revloc8 Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 First off, you know how people warn you not to put your drinking cup next to your painting water cup? Yeah, listen to them... One of these is awesome homemade Root Beer, the other is not so awesome... Yes, on to the "mini"! Now, as you can see, it's more a statue than a mini at about 100mm tall. I got this as a present for my wife last year when I went to visit the states, and I decided to paint it for her as a surprise for her birthday this year. I've still got 6 weeks to finish, but the new semester begins in 3 weeks and I'm gonna be crazy busy, so I'm hoping to get it done by the end of this month. I need help as both skin and red cloth are a major challenge for me still as I've really only been painting for a little over a year now. The skin is best shown here before I sealed it. I used Tanned Skin for the base/midtone, Suntan Skin for the shadows, and Elf Skin and Fair Skin for highlighting. C & C would be most welcome here as I've spent a lot more time on this and the hair then on the robe. These pictures helped me notice his upper arm looks kinda mottled, so I'll have to go back and try to smooth that out a bit. Do I need to go higher on his hair? The robe really has me worried. I based with Garnet Red, and then darkened the shadowed areas with Maroon Red, though I'd say I need to maybe mix in some Nightmare Black or Walnut Brown to darken it further. But now its time to start highlighting and I'm not sure what to use. My pallet is limited to basically the Bones 1 and 2 KS colors, plus the Bones LTPK. So I'm thinking of highlighting with either Old West Rose, OR mixing something along the lines of Blood Red and Splintered Bone. How "white" do I need to go on red cloth? I'm scared and my Root Beer is dwindling low... Gaah...skin and red clothing...on a 100mm "mini"...what was I thinking?!? 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanael Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Ok...remember to breathe. You'll be fine. For the red...there are a lot of schools of thought on red; here are a few ideas. Keep in mind that red is a pain in the butt, but I find it one of the most rewarding colors to work with. Relax, have fun, paint with love and abandon. If you have a purple in your collection, mix it with a bit of red and make a wash. Drop that into the folds generously, then start blending your base red back into the fabric. This way, your red will become a highlight and you won't lose the hue to pinks or oranges. Or: Use a thinned dark green to shade your folds. This will help your midtone pop more. You can also mix some red into the green to make a median brown to transition better from shade to mid. I really love taking red from a green shadow up to the red mid, then through orange and into yellow. This does skew orange if you aren't careful (just keep your highlights small and tight; remember your midtone should probably be about 70 to 80% of what you see), but it's a very nice fiery look if you.pull it off. A lot of Raphael's (the renaissance painter, not the ninja turtle) reds start crimson and pull up through pink into white. His Transfiguration has some gorgeous examples of this. It definitely skews pink, but it can create an absolutely beautiful luminosity. Hope some of this helps! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thes Hunter Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Red is a bit challenging.. I just recently saw a red tutorial that I really liked.. You know I should make a collection. But basically, you use orange, pink and white to get the highlights up to near white, you then use a glaze of your midtone back over the highlights. You can create a glaze with just water, but it's much easier with a mixing medium or brush on sealer. Something that will thin the paint and make it more transparent while keeping the paints consistency. That's the best way to highlight red... but I also like your idea of taking the shadows darker to help with the contrast. Looking good so far! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitchen_wolf Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Just a thought for the base: http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2011/06/tutorial-painting-marble.html 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revloc8 Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 Wow...so many great ideas! Thanks all for the input and encouragement. I'll tackle the robes again tomorrow afternoon. I love the marble for the base. I'll give it a practice run on a smaller base and post the results when I get er done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruunwald Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Question: why is he not giving the thumbs-up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baugi Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 (edited) Question: why is he not giving the thumbs-up?I got you. Edit: but yeah, seriously, red is the worst. Listen to Sanael. :) Edited August 11, 2015 by Baugi 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revloc8 Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 Ok, first off, I spent some time experimenting with marble. I originally had planned to do some thick lovely green grass as a symbol of life, but I couldn't resist the idea of marble. Below are my first three attempts and the beginning of my fourth. Next, I went ahead with a mix of Black and FolkArt English Ivy Green for shadows. It looked like dark dark green on the pallet, but dried almost black. I think it looks great, but time will tell as to whether I'll stay happy with it. I need to put more work into it, but I think my wife was starting to suspect something, so I had to give up early. Tomorrow, I plan to finish up the shading and jump into the highlighting head first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanael Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Yeah, that's the ticket! The green on red is naturally going to darken, so that makes sense. But you can already see how the shadows define the main color. I would suggest glazing some of your base red over everything except the deepest shadows, just to reclaim some of the midtone. This glaze should be super transparent, just to give the hint of color. If you use white to lighten your midtone, use it sparingly to keep away from pink. And if you don't like the way something looks, glaze it back down with your midtone. It will soften transitions and unify everything. Just with those shadows, his robes are really popping nicely, so you're on the right track! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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