It's been a while since I've done an actual "log" as in discussing my painting journey rather than just posting pictures of painted minis, so let's take some time now. This is both to provide (hopefully useful) content for y'all as well as to journal my work. I have a sizeable number of minis that I painted in the before times, before getting back into painting a year ago, where I tell myself "how did I achieve that?" and I think it might be helpful to have a record of what I've been up to for future me.
I've been focusing on two things lately: trying to get a larger difference between dark and light color values on the most shaded and most highlighted surfaces on the minis I paint, and also trying to figure out the proper paint consistency for glazing, as a skill to further the first focus. I dislike the patchiness of some of my paint jobs, especially when viewed up close, and I think if I had smoother color transitions my individual brush strokes would be less visible, achieving a smoother overall effect.
I think the Timberwolf I posted above does a good job of achieving the first goal, it has pretty dramatic shadows and well-lit upper surfaces, but the individual brush strokes are also very apparent and up close it has a patchy look.
I made a simple wet palette out of a takeout container, wet paper towels and a bit of parchment paper so I could more easily thin paints to and keep paints at glazing consistency.
The result of practicing this skill is this Warhammer:
It's not perfect, but I feel like I'm getting pretty close. I think more patience is needed to really take the time and focus on each panel if I really want to nail what I'm going for. I was going for a "heat effected metal" effect on the tips of the PPC barrels, but I think I needed to water down my paints more to get them properly translucent for that effect to really sell.
I also reposed and painted this Stormcrow, albeit with much less attention to detail and more shortcuts. I was in a rush to get these minis painted before a game so I did this one in more speed mode. I'm pretty happy with the cockpit windows, but the grey looks obviously drybrushed which gives it IMO a dirtier look. My method for painting red for the more recent minis has been to paint the entire mech grey with highlights and shading, then to paint the red areas with 50/50 red ink and water. The ink is translucent so the shading is maintained. I have also started to add extra green shading to the red areas before painting with the red ink, as green will darken red without making it look muddy. The red actually looks very rich and more shaded and highlighted in person. I'm not sure how to get the red to show up as nice on camera!
I've been transitioning to this new base effect, going for a "muddy battlefield" look. My most recent bases have achieved it best I think. The method has been to paint the base with a light dirt color, then to heavily apply umber wash, allowing the wash to pool up on the base and dry. It leaves behind that whitish glaze that IMO does a decent job of simulating light reflecting off very shallow muddy puddles.
To finish off this long reply, here's a pic of the battle that was my self-imposed painting deadline for these minis: a traditional Clan Honor Duel between a Star of my Hell's Horses and a Steel Viper star in the Clan Invasion era.
