May 10, 2012

Bloody Horns!

Sometimes I can make bad decisions. Here is one of them made early in the painting of my Gnarlhorn Satyr. I wanted to get a colour similar enough to what Privateer Press have on their studio models horns. This is what I have ended up with. The glaze I used is still a little wet on the horns so it looks far more shiny than it is. I am not 100% sure what I was trying to do here. I thought I could get a nice warm brown by working from Snakebite Leather (GW) up to a white. Somewhere along that path I seem to have changed direction and this is the result. It is terrible, I really don't know what I was thinking. I do remember at one point saying to myself that this looks terrible but that maybe another layer or two would help. It definitely didn't.

I think its great to see mistakes other people make while painting. A lot of blogs I follow only show awesome finished models and while I am not complaining sometimes I think I would learn more by seeing the mistakes better painters than me make. I often do things wrong or lazily. I often don't have the knowledge I need to apply certain techniques correctly. I am sure I am not the only one like this. I would really benefit from having someone look at the various mistakes I make and correct me. In creative fiction circles writers often form groups where they can advise each other on work they are doing. I have never experienced anything like this with regards to painting. I guess it may exist somewhere. Painting is often a solitary task, especially for me. I either have an audiobook or podcast playing in the background and then I just work through the model I am on until I get bored or am finished. I had a friend once come over a few times to learn how to paint but I found that a totally unnerving experience. It really felt like someone was invading my space a little. That is terrible as I guess I could have benefitted myself from reviewing the basic techniques. Maybe I should look into getting him back over and maybe a few thers along and form my own little group?

6 comments:

  1. I have to say, shiny finish aside, I quite like the direction that the horns are going. A final white or off-white highlight and a blast of matt varnish and they'll look the business!

    I hear what you're saying about painting in solitude. I find other people (even my wife in the same room) distracting and then I make mistakes because I'm not concentrating. I also tend to make mistakes when I'm rushing or bored with a particular model. I then have to live with the mistake, or put it to one side and come back to it another day with fresh eyes.

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  2. I, too, think they look good and that you shouldn't worry too much about them. I understand the doubt though, particularly if you're aiming to follow a particular style and just can't get it to work out (I abandoned all hope of doing that ages ago!).

    The painting circle is a good idea but difficult to pull off in practice. That's why blogs are so useful and I totally agree with you that seeing other people's works-in-progress is incredibly important - in fact, I just wrote a post yesterday about this very topic: http://themarienburggazette.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/wip-wip-hooray-lets-hear-it-for.html

    I wonder if it might be worthwhile having something like a more organised blogging-painting-circle?

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  3. Ehm, hmm. I must say, shiny finish aside, I think the horns look great. It may not be what you intended, and they do need a hit of matt, but they look pretty good to me.

    I understand completely what you're saying about painting alone. I get very protective over 'the hobby' too, but I have painted with a good mate over a weekend and it was great, though we were more painting and chatting than one teaching the other, though I did give a little advice on pinning. I found I got more done than normal!

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  4. I must say the horns look absolutely fine to me. I agree about painting in isolation (but this is probably for the best seeing as the amount of swearing I subject my miniatures to). Perhaps you could post more WIP posts and gauge the reaction from there.

    Regards,
    Matt

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  5. I really am not familiar with that figure and what they did with it. But what I see in the above pic is save-able. I would get out the wet pallette and start blending in some very thin bone white on all of the high points, and I think it would begin to really pop. Course if that does not work start over.

    Yes I often make mistakes, don't always show them, and sometimes they turn into happy mistakes.

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  6. Well I have recoated the horns in bleached bone. I couldn't leave it as it was, it just wasn't ever going to be of a standard I would be happy with.
    Thanks for all the comments, nice to get some good feedback.
    I will think a little more about an 'online' painting group for feedback and such. I would love to have a collection of about five people I could get good feedback from and pass along some tips to. Maybe more WIP are really the way to go! I generally like to present finished pieces as I feel that these reward people that come here to see what I am up to.
    I don't abide mistakes with my Circle army. What you see here is often the limit of my abilities. I want to paint them better but I simply don't yet know how. Comments are always welcome!

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