Iron Painter 2017: Round 2: Last Stand of the Waterbending Brothers

Here's my round 2 entry for Iron Painter. The theme was "Water, Water, Everywhere..." and I put together this idea for it. These are waterbending brothers, standing back to back, fighting off an unseen enemy. I'm pretty tired, otherwise I would do a lot more write up of this. The entry was due tonight and I just got it in under the wire. If people would like to see WIP pics or know more about how I did anything here, just leave a comment.

Iron Painter 2017: Round 1: OSL - Crooked Man

So this was my entry for round 1 of the Wyrd Iron Painter competition this year. You can read all about round 1 here. What follows in this post is just a bunch of random thoughts about my entry and the competition in general. No offense is meant to anyone, and none of this is meant as whining. Just reflection.

My entry was a pretty straightforward project. I picked the Crooked Man since it had a very easy pose to work with. I also chose to put it on one of the new Wyrd sculpted bases, which worked out nicely. I did the project SketchStyle for very obvious reasons. I'm pretty happy with my end result, although there are definitely parts that could have been done better. Going with a white light was probably not the best choice in hindsight, but it was a good learning experience. The model itself though was very fun to paint, and I did enjoy it as a project. SketchStyle is still not a great choice for me for competition quality yet, but this project helped me improve in that regard.

Online-only painting contests are tricky things. There were obviously a bunch of really good entries in this competition. I placed #53 out of 175 that actually submitted entries. The stats are all on the Wyrd forums. That puts me in the bronze tier. The tough thing about these sorts of online-only competitions is that voting becomes very obfuscated and getting feedback even moreso.

One thing I realized too late was that my photo quality could have been better. Instead of multiple angles, I should have just focused on a single photo. There's places where the photo washes out the colors a bit which is really unfortunate. I saw plenty of models where the painting quality was probably not as good, but the photos made them look much more flattering. For my next entry, I will make sure to spend

I noticed that almost all of the gold and silver tier entries were dioramas to some degree. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it does sort of reinforce to me that I wasn't aiming for complete competition level by sticking to a properly based model. I will definitely say, the #1 place entry was fantastic.

At this point, and given the week that I've had, I'm having a really hard time mustering the enthusiasm to continue the competition. The rankings of various entries was a little surprising to me. Still though, my goal was never to try to win, or even place in the gold/silver finals. I really just want to make it through to the end of the competition without a DNF. Hopefully I can pull that off. Of course, if I have another crazy life week this coming week like I had last week, then I'm screwed.

Barbaros (alt sculpt)

Finally finished the alt sculpt of Barbaros. Too tired to do a proper write up, so I'm just doing a photo dump. I'll note that this was a SketchStyle experiment that I definitely learned from.

Anna

Painted this for a friend. It was one that I had been eyeing for a while and wanted to paint. I started SketchStyle but then used it as a way to experiment with how to do metallics in SketchStyle while weaving in my own watercolor methods. I'm pretty happy with the results. One funny note on this model, after completing the underpriming, I discovered that the feet were completely in shadow, so I didn't even bother to paint them at all. #LegitShortcuts

Burt Jebsen

Another SketchStyle project. Burt was in the cheap section of the LGS since it had Mk1.5 cards in it, so for $2 it seemed like a sweet deal. I really enjoyed painting this model. Burt here just has that feel of being reckless and fun.

Witchling Handlers

The last of the Guild models I'm painting for a friend's starting crew. These sculpts are magnificent and were really a joy to paint. Other than the eyes (which are just terrible) I really enjoyed painting these models. I experimented with a new process for flesh which I think is going to work great in the longer term once I get more experience with it. I'll share more notes on that in the future once I have a chance to refine it. For now though I'm gonna cut this short since I've got a whole weekend of painting ahead of me.

Lust

Painted this for a friend. More SketchStyle practice. I spent extra time trying to work on flesh techniques which sort of worked and sort of didn't. Painting flesh tones directly over the sketch as a glaze doesn't actually work well at all, so I need to figure out how to handle that.

Wong

So this model was actually just for practice. At my LGS they have a "scratch and dent" section with discounted items. Wong here was in a Mk1 box and discounted to $2, so I snagged him for painting practice. My goal was to use SketchStyle, but to use a bit more color in the process like I would when I do my traditional painting. It worked out pretty well honestly, and I feel like I'm one step closer to merging sketching into my regular methods. The trick here was to still use the wet palette and still use thin glazes, but to use more colors and control where I put the glazes more carefully. The robe for example is just two colors (light blue and purple) but I carefully controlled where I put the purple glazes. My next step will be to take this process even further and work more colors in.

Pistol Wraith (take 2)

So this was done a while ago but I forgot to post it. Literally it was just a practice model for SketchStyle that I had sitting around waiting for some reason to paint it. Nothing amazing except that this was roughly 75 minutes of painting max.

Sonnia Criid

So this one was significantly different from the rest of the crew box. I used this as an opportunity to practice doing OSL with SketchStyle. It was also the first time I used Stynylrez primer, which I sprayed on using my airbrush obviously so that I could put the lighting exactly where I wanted it. From there things were relatively straight forward, and that initial airbrush process made it easy. Where things didn't go as well as they could was the light from the sword. I ended up with it being too bright on her leg. Also the overhead ambient light is a little too bright as well. However all things considered I learned a lot doing this one and feel even more confident.

Samael Hopkins

This one didn't go so well. The sketch for it looked great, but when I got to the step of painting the flesh, everything went wrong. I tried to mix my own flesh tone and he ended up looking undead and just got muddled up. Lesson learned: Don't try to mix my own flesh tones yet. More practice first.

Honestly part of where I set myself up for failure was I was forcing myself to only use my Golden heavy body acrylics, which I have a much smaller range of colors for. I need to practice using all of my paints with SketchStyle. That's probably the real lesson I should be learning here.

Witchling Stalkers

And here's the Witching Stalkers. These were a delight to paint SketchStyle. They have such perfect poses for it. Just everything about these went well and really helped me feel like I have a good handle on SketchStyle now. More on that in future posts though.

Purifying Flame

This is the first of the models I'm painting for a friend for their first Malifaux crew. I agreed to paint the models if I could use them as SketchStyle practice. This one is particularly odd for SketchStyle since it has lots of glow. Still though, it worked out quite well and was super fast. I think this model took me all of about 75 minutes of painting time, not counting priming.

Why I'm in Love with SketchStyle

Since starting to paint SketchStyle, I've found it to be fairly straight forward. And really throwing myself into it and aiming for speed and practicing the core technique, I've quickly grown to love it. But why exactly?

Well the answer starts with speed, but it's not the obvious reason. Finishing a model fast is certainly a nice sense of accomplishment in terms of getting things done. Beyond that though is the fact that if I'm turning over models quickly, then I feel like I'm more free to experiment. I'm actually more roadblocked by getting models assembled. This whole thing is quite freeing and makes me want to paint even more.

It's also just expanded my skill set. I'm using paints I never used before (heavy body acrylics) and using the wet palette far more than before. I'm thinking more carefully about light and value. I'm being even more accurate and controlled with my brush. Heck, I'm even forsaking trying to watch Netflix while painting and just putting on my headphones and focusing on my painting to a level I've rarely done before. All of this together is both challenging and empowering.

So where do I go from here? Well my next goal is to figure out how to make the SketchStyle technique more of my own. I have no idea what that's going to look like though, so this should be interesting.

SketchStyle Painting Class With Matt DiPietro

This last weekend I had the privilege of attending a 2 day workshop taught by the very talented Matt DiPietro (of Contrast Miniatures). Matt taught all about his "Sketch Style" painting technique. This was an incredible opportunity and definitely ranks among my favorite painting classes every taken. I haven't included all of the random notes from the class, but I do have this photo dump from the 2 days.

	This was Matt's introduction to types of contrast, out of which he emphasized that value is the most important when it comes to SketchStyle.
	Matt demonstrates priming for Sketching. He starts with quick bursts, waving the can towards the model in the process to do the diffuse lighting. Then picks an angle for directional lighting and does some more focused bursts to add that lighting. This priming step is pretty important. When doing mine, I was worried that I had put too much white on mine, but in the end I found that it was just right.
	Here Matt was talking about Value in color. He started by creating a gradient using P3 Morrow White and P3 Thamar Black. Then he extended that gradient even further using artist-grade Titanium White and at the other end a mix of Thamar Black with Indigo ink. Once he established this gradient, he picked random swatches and showed how each color had a value on that gradient scale. This understanding of Value became a foundational piece of the whole class.
	Here Matt is doing his Sketch, which involves enhancing the black and white aspects of the priming step. There's really much more to it than that though. He starts by using black to deepen the shadows and create separation between elements. It's important to note that the Thamar Black paint is darker than black primer, so this step really helps push shadows deeper. Next he goes back and starts raising the brighter parts of the sketch with P3 Morrow White, and then after that uses Titanium White sparingly to push the value even further. Matt commented that it's the Titanium White that really helps make the Sketch more "durable" for when the coloring step starts.
	These are photos of the model he was working on. His concept was to create a sense of glow from the tablet she's holding, with an additional directional light from behind her to create a contrasted set of lights. At this point he's only added black shadows; all the white is from the priming step.
	This is after he's added white. The effect is very striking.
	This was a second Sketch he did after the first one. What was great about this one is he did it at his normal speed. We timed him and it was just about 17 minutes. Watching him work at full speed was very helpful since it gave a real sense of how he works his way around the model and what he does to keep his pace moving. Matt's secret: Pandora Dubstep station.
	This was my Sketch. The idea here (thanks to Matt's prompting) was to have the coils of the guns be a light source. He also helped me get a better sense of how to handle the cylinder of the gun canister.
	Day 2 began with a LOT of discussion about color. He showed us a bunch of gradients and specifically talked about Saturation. To be honest, although I already knew a fair amount about Saturation and Hue, I found his discussion both very education and somewhat over my head. I know that I'll be mentally unpacking a bunch of what he said over the coming months as I put it into practice.
	These are from an exercise he gave us. He handed us each a bunch of swatches of colors and instructed us to put them in Value order. Then he told us to take out our phones and take a black and white photo to check our results. I clearly failed at mine, but loved the exercise.
	This is an in-progress pair of pictures of Matt's Sketch example. The photos aren't very good, but it illustrates the point. At this point he's using thin glazes to add color over the sketch. It's important to note that the glazes are purposefully thin and the sketch is supposed to show through obviously. Unlike a wash, he's using even coat glazes and getting an entire surface face (black and white).
	This is my finished model. I started with the glow effect of the coils and built that up first. From there I did the red canister which is where I felt like I started to really understand the glazing process better. I actually asked Matt to look at the canister effect just to confirm I hadn't made the glaze too thin or thick and he confirmed it was perfect. From there I moved on to the blue armor, then added the yellow. For the yellow, Matt saw I was going to use an Indian Yellow and suggested I also add a second glaze using his Indian Yellow ink afterwards. This really brought the value of the yellow back up more vividly. After that it was freehand details and touch ups. Total painting time, taking out pauses for questions and other such interruptions was probably 2 hours.
	This was a model that Matt did full speed from start (just primed) to finish (all color). It took him about 45 minutes (about 15 for the sketch, and 30 for the color), which I watched completely from start to finish. This process was amazing and the fur in particular was really fascinating to watch. The fur was a slightly different process where he used essentially several glazes as washes and wet blended them as he applied them over the fur areas. Again, seeing him paint at full speed was impressive and helpful.
	And this is a group shot of all the project pieces from the class.

I'll try to add more notes at a later point in a follow up post, but for now I wanted to get all the pictures up.

Carver

As mentioned previously, this is my Sketch Style experiment. I'll be taking a Sketch Style class from the great Matt DiPietro in the near future, but prior to that I wanted to take a practice run at the process by myself to figure out where I may or may not have big questions. Boy did that experiment turn out valuable. The end result is actually better than I anticipated, but it did open up specific questions for me:
1) What does Matt use when actually "painting" the sketch colors in? The underpriming process is very straight forward, but the coloring process is elusive to me.
2) How does he handle metallics?
3) How does he handle OSL?
4) Am I leaving my overall brightness too high? Should the piece as a whole be darker? I aimed for a high amount of contrast, but it might actually be too much.
In any case, I'm really looking forward to the class!