BrushStrokes Work In Progress - Harad, Mahud, Dol Amroth etc

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2016 2:44 am

Nice work James. I've not seen theKnight of the White Tower before, nice figure. Paintwork looking neat as usual. Depending how far you want to go I think it's time to really start pushing your painting. You've got talent but there is a lot further you can go.

Erunion · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2016 4:16 am

Beautiful brushwork, James. Your freehand on the bottoms of the cloaks are very well done, and the blue/white scheme for Gondor just works. As usual, I am envious of your bases. Keep up the good work! It's like eye-candy every time I visit this thread.

Auspainter · **Joined:** Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:06 am **Posts:** 25

Lovely stuff

BrushStroke · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2016 1:04 pm

Thanks guys

BrushStroke · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2016 1:05 pm

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

Nice work James. I've not seen theKnight of the White Tower before, nice figure. Paintwork looking neat as usual. Depending how far you want to go I think it's time to really start pushing your painting. You've got talent but there is a lot further you can go.

What would you suggest as the next step for me to push my painting on then mate?

GreatKhanArtist · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2016 3:28 pm

The tutorial for the tree is brilliant. When the Tomes of Wisdom are fixed, you should have it added there too. I have a few of them on the go, mine are made of floral wire from the dollar store, $1.25 per trunk. I read that caulking is the way to go for trunks, so we'll see how that goes. But the canopy is very clever! How does it stand up to game play?

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2016 10:15 pm

I would look to a couple of things to start. Working some smooth blends, wet blending is good to get to grips with.
Your glazing is fairly smooth.
Work more contrast, push your highs and shades. Pushing pigments into these areas using the side of the brush.
More colour work, cold and warm theory. For example, reds into the cheeks of the face to add depth, dark red / purple into the eye corners.
Much darker tones in the folds of the skirt.
Hope this gives you ideas

PowerofWill · **Posted:** Tue May 10, 2016 4:04 am

Looks good! Like Gandalf the Grey said, I think there a few things you could work on to make your models that much better. The biggest thing I noticed was contrast, especially on your silver. The overall look is a little dull, and maybe even a little grainy (that might be the picture though). Just make sure you've got a good smooth basecoat, otherwise the outcome will look completely different. I can't remember if you've done any nmm, but I like to approach painting metallics the same way. Start with a dark shade and work your way up to a very bright silver where the light hits directly on the armor. This will create some nice contrast and really make the armor shine

Then you can start adding glazes, but that's a whole other discussion.
Hope that was in any way helpful!

-PoW

BrushStroke · **Posted:** Tue May 10, 2016 9:19 am

Great feedback guys, thank you

I'll try and push the contrast levels then and look to introduce different tones into skin etc

It may have to wait until after this army is done though, as it could look strange having minis not matching each other on my display board

Crucium Giger · **Posted:** Tue May 10, 2016 10:02 am

Great work on the Knight, one of my favourite miniatures as it just seems to have a lot of character and as per usual you've really brought it to life.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Tue May 10, 2016 11:57 am

James, check out Painting Buddha on YouTube, it will give you more ideas of what we are on about.

Sithious · **Posted:** Tue May 10, 2016 10:52 pm

The colors look fantastic. Having watched hours of painting tutorials, not all of them use the warm cool contrast shadows. In the end you are making the viewer see what you choose to push. Sometimes parts of a model are left dark, highlights are not always consistent, because sometimes you are leading the eye to subject matter. Same with colored shadows, it does not always fit to contrast the shadows, depending on the mood of the piece you may want colors to harmonize, or have subtle contrasts. The techniques are awesome and when used purposefully they can really make a model pop, but there are many many great painters with styles and techniques. So though I agree with others that you may want to explore it as an option to push your talents, you may want to look into many techniques..... though stroke, bliw, stroke, blow, stroke, blow, blending is very time consuming but very worth learning for hero pieces to get beautiful blends with 4 or 5 shadows and 3 or 4 highlights, with 20 to 30 layers of strokes each...no fun to watch tutorials of, but results are fantastic.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2016 5:56 am

Go to CMON and check Blood As Medium work. He is one of the best going and uses 2 highlights basecoat then2 shades. Beautiful blends in between. I pm a lot with him and for his deep shading he glazes a dark blue into the shade then 3 coats of pure Agrax Earthshade. He has used this for his Genestealers clothing, particularly the shade under the arms.

werner · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2016 6:01 am

I'm following this thread with great interest. I also want to level up my painting as BrushStroke does. I'm going to put all my effort in painting instead of building army lists. Thanks for all the tips.

@Gandalf the Grey: I can not find Blood As Medium

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2016 7:29 am

Cool mini or not - go to WIP on forums, you will find him there

werner · **Posted:** Wed May 11, 2016 7:39 am

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

Cool mini or not - go to WIP on forums, you will find him there

Founded, thanks!

BrushStrokes Work In Progress - Harad, Mahud, Dol Amroth etc

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