Willen

Sorry, that is simply wrong. The fact that most non-reflective surfaces absorb a lot of the light so you are less aware of the "reflection" on them is a perception thing, not reality. IF the lightsource stays the same, shadows and highlights stay the same. When you say NMM does not work, typically, is because you are changing the light condition on the piece relative to the viewer when moving the mini around. Which is why, most of the time, I prefer NMM. TMM has an issue of creating dissimilar lighting situations between my usual "matte" highlights and the metallic reflection when the light situation is not aligned with my chosen light source (I typically paint a very slanted to the left lightsource). The artistic license being what it is, in reality, very few NMMs are painted as "it should be in real life" because we force contrast. Therefore, you can make the piece work in an artist sense in a variaty of angles. After all, this is a piece of art, and I am aiming at "oooh pretty" no "ooooh photorealistic", which is a conscious choice. Discussing merits of one method over the other without taking that into consideration is, IMHO, an exercise on discussing personal taste.

To mix it in? Sure. I am just talking about its properties. Just yesterday I got feedback from a client, to whom I had to deliver three minis unvarnished in a hurry. He admired how much nicer they were unvarnished; I explained that a lot of the control on textures and "feel" you achieve with metals and more satin-y paints is subtle and gets destroyed when fully varnishing the piece. It is a devil we need to live with if we want high-durability paintjobs on the table.

Love them! I have been trying, and struggling, to do a convincing chocolate skin tone... can you share your process for this one?

The name changed to Armor Brown. I would say some painters love it not only because of its shade, which is nothing spectacular, but because it behaves... oddly. It is a bit satin, a bit like a wash too (due to the density of Air paints, and this one is on the thin side of them). It blends great with most dark colors and helps add some shine into the shadow areas that painters like Ben Kometz love. I like it, it is easy to use, and would say my RMS Ruddy Brown is similar if a bit too vibrant. A dash of a very dark green would correct it, but not help with the dullness of a Reaper Paint.

Soooo nice. What color for the horns? I am kinda liking them black tbh.

Real nice work!! If I may, I think both the NMM and the oSL lack one key thing... white!! The purest NMM reflections and the brightest portion of the OSL (the hammer head) must read to our eyes as the brightest areas of the mini. As they stand, the are equally bright as for example, the face highlights and the arm bracers. As a result, the NMM looks a bit stonish and the OSL look dull. The placement is great and that is the hardest part IMHO, perhaps some fading on the orange and a higher chroma for the OSL would be my preference... but I would encourage you to add white hotspots on the NMM and blend the lower face of the hammerhead to white and see how much powerful the effect looks.

Ah I get it. Well, I don't have the listed whites and blacks either. I thought the intent was "paint with limited, random colors!" and the specific paints were more an on-the-fly selection of interesting colors, not an specific scientific decision, if you get what I mean. I am further ratified on this by the reply to my question "can I use other paints?". I would be interesting to know, either case. This made my day

Don't worry, I will using all acrylics On a serious note, the challenge is about painting on a limited palette, why is there anything to do with stuff like coverage, etc (other than making my life miserable if I try to brush basecoats of a translucent Scale paint on a big dragon which, for the record, I will never do again since I got an airbrush).

Thanks! I think that some Khaki or Sand color will do, and if Violet Red is a dark blueish red, I have several on hand from either Vallejo or Scale.

Since this challenge has no time limit, and I need to paint my dragons one day... I think I will take it! Rolls got me Palomino Gold (good, I have this one), Terran Khaki (which I don't; PaintRack suggests Mohave White but the spreadsheet says Pale Sand... I might have to look for an on-hand alternative), and Violet Red (which I don't have either). So my question is... as long as I stick to three similar colors (replacing the 2 colors I don't have with similar ones), would it be ok? Or boo'ing will ensue? Edit: Dragon will be Kryphrixis, evidence of rolling once I sort the screenshot from my phone.

Thanks... I really like the lips too. He is a one-man operation selling only from FB but I will PM you Piotr email, so you can contact him. He is a very nice guy turning out interesting things, two busts now (and he hyped me about the third one!). He works through PayPal so you should have no problem getting Akito for yourself. Oh, that is a glass jam container, we eat quite a lot of jam here and these ones are perfect as water holders for me. A little bit taller than a cup, good volume; I typically strip the outside shrink wrap (the blue thing you see, and yes, it was apricot jam) and since it is all glass is very easy to clean and to see when your water is beyond dirty. And they are just a waste so I replace them quite often too... The shape is also nice and because the lid is metal, and most of my minis are magnetized, I also sometimes use them as big holders for 40mm+ based minis, specially for priming outside.

Yeah, I cross-posted this into the FB group we have from Roman Lappat's classes, and they were saying that the problem is I need to let it grow a bit (that I should also grow a pair and refine it more, don't give up on it so easily). The face is starting to grow on me after looking real hard at the pics; it is going in the right direction, something I can refine with tints and coloring, correct some details, soften the shadows, eyelids, etc. The abs are crap and I need to go back to smooth color and softer transitions, and the arms have this issue as well. But Roman was saying to stick with it for a while, and I think this is also a lesson learnt... if I dump her into cleaner I will focus on some other pieces with priority and perhaps don't come back to her in months so... Busts are hard. Soft girl skin is even harder!

I started slowly galzing the skin, and everything was going ok... Until I decided to go sketch style on her and finished with this, which I honestly hate. So she is going to the clean bath for a do over. Lesson learnt, I guess... doint smooth skin on such a large surface is haaaaard. I could keep smoothing it over but I don't like the roughness of the surface already.

Nice piece. The face is particularly striking. As for the hair, you said it yourself, you need to push the highlights. Unfortunately for things like this you need to paint the strands, but look at it this way: it is a great opportunity to practice side-brush edge highlighting if the strands are well sculpted! Layering is not really needed much; when you push the contrast from dark to light (more shadows! more highlights!) the eye blurs the in-betweens, making smooth transitions less and less necessary. Keep it up!

Thanks Guindyloo. I think I was retreating when you were more active, but I have read you, quite a lot. Thanks for the nice words! Really? All my badly-spelled English posts? Haha thanks. *waves back* Well, you will be reading more of me, don't complain later ;) Really? In a flattering manner I hope. Nice reading you TS, I have been following your work, amazing man! Hello there. Come closer, I don't bite. Nice seeing you Chaoswolf. Yeah, well, life. They will get better, I am sure. Glad to be back! Doggie style is fine? I can't swim, not even float... MY FRIEND!!! Missed you, forum-celebrity barbarian! Is Ube3rCon planned yet? Or you had one without me? Thanks, I hope this forum helps me get some stress off, painting is therapy for me. Sanael, thanks... insight? More like ramblings... A couple months per year, halfway through! Rest of the time is elearning... but my commute is also brutal if you want to hear about it :) Amazing thing... a class with 17 people, 16 different nationalities!! Old man, the Asylum lives in my head... in a way, I never left. Looks so modern, hip and... designed for young people *shakes a stick at the screen* malefactus, missed your cheerful posts and comments man. Home, home indeed. Sorry for the huge multiquote... the love was so much I had to reply back personally.