My Second Try

After I gave up on my first Tyranid, I decided to try another, hoping he would turn out better. So far I do like him more than my first. That's what they always say, right? Practice makes perfect (or in my case, slightly better).

As you can see in these first three photos, I first put down a base coat, either white, black, or red depending on the area of the body. Then I washed it with sepia, applying liberal amounts to all of the skin. Then I used a blending technique I found on YouTube to create a semi-smooth transition from black to light green on the carapace. 

From there I added a bone color to the rest of his body in watered down strokes to decrease the visible lines of paint. I have learned that watering down your paint all the time helps keep the details looking sharp and lets the paint dry thin rather than it looking as though it were caked on. Obviously he is not yet finished, but so far I do like him more than my first.

Finished my First Tyranid!

Ok, so I am honestly not very happy with how my first Tyranid turned out. I have a feeling that has to do with the fact that Tyranids intimidate me and I can see how well my boyfriends look and comparatively, my is horrible. I know they always say don't compare your work with the work of others, especially when you are first starting, but in my case that is hard to do. My boyfriend already has an entire army of Tyranids completed. With mine next to those, it looks like a child painted them. That's okay though. I have given up on this one and have started a new Tyranid in hopes to fix some of the mistakes I previously made.

 

First Tyranid

I have started something a little different today. I am working on a tyranid. This is definitely a "For fun" type of thing because I am not following any specific color scheme or anything. Will add more pictures with my progress!

Finished Dave!

Finally finished Dave! I put a lot of time and effort into finishing this one and I hope it shows. I did quite a bit of highlighting and used many different washes to experiment with what looked best. I have to say, I am very please with how his spear head turned out. That might me my favorite part! 

To be honest, I was having quite some difficulty with painting his shield. I tried so hard to dry brush it so it actually looked like wood, but it never looked right. So I settled with inking it and calling it a day.

Continuing Dave

Here is my progress so far with Dave. I am using my day off work to hopefully finish him up and start a new guy. I had absolutely no Idea how to paint his armor so I used the tricks I spoke about in my last post, dry brushing and washing, to make the armor look as good as I could. I think it turned out alright, but if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I could always use constructive criticism. 

Learning As I Go

While reading through many different articles and watching all sorts of tutorials, there were many things I would like to share to make painting miniatures easier and look better.

1. Know why you are painting. What I mean by that is knowing if you are painting your miniatures only because you want or play war games, or if you are doing it because you want them to look good. If you just want to play war games, that makes the painting process slightly easier. All you have to worry about is making your men look good at a distance. While playing your games, people will not be looking closely at each figure, therefore small imperfections will not be noticed. It may be easiest to paint your army as a whole rather than each individual figure separately. Painting your army this way may even ensure that your army looks more uniform.
   If you are painting because you want your miniatures to look goods, then you definitely need to take your time. Rather than painting your guys as a whole, it may be in your best interest, to get the most detail, to paint each individually. If you paint them like this, you can concentrate on the small details that make your minis look more realistic. This is what I am trying to do, paint with as much detail as possible.

2. Don't sweat the small stuff. During your base coat and first layer you are bound to make little mistakes and imperfections. Don't worry about those! There will be plenty of time to fix any mistakes you previously made when you start to touch up your mini. This is advice I need to take myself. I spend so much time trying to make everything so perfect every step of the way, it takes me hours upon hours to finish each mini.

3. There are two key techniques you need to know: Dry Brushing and Washing. After you have painted a layer (or more) of the color you want on your mini, to make them look more dynamic and realistic, you can use either technique or both. Dry Brushing is used to highlight the raised areas of your guys, whereas washing seeps into the cracks and crevices to create shadows. To dry brush, what you want to do is get a good amount of the color you wish to highlight with on your brush. From there you actually want to wipe most of the paint off with a paper towel or rag. Once you can barely see any paint left on the brush, you can start running it over the areas in which you wish to highlight. 
   To wash your minis, it is basically the opposite of dry brushing. You can buy pre-made washes or make one yourself. If you want to make your own, all you need to do is water down the color you wish to use as a shadow, I usually just take whatever color I used as a layer, add some black to darken the color, then add plenty of water until it is very runny. Then, simply add to the areas in which you want shadows. That simple! Just be sure to let the wash completely dry before doing anything else.
There are many different tutorials on YouTube that demonstrate these techniques. Make sure you check them out!

Starting Dave!

Started painting another Orc today. I think I'm going to call this one ... Dave.  I haven't gotten very much done with him, but before I actually finish him, I want to do lots of research and try a few different techniques on him. Being completely honest, at least half of what is already done with him, Drew did. He's run out of non-painted miniatures that he doesn't want and I don't think I'm ready for an entire set for myself. So, the next two or three figures I paint will have been started by him already. I will be taking my time with Dave and plan to post any new updates in the coming days. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Done with the Drummer

Finally done!! There is not really much different from my previous post. I simply touched up a few parts, highlighted a bit and added to the base. I never got around to actually watching the tutorials I had mentioned, but I plan to do that right after this post. Who knows, maybe I will post twice today with the tips I learn from the videos I watch.

If it is not obvious, I have no idea how to paint drums. They are definitely what I am most dissatisfied about this this orc. If you look at the images below, though, I do feel that I have gotten much better with shadowing and highlighting. If you look, you can see his skin and his pants have highlights, which I achieved with both painting and dry brushing.

His arm looks really
good in this picture

I am very happy with how the skull
turned out. I decided to dry brush with a
bone color after washing with sepia.

I'm glad I painted his head before
 I put his arms on or I would not have been
able to reach those small areas.

The Drummer!

The miniature I am currently working on still needs some work, but I like the progress so far. If you look closely, you can see that this orc had a few piercings, which I am trying to make pop! That has been difficult because whenever I apply the wash it dulls the silver I am using. These images show many imperfections I need to touch up before I finish him. Will post a picture of the final product!

If you notice, with this orc, I decided to make his teeth more of a yellow color. Obviously this type of creature would not really have wonderful hygiene practices, so I thought yellow teeth would be more appropriate. In order to accomplish this, I first painted his teeth a bone color. From there, I applied a sepia wash to give the yellowish tint.

 

Tricks I Learned With My Third

My third, and last miniature that I have finished so far is my favorite. Trust me, it is still far from perfect, but it is definitely the best one I have painted so far. This one is an orc that Drew was not planning on painting. I tried some new (to me) techniques that I feel made this mini better than the others. 

First, if you take a look at the banner, I wanted it to look raggedy and worn. To get that look, I first painted a base coat of dark red, followed by a slightly lighter red layer. I then proceeded to add a black wash to most of the banner. The last step was dry brushing the edges and where I felt there should be highlights. This is the first time I actually used dry brushing and to be honest it took a few attempts to figure out just how much paint needs to be on the brush for it to work. If done correctly, it can add quite a bit of detail to your painting!

Second, I started to use the appropriate wash! If you look at the bone on this figure, you will see what I mean when I say the appropriate wash. On my prior two figures, it is so easy to see that I stuck with the black was when I clearly should have used sepia. With the bone both on his banner and under his foot I did use sepia was and it made a world of difference! I love how it turned out!

Lastly, although it probably wasn't done the best way possible, I really like that I added rocks and the skull on the base. It makes it look remarkably better. I actually had to make him step on the skull otherwise he kept falling over. I was getting frustrated with it until Drew suggested the skull. I think it was a brilliant idea!

Screaming in Agony, Mini #2

The second miniature I painted was not any better than the first. I simply tried to used some blood to make him look like he had recently been in battle. That didn't really work. To me honest, the first picture I tool of him (before I added his arms) it looks like he is crying. That was definitely not what I was going for.

He looks like he just lost his arms
and he is screaming in agony.

You can clearly see that I did not use the
correct wash for his skin tone

I have trouble getting into the
small spaces if you can't tell

My first Miniature

About a week ago, I discovered my love for painting miniatures. My boyfriend (Drew) has been painting for years and I decided, why not give it a try? He and I stayed up well past 2 in the morning painting together. I am not ashamed to say that the guy I painted is no comparison to his. I have yet to learn many of the techniques and tricks that he knows, but as I learn them I will be sure to add them here for anyone who is just starting this hobby as well. One day I wish to be as good as Drew.

Here is the first miniature I ever painted. There are quite a few imperfections, but I was rather satisfied with how it turned out.