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Post by wyvern on Jun 27, 2019 4:06:37 GMT
Hello all, I am having a bit of trouble highlighting my miniatures. I basically don't know exactly which parts of the figure to apply highlights to. I get it that one has to paint raised areas but I generally don't know where to start or where to stop. This becomes particularly apparent when painting flesh, which I struggle with. I'm painting 15mm figures, so I would really appreciate any help anyone can offer.😀
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Post by sonic on Jun 27, 2019 6:27:33 GMT
for flesh, I highlight; nose, cheeks, chin, knuckles, knees and calves.
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Post by Vic on Jun 27, 2019 7:03:39 GMT
I only highlight with dry brush, so I don't have to worry so much about what to highlight, but in general, I'd say go for the obvious and don't worry if it seems excessive to you - it's important to remember that figures that have the right look from 1 m away often don't look good or realistic in close-up.
Go for shoulders, raised volumes, clothing folds, foreheads, cheeks, noses and chins, fingers, knuckles, etc.
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Post by timurilank on Jun 27, 2019 7:42:28 GMT
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Post by wyvern on Jun 27, 2019 8:07:48 GMT
Thanks for the advice guys. Have tried washes with varying degrees of success.I might give it another bash. Vic, when you dry brush how do you not get the dry brush highlight on the other "wrong" parts of the figure, a really fine brush?(I'm painting 15mm). I am inclined also to keep it fairly simple and do just certain parts of a figure eg. Knees, knuckles etc. Like I said it's knowing when to stop that's the problem for me! Cheers, Paul.
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Post by Vic on Jun 27, 2019 8:36:39 GMT
Vic, when you dry brush how do you not get the dry brush highlight on the other "wrong" parts of the figure, a really fine brush?(I'm painting 15mm). To the contrary, I use a fairly large brush and regulate the "depth" of the highlighting by adjusting the "height" of the brush above the mini - by avoiding to press the brush against the mini too much I only rub it against the most elevated parts. You can also avoid getting highlight into lower areas by using the right angle and movement - that one is a bit harder to explain and I've picked it up from painting but, essentially, I position the mini so that the areas that I don't want hightlighted are in the "shadow" of areas that I want to highlight - so the brush, which bends in contact with the elevated areas, won't go into them. I should add that my highlighting is generally fairly light, as I use base colour + wash before applying it - so highlighting becomes just a touch here and there to stress volumes. I am quite pleased with the effect achieved.
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Post by goragrad on Jun 27, 2019 8:49:31 GMT
As with timurilank I don't highlight. However I do the combo varnish stain approach.
Seems to work well enough for me to avoid going back with a brush and paint to go over what I painted once already.
But then I am attempting to maximize output while still getting acceptable results.
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Post by wyvern on Jun 27, 2019 11:00:33 GMT
Vic, when you dry brush how do you not get the dry brush highlight on the other "wrong" parts of the figure, a really fine brush?(I'm painting 15mm). To the contrary, I use a fairly large brush and regulate the "depth" of the highlighting by adjusting the "height" of the brush above the mini - by avoiding to press the brush against the mini too much I only rub it against the most elevated parts. You can also avoid getting highlight into lower areas by using the right angle and movement - that one is a bit harder to explain and I've picked it up from painting but, essentially, I position the mini so that the areas that I don't want hightlighted are in the "shadow" of areas that I want to highlight - so the brush, which bends in contact with the elevated areas, won't go into them. I should add that my highlighting is generally fairly light, as I use base colour + wash before applying it - so highlighting becomes just a touch here and there to stress volumes. I am quite pleased with the effect achieved. Will have to try that out, thanks!
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Post by martin on Jun 27, 2019 13:17:15 GMT
As with timurilank I don't highlight. However I do the combo varnish stain approach. Seems to work well enough for me to avoid going back with a brush and paint to go over what I painted once already. But then I am attempting to maximize output while still getting acceptable results. I’m no pro-paineter, be sure of that..... But I also use the stain wash, and find it usually darkens the figure overall. I then often touch the higher points of the figures with the original pre-stain colour, which brings it back to life, somewhat, rather than leaving it murky with the stain (I guess that constitutes a highlight?)
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Post by Baldie on Jun 27, 2019 16:27:49 GMT
Thanks for the advice guys. Have tried washes with varying degrees of success.I might give it another bash. Vic, when you dry brush how do you not get the dry brush highlight on the other "wrong" parts of the figure, a really fine brush?(I'm painting 15mm). I am inclined also to keep it fairly simple and do just certain parts of a figure eg. Knees, knuckles etc. Like I said it's knowing when to stop that's the problem for me! Cheers, Paul. You can get a pretty good result, certainly game ready by simple drybrush. Paint fig in whatever colour you use and then do a light drybrush of entire fig just with Iraqi Sand etc, don't look perfect but it will do.
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Post by paddy649 on Jun 27, 2019 18:29:39 GMT
I’ve tried a few techniques and my observation is that painting style should vary depending on the figure manufacturer and sometimes between figures.
Generally I’m not a big fan of inks or washes for 15mm figs as generally speaking the washes just flatten all colours out of existence UNLESS the figure has exaggerated detail then you can get away with washes but even then I’ll block paint, wash and then rehighlight in the original colour. I find this approach does well for Xyston, Khursan and Peter Pig and gives the best results but is time consuming.
For figures with less detail (Essex, Alternative Armies or Magister Militum) or with almost no detail at all (Minifigs) then I use a black primer, block paint the colour and then use a 5/0 brush to pick out the detail with black lining and if necessary put a highlight on raised areas. Here you are using black lining to pick out or add in detail in a similar way to a cartoon animator. This can be very effective.
I do use drybush on horses manes, tails, chain mail, or long flowing Arab robes etc. It can be a technique that works well. Avoid going over the lines by dry brushing with you old 5/0 brushes. However, where dry brushing does work well is with a black undercoat and a dry brush white. Then block paint with slightly dilute colour. Here the white/blackundercoat will act to highlight or shade as required. This can give passable results requiring minimal black lining very quickly and it is what I’ll do when I want to bash out an army quickly.
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Post by wyvern on Jun 27, 2019 20:17:46 GMT
As with timurilank I don't highlight. However I do the combo varnish stain approach. Seems to work well enough for me to avoid going back with a brush and paint to go over what I painted once already. But then I am attempting to maximize output while still getting acceptable results. I’m no pro-paineter, be sure of that..... But I also use the stain wash, and find it usually darkens the figure overall. I then often touch the higher points of the figures with the original pre-stain colour, which brings it back to life, somewhat, rather than leaving it murky with the stain (I guess that constitutes a highlight?) I have tried this method too and it looks quite nice. I have been using the quickshade unleashes from Army Painter which I find quite good (mainly strong tone) . I tried the Vallejo washes but found them essay to dark for 15mm. I guess one could go one highlight up from that even.
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Post by wyvern on Jun 27, 2019 20:22:47 GMT
I’ve tried a few techniques and my observation is that painting style should vary depending on the figure manufacturer and sometimes between figures. Generally I’m not a big fan of inks or washes for 15mm figs as generally speaking the washes just flatten all colours out of existence UNLESS the figure has exaggerated detail then you can get away with washes but even then I’ll block paint, wash and then rehighlight in the original colour. I find this approach does well for Xyston, Khursan and Peter Pig and gives the best results but is time consuming. For figures with less detail (Essex, Alternative Armies or Magister Militum) or with almost no detail at all (Minifigs) then I use a black primer, block paint the colour and then use a 5/0 brush to pick out the detail with black lining and if necessary put a highlight on raised areas. Here you are using black lining to pick out or add in detail in a similar way to a cartoon animator. This can be very effective. I do use drybush on horses manes, tails, chain mail, or long flowing Arab robes etc. It can be a technique that works well. Avoid going over the lines by dry brushing with you old 5/0 brushes. However, where dry brushing does work well is with a black undercoat and a dry brush white. Then block paint with slightly dilute colour. Here the white/blackundercoat will act to highlight or shade as required. This can give passable results requiring minimal black lining very quickly and it is what I’ll do when I want to bash out an army quickly. I had not thought about it in terms of detail but that makes real sense. Essex would suit a bit of black lining so black primer would be the way to go. Am painting Xyston at the moment and the detail cries out for an inkwash! So I think you're on to something.
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Post by wyvern on Jun 27, 2019 20:24:22 GMT
I’ve tried a few techniques and my observation is that painting style should vary depending on the figure manufacturer and sometimes between figures. Generally I’m not a big fan of inks or washes for 15mm figs as generally speaking the washes just flatten all colours out of existence UNLESS the figure has exaggerated detail then you can get away with washes but even then I’ll block paint, wash and then rehighlight in the original colour. I find this approach does well for Xyston, Khursan and Peter Pig and gives the best results but is time consuming. For figures with less detail (Essex, Alternative Armies or Magister Militum) or with almost no detail at all (Minifigs) then I use a black primer, block paint the colour and then use a 5/0 brush to pick out the detail with black lining and if necessary put a highlight on raised areas. Here you are using black lining to pick out or add in detail in a similar way to a cartoon animator. This can be very effective. I do use drybush on horses manes, tails, chain mail, or long flowing Arab robes etc. It can be a technique that works well. Avoid going over the lines by dry brushing with you old 5/0 brushes. However, where dry brushing does work well is with a black undercoat and a dry brush white. Then block paint with slightly dilute colour. Here the white/blackundercoat will act to highlight or shade as required. This can give passable results requiring minimal black lining very quickly and it is what I’ll do when I want to bash out an army quickly. Baldie, do you use Iraqi sand on the whole figure?
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Post by gregorius on Jun 27, 2019 21:17:07 GMT
This is a great thread. Thanks to all for your contributions. There's always something, or some new technique to discover.
Cheers,
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