Monday, October 4, 2010

Reaper: 03476 Kasham, Reptus Wizard

Here's a dragonman/born figure painted for Jeff. He had me remove the bell on the staff and replace it with an orb (which will get a gloss varnish to help the effect). This figure was ok to paint; it had a lot of different things to paint.Usually, when I dig a color out, I'm able to use it on multiple parts of a mini, saving time, but this dragonman just had too much sculpt on it, for my tastes. (I think this is one of the reasons some of my favorite sculpts come from Copplestone- his figures seem to have just the right amount of detail for me.)
On another note, one thing I think I will change in my normal painting routine is to paint smaller metallic objects using a simple non-metallic metal technique. I think it helps clarify what you're looking at without the distraction of actual reflecting light. For example, the large buckle plate, I painted with gold metallics, but it's difficult to see what it is. Maybe another solution would be for me to carefully layer the metallics? I'll give both methods a try in the future.
Now on to an astral reaver! (Jeff, the reaver is yours, too.)

Reaper No. 3476 Kasham, reptus wizard

2 comments:

  1. TonyOctober 5, 2010 at 4:19 PM

    Can you clarify what you mean by Non Metalic?

    I know the technique - but was lost as to how you were describing using it to 'reduce' the effects of metalic paints.

    I may be slow - but am interested in your logic and technique.

    Regards

    Tony
    http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/

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  2. EvilcartoonistOctober 5, 2010 at 5:00 PM

    Since metallic paints are made using flecks of metal, the random flecks will reflect light in random directions; to me, this is somewhat distracting, but enough to bother me for larger elements (such as armor or weapon blades); only smaller details such as ornaments (or the belt plate on this figure) get "hidden" by these distracting reflections.

    Using a non-metallic technique, there would be no actual reflections, only the illusion of reflection which I can control easier by my placement of lights and darks.

    Part of my problem may be my rough layering of the metallics, part of it may be my use of older metallics which are not as uniform in metallic pigment or have low quantities of metallic pigment. I think before I go non-metallic, I'm going to try some of my better metallics, as well as try to layer them more carefully. One technique I have tried is (on gold for example) to use a brown as a base, brown mixed with gold as a middle layer, and then a final highlight of gold. It seems to work.

    I guess, one of these days, I'm gonna have to just sit down and play with metal! :)

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