Frog Champion

[odinsgrandson]

Here's a mini that I painted up for Gencon's painting competition. I was rather pleased with how he came out, but this year's competition was pretty stellar and he didn't come home with anything.

I've also posted him to CMON for those of you who care to vote.

Anyway, here are some pictures:

 

[Inarah]

Great colors!

[malefactus]

I don't tend to be much of a Anthropomorphic Minis Fan, but the Dark Swords Critter are charming. Your rendition is one of the FINEST versions of than Beasty I've thus far seen. The colors & brushwork are GLORIOUS. The base is OUTSTANDING. VERY WELL DONE!

[CashWiley]

He's very vibrant in a nice, consistent manner. Competition must've been fierce indeed if he didn't place! Great job.

[DocPiske]

Reminds me of Fewmaster Toade from Dragonlance. Nice vibrant colors.

[youwashock]

Wow. The color. So vibrant and so deep. The subtle green tones in the gold are glorious.

[amypaintsminis]

This is a very nice mini- it was the first mini not to place actually so very well done. I really am looking forward to seeing what you bring next year and good luck!

[Wilwarin]

very nice!!

[Thes Hunter]

One time, when I was a wee girl, I dreamed of winning the Gen Con Painting competition... now I know I will never be truely worthy. You're paint job is gorgeous, and that you didn't land in the money makes me weep. People have gotten some crazy skills and patience.

 

Wishing you better success next year.

[odinsgrandson]

One time, when I was a wee girl, I dreamed of winning the Gen Con Painting competition... now I know I will never be truely worthy. You're paint job is gorgeous, and that you didn't land in the money makes me weep. People have gotten some crazy skills and patience.

 

Wishing you better success next year.

 

 

Don't give up just yet.

 

How competitions generally work is the judges will assess the quality of entries generally and eliminate entries. After a while, it is very difficult to tell which of two minis is better- so they start looking for small flaws.

 

Right now, I feel that I've figured out how to make a mini very striking, so he progressed very far in the competition (and came close to placing). But I didn't make the mini flawless. So when it came down to it, they found some spots where I had stark transitions or rough lines. They're small problems- ones that don't really show up in the photographs here.

 

So, that's the area I need to work on. I think this will go well.

[CashWiley]

That's my biggest weak point, too. I still have a lot of gaps in technique, so I have a (lame) excuse, but ultimately there are too many flawed spots on anything I paint. Like straps, for some reason I'm horrid and my straps all look generic and bland, at some point I need to really develop a good technique for them (I'm starting by getting better at leather in general) or they will instantly disqualify me. Ditto basing, so I've focused on pushing new techniques and not really staying in my strong suit for long.

 

While I'm not really focused on competitions (I'm not very competitive except against myself), I find the mindset to be useful. When I finish painting a mini, I look at it with that critical eye, find all the flaws and figure out what I'll do to fix them. I'm not at the point where I'll do that on that particular mini, but like with the straps example, I'll make a plan of how I'll remedy that weakness in my painting at some point.

 

I'm still trickling some minis onto cmon, as much as everyone here liked Orson (and the layering on the robe is so good), he has so many weak points and flaws that betray the fact that I had only been painting 6 months or so when I painted him, that he's (rightfully imo) my second-lowest scoring mini. I still think he's cool as heck, but from a technical standpoint there are lessons I've learned from examining him as a judge would.

[Warlady]

Beautiful bright colors, and your shading is amazing!

[Hawker]

Thats a great piece of art Odinsgrandson, really vibrant and you've brought out the character wonderfully.

[odinsgrandson]

That's my biggest weak point, too. I still have a lot of gaps in technique, so I have a (lame) excuse, but ultimately there are too many flawed spots on anything I paint. Like straps, for some reason I'm horrid and my straps all look generic and bland, at some point I need to really develop a good technique for them (I'm starting by getting better at leather in general) or they will instantly disqualify me. Ditto basing, so I've focused on pushing new techniques and not really staying in my strong suit for long.

 

While I'm not really focused on competitions (I'm not very competitive except against myself), I find the mindset to be useful. When I finish painting a mini, I look at it with that critical eye, find all the flaws and figure out what I'll do to fix them. I'm not at the point where I'll do that on that particular mini, but like with the straps example, I'll make a plan of how I'll remedy that weakness in my painting at some point.

 

I'm still trickling some minis onto cmon, as much as everyone here liked Orson (and the layering on the robe is so good), he has so many weak points and flaws that betray the fact that I had only been painting 6 months or so when I painted him, that he's (rightfully imo) my second-lowest scoring mini. I still think he's cool as heck, but from a technical standpoint there are lessons I've learned from examining him as a judge would.

 

 

That's a good idea.

 

One of the things to remember is that not every part of the mini needs to be a center of interest. One of the best painters to learn this from is Zach Lanier- take a look at some of his minis on the Crooked Eye website. The painting really draws you into the face (or some other area Zach wants you to look at). If you look closely, you'll see that the areas that aren't centers of interest don't look as interesting (they're still usually free from visible flaws).

 

So, the straps don't need to be beautiful like a face, since they're usually not going to be major focuses. They just need to not detract from the overall impact of the piece.

[CashWiley]

Thanks for that, kind of lose sight of it when pushing to make things all look nice :) I think another step for my pre-production stream should be examining the sculpt for focal areas, something I haven't really focused on (hah) thus far. So much to learn!