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Let's Paint some minis man
Indignant_Puffin Visual Art DK30 Fall 2020 4 2
Description
Learning the basics of miniature painting
I have looked from afar at miniature painting for years and now is the time to dive in! I will learn about it and start painting this month. My papa is really into board games and I want to improve his gaming using this art.
Recent Updates
Okay, so I’m a little late on this update but I finished this orc barbarian last week. I really like how the cloak ended up looking and the rust details I added to the axes look really nice. I made a mistake when adding the snow flecks to his chest and that means I had to add more snow than I wanted to. But now I know how important it is to test paint viscosity before flinging at your fully painted mini. Mistakes are how you learn and it ended up being okay in the end, I was very disappointed in the moment though.
** Day 5)**
I finished my 2nd mini. This was another Yuan-Ti for D&D 5e, but this one was more intricate. My first mini was very flat and had a muted feel to it. There was no sense of texture and it failed at capturing the 3D nature of minis. In order to avoid this I had two main focuses with this mini. 1st I wanted to make the scales on the tale look oily and slithery, as well as giving them better highlights. I think I did this well, and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. 2nd I wanted to add layers on the skin to make the muscles pop. I did this by adding a base layer and 3 progressively lighter layers to highlight the muscles. This looks much better than my first mini, and I will do this for all minis I paint in the future. This really showed me that I need to highlight more than I have been so far. That will be what I focus on for my next miniature.
Week 1 update
I have painted my first miniature. It is a simple Yuan-ti figure for D&D 5e but I am quite proud of it. I find the fine details challenging because I have pretty shaky hands, but that should lesson with practice. I did really enjoy using the Vallejo bronze paint for the armor, shield, and Khopesh. It added a really nice pop of metallic contrast.
**Some things to improve on. **
- I did not do well dry brushing. I think I left too much paint on the brush which led to smudging and streaks. There were places I needed to repaint because of this.
- I don’t like how the skin turned out as much as I wish. This is because I only painted one layer and did not overlay some progressively lighter values on top of it.
Estimated Timeframe
Oct 20th - Nov 20th
Week 1 Goal
Week of learning, and starting.
This week I will find the tools that I need to begin painting. I will try and order things and look at my local stores to see if I can find the things I need. I will watch tutorials and learn about the art form. I will then try and complete a miniature or two in this time.
Week 2 Goal
Week of terms and Base coat
I will watch tutorials and learn at least 10 terms associated with this art form. I will also work on refining my techniques. Specifically working on first putting down a darker base coat and then detailing with lighter colours and darker shadows.
Week 3 Goal
Week of highlights
Oh boy I’m starting to get good! is what I’m hopefully saying at this point. This week I focus on highlighting better. This will make me really pay attention to the lines on the mini. I want to have at least 4 miniatures painted at this point.
Week 4 Goal
I will start on one of my dad’s board games
I will probably start with The Grimm Forest because it’s a nice set of figures from pig people, to houses, to dragons. I am undecided on which mini from this game I will start with, but I can’t wait to start!
