Im not sure if its my stippling technique, or what my volumes look really messy. I've been finicking around with the same arm and color for about 2 hours and I cant get it to look right. This has been my best shot so far.
#Cant get stippling or layering right.
gritty atlas
This took way too long for a stipple
and glaze?
Im not sure at this point
I kinda used both techniques
layering too
rotund crest
Well, a few things:
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A week and a half ago you said you had about 12 hours max experience painting. How many are you up to now? When starting out it’s better, IMO, to focus on clean application of paint, proper highlight placement, and understanding shapes rather than specific blending techniques. To that point, the highlight placement doesn’t look bad, right area and right general shape. Needs more contrast to really be good highlight.
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Glazing is generally easier going from light to dark. So placing a highlight and then glazing with a midtone between the highlight and your base would be easier than trying to glaze a highlight in place.
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I see no evidence of stippling in this picture, it may just be the focus isn’t on the right part for me to see detail, or perhaps you’re not using a sharp brush, regardless I see none of the texture I’d expect.
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None of the techniques you listed are exclusive. They have their own purposes. But, I see you using the terms and I’m not entirely sure you understand what it is you’re trying to mean. Which is fine, we all start from somewhere and a lot of videos just jump ahead as though you know the terminology
For example, Dave Colwell does a lot of stippling for his blends. You can see a soft, almost fuzzy texture to his work up close because of the cluster of dots from his technique: https://www.instagram.com/p/CXF1VgCBalq/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
gritty atlas
in total im about 18 hours in so 6 horus additional experience
im just kind of sick of painting necrons and space marines
so im going to buy some cheap minatures off etsy
something about painting 40k just stresses me out
im gonna paint for a total of 100 hours
thats my goal
so i came up with a google sheet to catalog each day
what i learn and shit like that
yeah I think you might be right about that
screw these techniques
im going to go for shapes
red haven
the important thing when using a specific technique is to have a good idea of what the end result should be and why you're using it. Stippling for instance is good for things like:
- adding random variation
- making gradients in a way that's time consuming as hell but not very risky
- blurring harsh boundaries by introducing dotting to break it up
- creating microtexture on the model which can be used for other techniques
Glazing is generally used for creating smooth gradients or blurring harsh transitions made by other techniques. It is also very time consuming.
If you supply an image of what you're going for it'll be easier to give you guidance of a good approachable way of getting there.
What I see in the image is that you look like you have a solid coat of a chocolate brown, the paint is not applied thickly (which a lot of newbies do) but rather in a thin opaque coat. This is a great starting point for any paint job.
What I also see is that there's a very subtle lighter area at the top, I assume this is where you've been stippling? I think a lot of your frustration here is that you're using very slow techniques that give very little impact for time investment and are a beginner at them so that's making it even slower.
My suggestion would be to try at this from the opposite direction. Go bold, use techniques that give a lot of impact faster and then, if you feel you need to, refine or try the slower techniques to clean up the harsh transitions you've created. If your darkest dark and your highest highlight is where they should be and you have a midtone in between the model will look decent and it becomes up to you how much time you want to invest into refining it or trying another model. It also becomes a lot easier to gauge what color you need, because if you have say a tan color and a brown and the transition between them is too stark, the color you need to blur that transition is simply a 50-50 mix of both. If the transitions still are too stark, use a 75-25 mix on one side and a 25-75 mix on the other. etc.
gritty atlas
Sup guys so I took some of your advice and this is what I got.
I used a sponge to stipple and then used a brush
Not perfect but I think a little better
an issue i was having before was that the paint was way too wet
so was my brush
the light in the room is helping that picture but a lot of it is paint
I think
@red haven @rotund crest
rotund crest
The highlights are far more noticeable here and there’s definitely some stipple texture. By too wet I’m assuming you mean too thinned? That could be the case, although stippling a glaze is a valid technique to both add texture and create smoother transitions.
Another thing to consider as you practice is the overall shape of the model and your light placement. Currently, where your highlights are there appears to be a spotlight aimed at the marine’s pelvis. And then there’s a second overhead light which is catching his pauldrons a bit. Perhaps a marine burlesque show?
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByzoUaRHM-3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
https://www.instagram.com/p/BmEomC0HXeX/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj9FqBOjHS8/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
In these examples from Dave Colwell you can see that when he does highlight the lower abdomen and pelvis similarly to how you’ve done it there’s also larger overall highlights on the chest, shoulders, and legs.
You’re definitely heading in the right direction! Keep at it!
