Renault, Paladin of Iomedae (Duke Gerard)

[ub3r_n3rd]

After a lot of trail, error, frustration, and procrastination I finally am happy enough with Renault to call him good and put him up on the show-off thread. This was a lot of learning trying to get the NMM on his body armor done to look passably right and the TMM on his shield/sword done. If you are interested, here's the start of his WIP in my WIP thread, be warned it gets chatty in there though. 

 

This figure is Duke Gerard (Reaper Bones SKU #77063) sculpted by Bobby Jackson, but I did convert his sword by taking the scimitar from the Iconic Pathfinder Cleric (bones version).

 

For my purposes, he is a figure to be used at my group's Pathfinder Table and his name is Renault, Paladin of Iomedae.

 

Without further ado:

 

 

 

 

 

C&C are welcomed and appreciated!

Edited February 13, 2014 by ub3r_n3rd

[youwashock]

He's worked out alright in the end, eh?

 

The only thing I would suggest (if you are wanting to add anything at this point, after seeing the WIP I understand if you want to have him hit the table and call it good.) is to add some more contrast to the gold areas.  I especially like his face, cloak, and shield.

[ub3r_n3rd]

I am "happy enough" and quite honestly tired of working on him and ready to go to something else. I spent almost as much time on him as I did on a couple of my better (in my opinion) figures such as Aiwen and Logen who had elaborate bases to go with them.

 

Guess I'm not opposed to a brown wash on his gold parts to add more contrast though lol . Those are just straight up Antique Gold and New Gold w/o any blending, I got lazy there...

 

Thanks for the complements on his face, cloak, and shield. Those are definitely the parts I'm most proud of. The shield came out really nicely with the TMM and after trying both TMM and NMM, I've come to the conclusion that I MUCH prefer the TMM look and will be using that going forward.

[Willen]

Horrible work (or not). 

 

I just felt like being a bad person, so there you go 

 

(Being serious now, I love the cloak. Your blending there is great. As a first NMM piece it is excellent, and the TMM looks quite nice, even if lacking contrast. Wash heavily with sepia the golden bits and then drybrush with gold again -my favourite wargame recipe is actually bronze, wash with sepia, then drybrush gold, then touch up shiny spots with silver- and you will be surprised how much 3D it will look)

[ub3r_n3rd]

Thanks Willen 

 

Friendly harassment is fine with me, I also appreciate the honest critiques from everyone on here. 

 

I guess I wanted the TMM to be more subtle, I did have it at a higher contrast to begin with, but it just didn't look good to me so I blended back in some of the mid-highlight to take down the highest highlight. For the shield I used True Silver, Black, and White and just mixed a whole palette with those 3 colors, added in some water and drying retarder to allow myself time to wet blend and felt like it came out looking how I wanted it.

 

I know a lot of people say/think it should go lighter, but I just wasn't feeling that bright bright white/silver I had on there. Also, that shield is massive and really hard to tackle for someone like me who just started with these techniques, can't say I don't try and experiment, love to jump into everything in this hobby with both feet. 

[Willen]

I am watching things with new eyes lately... and the thing is, you don't need to do a big area of brightest highlights. We tend to believe that "darker" shapes go with lower highlights... and the truth is that darker shapes have "smaller" highlights!

 

For example, my wife was watching Criminal Minds the other day and this guy was in a dungeon or cell or whatever, full dark with a little light. The face was all mostly black, but the tiniest spot of highest light was pure white. The size of the transitions and the tiny little dot of white made all the difference.

 

What I am saying is that a simple lining with pure silver, or a couple of dots at the points of maximum reflection can do wonders on a TMM. Like in my dwarf's kneepad for the diorama, if you look for the thread. 

[Bane Of Humanity]

I have found that in the reaper paint line the Tarnished brass makes a better gold than their gold paints.  I used it as a base and highlighted it with antique/new gold and it works alot better.  Brown wash at the end of course...

Just an idea you might want to experiment with if you are only "happy enough"

Edited February 12, 2014 by Bane Of Humanity

[ub3r_n3rd]

I'll dig up your thread again Willen and take a look at his kneepad. 

 

Bane - I think I have Tarnished Brass actually. I'll take a look at using it the next time. For this figure the last touch-up I'll do is probably the brown wash on those gold bits to add some more contrast and call it finished completely.

[LittleBluberry]

Yeah, a brown wash on that gold will make a huge difference.  I'm also not sure if the grey stone base works with there being so much grey on him already, but I can see that with the red cloak it would be hard to come up with a color that complements well.  (I sort of had the same problem with Trista, soooo much grey and red.) 

 

Definitely he's "good enough", and I totally relate to that mentality! 

[Willen]

Yeah, brass with actual golden highlights is what I was talking about. A darker, more orange shade of metallic as the base for actual gold works better for me too.

 

Let me see if I can dig out some pic of my TMM...

 

Take this guy:

 

Depth of shadows is Black wash many times on the base of Oily Steel, until the shine of the metallic paint is dulled quite a bit (the shadow of a metal should not be registered as "bright", and that is an issue with metallic paint of course). Then the top highlight is a very very bright Pure Silver paint. Check the tip of the axe (most right of the pic, the edge downwards). The whole tip looks dark, but the thin silver edge gives it definition and contrast.

 

Hope this helps!

[ub3r_n3rd]

 I'm also not sure if the grey stone base works with there being so much grey on him already, but I can see that with the red cloak it would be hard to come up with a color that complements well.  (I sort of had the same problem with Trista, soooo much grey and red.) 

 

I wouldn't have picked it myself either, but I asked the guy who I painted up the figure for and he wanted him "on cobblestones as the Paladin is from a large city" so I made tri-colored cobblestones (grey, light-grey, and green) and used the artwork that he provided me for reference to paint up the red/gold/silver of the figure itself. Usually I try to give the feel/look of the figure I paint as close as possible to what someone in my group has requested since it's a custom figure for their character in our Pathfinder game.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Ok I made a few touchups for the gold with brown wash. I'll update original post with new pics tomorrow morning!

[Pixel]

I am watching things with new eyes lately... and the thing is, you don't need to do a big area of brightest highlights. We tend to believe that "darker" shapes go with lower highlights... and the truth is that darker shapes have "smaller" highlights!

 

For example, my wife was watching Criminal Minds the other day and this guy was in a dungeon or cell or whatever, full dark with a little light. The face was all mostly black, but the tiniest spot of highest light was pure white. The size of the transitions and the tiny little dot of white made all the difference.

 

What I am saying is that a simple lining with pure silver, or a couple of dots at the points of maximum reflection can do wonders on a TMM. Like in my dwarf's kneepad for the diorama, if you look for the thread. 

^^^

This!  Understanding this has made a huge difference in how I tackle highlights on dark objects and shadows on light objects.  The shadows in the creases on a white shirt are almost black, but they transition to black over a VERY small area.  The highlight on black hair goes all the way to white, but, as I learned from Doug, over a very small area.  Being able to transition from one extreme to another in a small space smoothly is what I'm working on now.

 

I love the reds you did here (was excited to hear you shaded with green! I've got to try that!) and the shield...although I do agree some glints of a brighter color would make it pop more.  Nevertheless, a fearless and successful NMM/TMM attempt! 

[ub3r_n3rd]

Thanks for your C&C Heidi! Totally going to be experimenting more with the dark/light especially when it comes to metal as I have like "20" other figures that are going to need the metal bits done nicely. Smooth and natural transitions are harder than they look that's for sure. It's something I'm working on as well. No matter our skill levels we are all still learning.

 

Yep, I got the red shading with dark green glaze and green shading with dark red glaze from Willen and Dontfear. It REALLY works so I pass it on to everyone else who works with those colors, I also pass along the highlighting of red isn't white added to the red as that makes pink, but rather adding different orange colors to get the right lighter shade of red that you want.

 

Again, to everyone I really appreciate your feedback, it's invaluable and helps me keep growing as a painter as I delve further into this wonderful hobby! 

 

Edit to add:

 

I updated the pics of the original post to reflect the added brown wash/gold dry-brushing I did to him last night. He's now done.

Edited February 13, 2014 by ub3r_n3rd

[LittleBluberry]

The gold looks a lot better!  And yeah, best way to keep improving is to keep painting more guys.  Only 8 months or so until another truckload of Bones start showing up!