So after a lot of indecision, and chasing other projects, I’ve finally decided to do the logical thing—just go back to painting vanilla Nomads! N4 has me super excited about vanilla Nomads and Corregidor, so I’m working through both of them again. Time to put improvements in painting skills to use... maybe. Sort of. You all can be the judge of that. Also, a shout-out to @burlesford for the inspiration his work has given me to jump back in to my original faction. For starters, here’s the big bad himself, the Kriza HMG finally painted and ready for the table.
Nice painting, very neat. Still there's something that bugs me: it's the style difference between the mini and the base. Taken apart, they are both great but put together, it looks unmatching to me. Maybe because of the very contrasted edge hi-light of the mini.
Thank you! Do you think more edge highlighting on the base itself would help? I’ve generally tried to keep the base simpler to avoid having it compete with the model for attention. I do see some of what you’re saying, though.
Hard to tell to be honest. This is really much a global felling here. But the more I look at it, the more I think it the contrast between pronounced edge vs not at all. I personally prefer thinner edge or less contrasted ones but your mini gets its own style so I won't push you this way. Maybe some highlight on the base can reduce the difference but I agree with you, don't overdo it on the base. There's people of better advices here. Also, as long as the result suits you, don't feel like you have to change anything.
Great to have you back! And good job on the Kriza! I think I share Koin-Koins sentiment, but I don't think it's the hightlights, it's the tones. The blue, the red and the yellow, while working by themselves, don't harmonize well with each other because they're all very saturated. For the yellow and red alone it would work, but the blue is too much. I would choose a less saturated blue in either direction, so either more blackish or more whitish. As it stands, all saturations share the same level, and that's setting the eyes off.
Thank you both! That definitely helps. And burlesford, I think I see what you mean about the saturation. I’m trying to think how to work on it—probably tone the blue up more toward white? Amusingly, I added both the hazard stripes and the greater blue glue to try and answer some previous criticism (from other sources) that my bases were too flat and bland. It seems like I’ve overdone it in the new approach! Koin-Koin, I would generally agree about thinner edge highlights where they’re so contrasted as mine here. Unfortunately this is an issue of ability for me; I’ve only learned to edge highlight in the past several years and even then it’s really only been the past year or so where I could get the lines down to the thickness and consistency they have here. In other words, I’m still working to improve my skills to the point that I can make the highlights thinner.
Desaturation is more about reducing vibrancy than making it ‘lighter’. A neutral grey in the mix will tone down the colour without making it look a pastel tone (unless that’s what you want). White also lends itself to a grainy texture build up, grey should keep your paint finish smoother.
I just want to say your edge highlights are already pretty nice and thin! I'm still working on getting mine more subtle myself. So I just want to encourage you that you'll get better the more you do them. The biggest trick I found is paint consistency. Too thin and the edge gets too much color. Too thick and it won't come off the brush. You'll get there!
Thank you! Paint consistency has definitely been a big issue. I typically mix in a little water until I’m happy, but of course I have to revisit that as I paint and it dries (I do use a wet pallet but the paint does still slowly dry to the point I notice a change over a long session). I will add that part of the point for these models is for the highlights to be unsubtle: I want them to pop, like they’re jumping off the page of a comic book. So that’s also probably part of it too.
