Some great work in-process.
thanks for the tips and info.

alex wence

Agreed

Thank you very much, gentlemen! I really appreciate y'all going through the photos and the feedback. It always helps to have another set of eyes looking.

Thank you again!

Oh wait....now I get to do....MORE SANDING! Anyone want to take over for awhile?

Cheers,
Karrie

It's a conspiracy I tell ya! Photobucket wigs, Picasa wigged, and finally Chrome freaked out. So trying IE really quick hopefully just long enough to attach photos and go. I've worked too damn hard and stayed up too damn late to let computer issues stop me.

We've got paint! You'll have to excuse the pigment dust, i still have a lot of touch up to do. The blue eye is giving me fits, so more work there. But blue eyes ALWAYS give me fits. I guess that means everything is back to normal and running full speed ahead.

Including the repairs.

Nice recovery Karrie

What was the verdict on the softening of the medals?

Thanks gordy!

I honestly don't know and I doubt if I'll ever really know. It still comes down to my best guess that I put in a previous post. I had the body resting on the towel and must have accidentally let the head rest on the switch plate part of my OttLite and the mane was close to the base that actually produces heat. Since metal is a good heat conductor and since the horse is already heavy, it transferred enough heat to his face that it creased. The divot perfectly fits the groove from the lamp.

Other than that, I've got nothin'. As I type, I'm shaking my head, it seems pretty far fetched. It's like the failure in redundancies that brings down the plane - it's not one thing but a whole series of problems that no one could imagine until it actually happens.

Hi Karrie,

Really good effort at resurrecting this after the initial disaster, can't really see any sign of the repair, looks good from now on-just keep away from the heat!!

Keith

Thanks, Keith! And you ain't kidding! I'm gonna watch this baby like a hawk from now on. I really don't want to have to do that again (although it is good to find out what you can do when you need to).

I'm just very happy to have a pony again and can move forward now.

Thanks again!

Cheers,
Karrie

WHEW! This eyeball is going to be the death of me yet! First it was painting it, then repairing it, and now it's painting it again! ARGH! lol!

I had an email discussion with a friend about painting eyeballs. He's very good at it but all of the creatures he had painted had round pupils. I asked him how he would translate his technique for something with a horizontal pupil. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get back with him on it.

So I dove in and worked on the blue eye anyway and every time, I'd end up scraping off the paint. I did that for a full day Monday. Then yesterday I start the same routine. Get it close, WOOPS, scrape. Get it close, WOOPS, scrape. Of course, after the first couple times WOOPS became something not repeatable in polite company. lol!

While doing this, I'd randomly snap pictures of my work. I'm trying to stay in a habit of doing that for my WIP thread, articles and documentation in general. But I found myself constantly uploading the photos and studying them. Then I realized what happened. I achieved the look I wanted but was too blind to see it. Seriously, it sucks getting old! My eyesight is honestly still very good but it used to be better and I'm noticing the difference now. I didn't see I had gotten the effect I wanted until I had looked at the photos but it was too late, I scraped the paint off!



This was the first pic I spotted. Now the edges on this are very sloppy but those I could have cleaned up quite easily. This is really what I was going for...see the feathering between the pupil and the iris? THAT is what I'm trying to get and it's a heck of a lot harder than it looks.

My current technique is okay and works - but only part of the time. It's very difficult to get consistent results because it depends on the fluidity of the paint and how fast it dries. Too much fluid and I get a big mess, too little and I don't get any blending. So I was experiementing a little since I was having such a hard time with it (my technique is demonstrated a ways back in the thread).

This is the second pic I saw.



I totally didn't realize that I hit the look because my eyesight betrayed me. So...I found a solution. I used the camera as my eyes.

I could plaster this thread with a huge contact sheet of eyeball shots, but I won't. lol! Instead I'll post the main points and I'm sorry but there are still too many pictures in this post! The real problem was, I didn't remember exactly what I did because I was experiementing and that was a bit ago before I scraped the paint off.

But the key to this whole thing is ink. I use the Windsor & Newton Inks and for somethings I water them down like crazy because they are so strong, or I don't water them down at all, or in this case, I didn't shake the bottle, because I wanted more water than pigment on the top.

I start out like usual, off white base over the entire eyeball, followed by brown ink. Let dry. Paint a black circle allowing for any off white scelera I want showing. Then put a basecoat of light blue down, leaving only a tiny rim around it of black. I then start working with very light blue and my base color, just touch blends here and there, I did a little work of the technique my friend described, but like I said, I'm experimenting.

Normally after I get the blends of blue how I want them, I'd paint the horizontal pupil black and hope the paint is still wet enough to get my feathering without going nuts and wiping everything out with the black (which was happening all the time thus the reason I was scraping paint off).

For the eye above I used my blue ink and applied it as the pupil instead of black. It is still tricky, too much and you wipe everything out, not enough and it's pointless while horsie looks like he's on crack. But this time, once I put the ink down, I grabbed my camera then immediately uploaded the pics.



Better but even accounting for shadow, it's still not right...too large. So I added more paint and blended just a touch and was careful to work around the horizontal pupil I had made with the blue ink.

Again I took pics and checked them on the computer.



Better but the wrong shape and too small. But the quality of the blue ink, when applied to a small enough area gives me a very dark pupil. So that's a good foundation to build on.



Again close but not quite there yet the blending isn't very good and it's still not right. The eye doesn't look good the iris needs to be closer to the nose.



I took more paint and corrected the iris bringing it closer to the nose. Then returned to the blue ink and worked on the pupil. This went back and forth many, many, many times which is why I can now wallpaper my entire home with photos of this eyeball.

So hit the fast forward button here.



One step at a time, I brought the pupil closer to the center and this is all with the blue ink.

Paint a little, take photos, load pics on laptop, check photos, paint a little more, take photos....wash, rinse, repeat.



Hey now, that's looking a lot better!



Every little step of the way, I keep taking pics and examining them. This one showed me I still needed to get the pupil closer to the nose...just a tad.

Back and forth - too much or not enough.



I kept plugging away but relied on the photos to tell me what I needed to do instead of my eyesight. The pic above told me I was pretty darn close! I started applying black paint to the pupil but had to be oh so careful I didn't obliterate the blue ink. I just wanted the black in the center and leave the blue ink as it is around the edges.



All right! That's much better!



I also use the angle from the back and side to check the depth of the paint and if it's starting to get too many layers. Plus, I touched up the edges of the eye and the off white in the corner that's still showing.

And tadaaa!!!





Will ya look at that! That ain't half bad all things considered.

And for fun here are two pics at 100% so you can see the feathering the ink helped me achieve. I just wish they were a little neater but hey, right now I'll take what I can get.

Thanks Karrie for sharing the process with us

Well rats! I thought I responded to this. That's what I get for trying to use my phone instead of the computer. lol!

Gordy, you rock man! Thank you! I'm sure the poor folks here are ready to strangle me if I post another pic of his eye. lol! Well, horsie's face has been painted and re-sealed except for the bridle. We are officially in forward progress now.

So I'm going to start work on the tack and continue trying to get it that faded, worn, red leather look. And I also still have a lot of work to do on the knight. I have a TON of bits...swords, parts of the barding, helm, sword, bit pieces, reins...the list is endless! At least the weather behaved well enough I could finally get primer on them. But man there are a lot. lol!

I have my Pegaso Templar Sergeant finally prepped and primed, so he's ready and I just started prepping my big Chaos Knight - the big dude Chern just announced. He is really cool! He's assembled as far as I can take him, now I get to start filling the gaps with apoxie.

Full speed ahead!!!

Cool I'm anxious to see the Chaos Knight

TGIF!!

I've been working like crazy today even though it feels like I don't have much to show for it.

I got some work done on the knight, no photos, it was just gloves and some arms.

Then I got more work done on Old Blue's tail.



i should have taken another pic because the tail has white on it now, it's basically done.

But let's move on to the tack. You know I've gone round and round about what to do with it, finally deciding on a worn faded red. I started on one side to see how to do the fading. It worked okay but I wasn't that happy with it then tried something else that did work. Now remember, the other side of the horse, the tack is still brown.

So I went back and painted everything off white so I'd have everything the same to start with rather than 64 different colors to contend with as my base. lol!



That my friends is Red 140 Oxide pigment applied directly to the off white base. I also added the little decorations so I can get the color to match.

Ignore the Fix-It sculpt I have to sand that down. The stupid little things pop off at the slightest touch no matter how well I glue them. The Fix-It sculpt is a repair putty that's stronger than the other stuff and it will keep those suckers on there.

So he's been sealed and he's drying. Pretty soon here, I can start on the wear and tear. I guess it's about time I used these pigments for weathering too, huh? lol!

And here ya go, Gordy!

*Chaos Knight Sneak-Peek*

Thanks for the update

Chaos Knight looks COOL!

Thanks gordy! Okay back to our Roaming Knight.

I guess you could call this a glimpse into the future.

Methinks the cloak is not going to cooperate.









Oh well, I'll worry about it tomorrow. Right now I have a muscle spasming in my back - right between my shoulder blade and spine and it hurts like crazy.

Oh well, here is already beginning to see the work more complete, in context. Looks great. Karrie going well.

http://www.mininet.tv/egminiatures.html

Thanks Eduardo! I'll figure something out with the cloak not fitting right. But I still have a long way to go. I've got some tweaking to do on the tack but the aging of the leather is going the direction I want it to.

Cheers,
Karrie

I've got some updating to do, so bear with me.

I've been experimenting again and came up with a technique for shading and highlighting with metallic pigments.



It might look a little gritty here but it's not sealed yet in these pics.





My mom gifted some more of Pearl Ex Pigments to me and I've got a whole mess of new colors to play with. (Thanks Mom!) But here's the basics.

Since I primed everything gray, I painted a base layer of my "mostly black" acrylic.

Used two new colors Antique Silver, then True Blue. I tried to keep from sealing because too much Dull Cote wipes out the metallic but at certain points I had no choice. No more pigment would lay down so I had to seal. It's sorta like over-saturating with paint, at some point you have to stop and let it dry.

I did the shading with my Black 318 pigment then I had to seal again. Then onto highlights with my regular Silver.

In the next group of pictures, it's done! Yay!

I did the last of the Silver highlights, added a touch of Sunset Gold pigment for the decoration and then a final seal.











Well, one side of the sword is done. I can't hang on to the sucker so I have to do one side at a time. lol! It didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped, but good enough.



I don't think there's enough surface area for me to really get the blending of the metallics like I did on the helm.

The blade, crosspiece and butt of the sword are metallic pigments.

The leather wrap and the haft are acrylic. I did a layer of beasty brown, followed by my W&N Brown ink over everything (Including the metallic crosspiece - gives it a nice effect I think), Leather Brown (GW equivalent would be Snakebite Leather), applied very thin only on high points. I then hit with an offwhite mix only on the highest points. This contrast was a bit much and looked fake to me, so a very light touch of thin Leather Brown brought it down just a touch but the off white lightened it and really added a lot to the highlight. I also left the haft with more shine from the inks on purpose since leather that is gripped often becomes shiny because of the oils and sweat in the hand.



For the blade, I adjusted technique again. I started as I did with the helm, Antique Silver, Black Pigment for shading, especially in the "blood gutter", and Silver on the high points and the edges. But that wasn't cutting it. I sealed and went over the sword with an extremely watered down W&N Black Ink (this stuff is so strong, if I don't water it down it will look like black paint - seriously). I went back with Silver and while that improved the look it needed to pop.

I took another color, Micro Pearl, it's basically pearlescent but not as strong as the Macro Pearl which really has that "mother of pearl" sheen to it. I only used it on the edges and on the tip, a sharp sword is going to pop in those areas. Then blended well.



It helped a lot. Unfortunately, the sword to me is still sorta...meh...no big deal.



Now I get to do the other side! Oh joy!

The red leather on the horse's tack is still not turning out like I want - so once again, time to adjust tactics and technique. More on him later.

I'm also working on the shield, no pics yet but yeah, my freehand is terrible! I tried painting three lions rampant - you know the typical heraldic lion. Well, they looked like screaming monkeys. The minute the saying "Don't make me call the Flying Monkeys" entered my head, the attempt at the lions was finished. I painted over it.

Since I've really never done a whole lot of freehand (my last attempt was a Rohan banner - turned out decent enough but that was a long time ago and it was a horse), I decided to shoot for a simpler design. I have to remind myself this is actually my first miniature/figure in years. I'm doing well but there are certain skills that aren't going to come back immediately. I have to work on them all over again and take baby steps.

So, pics on the shield and another sneak peak of the chaos knight coming up in a bit.

I bet you thought I forgot about this guy. Nope, I've been working and working. I really can multi-task.



Old Blue is back! Why did he vanish for so long?



Remember I was trying to age the tack. Well, unfortunately, I had a number of false starts. I tried using pigments to weather it and they just weren't cooperating with me.



When I did get close to the color I wanted, I wasn't getting the effect I wanted. Well used leather will look worn and faded in places but it will also develop a high shine in others.



Pigments, definitely weren't giving me the shine I wanted. Only inks would do that. Yes, believe it or not, the ink shine came in handy.



Plus, I realized if I didn't glue on the decorative barding, I'd have a heck of a time matching it. This stuff too gave me problems and didn't want to stay glued on one side, so I had to use some Fix-It Sculpt to keep it in place.



So I painted the armor scab red, then followed that with W&N Vermilion Ink, and then W&N Brown Ink to darken it up. Next step was to go back to scab red and hit the high points on the leather, leaving only small amounts of ink showing in the recesses. I then lightened my scab red with a little bit of flesh color and hit the high points again but a slightly smaller area. Then my last highlight was thin flesh tone by itself, once again in an even smaller area. And there ya go, worn leather. Dull Cote took the shine down more and subsequent coats will also do the same. So at the end, I should have a bit more muted ink shine - hopefully hitting just the right balance.



By the time I finished that I had red over-paint all over the poor pony! So it was back to the pigments. I "re-blacked" him completely redoing his black and then did the same thing with the white. I re-did all of it - the entire horse and I see I still missed some spots. lol! So in essence, he's been entirely repainted.



I need to fix the spots I missed, paint the metal studs and fix those two studs on the right flank that I had to put Fix-It on - smooth them out and round them a little more. I've got to paint the metal and bit on his bridle.

I also repainted the bedroll so that looks much better.



The front and back saddle bow need to be finished. I think after all of that I can start on the hooves and the other accessories.



So as you can see, I very much have two projects going.

Thanks for the update Karrie!

I dig the names of the colours "scab red" LOL!