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The browns are working out nicely

Glad you approve. She is 50 shades or so

Other news, 2016 really sucks. One of my colleagues, and indeed friends, died at the weekend after a long deterioration post childhood cancer. Nasty 1970s drugs meant an end mired in dementia and decay in his early 40s. Bloody horrible. Still, we shared a love of brownies, whiskey and music from Grant Lee Phillips to Muse, and a passion for improving the lives of young people. A good soul.

So, anyway, Hawkgirl is done, I think:











Back to using Oakland graffiti for backdrops. Think it's an improvement?

Also, carrying on with terrain. Getting a bit zenithal (coo) with my tattoo parlour


Also, father-in-law was clearing out tat and found this:

The car obviously, Bat for scale it's 1:48 but not bad, a 1936 classic (and the toy itself is from 1978, so is the same age as me). I'll leave it unpainted for now but irrespective it's very Gotham style-y

Not sure what shelf of shame week 4 will be. Currently it has:
Damian Wayne
Huntress
Green Arrow
Red Hood
Penguin thugs (2), Arkham inmates (2) and titan thug
Scarecrow militia (2) and Gatling militia titan
Blackgate prisoners (4)
Borj (ivy plant)
Plus black manta, black canary and black flash unbuilt
Any suggestions gratefully received!
Cheers
graven

Sorry to hear about your friend.

Hawk is looking good.
Not very colourful for a superhero (?)

The problems with backgrounds is when the object of the photo (the model) gets lost in the background's details.
I'll elaborate (because I tend to about simple matters... why use one sentence when 5 will do...);

A scenic background does make for a very atmospheric photo. Which is a good thing. Sets the scene and the tone for the model.

However, when the background is very busy, with lots of contrasts, bright colours, harsh lines, etc. the model is more difficult to make out clearly. the outline of the model is broken up and lines of the armour/clothing can merge into the lines of the background.

This is made worse when the model is painted in a more realistic manner: Cartoon-y, bright colours, etc. make the model stand out more.

You can draw your own conclusions about your photos from this.
But all is not lost, there are ways to paint your cake and post it.

You could just avoid busy backgrounds. But where's the fun in that?!
Take the majority of the photos in front of a plain (and appropriately toned) background and then one or two immersive photos to set the tone; this gives the best of both worlds.

It the background is just a printout, fade the picture (probably more than you think is necessary), both brightness (up) and contrast (down). This allows the model to stand out by being the brightest and sharpest and clearest object in the photo.
This is the method I use for my final photos. Check through my gallery for examples. You could even go further than what I've done, but I've not had any (many) complaints about my photos.

Distance and focus. This works by placing the background a long way behind the model and only keeping the model in focus for the photo, creating that "break" between the object you want us to look at and the background that just adds flavour to the photo. Being blurred, the background doesn't interfere with the lines of the model.

Car's a good find too.

Damn man, every time I pop in here it seems like you have more bad news :( I am not sure if that means I need to check in more or less...

Seriously though, I am very sad to hear about your friend. You seem to know a lot of awesome people and that speaks highly of you and how you live your life. I can't help but think you have made all theirs better as well.

*sniff*

Ok, back to man toys.

Your Hawk Girl mods look really nice. She was always one of my favorite characters in Justice League. Not for any particular reason, just because. I think there are two pretty easy paint things you could do to punch her look up a bit, so she stands out a little more.

1: Alter the brown just a bit. She is a very one temperature model right now, a medium warm brown. (Not exactly technical terms.) It makes her more cohesive, pulling the wings in nicely, but I think it also makes her less dynamic to look at. Less alive feeling. I think that adding some yellow highlights, mostly to the helmet, left knee, back of the right boot and any hard edges on the tops of the arms towards the wrist would really add some action and draw the eye. Not a white or pale yellow, but a thin yellow. That will add heat.
Next, I would add a little purple wash in the shadows. Not much, and pretty thin, just under the armpits, the underside of her boobs, the front of the right knee and left shin, and a bit by the belt/crotch region there. Mostly to add some cool color to mix it up without darkening it too much.

2: Maybe add a pale grey/blue wash to the tops of the wings, just to add some tint to the grey you have going. Might just be me, but I kind of hate flat grey on thing unless the object is supposed to be dead metal. Even then I like a hint of tint.

That's a lot of words for pretty minor suggestions! She just looks so good, I can't help myself
Plus, it has been a while since I have gotten to paint anything, brown or no

OMG! I could scale that thing RIGHT down to a proper yet still ridiculous vehicle! Think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! }
Big Hood/Bonnet. That tattoo parlor is amazing! Everything going on here is exciting!

50 Shades of Brown?!?! I'm confused. I thought that it was WonderWoman who is into tying things up. As far as the backdrop goes, it makes it hard to see details on her. I prefer a standard all white/all black background for model pictures. (or seeing them in game, which is even better!)
Love seeing what you'll do with that coupe!
There is a special heaven for those who work the tough cases... because the rewards down here on earth a few and far between people like that. Thoughts and prayers are headed your way again, Graven.

Sorry for the loss of your friend. As having cancer myself I tell you it is hard on the folks around you as well. It's good to remember the good times and that helps keep those folks in our hearts and minds.

looking good on Hawkgirl. Next I'd like to see Scarecrow and such. I think the character is right up your painting style.

Thanks for all your kind words team.

@DrH - really help notes my friend. I'll keep working on finding better backgrounds; I think the answer may be to use actual terrain.

@Wehrkind - Definitely check in more. Awesome notes, really helpful, and have applied them all. She's looking better, here's a quick pic:

And by quick I mean trying to ifnd somewher in my house where I get enough light without glare to show the various yellow highlights, violet shading and blue washing. Having rewatched the "Legends" 2-parter I realise (and the internet does not show this) that the recessed areas on the front of her helm have a greenish tinge, as in the classic Hawkgirl colours, so I'm going to use a green wash (maybe thraka, maybe camoshade) there and on the strips running down the legs, just to break up the brown further. I'm debating doing it to the boots also, whatcha think?

dsteingass wrote:OMG! I could scale that thing RIGHT down to a proper yet still ridiculous vehicle! Think League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! }
Big Hood/Bonnet. That tattoo parlor is amazing! Everything going on here is exciting!

Cheers matey. Yeah, it's gotta a very LOEG vibe actually, I love the daft engine. I think the plan with the parlour is do the tiling dark green and keep the brickwork fairly neutral/stone. Then I just need to do all the logos and inks

Anpu-adom wrote:50 Shades of Brown?!?! I'm confused. I thought that it was WonderWoman who is into tying things up. As far as the backdrop goes, it makes it hard to see details on her. I prefer a standard all white/all black background for model pictures. (or seeing them in game, which is even better!)
Love seeing what you'll do with that coupe!
There is a special heaven for those who work the tough cases... because the rewards down here on earth a few and far between people like that. Thoughts and prayers are headed your way again, Graven.

Thanks man. Yeah, I'm increasingly thinking in-game As for the car I'm seriously considering using Black Auto-spray on it to get the real glossy sheen.

Solar_lion wrote:Sorry for the loss of your friend. As having cancer myself I tell you it is hard on the folks around you as well. It's good to remember the good times and that helps keep those folks in our hearts and minds.

looking good on Hawkgirl. Next I'd like to see Scarecrow and such. I think the character is right up your painting style.

Cheers matey. Anyway, what, this guy?

Arkham Scarecrow converted (slightly) into Brother Blood from Arrow. But, yeah, I need a regular scarecrow too. He's my youngest's favourite Batman villain (well, this week) so he's got to make an appearance I reckon.

Meantime, as no-one made any suggestions (well, from the list), I started the Bat-Brat:

Yeah, I know, but just blocking in yellow and, as a test, adding a low level yellow base to give the red and green some zing. An experiment; we shall see.

Also, on to these 2:

Time to get inking and weathering properly! Love the Arc fighter, beautiful model. TIE/Sf is just another excuse to go pewpewpew. I actually sorted my Imperials last night. I now have 6 TIEs, 3 Interceptors, 2 phantoms, 3 bombers (1 as shuttle), 1 Advanced, 1 Advanced Prototype, 1 Punisher, 3 Defenders (1 as x/7, 1 as /D), 2 TIE/fo and now 1 TIE sf. Oh, and Slave I and the Gozanti.That's a fairly decent imperial fleet Time to sort out some rebel scum (next week, hopefully )

And a good news/bad news: after succesfully coercing my parents into getting me X-Wing for my brithday, they've latched on to buying me geek toys (hey, it's only taken 30 years) and so are getting me the Suicide Squad for BMG for Xmas. The Bad news? Well, now I have to get other Joker stuff
Cheers y'all
graven

Those ships are looking good. The ARC-170 is probably one of my favourite SW ship designs, I need to get that mini at some point.

I'd hazard a guess that with Harley in theSS set as well, you'll have 300-odd Rep of Joker stuff, so there's no need to get more! However, the Arkham City Joker model is one that every Bat-fan should own, still one of the best KM have ever released...

Nice work on Hawk Girl, the extra armour is pretty cool.

Gotta love the Arc in X Wing, such a cool looking ship. Hopefully flying mine on for the first time this week.

EDC

I'm a wave behind on my X-Wing purchases, and it looks like wave 10 will be here before I buy what I want from wave 9!
Love the weathering and washes you do. The FFG models really respond well to a little attention, and your work is some of the cleanest I've seen. Keep it up!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
@DrH - really help notes my friend. I'll keep working on finding better backgrounds; I think the answer may be to use actual terrain...

Glad it helps (and therefore made sense). Keep experimenting with backgrounds until you find something that you like.

It is a tricky thing to judge, photos, you know what the model looks like and can then fill in the details in what you see in the photo.
You have to put yourself in the seat of your audience; we can only judge/comment on what we can see in the photo.
There's a knack/skill to judging a photo and truly telling if it represents the real world... and yet it needs to go beyond the real world: As you hold a model in your hand you don't sit and stare at it from one angle with the light from one angle (this is what we have in a photo), you will move it about to see into shadowed areas and to bring parts into focus.
For a photo to do a good job it needs to avoid the issues that would mean you'd just move it a bit IRL: Shadows, focus, background.

Harsh lighting, from one angle, casts strong shadows on and behind/below the model. These do the same thing as I mentioned about the busy background; it breaks up the shape of the subject (model) making it more difficult to distinguish the details.
Solve this with "soft" diffuse lighting, all around the model. Front and top at a minimum, positioned to minimise shadows.

If you want your audience to look at something on a model, make sure that part is in focus. This may mean taking many photos and selecting the usual few for overall views and then some additional photos to show the weapon that sticks out, for example.

And that brings us back to the background. It needs to be distinct from the subject of the photo; this is important in all photography, not just models. Next time you come across a photo that makes you think "that's a nice photo" try to think about what is the subject of the photo (easier for photos of people and things, rather than landscape photos) and how it is distinct from the background; is it colour, focus, lighting, or something else. Take note and use those in your photography.

All the same advice for a photo backdrop is true for a "real" terrain background. Keep it distant from the model and slightly out of focus to make the model distinct.

Yeah yeah, I went off on one again. Not all relevant to you personally, Graven, but all useful information together in one place (something that keep me happy).

Looking good. Could she get a splash of colour somewhere? Maybe a purple on the mace? Don't know if that diverges from the "official" colour scheme? Just a thought.

Good work on the little ships.

Wehrkind: Highlighting brown with yellow? I like that idea, I'm going to have to give that a go sometime.

If anything, it's the way you're taking the pic I'll bet. With the ships pic, the ships should be in macro focus, while the paint pots, and Robin should be fuzzy and out of focus. Same with Robin's close-up, play with the macro, and manual focus if auto isn't doing what you want it to. I'd bet you rivets that's most if not all of your pic issue.

Actual background isn't as important, but once you get the hang of this...you'll be a pro.

A picture says a thousand words... I used words, Dave used picture. :(

Thanks once more chaps. I shall of course ignore your suggestions for now no, seriously, I'm going to spend a bit of time and effort on some proper, better pics - but in the mean time, she has been retouched!

And in natural light

And Robin, who's mostly done apart from his face (which, frankly, is proving a nightmare)

His whole mouth is badly cast, which wasn't really apparent till. Primed. Short of gs-ing a bandana over it I'm a bit stumped.
Been struck down with sickness bug the last couple of days. Feel like crud. Probably in part cos just run down, but still. Now I can eat, just bloody sore. Extreme workout for the abs, that one.
Next on the painting front is likely to be the ruined chapel walls m doing for a mate. The arc and tie can wait I guess. The tattoo studio and fast food joint colour schemes are taking shape in my head though, as are my billboards, finally. Who knows where the muse will strike, eh?
Cheers,
Graven

HG looks awesome now, I honestly wasn't a fan at first but that slight touch of green makes the whole thing so much more lively!

Damien looks great as well, can't really see the face. It's so tiny that unless the issue is major, I'd just leave it.

Thanks man, I appreciate that. Good advice.

Looking after my nephew today, so got only a wee moment during his nap.

Banksy inspired. Not sure what to do on the reverse yet.

Equally, this one has yet to be graffiti'd on front:


But has stuff on the back

Wish I done this lower though, could've done green hahaha eyes. Never mind.

And some more regular signage


...


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These are the MDF signs from Knight, though the posters, hahahas and Bang! are mine. They were primed silver when I acquired them - not reeeeeeally my style but still. Nice for adding height, flavour and colour (sounds like a cake) chapel walls have been washed with black, nothing interesting to show yet...

And more on the reverse


Settled on this for the back of the banksy

May add in more rows or graffiti. Haha bat will get a ripped strip of these along the bottom I think. We shall see...

Those signs are looking very cool Graven

Yeah, sorry to hear of the death of a friend.

Minis look good, that car windfall should make a great gangster vehicle.

Thanks guys. Test for the back of the other:

Very nice touches to your collection.

Cheers mate. Next step:

I think that along the bottom of the ripped one I'll tag every other Arkham 'A' with a bright green 'H' to hahaha the bottom line - does that make sense/sound good?


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Like this:

The signs are inspired graven. Really love them!

So you're a Petula Clark fan then... explains so much. Although I do not think those are the signs she sang about. They have a nice urban gritty something to them. Perfect for Gotham.

Gitsplitta wrote:The signs are inspired graven. Really love them!

Thanks old chum. It's good to add some roof cover, for sure.

Red Harvest wrote:So you're a Petula Clark fan then... explains so much. Although I do not think those are the signs she sang about. They have a nice urban gritty something to them. Perfect for Gotham.

More Prince than Petula. and Batman '89 is my jam. I'm sorely tempted to pick up Harley and her Arkham crew just to paint them up as the mimes from it, actually. But that way madness lies...
Meanwhile, I think the signs are about done:

I'd planned to add tags the front of these but, actually, I think I'm happy with this.

Likewise, I had planned to add a few more posters to the back of these but, I think, less is more.

Played Spearpoint 1943: eastern front last night. 2 player card based wargame, seemingly very simple, very strategic - really excellent, and had an aboslute blast despite losing as Russians to the Germans on the last roll of the game. Well worth a look for something a bit different, if that's your sort of thing or even if not.
Hey ho
Graven

Oh, and current wip:

Plus some quick air vent tokens

Those are some nice vent covers.

Everything else looks brilliant as well.

Wow, fantastic signs there sir. Those will make for a great table

Those signs are really nice Graven