Help me fix these skeletons

[Guyscanwefocusplease]

 

Hi everyone,

 

I need your help.  I feel as if I am at a bit of an impasse. I am currently painting an armed force of ancient skeletons.  The primary reasons for taking this project was to practice my OSL on the eyes, and trying my hand at verdigris for the first time.  I love how both the skeletons and the ancient metal are coming out.  However, I feel as if there is not enough contrast on the models, and when viewing them from tabletop distance, they look too... homogeneous.  Do they look "boring" to anyone else? Does anyone else have a suggestion for how to fix them?

 

[Inarah]

Your bones look very clean. You might add some brown stains or dirt. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

They look great to me. I do see where you're coming from though, the homogeny comes from the fact that the bones are a uniform color. Try experimenting towards a browner tone on a few others and mixing them into the ranks. The verdigris looks good as well, but on the next ones tone it back a bit so that more of the copper shows through.

[Rat13]

I think they look fine as is but you could try make some skeletons dirtier. The idea being that some came from tombs but some had to claw their way out if the dirt.

[Doug's Workshop]

I would definitely do one more highlight with a lighter-color bone.  Looking at the figures, I see a base color, and one highlight.  I'd want to go darker, as well as lighter to really push the contrast. 

 

I'd also apply some light glazes to various parts of the figure.  For example, you could do a very thin green glaze, or a red-brown glaze.

 

Note that these are glazes, very thin, just a touch of color.  The idea being you want to add variety without overpowering the base color.

Do a search for "James Wappel" and then search his blog for "skeleton."  You'll get lots of ideas.

 

You could also use a ivory-color to do some of the highlighting, which would leave the base grey-bone but provide some difference between the figures.

[Chris Palmer]

I’d suggest adding some pops of color; some reds or yellows would contrast nicely.  Either in the form of shield decorations, or spotty residual paint on helmets and bows.

 

 

[ced1106]

From a tabletop distance, you lose an incredible amount of detail. You know all those hours you've spent slaving on getting the eyes right? Nobody's gonna see them.

 

Here's a crazy example of glowing eyes -- a tattoo. Notice how much contrast there is in the eye socket. But, to see it, you're going to have to look up close at the miniature. Your picture is still not close enough to see the glowing eyes. At best, maybe paint the eyes black and dot them with a tiny fluorescent or neon color, gradually adding more brightness to the paint.

 

[TheOldGuard]

I think they look great especially the verdigris effects. In addition to what others have said, maybe they will look less homogeneous once the basing is completed?

 

 

[Guyscanwefocusplease]

Thanks everyone for your feedback.  I'm going to start by doing another highlight layer on the skeletons (more of a zenithal approach this time) and re-assess.

[Maledrakh]

When painting for tabletop, it is usually good to emphasize contrasts and overdo certain details. 

as stated above, some more highlight and completed bases should help.

 

I you want variety, different base colours beneath the same washes and highlights often do the trick when the minis otherwise are similar.

 

I would in addittion suggest stark or pure white on the teeth to make them stand out properly.

 

 

[Loth]

Just do the bases, it’ll make the skeletons pop just by that.

 

Loth

[Guyscanwefocusplease]

On 1/7/2018 at 5:01 PM, Maledrakh said:

When painting for tabletop, it is usually good to emphasize contrasts and overdo certain details. 

as stated above, some more highlight and completed bases should help.

 

I you want variety, different base colours beneath the same washes and highlights often do the trick when the minis otherwise are similar.

 

I would in addittion suggest stark or pure white on the teeth to make them stand out properly.

 

 

Good idea on the teeth- I think I'll do that and the bases too.