Shading a mini that creates its own shade...

[hammer570]

Upon priming and placing my Bones Great Worm on a temporary working base I came to notice something that didn't fully occur to me beforehand.  My normal working base choice is the lid to a dip can; awful habit, I know, but the tins make great rinse reservoirs and the lids are great for basing and a crude dry palette... I digress.  Anyway, I ended up mounting the worm on a beverage bottle, which placed on my desk, and me seated in front of said desk, brought Mr. Worm to about eye level.  I noticed that his model casts a pretty serious shadow on a fair portion of the front of his body, something I knew, but didn't really notice to what degree until I was looking at him eye-to-maw.

 

So!   My question is, for models that cast their own shadow, how do you approach shading that area?  I can think of two basic approaches here.  Either A: I ignore the fact that he's creating his own shade, and treat the entire underside uniformly, or B:  I can move him and the light around until I get something I like, mentally bookmark it or even outline it, and actively paint-shade that area, so that no matter what light this guy is viewed in or from what angle, he'll appear to be casting shade on himself.  Or of course, C: somewhere in between.

 

 

TL;DR, would you shade areas 1 and 2 in this picture the same or differently?

[Heisler]

You still need to create your own shading even in an area in shadow. The light source in another place will not always be the same, So really its B, turn it till you find a lighting position that you like and take a picture and then you can use that to help locate the deeper shadows that you want. You could also do a two stage priming process. Its a little harder with bones but apply a black primer coat perhaps using black liner. Once you have good coverage you can take a rattle can of white primer and do a quick spray at the mini from the direction of your desired light source and you will see immediately where your deepest shades and highest highlights are at.

[hammer570]

You still need to create your own shading even in an area in shadow. The light source in another place will not always be the same, So really its B, turn it till you find a lighting position that you like and take a picture and then you can use that to help locate the deeper shadows that you want. You could also do a two stage priming process. Its a little harder with bones but apply a black primer coat perhaps using black liner. Once you have good coverage you can take a rattle can of white primer and do a quick spray at the mini from the direction of your desired light source and you will see immediately where your deepest shades and highest highlights are at.

 

Thanks for the advice!  To be sure I'm understanding you... You would use uniform shading in areas 1 and 2, for such things as the crevices between flesh ripples etc, but then also choose an area to shade additionally the entire area based on the shadow cast by the worm's "head"?

 

My biggest internal struggle is that I think art is generally to be viewed from a specific angle the artist intended.  With that in mind, it makes sense to me to purposefully create shadows based on the pose of the worm, so that even in different light, the illusion of shadow from the "head" of the worm will be present.  But at the same time, minis to me are a mix of art and toy, for lack of a better term.  So, supposing I have the worm attack in the game from an odd angle, or the lighting is different, or (perhaps this best illustrates my rationale) say when the creature is killed and toppled on its side, I'm not positive I want that specific area shaded to represent its head blocking the light, when now its head is no longer blocking the light...

 

As for the two stage priming process, that's a great idea, thanks for sharing!  I've already primed white and was going to apply a coat of the earthshade wash to bring out shadows before applying any paint to give myself a map, so to speak.  Similar to your technique, just sort of backwards.  Thoughts?

 

Thanks again!

[Willen]

Hi hammer570! I have not interacted with you before, so first, a welcome.

 

Regarding priming, Heisler is describing a technique commonly known as "zenital priming", or in general a directional priming where you establish shadows and light points from the start. This is also useful because, as you probably know, acrylics are transparent to a color painted on top of a white layer will look brighter than the same color on top of a black layer. Therefore, after this directional priming, you already get a sense of shading just by using dilluted paint.

 

You describe a general wash to go into the recesses. It's not really comparable, but using BOTH those techniques is a great start!

 

On the big mini / natural shadow thing, again Heisler is correct... you need to emphasize (paint) those shadows. If it was me? I would use a basecoat a shade darker in the natural shadow area to help it when in its general position, but if you expect it to go sideways sometime, it would not look so much "off". 

[hammer570]

Willen,

 

Thanks for clarifying, that's incredibly helpful!  I'll have to try the zenital priming soon.  How often do you use this technique?  Every mini, or just oddly bumpy ones like this?

 

Re: the natural shadow thing, thanks for clarifying that too.  That's what I was leaning toward doing, so it really helps to have you guys push me in that direction.  Hopefully I can put your advice to good use!

 

Thanks again, and thanks once more to Heisler.

 

-Rob

[Willen]

Willen,

 

Thanks for clarifying, that's incredibly helpful!  I'll have to try the zenital priming soon.  How often do you use this technique?  Every mini, or just oddly bumpy ones like this?

 

Rob, glad you could use the -little- advise we can give. I actually prime with an airbrush and do this to all my minis, starting with black and mixing more and more white, hitting the top and/or focus areas (like the face). It helps build volume for me, better visualize shapes, and start thinking about the painting process.

[junex]

I'd also go with option B. Although I don't play with the minis I paint I can understand your POV. The way I'd rationalize option B is if it would be viewed most of the time in that orientation.

[Heisler]

I think Willen answered all of your questions. to kind of go back to them a little bit there are three distinct tones being shown in your picture. What you are referring to area 2 would be a highlight area for me as would the upper part of the head. So they would be shaded but they would receive more highlighting than shading. You have an unidentified 3rd zone that is in shadow, darker than zone 2 but not as dark as zone 1 so that would be shaded but certainly not as dark as zone 1.

 

As Willen pointed out already a dark brown wash will not achieve the same thing as the zenithal priming technique. I personally don't use this technique very often and for most of my gaming miniatures I prefer to paint utilizing "noon" lighting meaning that my primary light source is directly overhead. I tend to use zenithal priming only when I want a more dramatic lighting effect and I need to "see" it better on the mini.