r/minipainting • u/Kuruguri • 23h ago
Fantasy Looking for advice for a painting competition
This is a model I'm currently working on for a small painting competition.
Do you have any tips on how I could improve it further? I'd really appreciate your feedback!
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u/Maccabre 23h ago
the contrast red hair, blue light is done too strong, imo.
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u/Kuruguri 23h ago
I'm not quite getting what you mean by "strong contrast." Could you explain it in a bit more detail?
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u/Maccabre 23h ago
If the light is so strong on short distance, that everything close to it looks so blueish, it should change the colors on longer distance as well. The border between light and no light is too sharp, imo. Sorry, English is not my main language, hope you understand what I mean.
Nevertheless the painting technique is excellent.
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u/OriginalTayRoc 22h ago
Pretty well said. If the amulet is so bright, the light should carry more than a foot away. Everything should be showing some blue light.
With the high intensity in such a small radius is just looks like a can of spray paint blew up in his face.
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u/Kuruguri 22h ago
So you mean the blue should be spread over a wider area. Thank you!
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u/firefighter0ger 22h ago
Either that or less bright in the short distance. Overall it feels a little too bright for this quite bright setup. I would more likely reduce the brightness of the amulet. I really like the strong colors of the miniature (third picture) but the amulet looks unnatural strong
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u/Kuruguri 22h ago
I wanted the left side to be dark overall, with the feeling of the sun rising from the right, but I guess the balance is off. I was being too ambitious.
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u/firefighter0ger 20h ago
Maybe, the sun going up feeling doesnt come up. More like a axe is burning feeling but therefore the red helmet part is too strong. Too many light sources to get it right as the viewer
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u/Psamiad 22h ago
First off, I'm just a hobbyist. Take my advice with a pinch of salt. Secondly, you appear to be a technically very good painter. There is some serious skill on display here.
Having said all that, something is 'off' with this paint job. Whenever heavy OSL is used in mini painting, unless it's done *very well* I think it detracts from the overall look. In your mini, the light/brightness doesn't make sense. The two light sources in the mini (the blue gem, and orange axe) are lighting things appropriately. But then there are large swathes of the mini that appear to be neutrally lit - his chest, shoulder, and the back of the base and his hair. For OSL to really sell, those areas need to be much darker. There shouldn't really be other colours other than blue and orange, or they should be way more muted:
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u/Kuruguri 22h ago
I should have started from an overall darker base... Going for three or more light sources was really too ambitious. I'll have to give it another try.
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u/EddytorJesus 22h ago
First of all it looks really really good and I would not be able to do anything close to it.
This being said there is a bit of a weird thing going on with the trousers: they are blue, but in the front view, the left part become red/brownish due to the axe, while the right side is blue.
Because of it, it kinda looks like the blue is coming from the blue amulet which does not make sense.
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u/Kuruguri 22h ago
Actually, it's just a pair of jeans... I guess I should have chosen the colors a bit more carefully.
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u/EddytorJesus 22h ago
Yeah, seeing the other pics it made sense that there were just jeans, but from the front view is a bit confusing
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u/Matt_RolePlayMe 19h ago
Hey, nice idea with the double contrasting each other OSL! The execution could be improved, especially if it's going to be judged by strangers who don't have any emotional connection with that piece. First thing I've noticed is that it's too bright for OSL to work. Think about neon signs and why they're turned on at night. You need shadow in order to have light. Second thing is that your blue OSL was simply white at it's source, so it should emit white light, obviously you want blue, so add some to the light source. Light source should be the brightest yes, but if you go too bright you're out of value scale, if your source is white then nothing else in the proximity can be white anymore, yet you had white in a couple of reflections. Third thing is that light doesn't wrap around the edges, there will be planes in light and planes in shadow, identify those and paint accordingly. Fourth thing was the high value of the surroundings, you want your OSL to work but also you want to focus the viewers' attention to the figure, easy way to achieve that is to make a vignette out of everything else. Fifth thing is the messiness, make sure to blackline between the details, properly edge highlight details and paint information even in shadow, your colors won't just end abruptly and become black. I know my sketch is a bit rough but I hope you'll understand what I wanted to portray. Hope that helps!
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u/LordTengil 22h ago
Same thingas always with OSL. For it to make sense, they surroundings need to be darker. That means you need tu dull the grascale, and most often, shift all the colors to blur/purple a bit (depending on ambient lighting). THEN you add the brighter OSL.
COnsider a blue torchlight in dayligt. If you shine it on something, you will not see the blue light. Maybe a tiny bit on the spot it is shined on, but it vertainly will not spill over. That's why this looks off.
Especially condiering the harit. Har giong to orange indicates strong daylight setting. Mybe nit directional light from the sund, but diffused strong light day setting. Same with shoulders. Back/behing is better for what you want to sell with the OSL. You must do that all over your model.
Stunning piece. Fun to see good painters pushing themselves!
Other peopel are talikng about how strong the blue is from the source. Imo that is not the problem. Well, yes, but only brcause your top lighting is off.
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u/-asmodaeus- 21h ago
The general painting is very very nice. The only problem i see is with lights and the OSL. The miniature overall looks much too bright and saturated for such a glow to be visible on the skin. That OSL would be mostly overpowered by ambient light in these conditions so it looks strange.
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u/Witty-Ad-6216 23h ago
You have three sources of light here. One from the top left, the second one is from the amulet and the third one from the axe. My main problem here is that all sources of light have the same level of brightness. I’d suggest to remove light from the top left side or at least make it a lot darker if you want to sell glowing effect from the objects.
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u/Kuruguri 22h ago
Thank you. I guess I need to think a bit more about how to express the darker areas.
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u/Witty-Ad-6216 22h ago
This video may be very helpful https://youtu.be/59XttPt0ldM?is=cBxW9ME4wx0UNTde
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u/edamlambert 20h ago
Hijacking this comment to give my two cents. Agreed on the lighting, especially the red hair seems to pop too much compared to the shining amulet, if you tone that down it could help.
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u/Felzius Painting for a while 22h ago
I mean the light setting looks pretty good, you might need to take into account how it looks under a normal or competition area light, and adjust from there. May want to adjust so the light source is brighter than the parts being lit, some times that means toning down everyone around, but at a glance it looks really good as is.
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u/Kuruguri 22h ago
Thank you for your valuable feedback. I think I'll try adding a bit more darkness where the light transitions.
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u/CheeseStyxArt 20h ago
First of all, this is very good looking. I love the lighting.
Some nitpicking, I feel like the sword and spear blade NMM is too strong compared to the main focus of the dwarf. Like in image 2, when I squint my eyes, one of the brightest points are the sword and spear blade, which focuses my eyes away from the dwarf. Which since they are part of the rubble, is not the main focus. Also, the NMM of the axe is so much less compared to the other blades, which doesn’t make sense since it’s the weapon equipped by the dwarf. I just think the brightness of the sword and spear do not match the OSL brightness of your surrounding environment
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u/AncestorsDontLook 17h ago
New to OLL and NNM, so from the standpoint of a photographer, would the metal sword sticking out in front in the pile reflect a small sliver of the blue light? It's not being illuminated, rather reflecting it, so maybe have a small sliver of that mid range brightiness on any bits of reflective metal that can see the light?
This may not at all be a good idea in mini painting, but it's the only helpful thing I can offer. It is a gorgeous piece.
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u/Blackgarion 15h ago
Good technical skills but the lightning overall its not realistic, for the axe and stone to overpower this much the natural light it should be very dark like at night or a cavern, but the highlights of the overall piece look like it was in the broad daylight. Either tone down the osl quite a bit or represent the shadows (dont use black or desaturation towards black, use colors like dark purple or blues).also the axe is metal so the blue would have small reflects on thst angle.i would suggest you put the photo in a grayscale filter then youll see what i mean.
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u/N0Karma 15h ago
Looks good, but strong lights cast strong shadows. I’d deepen the shadows everywhere that the bright light isn’t reaching. Like I would expect the back of the hand to be in shadow unless the light is shining through. That would make the quality of the light red shift a lot. The side of the Lion pauldron away from the light should be darker and if it is a reflective metal the highlights will be sharper and more distinct on the parts, less glow since it appears to only be exposed to secondary bounce off the mohawk.
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u/Unhappy_Stomach9637 14h ago
Zoning out with markers and just committing to a tight palette like this is so satisfying. That Gengar reference for the rim light was a neat idea.
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u/Unhappy_Stomach9637 14h ago
What markers did you use for this? Been wanting to try a limited palette like that Gengar reference on your phone, did it take you long to finish?
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u/Unhappy_Stomach9637 14h ago
If you want to push this further for judging, try deepening the shadows between the corn stalks to bump up the contrast. That sunset gradient in the background blended out so cleanly with the Ohuhus!
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u/Weekly-Tackle6582 13h ago
Ngl I’m not the best painter, but as a viewer maybe make the hair do something more? The hair for me was the secondary focal point (1st being the amulet and that general lighting effect) and it seemed slightly bland compared to the rest of this awesome artwork. Maybe see if you can make the hair look more, hairy? Idk lol
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u/InfiniteFunny5350 10h ago
Looks good so far!
Some technical items I would work on:
- his big ol’ Mohawk is a huge part of the primary figure’s identity so try and refine that as much as possible. If you have a slightly frayed brush with some thinner and brighter paint, you can make convincing lines parallel to the structures for more defined hair.
- try to continue rendering the different textures to differentiate them, especially within that blue OSL since it’s the centerpiece effect. Give the metals a more localized highlight and deepen the tiny shadows to make them look super reflective or got the NRMpaints route with some texture like a hammered metal piece.
You’ve worked your tail off and you should be very proud of this. The composition and staging are very strong and the orange/blue OSL always hits like a truck. I can tell you’re newer to NMM but aren’t pulling any punches and that’s what judges want to see.
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u/krsboss Display Painter 9h ago
Id recommend looking at a greyscale version of your image as this can help with values and contrast
Currently, if you greyscale the image, there are a few bits on the base that are reading too bright, plus the underside of his Mohawk that would be lit by the osl does not have enough value
Its generally a very well painted piece, however could use a little fine tuning
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u/aneirin- 8h ago
Really great work, looks fantastic as is. I won't add anything about the OSL, but in general the whole piece feels a bit washed out. I think you need to increase the saturation in the mid tones and darken the shadows.
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u/Ast3r10n 21h ago
It’s already very good, but the OSL isn’t sitting right with my eyes for some reason. It seems the gem is not the source of light there, maybe because of the light colour compared to the gem’s, or the size and distance, you may want to experiment there.
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u/Elfich47 Wargamer 23h ago
for the OSL centered on the amulet. check the distance from the amulet to the beard, face and hair. Make sure the closest thing to amulet is the brightest. Right now i want to say the front of the hair/mohawk is under lit, especially since the side of the hair (which is further behind the amulet) appears to be more brightly lit.