Articles

As someone who is always striving to learn more about painting, I will try to share articles I come across. Please feel free to email me any articles you may think will be helpful for others!

Basing Composition by Michael Proctor.
I wanted to share an article by Michael Proctor, aka Clever crow mini's on facebook. Michael is a guest Painter for Reaper and one of the best American painters today. His basework is fantastic and I have added some examples at the end of this article.
Try to tell a story with your base. This is a list of questions I run through my mind when I am trying conceptualize my base.
Who is your character?
What is their history?
Where do they live?
Time of year. (season)
Has something just happened or going to happen? Say, a battle.
With all these questions I am trying to use the base to help tell a story of the figure. The base helps evoke an emotion but the focal point should always be the figure. The base should be the support for the story.
Once I get a general sense of who the character is I try to think of the best way to tell the story. Many times I will sketch out a few ideas or do a little research on the Internet for ideas. A great site is coolminiornot.com. I will troll the site occasionally and save the images for basing ideas. (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) Now I am not suggesting copying another mini. Use what others have done as inspiration or as a platform to improve. Look at movie poster, fantasy artwork and other references.
Condense the Image:
One thing to keep in mind is to keep your composition as condensed as possible. It's natural that when your are trying to compose say a wilderness scene that the total base can become to large or spaced out. Bring the elements of your scene closer and tighter together. Think of an action movie poster. If you find that your bases are coming out too big try setting some natural boundaries. Start with a small wood block that will restrict your width and force you to work in a confined space.
Incorporate height:
A flat base can be very boring. Add some tension by varying the terrain of the base by creating a downward or upward slope. You can use small trees, rocks or ruins to create height. This can help the viewers eye beck to the figure.
Easter eggs:
Try hiding small elements in your base that help tell the story. These can be skulls, treasure, weapons or little critters. They can be little payoffs for those viewers that take the time to really study your work. These items should of course help tell the story.
Bury the elements:
Just don't glue things down. If your going to add a log that is laying on the ground have it sunken into the soil. Same goes for rocks, trees, plants, etc.
Integrate the figure into the base:
So you have spent hours working on a great base and figure so don't just glue it down. Make it look as a part of the base. If the figure has an integrated base, I generally cut it off. I will also test fit the figure to the base and make sure you PIN your figure to the base!!
Painting your base:
Sounds like common sense but painting the base helps tie it to the figure and make it more believable. I usually paint the figure first and then tie the colors from the figure to the base. Try using lots of washes to add color. The colors should be more muted than the color on the figure. The figure is the main focus.
Rocks aren't just grey and trees are not just brown. Each has many colors If you use plants, paint them!! Even if its just a wash. The paint helps tie it all together. Use your old brushes!!
Basing supplies:
Cork, white glue, bark, static grass, dried foliage, gravel, sand, clay, plaster, basically anything you can think of! Another cheap item is old watch parts. Ebay is a great place for old watch parts.
Collect random bits. Use your bits box for supplies, extra weapons, shields, treasure, armor.
(Some examples of Michael Proctors work)

 

Nagrus’z Strongarm – Flesh Painting by Warpaint Studio

 

First of all I want to say that I am a moderate painter at best and it is the help and advice I get from Bohun, Camelson and Loler that have pushed my painting on these last couple of months. Jason Cichon has been a friend onliine now for about a year and has always given me friendly advice and pointed in the right direction when I have needed help. So it was an unexpected honour when he asked me to do an article for him. So here it is!

 

First of all I was thinking about the overall colour scheme and as I am going with a cool colour (blue or purple) for the dragonhide banner, I decided to go with a warm skin tone. So a warm green was needed, I chose Camo Green (GW) which is a yellow/green and fitted perfectly. Camelson taught me to always add a touch of black to my basecoat, which basically begins to lay in the shadows. So I painted two or three layers of a thinned mix of Camo Green with just a touch of black added. The mini was painted with zenithal lighting i.e. imagine a light source shining down from above. Next I started building up the skin tone with many thin layers of Camo Green, careful to leave the shadows within the darker base colour.

 

 To start building up the basic highlighting, increasing amounts of Elf Flesh (GW) were added to several subsequent layers of the Camo Green. Pretty basic stuff so far, just remember to keep the paints thin and use the direction of the brush to apply the paint. For instance when highlighting, your strokes should be aimed from shadow to highlight and vice versa when applying the shades.

 

Now for the fun stuff. I had always assumed glazes were the same as washes but Loler (Adam Halon) showed me otherwise. Both are very diluted paints, but with a glaze most of the paint and water is removed from the brush, unlike a wash where the brush is loaded with paint/water and the miniature is flooded with the mix. With a glaze therefore you have much tighter control of where you place the glazes. The glazes will not only add varying contrasts and interest on the large areas of skin but it will also blend the various transitions that I had painted through 1) Camo Green + Black 2) Camo Green and finally 3) Camo Green + Elf Flesh. It is important that the glazes applied carefully and slowly and allow each glaze to dry before applying the next. A glaze will also dry  much quicker than a wash.

 

Firstly to accentuate the shadows a drop of purple and black was added to the base mix, thinned down and carefully applied to where most of the deep shadows would fall. Pure thinned black was painted into the very deepest shadows. Working out of the shadows purple by itself was added to the base mix and applied leading up to the midtones, meeting glazes of blue which were added to the base mix. A dark brown/black mix, heavily thinned was used as “black lining” to define different areas i.e. certain muscle goups, the spine and around the face and head where it meets the helm. In addition to accentuate the details on the face the “black lining” technique was used around major details such as the nose, eye socket and the creases in the skin leading from the nose to the top lip. This helps to make certain details pop!!

 

Sometimes it is necessary to go back to applying mid tones and highlights and/or to tidy up certain areas. Pure purple  glazes were placed under the eyes and upon the bottom lip, and a red glaze was painted around the eyes leading down and onto the nose. To bring out some bright spots to the skin some very dilute glazes of Camo Green and a yellow (doesn’t matter which) were placed in key areas again to add contrast and interest to the skin. Tops of muscle groups and shoulders are good places to do this. The highlights were once again picked out and a final extreme highlight along eye brow ridge, nose, elbows etc were picked out with thinned down Elf Flesh. And that’s it!