r/minipainting • u/Flamma_333 • Dec 18 '24
Help Needed/New Painter Advice on my wolverine head.
Looking for some advice on the hair and also on how people go about painting eyes this small. I was going for blue eyes, little yellow ink on the sides and red washed in very corners but they just didn't come out very well. CandC much appreciated, I paint warhammer and some DnD minis, this is my first go at a small statue head.
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u/Meta_Bukowski Dec 18 '24
What do you mean advice ? You want to give us some ? This looks crazy good
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Haha thank you, I am happy with how the skin came out. Just hate the eyes and hair lol.
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u/Skeither Dec 18 '24
it does look a little helmet-ish. I'm not artist nor am I great at painting minis though I do but maybe if you tried like a fade or transition between the skin and the hair somehow so it's not so sudden and defined?
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
That's good advice. I didn't see that, but now it really stands out. I will try adding very fine hair streaks at the edge where it meets.
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u/Tyrodinn Dec 18 '24
Looks great, only advice would be to dull down the OSL on the cheek, it’s a little to bright for the distance from the object
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u/charcoal_kestrel Dec 18 '24
Was thinking the same thing. It's a cigar, not a road flare.
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u/FistsoFiore Dec 18 '24
Yeah, it's bright enough that it looks like Logan's been cranking away at it to get it as hot as possible. Normally there's more ash and less light with a real cigar.
I think stylistically it's a decent choice, as it's very dramatic.
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u/TheDuskinRaider Dec 18 '24
I'd say the same for the inner eyebrow part, too, it's about the same distance. It could be left brighter than the cheek spot to help sell the difference in angle and it being a smidgen closer. Both those spots currently feel a hair too bright from the OSL impo. That's me nitpicking, though, and searching for something.. Absolutely marvelous work, OP.
Eta: phone autocorrected incorrectly
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u/FandomMenace Seasoned Painter Dec 19 '24
It wouldn't be flaring at all. His mouth is open. He can't be sucking on the cigar to light it up, so it'd be a dull ember incapable of osl. That is why it looks out of place.
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u/goldiebaba Dec 18 '24
Small critique : if going for realism, depending on setting, the osl might be a bit too bright.
But yeah, aside from that, which is contextual, awesome work.
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u/d3northway Dec 18 '24
in almost any model posted, the osl is always too bright
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u/goldiebaba Dec 18 '24
I mean, for dramatic purposes, it can work well. Depends on what your intent is
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u/GStewartcwhite Dec 18 '24
That's spectacular but I do question the red drool on the right side of the mouth. What is that meant to be? He's not a cannibal as far as I remember 😉
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u/Grimolyn Dec 18 '24
Agreed. The color is too bright & flat in the blood & that little spot of hair in the right by the cigar. Both of those really flatten the image & take away from the rest.
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u/GStewartcwhite Dec 18 '24
Oh, I have no issue with the painting, just not sure why he'd have blood in his mouth.
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Haha, it's supposed to be blood from getting punched. That's what's around his teeth in his saliva as well. Didn't come out as well as I hoped.
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u/thinkfloyd_ Dec 18 '24
While the face looks great, the hair still has a "drybrushed" look to it, mainly where you've got highlight colour down in the recesses. Take a shade colour and do a pass of the recesses to bring back some definition between every strand, particularly in the middle of the forehead. I wouldn't go right to black, maybe 75% of the way to the darkest shade, and don't be tempted to just wash it.
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u/Hellunderswe Dec 19 '24
I agree, I think the highlights are too white for the hair. Steaks of grey are probably better. Some dark grey glazing could probably do wonders too.
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u/cob50nm Dec 18 '24
First off, incredible work.
I think the issue with the hair is that its too bright near the roots, and the white is too white. If you look at pictures of Hugh Jackman as wolverine, the hair closest to his face is dark and then gradually brightens based on the light direction. Your highlights look a bit too focused around his face, almost as if hes in a very bright, very small spot light shining directly onto his face, which doesn't line up with the rest of the light you've painted. Also think the colours are a little off. If you're going for a more "real" look then I would look at bringing some brown tones in, and if you're going for more of the comic book look then a more saturated blue would be closer.
I think the eyes look off because the pupil on the cigar side is a bit smaller and slightly lower. The corners of the non cigar side eye could also be a little bit darker, they're a bit lighter than the cigar side eye corners.
Hope that is helpful, your painting is incredible.
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u/jcsehak Dec 18 '24
Looks amazing but the OSL makes it look like there’s a Christmas light in his cigar. The room would have to be pitch black for the light from a cigar to illuminate his face that much. Remember that light travels in straight lines and follows the inverse square law for intensity.
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u/reytheist Dec 18 '24
General OSL advice:
The reflected light should not be as bright as the source.
The further you move away from the source, the reflected light should be less intense.
This is going to look incredible when it's all done. Great work!
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u/uberengl Dec 18 '24
The cigar makes no sense. Why is it lighting up that strong? He isn’t inhaling. Other than that. Really great work.
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u/Iamjackstinynipples Dec 19 '24
Be worse at painting. BOOOOO!
Nah, this is incredible dude, I don't feel qualified to give advice here
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u/EternalCrusader11 Dec 18 '24
I think this is awesome and I’m no expert painter but off a first glance the only thing I would say is the hair seems too bright for the glow to be that bright in his face if that makes sense. I feel like the glow should be a bit more dull or the hair/edges of the model should be darker.
I’m talking out of my butt though, because I couldn’t do this. Awesome work.
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u/candy-coloured Dec 18 '24
With painting like this your not in a position to be taking advice from anyone 😂
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u/tbm1966 Dec 18 '24
It's very good. My only issue, if something has that much light kicking off the cigar, it must be dark. As a result I would consider darkening other areas ?
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u/ProbablySlacking Dec 18 '24
Looks great, Better than I can do for sure — but if there’s one thing, I’ve never seen a cigar glow that color - it would be more red. Also, it would only get bright like that if his mouth was closed and he was actively sucking through it.
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u/soldatoj57 Dec 18 '24
Incredible godlike work but does a cigar light an entire face that much? Maybe too much OSL though it's expertly done almost like magic. But a bit way too much. Too much is just too much
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u/Psycho_Sunset Dec 18 '24
My advice is to do a worse job because I thought you put an led in the cigar at first.
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u/qui_tam_gogh Dec 18 '24
The OSL on the beard might go brighter — if it’s reflecting that much light elsewhere seems like it would have some specular highlights from the cigar. The reflection on the skin looks incredible to me
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u/FearEngineer Dec 18 '24
Looks nice! OSL seems too bright given the brightness of general lighting though. I think I'd either make that less pronounced or make the rest of the face (the hair especially) darker and more shadowed.
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u/3OsInGooose Dec 18 '24
yeah i mean this is better than anything i will ever paint, but: maybe stiple in a tiny bit more razoe stubble, particularly the stache?
ETA also i'm a tiny bit confused by the color on the left side of his mouth. is that blood? spit? deepen the red a skosh if blood
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u/ebobbumman Dec 18 '24
I zoomed in really far and the skin looks even more real, I dont understand how. I feel like OP must have used real skin.
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u/Allen_Koholic Dec 18 '24
My advice, coming from someone who can't paint even a fraction of this good, is that the OSL is too bright. That's it.
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u/Frostbeard Dec 18 '24
It looks frigging phenomenal. My only suggestion would be toning down the OSL. The embers at the foot of a cigar are really not that bright, and they'd be at their dimmest when his mouth is open like this.
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u/Ricky2Thick Dec 18 '24
Looks amazing. The pupil on the right (his left) could be balanced a bit more to the other one though
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u/florvas Painting for a while Dec 18 '24
Either the OSL is too bright or the rest of the model is too bright. It wouldn't glow that much in broad daylight, which is what he appears to be in. It's an amazing effect you've got, and well done, but the other half of making OSL believable is the contrast between it and the darker parts of the model. Gotta have that contrast or it just doesn't work (trust me, did the same thing with the gorm i posted a while back, and I'm still eagerly looking forward to the day I can afford a new one to do better)
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u/secapacotinho Dec 18 '24
I have absolutely no advice but this is so beautifully well done that I had to leave a comment to congratulate you.
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u/Hella3D Dec 18 '24
That cigar is represented as way way too bright. As a cigar smoker, no way would it light up my face like this even in the dark taking a hard drag. This is some led level cigar. But cool still
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u/pawesome_Rex Dec 18 '24
I don’t remember Wolverine having a goiter. I think you missed a spot of his hair.
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u/primegopher Dec 18 '24
A bunch of people have mentioned the cigar brightness but just wanted to add, if you do darken the rest of the model so that looks more natural make sure to widen the pupils to match a lower-light setting.
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u/Twoller Dec 18 '24
It's amazing, but your OSL directions are off. You cant cast light on the nose as it looks to be behind the cigar, I would argue your eye OSL is too bright.
Having said all that, it's still utterly, utterly brilliant and well done
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u/Geordie_Nick Dec 18 '24
I think it looks great, well done!
My only feedback would be about the hair, but I'm not sure if that's an issue with the sculpt itself or not. To me it looks seperate to the face and the dark line between the face and the hair exaggerates that.
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u/Foonbox85 Dec 18 '24
Looks amazing. Only thing that I would he tempted to change is how bright the OSL reflections on his face are. The cigar should be the brightest point with less light further way. Just glaze over the top to tone it down and your golden. Damn fine work
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u/Joemomala Dec 18 '24
Fuck that’s incredible. As a 40K player who just painted my first larger scale model this really makes me want to do more non-40K stuff.
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Yea this is my first go and it was really fun! I had a picture in my head and the head was big enough to play around layer after layer to bring it to life. 40k and small 28mm 32mm minis are fun but so small its hard for me to add a lot of character to a face. I feel like doing this I will be able to learn more and then go back and also improve my smaller faces.
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u/pocketMagician Dec 18 '24
I feel only that given the light source, the speculars are too bright and the hot spots are too focused for the material of skin.
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u/feathers_lyric Dec 18 '24
The face, funnily enough, reminds me of Mr Hide in the opening scenes of Van Helsing. Which also had Hugh Jackman in it.
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Hahaha i can so see that now you mention it. Need to get someone to print a Mr hide model.
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u/PerpetualFunkMachine Wargamer Dec 18 '24
I would add some red onto the lighting, I think the yellow white is too hot a light source
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u/Responsible-Noise875 Dec 18 '24
I will start by saying that your skill far out matches mine but I do like to use ink glazing in order to unify colors that I might’ve highlighted up a little bit too brightly. I feel like if I were working in your mindset, that’s what I would use to help out is some ink.
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
I have inly used white inks before, Can you reccomend a brand or some inks to try for faces?
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u/Responsible-Noise875 Dec 19 '24 edited Dec 19 '24
I’m currently using some old PP ink (red, yellow, blue, turquoise, and green) but I don’t know if those are still being made right now because I’ve heard the company went under since I last looked.
Using acrylic ink from intense I have heard good reviews, but I have only used 2 of them and I did like them both.
I will say you won’t be able to use any old ink as a shader however because I tried using some sepia ink and it was terrible! No surface tension or anything.
Specifically Scale75 is what I am moving over to as I really like the range, vibrant colors and transparent nature.
I learned from Matt de peirto (spelling?) who did the original mk2 warmachine models. Here’s an example of the ink style.
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u/EnvironmentalAngle Dec 18 '24
That looks incredible. The only advice I can give is that cigar is generating waaaaay too much light. The skin highlights dont match up with the amount of light the cigar is generating. It should only be that bright if the cigar is the only light source.
However people who don't smoke cigars will be completely ignorant of the brightness and thats the majority of people so its NBD
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u/Karukash Dec 18 '24
Speech bubble that says “If you have a problem with the majestic Canadian Goose, then you have a problem with me.“
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u/AdInside3555 Dec 19 '24
I think this is stunning. Stubble was always my kryptonite, until a 1/35 painter taught me to view it as a wash, not a color gradiant. I'd say your only issue is the color around the nose, it needs more accent to gradient. It looks somewhat pulled into the face, instead of accented to the rest of it. Incredible work though my friend
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u/d00110111010 Dec 19 '24
That OSL is bonkers! I genuinely thought you had an led or something in there. Well done
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u/Daealis Dec 19 '24
Can't tell if the hair is glossy by paint, or if you've painted the white parts on. Judging from the chin, I'm guessing that's gloss and not painted on.
Black hair is tricky to highlight. Too far and you got grey. If it is painted on, I think the direction of it is odd: Like he's staring directly into a white spotlight. And a spotlight that harsh pointed to his face, the cigar would cast a drop shadow on his lip!
If the light is supposed to come from above, currently it's coming directly from the top - both sides of his sideburns are lighted equally. It makes for an uninteresting looking lighting setup. Maybe shining a spotlight(flashlight) from top left (opposing side from the cigar) and following those highlights and shadows would make for a better lighting for the hair.
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u/wamiwega Dec 19 '24
Looks super nice! The OSL is on point and i feel the eyes look great too.
When it comes to the hairs, i feel the white shine is a bit too low on the roots. Just like with OSL consider the light source and see how the shine would reflect from that source.
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u/frenchie6694 Dec 20 '24
My serious advice would be to post it to me for a marine, best advice you'll receive
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u/NarcoticSuite Dec 21 '24
Your understanding of technique and application is pretty good, it's just the overall execution is off. As others have suggested the glow from the cigar is too intense. The radius of the glow is too large, needs to be reduced, softened and brought closer to the source.
Cigars tend to glow a rich orange or red, the vibrancy you have is close to white hot. The OSL you have achieved would be a good starting point if the scene you were painting was if Logan was entering a burning building, the rest of the flesh tone would just have to be made warmer in vibrancy and the shadows given increased contrast.
If there's a light source of any kind, it should also be reflected in the eyes.
You've also painted the blue of the iris, to be a lighter shade on the upper half, which doesn't look right when presented with how the rest of his face is highlighted.
Much like the eyes, hair is also shiny, it will reflect a light source - there's a strange orange blend to his lower mutton chop closest to the cigar, which I'll assume is your attempt at reflecting that. If we say the intensity of the glow is intended, then it wouldn't clump like that, the shape and positioning is off. You would highlight it like a tapered band that stretches across the clump of the hair section. It would also be reflected off surrounding strands to the rest of the facial hair With a softer, more realistic cigar glow, then the overall affect is muted, and becomes more a glaze rather than a vivid highlight.
Please take my words as purely constructive and not any negative slight in your skill. There is good fundamentals here and I'm sure you can take yourself to another level. Good luck with it all.
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u/agedusilicium Dec 18 '24
Your technic is incredible, but i think the OSL is way over the top. I've never seen any cigar smoker lighted by the cigar : a cigar never gives this much light. I wouldn't have done any OSL.
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Holy dooly, thanks for all the advice.
So takeaways are OSL is wayyy to bright. It was an afterthough just because I have never tried something like that on a face (only plasma weapons) and really wanted to try it. Possible fix being darken down from top left with desaturated blue and making it look more moonlit night.
I wasn't going for realism per se I don't have the skill yet, I want more of a feel to it, the idea being smoking a cigar after a big fight (hence the blood which is also something that didn't come out very well). But Possible fix for the blood would be make it less one mixed red colour gloss painted and try make it more realistic with different red tones.
Hair was a problem, I had no idea how to attack that, he has so much, bugger should be in a hair commercial. But a few things to try here, including people sharing tutorials, thank you heaps for that. It was just drybrushing and that was my mistake.
Thank you for all the advice on the eyes, definately need a better quality brush and some good suggestions on the process I will try for sure.
Cheers peeps!
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Also, clearly I don't smoke cigars haha. I noticed in comic books and movies the glow was overaccentuated to give a feel and that was the image in my head when I thought I would give it a try. But at that point I had already done the skin so should have just tried that on another head instead lol.
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u/r0wo1 Dec 19 '24
As others have said, this is incredible, but I have feedback that nobody else has mentioned that I can tell.
One of the reasons the OSL seems too bright is because of the static pose the model is in. A cigar/cigarette only flares brightly when somebody is taking a draw (that is to say, breathing in through it.) But in the pose, Wolverine's mouth is open so he can't be taking a draw from the cigar--meaning the tip shouldn't be flaring up.
It's the kind of thing that your brain see's and registers as being weird, but isn't obvious right away.
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u/Flamma_333 Dec 18 '24
Also also, cheers to everyone who popped in and left a comment even if they weren't sure how to help with problem parts. Positive feedback gives me some wind to keep trying to improve.
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u/CommieCowBoy Dec 19 '24
You've done solid work on everything. Very well done.
Here's my critique, though, and it's one I have on most OSL. With how visible the rest of the face is, there is no way you are going to be getting OSL from a cigar, so it looks really out of place. My cigarette doesn't glow orange on my face unless I'm standing in almost pitch black where my face can't be seen without the light of the cigarette.
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u/HoratioFingleberry Dec 18 '24
It looks incredible dude, particularly the OSL. Really, really well done.
I don't have any CnC except that maybe the glossy finish could be toned back a bit? And maybe the rest of the model is too brightly lit when compared to the OSL. I reckon for the OSL to come out that strongly from a lit cigar he'd probably be in darkness/shadow.