Painting Better Every Day: by Kenneth Taba revised –5/2/2000
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MENTAL
Patience - "Patience, patience, and MORE PATIENCE"
Relax, try not to get upset, angry or discouraged if you have to do something over again, and again, and just once more. Because if you are doing multiple layers of shading you will be putting many layers of translucent paint over the same areas to gradually build up the shading.
I believe this to be the hallmark of a good painter. The willingness to spend as much time as necessary to do the job right! Or to resist the temptation to try to paint fine detail when your hands are shaky.
When I do shading and highlights, I apply the base color, then I may use an ink to
change the color and make it darker, then I start highlighting with the base color, then I
highlight some more using a lighter color.
"Generally I look at doing 3 levels of shading or highlights to get a nice effect,
and the smoother your blending the better your shading & highlights will look."
Miniature Choice - "Strike a pose"
Choosing a good looking miniature is important if you want to have a really nicely painted miniature that people will Oooh and Aaah over and will win awards. If you notice, the Golden Demon Awards really don't have any junk (visual appeal) looking miniatures. They are all interesting and most of them are in dynamic poses. Often they involve at least some minor conversion like the bending of an arm.
Conceptualizing - "Miniature Meditation, a.k.a. Color Composition"
I usually spend hours imagining how the miniature would look with different colors on it. Basically I try to picture it with 1 main color for the bulk of the figure, and 1 to 2 secondary colors. My primary color is usually either a bright or rich color in addition to any colors that are used to accent the miniature, such as colors used on gems, medallions, pouches, boots, circlets, bracelets, etc.
Basically I think there are 3 distinct styles of color selection (looks)
Comic Book Style - Uses bright colors and is very eye catching, the overall
impression is fresh from the factory.
( I feel this style is best exemplified by Games Work Shops painting )
Gothic Style - Uses lots of dark colors, and the overall impression is brooding & grim
Natural Style - Uses colors appropriate to the real world, not normally bright or dark colors
Any of these styles can be done with a "weathered look", meaning, painting clothing and equipment as if they were dusty or dirty from being used.
IMHO I believe the Comic Book Style is attractive to more people than the other two.
Continue on to next section "Bases"
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[Table of Contents] [Preface] [Tools]
[Model Preparation] [Assembling
Your Miniature] [Cleaning] [Environment] [Physical]
[Mental] [Bases] [Techniques] [Q & A and Other
Tips] [Improving Your Painting Skill and Winning
Contests]
