Whizard Hlavaz

Very cool. Very striking. Nice job, Meg.

More information would help. Do you know what all your settings were? (ISO, f-stop, resolution, quality setting, distance to mini and or zoom ratio, macro or not, etc.)? These things make a difference. If you were shooting on "auto", there's likely things we can do to help you out to reduce the grain. Regardless, it's a nice photo. I wouldn't fret too much. There's only a little to improve. As far as auto correction and the color of the blue background are concerned -- you auto corrected the original with the color card included, right? You didn't crop then correct. You need to correct then crop. And I don't say this to sound condescending, I just want to make sure you understand how the process works. Also understand, the grain could come from .jpg compression when you prepare for the web. Bottom line, is we need more info. on all your settings. EDIT: I opened your raw photo. Is that the actual size of the original you edited? If so, the problem is you've blown up the image too far. That's where your grain is coming from. It's better to resize digital photos by sizing DOWN, not up. You need to shoot a larger resolution and reduce. Not shoot small and blow up. Blowing up adds pixels, which causes grain. As far as the blue is concerned, I auto-corrected the colors and the background seemed to come out fine. You'd have to compare.

Very attractive paint. Nice work. The blouse is lovely.

Wow. The glow is stunning. Stopped me short when I opened it. Great work. I mean just super.

I would think letting them air for a few days and thoroughly dry out should do the trick. But I am just hazarding a guess here. Worse comes to worst, I'd prime with a "sealing" primer first if you really want to salvage them. Something like "Killz" though diluted, I'd imagine. At any rate, I just wanted to say that I really love this story. Brings me back to college when I cooked down some chicken bones to strip the meat in hopes of drying the bones for necklace making. Forgot the crock pot on top of my roommate's closet for several weeks... smell? Funny thing was, he was pledging a fraternity at the time and didn't do laundry for weeks. So the other guys in our quad thought he was just a dirty grot. LOL! Needless to say, I secreted out the crock pot when I realized the source of the smell. Threw the whole thing out. /hijack

Thanks, Derek. I think I'll order a copy just to see if I can't work the figure to appear as a teenage human male. We'll see. Appreciate the info! -Darin.

OK. Great. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Bishonen? What is this tongue in which you speak?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

So in This Thread, I asked for thoughts on which miniature would make a good Kvothe from The Name of the Wind. In looking through the Online Store, I came across 3398: Liriel Silverlocks. And I kind of like her for the part. Now, I know she's a she. So, my question to those who have seen her in hand is: how 'female' is this character? Are her breasts prominent behind the musical instrument? Or were I to file the ears away, would she pass as a young man? Teenage boy? Thanks for any insight. -D.

Thanks, Derek. Good to be free of the Warcrack. No, a black coak wasn't my intent. Not even a grey. I wanted a neutral with some traces brown, maybe purple, maybe some yellow. Volcano brown has a bit of purple shade to it to my eye, so I went with that. Highlighted with some Vallejo Dark Flesh. Anyhow... the sigil... If you happen to have an example of a glow you've done, I'd love to see, please. So long as you have the pic handy. Don't take a special shot on my account. So to be clear about how you would paint a glowing object -- are you saying the edges of the object itself would darken a tad? That's what I'm seeing in the Cry Havoc. Next, would you leave any of the surrounding material DIRECTLY NEXT TO THE GLOWING OBJECT unlit? Then darken from a light to fade away there out? I've actually been obsessing since 'abandoning' the piece and would like to try again. Any more advice you could spare would be appreciated. Thanks. And thanks, Haldir.

Hey, Inge. Thanks. Yeah, rune = fail, but I'll try again sometime. This was really just a "get my feet under me" piece with the intent to try to get my blends smooth across large surfaces. Thanks. I had a great teacher. The gold was undercoated in Reaper Walnut (old Reaper Pro). Next, a bit of Vallejo Ochre Yellow to base. This was shaded by my cloak's base, which was a blend of equal parts Reaper Master Weathered Blue and Volcano Brown. Highlight back up with Ochre Yellow glazes. Touch of white added to Ochre Yellow. Then white to top off the tips. I skipped using any kind of lemon yellow or yellow so as to keep the gold "aged" and antiqued. Unlike the cold, bright steel blade, I didn't want shiny gold. I wanted it warmer, earthier. Um, yeah. If you really want to see the hideousness up close and personal. Here you go: Yes, ma'am!!! Working on it! JW -- Thanks, man. Glad to be back. And thanks for the kind words. Sigil is total odd. Oh, well. I'll see if I can get a scan of the photo example I eventually found in the Cry Havoc supplement. As to the weathering, you can see *some* in the blow-up photos. I got bored and didn't care to do too much finish work once the sigil failed. So, some quick scratches to dust up the weave of the cloth here and there.... then done. But I take your point. Thanks, all.

Hey now! WOW! Gorgeous! So clean and crisp and attractive! Great job, Sean! Prophet is *extremely* lucky. Really, really well done. Gratz on a very lovely model.

Ah, well. You're far too kind, at least in my case, Tom. I will say, going back to Sandor here, I think you did a really super job on the cloth of the tabard in particular. Red is a hard color to paint well, and there's a lot of it on this fig. You totally hit it. That and the skin struck me right away as well done. Coupled with the grim armor and the great rust/dirt, the piece really comes together. Being a fan of the series, I said to myself "Yeah, that's The Hound. Totally." You really captured his character, IMO. That said... If I'd change anything, I'd have you revisit the back of the shield. It detracts from the rest of the composition to me, if only because I said to myself "is that supposed to be wood? Wicker? Scratches?" Otherwise, as I say, I really like this piece. I opened it and said "oh, yeah. The Hound, for sure." Nice job.

Oh, nice! Great job! Very well done.

Keep your eye here, though. If someone cancels, I assume the slot will be free.

Thanks, everybody. You're very kind. Momma -- to your point, the sigil doesn't work for me, either. It just doesn't live up to what I envisioned (which is why I'm a constipated writer...) and as the piece was 'practice', I abandoned it. That said, it's been irking me, so I've been digging through reference materials and lo and behold -- I found an example of exactly what I was trying for in an old Rackham Cry Havoc supplement. Turns out, I was on the right track with the trompe l'oeil rune I'd painted. My failure came in trying to illuminate the sides and immediately exterior edges. Maybe some day I'll fix it. In any event, I'll definitely give it a go on another model. Andy -- I'd thought about green stuff at one point, but as the the robes were already painted and I'm pretty rough handed when working with green stuff, I went with 'abandon'. But definitely a good idea. And thanks for the detailed advice. And thanks. Nice to be back. I've missed painting. Forgot how fulfilling it is. Finally, Bigs -- LOL! Your assumption would have been spot on a few weeks ago. I haven't logged on for a while now, and it feels great. Didn't even know the content patch hit until my guild captain called me up to try to entice me back. Don't think I'm interested ATM, though. I've been able to get a lot of other things done now that I'm not playing WoW. Anyhow, thanks all. More to come, I'm pleased to say. -Whiz.

I got a little inspiration for my tomb wraith on this page: Diablo II Runes Maybe that'll help.

Oh, right. That's true. I'd forgotten.

Ask and you shall receive: New England Paint Day See you in September.

*Stretch* *Yawn* "Huh? Oh, yeah... I been painting... Kind of." Long time, kids. Long time. Stay away from WoW. S.T.A.Y. A.W.A.Y. So... got out the desk. Got out the brushes. Found a primed mini and said "WTH." I'll paint this. And now... sorry to say... You have to endure the results. Mainly, I wanted to get my feet back under me with a little blending practice. Large robes are good for that. Then I thought I'd get creative. Yikes. No dice. So the idea here is the sigil is supposed to be casting a sorcerous glow, as though the wraith has swept his cloak aside to reveal a rune of dark power upon the moment of his assault. Glow effect, good. Rune, bad. I can't draw. Bottom line. And while I tried to render it using a trompe l'oeil effect -- as though carving a rune into a sword -- the glow from within kept messing me up. And I gave up after a few attempts of completely repainting it. Hate it, but whatever. It's a practice piece. The rest isn't bad. That said... all you masters... how would you render a sigil as though it's shredding the fabric of the cloth to reveal a bright (albeit dark) power from within? I'd like to get this eventually. Think it could be fun. I tried stipling. I tried cutting in edges. Each failed me. It probably just comes back to the fact that I can't draw. Just the same, what do you think? Can you hit it? If so... tell me. I'd love to try again.... Just not on this fig. It is abandoned. JW knows what I'm saying. Anyhow, enjoy! -D.

There's one I like better than the other, but I'll let you fathom which. That said -- another lovely round of minis. Nicely converted. Great job.

Wow, Meg. Strikingly lovely! She's so beautiful. Great job. Love the color of the scales. Just love it. And the skin? Luscious. Great job! Wow. Like her? Love her! Gratz!!!

Oo. Nice models. Great detail.

I think you have a good eye for contrast, and that's important for properly painting miniatures. Contrast allows the eye to better discern detail, which is the whole point of putting shade and highlights on a 3-D figure -- rendering definition and detail. So you're good to go there. Keep pushing your contrasts (ie: the shadows on your skin are nice and crisp. They draw the shape of the figure nicely.) And as Midnight Lurker said -- try a bit of darklining. Generally speaking -- a good rule of thumb would be to place a line where one material type meets the next (ie: between skin and cloth, cloth and leather, one metal meets another (gold hilt meets steel sword, silver filigree meets plate), etc.) Beyond that -- listen to the above posters and work on your paint consistency. Try to work with a consistency akin to 1-2% milk for your highlighting, whole milk for base coats. Get that paint F-L-U-I-D. That should be your KEY focus for your next few figures. Because if you get your consistency right and your layers smooth, you clearly have the eye and the hand to render some really beautiful figures. Keep at it. Great work.