Jabberwocky

MS's point is a good one. Any larger project will likely benefit from an airbrush, for the simple fact it can cut down on the initial time investment significantly. It is one of the reasons I keep telling myself to get one .

Looking great Kuro! Yes, a detailed base can be an exhausting affair. Like Corporea suggested, taking breaks intermittently helped me as I was working on the Dark Carnivals piece I did a couple of years ago. At that time, I alternated construction and painting to help break up the monotony. Since your construction is largely finished (right?), you might try simply taking a break for a bit. Another option would be to begin taking the smaller elements and finishing them one at a time. It is probably not quite as efficient as batch painting similar objects, but I found thar continuous small completions helped keep the fires burning and not get bogged down in the long road of the entire project.

Lovely work! I am inclined to agree with Seer. At the moment, the roses are the lightest part of the piece and tend to draw my eye. Not sure where you are at with regards to the beauty, but if you went stronger with the highlighting on her hair and exposed skin, I think that would bring the focus back to her.

Lovely work on this! Very convincing :)

Thanks guys! Yes, I decided to return to the forums to participate in the WIP section. It has changed a lot since I have been here on a regular basis. Lots of WIP's going--the community definitely has gotten more active! I managed to get paint on everything finally; now my OCD runs wild! More contrast...color modulation...more contrast...smooth the blends...more contrast. Getting more contrast is one of my goals with this one, if that isn't clear. I'll begin prepping protagonist #2(?) and antagonist #1(?) soon.

Nice work on the critters! The green really pops on them.

Nice sculpting! Corporea will be proud.

Nice concept! Looking forward to seeing it progress!

Nice to see your stuff again as well MK! It looks you have been back for a while; it's me that wandered away from the forums for the past couple of years or so...Looking forward to following you again

Love the fade on the wings! Great start :)

Really like all the colors you put on this guy!

Well done! The yellows are excellent and the stains worked out very nicely.

Thanks, Olbenech! The eyes are intentional. The model's right eye is natural, pure black with a light reflection point. The model's left eye was my attempt at a freehand "bionic" eye. The rim is a bright metallic color with a blue center for the optics.

I should have finished the shading/highlighting of the clothing, but I could not longer resist messing with the saber blades. Still needs a bit of work, but I like the blends overall. I also did a bit of work highlighting the fur and adding some more volume to the facial white fur.

Very cool :)

Yup I think Marsya is spot on. Another option if you have the inclination is to apply some dry pigments; you can apply them dry with some pigment fixer and it eliminates water marks that can sometimes be a risk for super thin paint or add just a touch of fixer to the dry pigment first if you want a bit more texture (read: food chunks) to the dish towel.

What Chaos said ^^. Great start!

Looks great :) The simplicity of the dress with compliment the "activity" of all the flowers in the garden.

Agreed, lovely work on the skin tones. I think SG is spot on with the critique. One other subtle detail you could add is a few stains to the dish towel just for the fun of it.

For the Dark Carnivale project, I used a very thin sheet of styrene cut to size to cover the Legos from the back. On the the top, I simply clipped the pegs off and sanded the top flat. The holes remained, but once again I used sheet styrene to cover the Lego block. Another alternative would be to take some sandable filler type material (milliput would work well) and put it over the cracks and then sand it to a smooth finish. The military modelers use liquid CA glue to fill the joint and again sand to a smooth finish. There is also a product called Mr. Surfacer and Mr. Dissolved Putty (seriously!) that can be used to fill gaps. I believe the Mr. Surfacer 1200 comes as an aerosol. I have heard it is very good for covering the pitting on large metal surfaces such as a cloak, but I would think could be easily applied to the Lego wall to hide the joints. Once again, it is sandable.

Ahh, yes. I am going stronger with the highlights on the clothing/hood. It won't be too light now that I have the white fur to draw the eye to the face, but I feel I need to increase the overall contrast of the clothing. I plan on adding some additional passes of a darker blue to the lower half of the body and deep recesses. My conundrum now is what to do with the midsection. I was thinking some fairly light but neutral. I didn't want to mess with the blue-red/orange-yellow/orange split complementary scheme I have going. The saber blades are going to be blue and the handle black (ish).

Wow! These forums move fast since I was regularly posting before! Lots of WIP shots being posted--very cool Not quite as productive the last few days, but I have made some progress on the face. I have decided that red pandas are one of the cutest creatures out there after looking at the reference pics. The fur along the jawline will be more "furry"; as it stands now, it almost looks more like warpaint. I also darkened the feet and hands to be more in line with the reference pics. Ears and tail still need some work. Not sure where to go with the tail stripes; perhaps Burnt Orange mixed with a bit of a tan color... Corporea, I do plan on highlighting the clothing further or do you mean taking the overall tone to a lighter shade with much more broad base highlighting?

I think you would be safe with a light or medium brown. Often when I am in doubt, I refer to Master Schubert for the answer. Took a quick look through the inspiration gallery at his paint jobs and the blond minis I sampled had brown eyebrows. :)

Stick with it!!! Is there anything I can help with? Sometimes putting out on the forums might yield a fresh perspective.

Awesome job on the eyes!