And now for something completely different and a little unexpected, here's a little painting exercise ! I've decided to take part in a little online painting challenge a couple of weeks ago. The rules were pretty simple : the only pots available had to be black, white, turquoise and orange !
Working with a limited palette should be OK, I'm used to it I thought... And then reality struck me in the face...
If model painters are ranked from "tournament minimum 3 colours" to "master level multi awarded god" well.... I guess I'm firmly stuck somewhere in the grey area in between.
Now what drives my painting ?
I do paint to see ideas in my head made tangible and also because the very act of painting soothes me. This means I do have a comfort zone, there are things I know I can do and things I know I can attempt with a reasonable chance of success. I also have a standard set to a relatively forgiving level. Done is better than perfect.
Now why all the banter ? Well this little challenge made me realise I never paint to learn anything and I saw this challenge to change that a bit.
I tend to use solid colours and like to work from dark to light, I always feel insecure working the other way.
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| The demonette was the model I had in head at first but I later decided to opt for somehing a little more challenging... |
No since I was trying to do things differently I undercoated the model white which I haven't done in 18 years give or take.
Now painting over white with washes mostly is clearly not something I'm used to, it requires a brush control I completely lack and a pushing/pulling ability that excedes what I usually do. It certainly was a fun thing so I decided to do the model in one sitting. That's also something I almost never do, I just can't sit for more than 30 minutes in front of the same model.
The process, although messy, was very enjoyable, almost childish fun !
As you can see, the standard is not very high and I didn't take the time to correct every mistake (although I was bullied into removing an annoying mouldline right before the end...). I didn't have any plan for this model and chose it for this reason so it was all about the painting process rather than the end result on this one.
So all in all, what did I learn ?
- I can definitely improve my brush control, the more you thin your paints, the more you need to know where to place your pigments (unless you apply a hundred coats but that's for another painting exercise I guess)
- I very rarely mix paints and use their interactions, mixing turquoise and orange offered me a range from one to the other with browns and greens in between I honestly didn't suspect (even my own kids know that better I'm sure)
- I never ever use black and white to darken/lighten a colour, I tend to use greys (neutral or not) so the extreme desaturation was quite fun to see.
- Working with a white undercoat is something entirely different, I'm used to grey prime coats (or zenithaled white over black) and I guess my whole painting relies on this. Painting from a white undercoat makes me paint differently which is nice but I'm afraid it can make the models look "different". Although I do love the change, I have to determine how fine I'd be with having models with different styles on the table (I do play with friends who paint a different way from mine and I'm more than fine with it so I guess there's an answer here).
Anyway, I hope this little interlude wasn't too dull, I really welcome you to take a session to try that, it can't really harm !
I'm going back to batch painting now, see you folks !
I love this! Especially the miniature you chose given the paints you had to work with; it has a truly sumptuous ethereal quality. <3
ReplyDeleteCheers Becca ! I thought Harlequins could use a different take, far from the saturated rainbows they usually get, looks more fitting to their background than the full Copa Cabana look !
DeleteFascinating. Always interesting to get a glimpse into how other people work. I'm really tempted to try this myself.
ReplyDeleteYou should have a go, you don't risk much more than learning a few things really !
DeleteInteresting experiment...and very impressive results!
ReplyDeleteThanks !
DeleteIt strikes me how do those particular colours work on that mini. The result is terrific, much better that anything I could have expected. Nice exercise and damn good result.
ReplyDeleteWell the organiser chose complementary colours and did well to do so but still, they're a pair I particularly enjoy.
DeleteI love this color scheme. One of my favourite go-to schemes for my female figurines.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I tend to dislike hot colours and everything around yellow, I really like orange once it's associated with blue or other tones to add a counterpoint.
DeleteThat’s definitely an abyolutely gorgeous paint job! I too would never have thought you could get such an interesting range of colours out of just these four.
ReplyDeleteI think it's an exercise I'll repeat once in a while to learn how to use my colours honestly. ^^
DeleteWhat an interesting experiment. I have fallen into a bit of a rut with my painting so might give something like this a go to shank things up a bit.
ReplyDeleteI believe it's only natural, when you have something working, you just keep on rolling. I won't change everything I do naturally but when the opportunity arises I'll surely try and use what I learned here !
DeleteIt's not something I've ever done myself JB, but it's definitely a useful exercise. There's effects on this mini that you most probably wouldn't have achieved of not for the limitation. I like the light grey shrunken pistol, the blue base is really ace too!
ReplyDeleteI might give it a go :)
You're right, some things would never have occured otherwise, that's why it's fun to paint models out of any "plan" I guess. I really did fancy the base actually, I tend to base everything the same boring way for coherence but it was nice ! ^^
DeleteI love it, I think the minimal colours suit the figure very well. I'm still trying to get myself into the mindset of using minimalist colour choices.
ReplyDeleteIt's frightening isn't it ? It's a fun exercise though. ^^
DeletePretty funky. Why choose that Harlequin, out of interest? Why the conversion work?
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to write up how you paint. I'm surprised white undercoats scare so many people. I find layering up from dark to light awkward as you can't chunk out colours as easily, or judge how two colours will look placed next to each other – as everything ends up dark.
I chose the Harlequin over the demonette because I plan to use the demonette later and I had that guy sitting around, he came free in a trade and was missing an arm hence the conversion.
DeleteI honestly wouldn't go back to a black undercoat either, I like my greyish undercoats now. White and black undercoat scare me for the exact same reason actually. ^^
Funnily enough I'm working on white undercoated miniatures for the first time for years too. I'm not trying to push and pull pigment around like you suggest, just basecoating primarily with inks for the sake of speed. I haven't found brush control to an issue as a result.
ReplyDeleteI understand your concerns about the style change possibly making the miniatures stand apart from existing work though. For tga t reason I'm working on a project with a small model count as a test.
I *think* that highlighting the models in a similar way to how I work normally (dark to light) will tie the style back to my ithe r models adequately. Consistent basing style will help too. I don't think that it's a big concern, for me at least. It will be interesting to see how you progress with this, doubly so for me at the moment I think.
Are you going to paint any more Harlequins?
This was an exercise but I will be trying it again and especially how to make the result blend with the rest. I'll try to make inks work for me in the future though instead of pushing/pulling pigments.
DeleteI have been looking for a good colour scheme for my oldschool Harlequins and I might just have found it actually !
Interesting to read about your approach to painting in general - all too similar to my own philosophy.
ReplyDeleteI tried something a wee bit similar to this exercise a year or so ago by tackling a sculpt that was 90% bared skin in an attempt to make it look "interesting" and natural in pale fleshtones. Not easy at all.
Not easy indeed but you can learn a great deal from it.
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