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You've improved a lot since the beginning dude, but honestly, you still have a way to go before you should consider charging.

I would spend time getting your colour palette right, as I think that sometimes you seem to make non ideal choices for colors and this can clash or wash a model out.

Are you using a wet palette by the way? If not, is worth a look as it might have a positive effect on your transitions when painting.

Also I'd start to practice with edge highlighting, when you've got a better eye for complimentary colours you can do some great things with the more boring of the colours like grey.

All in all you've shown a real jump forward dude, just don't take your foot off the gas with your development because you want to make money, invest more time in your skills and it'll pay dividends

Oki.
First off. This is not painting advice.
I'm a photog. So this is pic related.
I want to help you improve your photography a bit.
Because frankly. Every single image I've seen is unsharp, and many are simply blurry and out of focus. And some appear to need white balance adjustment.

Before I can give some specifics I have a few questions re what gear you have available. Because no matter what people say. In macro photorgaphy equipment really does matter.

First off what camera do you have available?
Second. Do you own a Tripod? If not get one. You will need one to work with longer exposures. Don't shoot macros handheld, unless you are very very good at photography or you have an Image Stabilised Macro lens. And those cost a gakload of cash.
Third. do you have a dedicated macro lens? If not try getting one if you have a DSLR. That lens will also double up as a great portait lens or normal lens.
Fourth. Use a remote trigger or timed shutter. When shooting macros or anythin with a long exposure time the vibrations from you pressing the shutter button can cause the image to be blurry. A remote shutter relase will eliminate that.
Fifth. A light box is essential in product photography, which is what this basically is.
6. Download GIMP. You will need it or something similar to balance the colours and do some slight tweaks to your pics.
7 remember to always set your white balance before shooting. It can be done very easily with a plain piece of paper. White. Or you can use a "grey card" as us photogs call it. It is an 18% grey. Or Neutral Grey for those brush heads out there..
8 for dedicated macro photography a focus rail is easier. It makes for more precise focus adjustent simply moving the camera then using the lens adjustments in many cases.
Never ever use straight flash.
Its better to use long exposures and a tripod than flash.
If flash is used. Diffuse the light or bounce it off a wall or ceiling.

I hope these tips will help a bit.
Condensed can say.
Use a tripod and manual exposure. Long exposure times and low ISO. Remember to set the white balance and lastly use the delayed exposure timer you would use for selfies to avoid camera shake.

Happy shooting.

 Eggs wrote:
Before I get into the painting, what I will say, is that there is no way on this earth, or any other habitable planet, that I'd pay £10 for a movement tray. I make mine from 1mm plate steel (I magnetise my fantasy blocks for ease of travel), and I get the steel for several trays supplied, cut to my size requirements, for about £10.

As for the painting, it looks like a nice blend on the pauldron. Remember, if the sun is setting, it would create some stark shadows, so you can be a bit heavy with it. The important thing is to make sure the imagined light source is consistent across all the models. And also give the judges a clue about what you were trying to achieve - if, as I suspect, diorama is the word you are looking for, let the name reflect what you were gunning for - sunset on the hill, or night falls on the wolf or whatever.

DIORAMA! Yes, that is indeed the word I was looking for, thank you my friend for clearing that up. I was going to call it 'What Wolves Do Best' as he's charging headstrong into a suicide mission. However perhaps 'Dusks Last Stand' may be better.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Inevitable_Faith wrote:
Admittedly I don't know much about fantasy and this strange "movement tray" thing you speak of. I know they come in blocks of soldiers as opposed to the 2" unit coherency that 40K has. So is a movement tray just a thing that those blocks of soldiers stand on so that they are easier to move as a unit?

So the competition is "Buy a movement tray, do anything you like to it, in it, on it, around it to make it look cool, then get judged"? Sorry if I butchered the intent of the competition.

Anyways, I actually think the green on it's own looks stellar, particularly on the shoulder, elbow pad and shield. Your lines are a lot cleaner too where they need to be and the fade on the green looks very nice.

My only gripe comes to the green and blue combined. Personally I don't feel the colours complement each other very nicely and so while the green is very well painted I don't think the blue is helping it look as good as it should. This however is a personal gripe and not everyone will think the green and blue don't go well together. I would like to however reserve my final judgement on this until the model is completely done because perhaps with some more layering on the blue and details done they might tie in together nicely.

Overall it's looking good and I'm looking forward to seeing this guy done.

The movement trays are indeed the things fantasy miniatures sit on to help the players move them. And yeh, you worded it very....bluntly but that is the jist of it.
So to the model, which blue do you speak of? Is it his armour? Because I'm going to build that up into a grey, I just wanted a dark dark bule base. If it's the sword the that is a frost sword. A power weapon unique to the space wolves made to look like a sword of ice only much stronger.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Division Of Joy wrote:
You've improved a lot since the beginning dude, but honestly, you still have a way to go before you should consider charging.

I would spend time getting your colour palette right, as I think that sometimes you seem to make non ideal choices for colors and this can clash or wash a model out.

Are you using a wet palette by the way? If not, is worth a look as it might have a positive effect on your transitions when painting.

Also I'd start to practice with edge highlighting, when you've got a better eye for complimentary colours you can do some great things with the more boring of the colours like grey.

All in all you've shown a real jump forward dude, just don't take your foot off the gas with your development because you want to make money, invest more time in your skills and it'll pay dividends

I am using a wet pallet. I'd like to say no as that might excuse whater the reason you think I don't is but yes I do. Is it that the transition of colours are too bold? If so I guess I could invest more time into fixing that. Thank you for your advice.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tjomball wrote:
Oki.
First off. This is not painting advice.
I'm a photog. So this is pic related.
I want to help you improve your photography a bit.
Because frankly. Every single image I've seen is unsharp, and many are simply blurry and out of focus. And some appear to need white balance adjustment.

Before I can give some specifics I have a few questions re what gear you have available. Because no matter what people say. In macro photorgaphy equipment really does matter.

First off what camera do you have available?
Second. Do you own a Tripod? If not get one. You will need one to work with longer exposures. Don't shoot macros handheld, unless you are very very good at photography or you have an Image Stabilised Macro lens. And those cost a gakload of cash.
Third. do you have a dedicated macro lens? If not try getting one if you have a DSLR. That lens will also double up as a great portait lens or normal lens.
Fourth. Use a remote trigger or timed shutter. When shooting macros or anythin with a long exposure time the vibrations from you pressing the shutter button can cause the image to be blurry. A remote shutter relase will eliminate that.
Fifth. A light box is essential in product photography, which is what this basically is.
6. Download GIMP. You will need it or something similar to balance the colours and do some slight tweaks to your pics.
7 remember to always set your white balance before shooting. It can be done very easily with a plain piece of paper. White. Or you can use a "grey card" as us photogs call it. It is an 18% grey. Or Neutral Grey for those brush heads out there..
8 for dedicated macro photography a focus rail is easier. It makes for more precise focus adjustent simply moving the camera then using the lens adjustments in many cases.
Never ever use straight flash.
Its better to use long exposures and a tripod than flash.
If flash is used. Diffuse the light or bounce it off a wall or ceiling.

I hope these tips will help a bit.
Condensed can say.
Use a tripod and manual exposure. Long exposure times and low ISO. Remember to set the white balance and lastly use the delayed exposure timer you would use for selfies to avoid camera shake.

Happy shooting.

Hello, thank you for your reply. I'm afraid I'm not too good with the photography lingo, I'm not well versed (if that is the rite word) with photography & the equipment.
But as for my equipment, I have bought a 16mp digital camera for the capture & uploading of my miniatures and I do use a 2 second delay, white paper background and a white L.E.D torch to get a half decent lighting.
I'm afraid I'm not the wealthies person in the world and I fear I will not be able to purchace the equipment you suggested however I do apriciate the advice very much. Thank you.

Yeah the blue I was referring to was on the armor, if the sword is blue that's fine I think. If you're going to build up to grey that sounds great then. Wasn't sure what the intent on the armour was but now you've cleared that up thank you.

At any rate I like the green you painted and am very much looking forward to seeing this guy completed.

I am using a wet pallet. I'd like to say no as that might excuse whater the reason you think I don't is but yes I do. Is it that the transition of colours are too bold? If so I guess I could invest more time into fixing that. Thank you for your advice.

I think it's more what you are mixing to get that lighter colour. For example, the green doesn't have to be mixed with a yellow or white to lighten. Try something like a bit of blue-grey to lighten it. Again bud, it's just about getting a better understanding of colour, which will come in time.

The transistions look a little harsh in the light of a camera. I would say add a little lahmian medium to your mix as well. A well used glaize can have the required effect as well (and can really bring the colours out on a 'Nid, especially a lahmian-made glaize with something like a genestealer purple or emperors children)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! I know it's way off topic but I just wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas.