Sonnia and Siobhana

[Hinton]

Well, the contest is over, so I can post this now.

If you voted or commented in the FF contest, then you probably saw my entry (DD1). Yeah, it needed a lot of work. At the very least, I did get some ideas from a couple of you, so I learned something. Always important, I think.

Thanks to everyone that commented on my entry; I do appreciate it.

Anyway, since my diorama/scene setting needs a ton of work, I decided to go ahead and pull them off their shared base and give them their own. I also touched up a few things before re-basing them, so hopefully they've improved a little since being seen in the contest.

Sonnia:
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4186/sonniaxo8.jpg

Siobhana:
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/1035/siobhanaqm7.jpg

[LoneWolf]

they look very nice indeed, i particularly like the colour choices on the second one.
i do think though if you take your highlights up another level or two it would really help them pop

[Wren]

i do think though if you take your highlights up another level or two it would really help them pop

Poor Hinton, I know you're struggling with this! Getting enough contrast was a big struggle for me starting out, and honestly it still is something that I'm working on. Hinton, have you had much opportunity to see well-painted miniatures in person? I have only had that opportunity a couple of times a year. While it would be ideal to be able to sit down with skilled painters in person to watch them and study their work, sadly not all of us are able to do that. I've often wondered if it would have been a good idea for me to purchase a few professional pieces to study back in the early days. It still might help me, but I suspect I'm pretty set in my ways.

[Duende]

I stand by my comment in the gallery. I really like the skin and dress on Siobhana, but her hair needs more shine. Next time you see a shampoo commercial (or any hair product) pay attention to the way the light reflects off of it. Since they always make the models' hair extra shiney for that stuff, it really helps.

[matty1001]

Great stuff, they are very nicely painted. The top one looks a bit grainy though? It could be the cast or the paints thickness?
The purple dress is great.

[Skya]

My suggestion for dealing with struggling to get high enough highlights would be this. Once you have your base coat go in and block in rediculously overdone highlights with an offwhite. Then blend them down to a reasonable level from there. You'd be suprized how little you need to tone them down.

[orkydave]

I loved theis entry, and left quite a lengthy comment about how they really captured an almost cinematical moment in the diorama, a bit more work and this would have definatley been in my top 3 of the category.

[Hinton]

Thanks for the comments, all. Good suggestions; definitely some things to think about and work on.

@Wren: Unfortunately, there aren't any other mini painters in my area. I know that studying the work of others in person would probably help me, but since the high quality professional stuff also costs a lot of money, I just can't afford it. As it is, I'll just keep looking at minis online and trying to improve.

@matty: The grainy look of the picture is probably more the result of my photography than anything else. Something else I need to work on improving.

[matty1001]

Hehe, dont we all!

[thewartoad]

Hinton...Those are great looking miniatures! Cheers!