02551 Monique Denoir

[anyavier]

Hi!

This is my first time posting, please give me comments!

 

I'm still working out the whole photography thing, and the painting thing too, for that matter. I've been painting for about a month.

 

 

 

 

The figure looks like the back picture, and less like the front one.

 

Let me know what you think!

[tanker22]

Really like this mini and you did a good job on her, nice smooth look to her, especialy on the face. Colors are different as well, not something you normaly see.

 

Are open to some constructive critiqes?

[anyavier]

Absolutely! Let me know where I should improve!

 

I know her base leaves much to be desired...

[dougrob173]

Looks good, only thing I would suggest is adding more shadows and highlights to the metal parts. The gold and silver need more contrast to give them that nice metal look. The hair looks great too.

[tanker22]

Thats what I was going to suggest as well was some work on the armor and metallics. It needs some depth to it, same thing that has been mentioned now already.

 

One other thing that cought my eye though was the bottom of her skirt thing hanging down in the first pic. It looks like you were trying to go with a silver type trim, but it appears like bear metal, unpainted. Could just be the pic though and the angle, been awhile since I painted her.

 

Btw- the hair does look good and nice clean lines with color seperation, oh yeah, cant forget the nail polish and lip stick. Makes her look sexier

Nice work

[brushforhire]

wow for only one month of painting it looks like you're doing great. If i may suggest black lining would really help define the miniature.

[Amalor Myrnnyx]

Only a month, and you're at the level I'm at after 20 years?

 

Talk about feeling inadequate.

 

 

 

Seriously though, looks good. Keep them coming.

 

And, welcome to the addiction

[anyavier]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody!

 

I'll try blacklining - any hints for making it work? I've tried it a couple of times, but I always mess it up- I end up covering it with the colors, and then when I paint it back on, it's too thick, and then I paint over it... and so on.

 

I was trying to have her skirt thing have white trim, but maybe I didn't shade it enough on the underside?

[Doug's Workshop]

Hints for blacklining:

1) Use a brush with a good point (you'll need it!). This is where high-quality brushes come in. I could never line with my old synthetic brushes because they only retained the point for a short time after purchase. Using a 'liner' brush never really worked for me. Those are meant for a different type of painting, and its hard to get a decent amount of pigment on them.

2) RMS liners are quite good, but if you don't have them, black or dark brown paint work, too. Thin them to keep them fluid (minimum 1 to 1 ratio of paint to water, and adjust as needed).

3) I tend to move the brush fairly deliberately over the join. Meaning, I don't go slow and end up with a 'shaky' line. "Commit to the line" and paint it. You can always repaint!

4) You'll want to get most of the paint off your brush, leaving a little on so your point is quite sharp. You'll also want to use thin layers instead of one stroke. Go over the join line a couple times (allowing the paint to dry between applications).

 

Hope that helps.

 

As for the white trim on the skirt, I think I see part of the issue. It looks like you shaded the white with gray. I think that gray is just about the color of bare metal. Thus, the suggestion that its bare metal.

 

Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with it. Especially if you've only been painting for a month! Pretty darned good for such a short time.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of miniature painting. Congratulations on your first post.

 

-Doug

[VelveteenRabbit]

Thing about painting the underside of the skirt is that there isn't a piece of clothing in the world that looks like that. Miniatures tend to have cloaks and stuff that "taper" into a nice 8" wide block of fabric. They do that on account of you don't want your models to bend and stuff, so it's ok, but you don't want to accentuate the weirdness of it. Really a nice dark color to hide it is the way to go. I'd probably hit it with whatever would be your darkest shade of purple and call it good.

 

Overall very nice looking figure though! Keep it up!

[Kang]

...I'll try blacklining - any hints for making it work?...

I prefer the term 'darklining', since you don't need to use actual black to do it (and it is usually probably better if you don't, and instead stick with dark non-black colors in general unless you're going for a comic book art sort of look). But in any case, there's a current thread over on the Painting Tips & Advice page where they're discussing the how-to's of lining: Lining

 

Kang

[skya]

Very impressive. You've got clean lines, you obviously know where the highlights belong, and you're insane enough to be starting on NMM. Now to take it up another notch. As Sue always says. "higher highlights, darker shadows." Sometimes that just means sharper highlights as well. It's time to go up to white. but you have to do this carefully. The front picture actually shows the kind of thing you want to be doing on the highlights, you see how they go almost white on the silver? That's what you're looking for but more controlled. You want nice pinpoint little highlights on the points where the light is brightest. Then you need to make your shadows darker. Darklining is probably the best way to start doing this. Darklining requires thinner paint for control. Doug's recommendations are all good ones. Once you've got darklining and a some white highlights added I'd love to see how this is turning out.

 

If you need some inspiration Benathai's Custodians are a great, if rather intimidating, reference material for placement of highlights and shadows on NMM. Trust me, you can do stuff just as good it's just a matter of time, patience and practice. You're obviously off to a great start.