The last pic of this guy was horrid, this one is definitely passable.
soulgrinderwip1 001.jpg
As you can see I am learning to improve my layered tones by doing large areas on a large and great model. This soul grinder is part of my Paint for Profit Challenge and is the first model out of a Demon collection that I plan to sell. I am hoping to gain retail value for him as I got him in a trade and consider the trade to be a great deal.
This red flesh has around 20 layers to it, and some of those layers are rather useless. My first try was a wash, drybrush, wash technique which went over ok, but then I decided to take my time, water down my paint, and get to slowly building up highlights. I also used a lot of model air on this model. I find that after taking the advice of Shaneorazzel on the forum about using model air for highlights and blending my ability has drastically improved.
I have also been working on advanced metallic techniques to great effect and personal wonderment. I am quite pleased with my progress in this area however I am running into problems that i need advanced knowledge about, namely color theory. If you take a look at these models:
Jason's New 004.jpg
You may notice that on the necron on the left above and this marine the highlights look splendid, however the shading seems off. That's because I am using the wrong color to shade. In the marine I used a brown, which is a warm color. To shade and highlight a color which directly comes from primary colors it should be best to use both of those colors, the warm for highlight and the cold for shading. I am correctly using yellow for the highlight already, but I should be using blue for the shading, not brown.
Color theory, IMO, should be considered a basic set of knowledge which you use to achieve advanced results.
Speaking of advanced, I am making extremely great progress in photographing miniatures. I have recently bought a tripod for my digital camera. I believe it is one of the final pieces of the puzzle to great mini photography. I can now take photo's at the correct distance without having to worry about the image getting blurred by my shaky hands!