

Forgot about this again.
Posting the finished Draigo.

Same style as Crowe but where Crowe was a practice piece this was the second mini in that style and more of an effort job.

Outstanding work Pyriel-, here are the things that jump out at me...

- As we've talked about before, the work on the cloak is phenomenal. It has a realism that I find entirely believable and is unique as an artistic technique... wow.
- The trim on the robes really set them off in a way that just the painting, cool as it is... would not. I need to remember to try to do this on my few robed figures... it's really effective and helps set the illusion.
- I must admit to having been somewhat skeptical as to your hammered metal idea on the sword... and standing alone I'm not certain how well it would work, but *with* the NMM and matching colors of the GK... it works big-time.
- I'm always enamored by NMM... it's all I can manage to do a normal dark-to-light blend and have it look decent, to work in all of the optical illusions required for NMM amazing to me, and yours does not disappoint.
- Love the banner with the book and the way the colors reflect but don't match exactly the grey of the armor (again, more realistic in my opinion as cloth and armor would look different to the eye). The faux recessed =I= is a really nice touch.
- It's a really "fiddly" figure (i.e. lots of extra bits of crap all over it) which generally I see as a major drawback to many of GW's commander figures as they more-often-then-not just dilute the figure's visual impact. However, you've been consistent enough in your choice of colors for the various bits that they augment rather than distract from the whole. Well done.
- The little touches of green on the book cover on his actual book and the book on the shield are a really good visual "break" from the colors that dominate the rest of the model. I am curious as to why you didn't echo the color choice on the covers of the books on his shoulder pad and the banner.
- The shield just looks awesome.
- You've got lots of scrolls and parchment there, any plans for adding text?

Great job my friend. Lot's to study and learn from there.

Gits

Thanx for some wonderful feedback Git. I´ll think about these things the next time I´ll paint something.
The books will remain the same though since this is how I started my army theme some 30 miniatures ago and I´d hate havng redo everything prior and I like the feel of "metal" ornaments (blue steel) on the armour itself (pads) rather then paint them like real life books (doesn't make any sense protection wise).

Been busy sculpting pads and now other things so no painting for me for quite some time I am afraid but I gave you a sneak peak of upcoming sculpts in PM. Be fun to read your feedback on them.

Going though them now.

Understood about the green... wasn't putting my comments in context of the whole, just looking at this one figure. The green is a nice touch on this particular figure though.

Dude, this just looks amazing! I cannot even comprehend the skill involved, really really fantastic work Pyriel!

Looking forward to seeing some new stuff from you, CH hasn't had much new recently. Unless I missed something, I avoid the "GW lawsuit" threads they often break down into.