Author Topic: Wraith with Freehand  (Read 734 times)

abou

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Wraith with Freehand
« on: 20 January 2025, 14:47:51 »
Started work on a Wraith last week. Wanted to experiment with blues that turn to greens. It was also a good opportunity to give freehand a go: so of course I do something complicated like a cat skull. It is mostly symmetrical, but laid a little skewed on the peak of the head. But hey, I need to give myself some grace for the first real go at it!

Daryk

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #1 on: 20 January 2025, 15:48:57 »
Beautiful work! :)

17thRecon

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #2 on: 20 January 2025, 18:10:31 »
Transitions are awesome. I think you’re nitpicking the skull; I’m not seeing it skewed at all, but my eye for detail isn’t the best, either. Looks great, and definately give yourself the grace; you’re probably your own hardest critic 😀

ColBosch

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #3 on: 21 January 2025, 03:53:35 »
Looks great! I really need to practice blending and transitions.
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jimdigris

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #4 on: 21 January 2025, 05:59:24 »
 :smilie_happy_thumbup:

abou

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #5 on: 21 January 2025, 23:09:36 »
Thanks for the compliments on the blends. To be honest though, it isn't as hard as it looks. Yes, there is the use of brush control and understanding glazing, but part of it is just using the right paints for the job.

I basically used phthalo blue (green shade) with lemon yellow. The lemon yellow has white added to it for brightness and opacity and the phthalo blue is a single pigment artist paint. The phthalo blue is transparent, which makes those transitions easy. And that's really the key. If I tried it with a lot of standard mini paints, it would be really frustrating, but you need to understand your pigments.

jairb

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #6 on: 22 January 2025, 15:45:53 »
Thanks for the compliments on the blends. To be honest though, it isn't as hard as it looks. Yes, there is the use of brush control and understanding glazing, but part of it is just using the right paints for the job.

And don't forget color vision.  Given that 60% of males have some degree of color blindness blending this is a real issue.  It's one of the reasons I got so excited when The Army Painter launched their Fanatic line of paints.  They're explicitly named and grouped into color families that take the guesswork out of the mix for me.

ISD

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #7 on: 23 January 2025, 00:44:27 »
That is fantastic :cool:
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Gladius-XC

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #8 on: 23 January 2025, 06:14:51 »
You did a really good job on maintaining the directionality of your blends.  Some of the transitions on the legs seemed really sharp at first, but once I saw the overhead view, I saw why that was - there is a sharp divide between the highlight and shadow there. Really well done!

abou

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #9 on: 23 January 2025, 14:42:25 »
And don't forget color vision.  Given that 60% of males have some degree of color blindness blending this is a real issue.  It's one of the reasons I got so excited when The Army Painter launched their Fanatic line of paints.  They're explicitly named and grouped into color families that take the guesswork out of the mix for me.
I think the labeling decision by AP was an obvious, but great decision for new painters. That's a great ergonomic choice that should be adopted by other companies. That being said, many of their colors add quite a bit of white and/or black for opacity in the mix. You do need to be careful because you won't get the transparency and mixed colors can turn gray on you.

As an aside, I didn't realize that the numbers were that severe for men when it comes to color blindness.

You did a really good job on maintaining the directionality of your blends.  Some of the transitions on the legs seemed really sharp at first, but once I saw the overhead view, I saw why that was - there is a sharp divide between the highlight and shadow there. Really well done!
Thanks. I was going for blue as the midtone, green for the highlight, and yellowish green for the edge highlights. You can't really see it in this photo, but the shadows move into a desaturated purple tone. So everything was mixed with the phthalo blue, lemon yellow, and primary red that has a more magenta quality to it.

ColBosch

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #10 on: 23 January 2025, 16:09:33 »
As an aside, I didn't realize that the numbers were that severe for men when it comes to color blindness.

Yup. And it can change depending on which eye you're talking about. My vision is noticeably "colder" (more blue-shifted) in my right eye.
BattleTech is a huge house, it's not any one fan's or "type" of fans.  If you need to relieve yourself, use the bathroom not another BattleTech fan. - nckestrel
1st and 2nd Succession Wars are not happy times. - klarg1
My BattleTech blog: https://allthemechs.blogspot.com/

Daryk

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #11 on: 23 January 2025, 20:04:16 »
I'm strangely relieved about some of the color arguments I've had with my wife and daughters over the years now...

abou

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #12 on: 23 January 2025, 21:27:16 »
I'm strangely relieved about some of the color arguments I've had with my wife and daughters over the years now...
Hey man, don't sell yourself short. It might not be your genetics; you might just have bad taste.

Louie N

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #13 on: 24 January 2025, 02:19:51 »
great work. 

Daryk

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Re: Wraith with Freehand
« Reply #14 on: 24 January 2025, 04:24:02 »
Hey man, don't sell yourself short. It might not be your genetics; you might just have bad taste.
Good feeling all gone... ;D