Asking for critique

[Rorschach]

Hello there,

Recently I've replaced my Mage Knight miniatures with miniatures from GW, 'cause I felt they looked better and it gave me something to do (namely paint =). Since there were only five of them I took my time a bit and applied things like highlighting and shading a bit more seriously (I'm really just a novice when it comes down to painting). If you can spare the time, I would love to hear some critique 'cause I feel a lot of things could have been done a lot better. I like go apologize beforehand regarding the photos, I took them in the dark with some (direct) lighting.. this was a bad idea. Next time I'll use natural daylight, I'm sure this'll make the paintwork easier to distinguish.
But with no further a due, here's the first one.

Savage Orc Big Boss

This model (and all the others) was primed with chaos black spray.
For his skin I followed GW's recipe:
1. Base: Waaagh! Flesh
2. Shade: Biel-Tan Green
3. Layer: Warboss Green
4. Layer: Skarsnik Green

And ended with a green glaze just to see what it would do (seemingly not that much).
Apparently I hadn't thinned down the paints enough, because somebody noticed that you could see the strokes. I also have the tendency to use small brushes (so I can work precise), but perhaps bigger brushes are actually better (depending on the area you're painting) because you make less strokes?

Wood Elf Highborn with Great Weapon

Had a lot of trouble with this one. After applying balthasar gold for his armour, I used way too much red wash afterwards (which no doubt you can clearly see). Still like the effect, but less is more I suppose.
For the cape I used a similar recipe as the Orc skin, but highlighting proved to be much more difficult. I guess part of this lies in the fact the cape had less raised areas (as opposed to all the muscles the Orc has), but perhaps I should have applied more layers, mixing up the ones I used more?
Oh and the purple cloth thing you see, that was originally white. But highlight (and shading) white turned out to be a disaster, any tips on that would be most welcome.

Beastman Beastlord with Two Hand Weapons

I highlighted his fur somewhat, but wasn't sure what to do with his armour. In the end (after applying only one basecoat of metallic paint) I kept shading it with nuln oil, until the model appeared very dirty. The result is okay I guess, but it didn't take too much effort.

Warriors of Chaos Exalted Hero

Lot's of armour this one. I drybrushed his chainmail with leadbelcher (because frankly I don't know what else to do with chainmail), but also a bit with bronze too make it look a little rusty.
The rest of his armour was painted with leadbelcher as well, and I attempted to do a bit of edge highlighting with runefang steel. After that it looked really shiny, so I shaded (again) with nuln oil for a dirtier effect. I don't suppose you can highlight (apart from edge highlighting) armour in another way?
Oh and the horns, don't know how to make them stick out either really. I either give them one basecoat with bleached bone or something, or a apply a wash afterwards.

Empire Warrior Priest

I'm quite happy with the face, again I used GW's recipe:
1. Base: Bugman's Glow
2. Shade: Reikland Fleshshade
3. Layer: Cadian Fleshtone
4. Layer: Kislev Flesh

The armour, again, leadbelcher finishing with nuln oil (not very creative).

The robe was something like:
1. Base: Naggaroth Night
2. Shade: Leviathan Purple
3. Layer: Xereus Purple
4. Layer: Genestealer Purple

The result is okay I guess.

Well that's about it.
Thank you for reading & any comment is appreciated!

Also. many thanks to Untitled_Musketeer for his excellent snow basing tutorial (though I haven't quite mastered it yet).

 

[Blutsauger]

The paint looks pretty good. I'd suggest your metallics can use a bit of work, but they're pretty good.

I would advise getting a lightbox (or improvising one) for photography, as that can make a HUGE difference in how your models appear.

 

[Mad 'At]

Definitely not bad, but since you ask for criticism I'll see if I can give you some pointers.

Orc Warboss:
The first thing that I see when I look at this guy is the mould lines. There is one running from his left shoulder and down his entire arm, it really ruins the final effect for me. Try to remember to remove such lines with a sharp knife next time.

The skin looks good, but if you would like to try to make it better you could try defining the muscles a bit more. This can be done by highlighting the edges of the muscles rather than just paint it brighter and brighter towards the middle. Bigger surfaces could be highlighted with stripes to give it appearance of the musclefibres under the skin. It can be quite challenging but also fun, I'm learning it myself better and better with every Orc I paint.

Wolf Elf Highborn:
The green cloak looks fine to me , but as you say, many thin layers is he key to smooth good looking cloth. For white cloth (with a bit warm tone that should go well with your wood elf) I would start with Rakarth Flesh and layer/highlight it with more and more white mixed in. If more shade is needed you could use Nuln Oil and carefully faint into the recesses.

Gold is difficult. Brown rather than red would be the better shade for fine gold. Either by basecoating it with a dark brown or washing it with Agrax Earthshade after the basecoat. For the last hghlights you could try mixing in a little Runefang Steel to make it extra bright. And for extra depth you could carefully shade it with purple (I use Agrax Earthshade mixed with Xereus Purple for this).

Beastlord:
Not mush to say. If you want to try out rust I would recommend Doombull Brown and Troll Slayer Orange. Either as washes in different mixrures of the first one as a basecoat, the second one as a stipple and lastly a Leadbelcher stipple/drybrush around the edges.

Cant think of anything to say about the last too.

I hope this helps and that we'll get to see more of your painting in the future.

 

[Rorschach]

Thanks guys!

I'll definitely try the "Rakarth Flesh and layer/highlight it with more and more white mixed in", I found that applying white (highlighting) very challenging and I want to make it work.
Also the rust thing is a great idea to toy around with metal armour/weapons.
I will look into the lightbox thing too, especially with autumn around the corner making it difficult to take photos with natural light.

 

[Koschei]

Your brush control is solid as evidence by the face of the last model and ork's teeth. It also looks like you have a good understanding of where to place the shadows to give high contrast. One difference between your painting and the very best painters is the smoothness of the transitions between areas of shadow and the rest of the mini. To achieve smoother blends, the paint must be diluted by something like 3 to 4 parts water. However, this dilution renders the paint extremely fluid and difficult to control. Most people hear to dilute their paints, try and follow the advice only to find the unruly watery paint is too frustrating. The solution, just like in drybrushing, is to reduce the amount of paint on the brush to what seems like an extreme degree at first.

When you're applying a shadow to a cloak what you'll want to see is the paint/water making a wet streak on the area you moved your brush and then drying almost immediately. This takes a ton of practice but when I've watched really great painters paint their transitions, its what I've seen. I have to wipe my brush like 4-6 times before I have it properly loaded or the paint will pool and I'll have not so smooth transitions This also is frustrating because it takes so much longer to see the effects build up, especially for highlights. But its what we have to do to achieve blends/transitions that look really smooth even when we're looking at a mini very closely.