Pixel's Kingmaker NPCs Project

[Pixel]

big top red and it's near cousin, carnage red are great for a base red. They cover extremely well, read as red right away, and in my experience go on super smooth. Big top is just a little bit of a brighter red than carnage red, so if you are looking for something to begin your shadow colours with, I would strongly recommend it.

Thanks for the tip! Carnage was a strong contender but a bit darker than I wanted, so I think you're right about shadows.

Heidi

[Pixel]

I am liking all the different flesh tones so far.

 

So, why did you blend the red into the flesh tones? Did I miss something?

 

I will go read the entire thread now to find out.

Actually it's something I wanted to talk more about anyway to see if anyone had tips. I got a great tip from a pro painter at ReaperCon that flesh in particular tends to reflect the colors around it. Actually it was kind of funny because the tip was a compliment for doing something I hadn't known I had done, which was choose a skin tone for Libby that looked like I had mixed the green from her tunic in:

 

Looking at a lot of the minis in this set, it seems like shadows under chins and arms is likely to be reflecting the color of the clothes the characters are wearing. So I'm going to try mixing skin tone shadows with a bit of the cloth color, to see if I can add more interest and harmony into my skin tones. On purpose, this time, lol!

Heidi

Edited because compliment is not the same as complement

Edited May 27, 2014 by Pixel

[KruleBear]

This will be an interesting experiment to watch. I suspect hairy males would reflect less smoother skinned females though.

[Mr Melons]

Took Wren's glazing and blending class this past weekend. She said to try glazing the cloth's color onto the skin for the reflective look. I would also try glazing the skin tone onto the cloth so that they achieve that harmony you want. Not sure about mixing it into the paint directly but glazing it really finely is gonna give you more control of the level of it that you want. Or at least that is what I took from the class.

 

Edit: Fair warning..there is a possibility that I may not know what I'm talking about and just wanted to sound like I did O.O

Edited May 27, 2014 by Mr Melons

[Pixel]

Took Wren's glazing and blending class this past weekend. She said to try glazing the cloth's color onto the skin for the reflective look. I would also try glazing the skin tone onto the cloth so that they achieve that harmony you want. Not sure about mixing it into the paint directly but glazing it really finely is gonna give you more control of the level of it that you want. Or at least that is what I took from the class.

Edit: Fair warning..there is a possibility that I may not know what I'm talking about and just wanted to sound like I did O.O

I think glazing sounds like a good approach. Nice thing is with 15 minis, I got plenty of tries to get it right !

[Mattnuke]

Nice start! I can't wait to see your take on the fairy trio and the harrower.

[Talae]

Pixel, you are awesome. You probably know this already, but I had to make sure that I said it at some point.

[dsmiles]

I'm loving what you're doing with the faeries, and it makes me think that I should revisit mine to get them up to standard.

[MonkeySloth]

Anything that's overly white/pale will take the color around it. If you have less white in your flesh then, obliviously, this will be less of an issue.

 

If you really want to get hardcore about color harmony and such you should do what I use to do, and kind of fell out of practice, and that's have two shade colors that at least one is used as a shade to every color. This minis was done that route, everything used the same purple, http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/45583-iron-kindoms-ogrun-adventurer/ (be sure to click the image for a much larger one). This is a great way for setting a mood via color along as that one color will be reflected across the whole piece. This guy comes off as somber but if I had used something else, like a blue or brown, the mood would be much different. If you were to use two shade colors the one that was less common should draw the eyes more then the rest, if you choose something that's different enough from the other shade, and still give you the same mood effect.

 

Instead I now try to reuse colors to do the same thing but I don't tend to mix adjacent colors, instead I mix ones farther apart so no one color stands out too strong. I'm quite interested to see how mixing the adjacent into the shades work out--might very well do that with my Viking warrior I've been having trouble making the skin mesh well with everything else.

 

Also I'm going to steal your thread concept for a WIP for a campaign. Starting up a new one in June and I think I'd like to separate it from the main WIP thread.

[CashWiley]

I have tended to use nightshade purple in a lot of shadows, my current project is the first I've tried to unify the highlights (per DKS). I mostly re-use colors because I'm lazy :) As far as males vs females reflectivity, the males might be sweatier/oilier and the sharper angles on the muscles might pick up more, but in a smaller area. Definitely an interesting exercise!

 

I do enjoy seeing you apply your hard skills to painting. And reaping the benefits of it! Bwahaha!

 

That red looks really nice.

[Kuro Cleanbrush]

I'm loving everything I'm seeing and can't wait to keep watching your progress!  Some of those skin basecoats you used really gave me some good ideas, so I'm sure some more paint shopping is in store for my near future.  

[Flamehawke]

I should try something like this at some point of just painting up a bunch of minis for my games

[Pixel]

Anything that's overly white/pale will take the color around it. If you have less white in your flesh then, obliviously, this will be less of an issue.

 

If you really want to get hardcore about color harmony and such you should do what I use to do, and kind of fell out of practice, and that's have two shade colors that at least one is used as a shade to every color. This minis was done that route, everything used the same purple, http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/45583-iron-kindoms-ogrun-adventurer/ (be sure to click the image for a much larger one). This is a great way for setting a mood via color along as that one color will be reflected across the whole piece. This guy comes off as somber but if I had used something else, like a blue or brown, the mood would be much different. If you were to use two shade colors the one that was less common should draw the eyes more then the rest, if you choose something that's different enough from the other shade, and still give you the same mood effect.

 

Instead I now try to reuse colors to do the same thing but I don't tend to mix adjacent colors, instead I mix ones farther apart so no one color stands out too strong. I'm quite interested to see how mixing the adjacent into the shades work out--might very well do that with my Viking warrior I've been having trouble making the skin mesh well with everything else.

 

Also I'm going to steal your thread concept for a WIP for a campaign. Starting up a new one in June and I think I'd like to separate it from the main WIP thread.

You are more than welcome to steal my thread idea! I looked at your link (beautiful work!) and the additional interest you created through your color choices is exactly what I'm going for. My problem is I've heard so many ways to add interest through color choices I'm not sure which I want to go with. A common highlight color is one I'm going to do (I think) and reflective colors I think is the other but unified shadows is a really good critique I got from Clever Crow who pointed out that my red shadows on my ettin's skin were great but I could have carried that over into other areas of the mini and didn't do it anyplace else.

 

My confusion I think is picking the shadow colors. For example, I liked my experiment of doing the shadow in a complementary color (red shadows in green skin), but what do I do if my mini's coat is red but the pants are blue? Do I keep the green shadows for the blue pants, or do they get their own complementary shadow color? Is either a legitimate technique and a creative choice, or is there a better approach? What did you mean by your secondary shadow color (cuz I think that's what I'm getting at here)?

 

For skin next to a red coat, does it get the main red color reflecting onto its skin? Looking at most of the minis it seems cloth reflections will be in skin shadow areas. So what should be in the skin shadows - the main color, a common shadow, or the common highlight?

 

I'd like to work through all of this during this methodical paint because I really think color choices (and better blends. Always better blends) is what I need to level up. So thank you for sharing your own technique and any thoughts you have on my weird and probably ill-phrased questions

Heidi

[Doug Sundseth]

From the point of view of a photographer, your highlight color will be determined by your key light and the shadow color will be determined by your ambient light. For instance, in direct sunlight under a blue sky, the light on the highlights will be almost entirely from the sun, which is a yellowish white, while the shadows will be lit by a mix of ambient skylight (very blue) and reflected light (the color of which will be determined by the surrounding stuff).

 

As a result, for the default sort of lighting, I'd expect cooler shadows than highlights. If you're thinking of overcast lighting, less blue. If you're thinking of forest lighting, more green (and more green in the highlights, too).

 

It's all about the light.

[CashWiley]

Color and light, one might say ^^