Hi All! I've been slowly but steadily becoming active in the forum and honestly you guys have been awesome to interact with. I decided to help myself get more motivated to paint in the midst of a busy life by sharing my painting with you. My painting experience is pretty basic, and I haven't done it in a couple years. I used to play 40k back in the day, however, the Seraphon have converted me to AoS and I am loving them. Anyway, if you have any feedback please don't be afraid to share it with me. The better the advice the better I will become as a painter. I will be updating the blog as I make it through more of my army.
They look good, you don’t say what experience you have as a painter? Next step is to shade and highlight models
Ya I have been doing some basic shading, the flash makes it a little harder to see. Highlighting is what i'm studying right now. Thanks though, Im glad you like them.
Now the hard bit, we all want to get better but how far do you want to go? I ask this as I have been where you are and I am never satisfied with my work, I guess everyone is the same but finding the cut off point for a model is the hardest part and over the last year I have come to terms with that, your going to go through exactly the same thing as we all do it, I want to be good at painting but how good we just don’t know. Shadeing is your next step
Looks good, but I think another light sepia shade over the bone, teeth, skin, and armor would help make him look more defined.
I would use a red wash for the red part on top, and a sepia wash for everything else except the spearhead (use thinned down purple there). You could leave the orange part if you like it that bright, or use a thinned down flesh wash. But for the horns, teeth, spear shaft and gold I would use sepia, then carefully drybrush highlight the armor with bright gold or silver.
I think you've done a great job so far! But as Aginor and Crowsfoot have already suggested, you need to apply more wash to the model. Right now, it doesn't show. (It could be the flash of your camera taking out a lot of it, but usually a good wash will still show even through a flash like that.) Don't be afraid to go heavy with a wash. You want to go for a stark contrast there, because that is what will give your model shadows and depth. Otherwise, it just looks very flat and plastic. A good wash will also start to blend your colors together more. By this I mean, your white and purple areas are in VERY stark contrast to one another and that's not always what you want. Some things it's okay to have that effect (like when you want a glowing weapon, so a bright orange will contrast nicely with a darker background color) but on skin, you don't see that very often and there is usually a bit of a transition between the two colors, even if it is as slight as a thin line. A wash can start to "blur that abrupt line and make it easier for the brain to make that transition from on color to the next. Typically, with metals, you want to go with a black wash (like Nuln Oil) and earth tones, go for something like Agrax Earthshade. Those two washes should be the first two you ever reach for and should be the two you always have in your paint stock. Sepia is another good one, but a lighter shade of brown (a bit more on the orange-y side) and is very good with skin tones. I find that red washes need more contrasting colors to really show up well, meaning that you might have to do a bit more layering with red washes. The next step you'll need to learn will be highlighting and drybrushing. Those two (especially drybrushing to begin with) will take your painting to the next level!
I would also recommend a test subject. Grab an unused mini, prime it, and paint it. Play and test the colours. Use different washes and see the effect after drying. Green wash over red base colour? Seems odd, but works nicely. If not satisfied, just re-prime it and retry. Also think about purchasing a colour wheel, if you don't already have one. It helps a lot in planning and preparing.