Okay, so really I painted him up because I'm running the old boy quite a lot and wanted a model that was more than just basecoated. But Pit of the Oni's birthday contest just bumped him to the front of the queue.
The progress photos can be found here and the actual contest is here. I'm not expecting to win, but I do hope to get a decent showing. There's some great figs there, but I think the iffy quality of my photos will hurt me.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with the end result. I'm a top notch tactician and pretty damn good sculptor. What I lack in precision I make up in patience. However, I know I'm nothing special when it comes to painting. I'm often over-reaching my abilities and it never comes easy for me. This was no exception, but I left it having learned from it.
The cons: I didn't enter this project with a clear enough idea of what I wanted for the final. This (or near-dead paints) meant re-dos and/or some rough spots. The final coat isn't as smooth as I'd hope. I also had to drastically modify my plans for the freehand on his cloak after realizing that the modeling isn't proportionally balanced. I'm also really unhappy with my crappy old camera as it washed out some of the depth and is still a little fuzzy.
The pros: I was able to experiment with a pseudo-NMM technique on the rune armour and it worked out okay. I really like the contrast I was able to get with the white/red/brown too. And best of all? That's one more model off my desk...
Now the question is what to work on next. I'm thinking Ard Boyz Round 2 is on the horizon. I'm kicking around some changes to my list, but am open to suggestions...
All in all, I like the paintjob on there. I'm used to seeing Eldrad in darker, cooler tones (and my own is in blues and purples). I think it looks pretty tidy in the warmer tones, as you've done here.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, the freehand logo is pretty sweet.
Thanks! I learned several things from the project that I think will help my other Farseers too. I'd done him up in these tones to match the rest of my rebooted army colors. All the rest of my armies are done in muted, drab and/or cool colors... I wanted this to be the kind that really jumped off the table. So I forced myself to pick only warm colors... it's been a learning experience in all new headaches and painting techniques.
ReplyDeleteThe freehand is one of the items I'm actually pretty happy with. It isn't what I originally intended and was a pain to balance, but the final effect is really quite nice. I'm going to take a few more shots in natural lighting this week and see if I can get something a little crisper and with reduced glare.
Gosh, that dude really sucks. You should just give him to me so you dont have to hurt your eyes lookin at him anymore ;)
ReplyDeleteWait, that would mean Id be tempted to paint my eldar...and I have enough crap planned already :o
You could take your time and paint all the gems on the helmet. Except for that detail, I like him very much.
ReplyDelete@MoM: If you really want him, he's yours. I learned enough from this one that I already want to do another...
ReplyDelete@Karnstein: "take my time"? :-p I spent about 25+ hours on this guy... The more I look at this pic versus the original, the more I realize it just doesn't do it justice. I need to build a lightbox.
As to the helmet, I'd always seen those as protrusions of the helmet as opposed to gems. There's no mounting or anything. But looking at GW's take on it, I see they did them as gems. Hrm... I may go back and do that as it would break up the overwhelming mass of red that is the crest/helm.
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ReplyDeleteI know the picture problem...wish I could trade my old OM-1 for a digital cam, and yes for the lightbox. Try taking pictures with some sheets of clear paper behind them. The black background isn't a clever idea either, just look how the sword from the front view vanishes in the background.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I'm anal in terms of gems, after I saw a crazy guy painting all the 80gems on a biel tan style lord. Point with that picture is that regardless of the amount of time, shading and layering you have poured in it, the helmets just looks red. More gems and better pics would help to break that false image.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ZvdML6VJf_g/Slozk-cf1dI/AAAAAAAAAtQ/_jUMvMcgYbU/s800/090712%20Phantomlord%205.jpg
Hmm... that's a sweet looking Wraithlord. Thanks for sharing. Some beautiful fine brushwork too.
ReplyDeleteOkay, you've convinced me regarding the gems. I'll be adding those sometime soon and will get a new pic up.
Also, the black background was basically the lesser evil. I tried a half dozen different colors and they all had some issue. The black gave the cleanest definition and suppression of glare. I wasn't happy with it, but I was tired of futzing too as what I really needed wasn't a better background as much as better lighting and camera.
This looks great. Its good to see him in a colour other than red and the quality of painting is rather impressive.
ReplyDelete