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Not finished yet but hey here it is so far:



Tips on how to do the skin tone better are apreciated as this is my first freehand design

Its nice.........But I am going to ask a difficult question, why is there a human chick on a tau vehicle?

I don't like it, sorry. I agree with winnertakesall in that it seems a bit odd having a human "babe" on a tau vehicle. The paint work its quite thick and crude too. Maybe try to keep your paint watered down and do multiple layers. For outlines on freehand, try to keep a really fine tip on your brush.

Hopefully that doesn't sound too harsh

Tom

Can't wait to see the finished thing, but I would highly suggest changing that to a Tau female.. although Tau gender(s) have always confused me.

Maybe it's a human auxillary hammerhead?

I think that it's a great start, but it is unusual that a human would be painted on a tau vehicle. I think the ethereals would have a thing or two to say about that. Not unheard of for humans though, and I could easily see a human LT taking on a water caste pencil pusher over the finer points of morale-boosters and military codes. Would make a great diorama at the very least!

The paint does need to be thinned down quite a bit, though and you might try doing the lining using a micro-pen. When I've attempted freehand (and mine's probably worse than your's tbh), I use a very sharp pencil to sketch the outlines and then go over them using a very fine 000 liner brush in a darker grey, like Codex Grey mixed with a little Chaos black. Then after you've got the filler painted, you can go back and line it with black if that's necessary.

Keep at it!

Tau females dont have bewbs so...... So No thanks.... Maybe the tau enjoy interspecies relations? I like it by the way... Apart from her fat ankles, I couldn't get my teeth into those...

Pimp my Hammerhead!

Gavin Thorne wrote:Maybe it's a human auxillary hammerhead?

I think that it's a great start, but it is unusual that a human would be painted on a tau vehicle. I think the ethereals would have a thing or two to say about that. Not unheard of for humans though, and I could easily see a human LT taking on a water caste pencil pusher over the finer points of morale-boosters and military codes. Would make a great diorama at the very least!

The paint does need to be thinned down quite a bit, though and you might try doing the lining using a micro-pen. When I've attempted freehand (and mine's probably worse than your's tbh), I use a very sharp pencil to sketch the outlines and then go over them using a very fine 000 liner brush in a darker grey, like Codex Grey mixed with a little Chaos black. Then after you've got the filler painted, you can go back and line it with black if that's necessary.

Keep at it!

Ahhh true, fair doos then. But better than my first freehand

There are two fundamental problems that leap out at me.

#1 - your basic painting technique needs more practice, it looks like. It's going to be very tough to get a good looking freehand when you need to practice fundamentals more - ie, there are problems with the tanks paint job even before looking at the freehand. Yes, this is the boring, fundamental stuff, but there's a reason everyone says to master fundamentals first.

#2, on the freehand itself, you should give greater attention to consistent and pleasing proportions - the calves are especially eye catching in this regard, as one is the same width of her arm, but close to the right length, and the other calf is the same length as her forearm + upper arm combined. An easy way around this is to work off of a specific image and make sure you get things proportioned correctly that way. GIS "pinup art" and you will find plenty.

If you really want to go for a pin-up piece of art, I'd recommend getting printable decal sheets and searching through some WWII Bomber nose art.

Lonecoon wrote:If you really want to go for a pin-up piece of art, I'd recommend getting printable decal sheets and searching through some WWII Bomber nose art.

There are some really great waterslide pinups out there... check a hobby shop or the interwebs for those. Jokorey was a little more direct describing feedback that I wanted to provide - proportions of the human body are fairly consistent and our eyes look for what's natural and what isn't. Definitely take a look at basic art lessons in regard to this, it'll help quite a bit.

Thanks for all the constructive comments, think i said it up above but the actual paint scheme is nowhere near finished yet barely finished the base coats, and well about the tau female i jsut get deja vu from people saying how hot the avatar females where which well was slightly weird. Also human females have been used as slaves etc by the dark eldar faction and the tau welcome humans joining the empire so i see no reason on which fellow members of the empire can be used as icons on the side of empire tanks. There are a number of human sectors under the command of the empire, many even under farsights smaller one. I t would be great if someone could give me some help for the skin though i am not really used to painting skin tones etc and so have only really used 2 colours doing it Will psot some more pics up when it is complete

Some people might not agree with this, but paint her blue. And go for a "tau-y" face. That way you don't have to redo the whole thing, and you won't get the awkward "why is a human on a tau tank" question. I find it analogous to painting a female dog on a human tank. Definitely unsexy.

For inspiration, I would look at the Avatar females, as well as the "Asari" from the Mass Effect game series. Just take an asari body, and put a Tau head on there and I think you would be golden.

I think your skin tone looks fine. However, it is rather close to the color of your tank, so the pin-up doesn't really "pop" off the tank exactly.

Ermmm.... fluff " and the human auxiliaries before the commander could stop them had painted their brand new hammerhead in invincible paint with the design of a human woman on the side. They were all shot but the hammerhead was too expensive not to use so it remains in a pure tau army" The End

Invincible paint? Really?

You might be better off just freehand painting a giant Tau symbol on the tank. Although Marines and Guard are the easiest for ideas.. CSMs - just get a big ol' eight-pointed star.

FiRe SuPeRiOrItY wrote:Ermmm.... fluff " and the human auxiliaries before the commander could stop them had painted their brand new hammerhead in invincible paint with the design of a human woman on the side. They were all shot but the hammerhead was too expensive not to use so it remains in a pure tau army" The End

/discussion.
This fluff explains away everything pefectly. Invincible paint is common in the 40k universe.

It is now