Finished War Convocation, looking for C&C

[KAPcom]

Hey all! I'm looking to improve my painting, so before starting a new army I'd love some feedback on one I just finished. Took about a year to paint, everything is airbrush and freehand, no decals. Any critiques or tips would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Romans832]

WOW! Stunning

[pretre]

Hot damn!

[generalripphook]

Holy shnikey

[spagunk]

They are all poop and you should give them all to me so I can dispose of them .

 

Seriously, not much critique I can give on these. Your weapon glows are good but to me they are a bit too diffuse in a couple of places.  But that's really minor and nothing too obvious or troublesome.

 

They are all fantastic! Even your conversion work is amazing.

[Kremmet]

Well alright then. First, the army looks pretty damn good although, as always, there is room for improvement. First, I'd look towards the tonal contrast of the army. What I mean by that is, if you were to imagine your army without color at all, it would look very flat. You need to think about bringing your highlights up in most places while dropping the shades on most of the reds. This is most evident on your knight's freehand that, while well executed, is lacking in lighting due to the rather flat highlights.

 

Secondly I'd work a bit on your color choices. Your bases are clean overall, but the reds detract from the reds on the model as they're too flat. I imagine this is because you didn't want to bring them up too high and confuse them with the primary red you used on the models themselves, but this sort of color confusion is still there while making it look like you didn't finish the highlights there.

 

The next place I'd look to improve is your weathering. The rust and oxidation look pretty nice, although again your highlights need to be brought up on a lot of the metals, but the lack of other damage on the models makes them look confused. Try adding some minor scratches on the model with the sponge method to really sell the worn look. 

 

Lastly let's talk about texture. It seems you used either a drybrush or some other form of rough highlighting on a lot of your models (the half-tank guy's reds show the latter while the upper black carapace side shot on the knight show the former). These aren't bad per say, but were you looking to improve the overall look of these models I'd look here as well. Think about how coarse you want your cloaks to appear and how that would offset the smoother metals and glow effects on the rest of the model. You might want to try highlighting through layers of crosshatching to produce a linen effect there to help separate the frankly very busy looking models. For the armor I'd imagine you want to be extra careful in producing your smoother gradients. I'm not sure what technique you're using, but for brushwork I'd recommend looking into wet blending tutorials along with two brush blending for the smaller pieces.

 

Overall the army looks fantastic and you should be proud of what you accomplished. 

[Brick Bungalow]

Pretty much what Kremmet said. I like this army a lot and would give it an excellent table top score but you asked for critique. I notice some irregularity in some of the ink washes. There are areas where they don't fully fill some crevices and others where they pool a little. Re-application of some base coats and a second wash could remedy this. Some areas are a bit lacking in highlight. I think your color choice is good but it could be more inventive. Your work on the freehand along with your conversions suggests that you want a unique army that stands out. If it were mine I would consider adding some color accents not commonly seen in other armies. Models in the codexes tend to have very straightforward color schemes with colors right out of the GW bottles matched up in simple triads. This is effective but not exciting. The freehand areas in particular could be improved with some subtle coloration. I like the effect of a blue or green wash over gray freehand work that gets mostly wiped away. 

 

All-in-all it's a terrific collection. I'd love to see more. 

[KAPcom]

Thank you for the honest criticism, it's really appreciated. It's very difficult to coax criticism out, and I find it extremely helpful. Been gunning for a best-painted award for some time and find myself falling short.

 

Kremmet, I've seen the crosshatching done on the finished product, but never found tutorials how how to do it properly, and place I can find a good tutorial? 

[Kremmet]

I don't know one off the top of my head, but it's not really that different from any other sort of highlighting. I personally like to build my layers with hatching and then cross them with the next layer to create a greater 3D effect to the fabric.

[Raindog]

I am going to agree with Kreimer on the basing. There needs to be a color contrast, perhaps, like the gray blue in the battle mat.

[CaptainA]

First off - I hate you! Suck it Karl!

 

Second off, Still hate you!

 

I would say I'm am very impressed by the freehand, conversions, and overall presentation. I think the thing that brings this army down though is the overall color scheme. It is too dark.

 

I heard about Bob Kelly talking about painting and there is a reason why GW and other top painters have their armies the colors they do, the brighter colors pop to the eye and stand out in a field of armies. I brighter contrasting color (maybe a brighter red) would have gone further to make things pop and stand out. Perhaps a different color for the freehand as the gray on gray gets lost in a distance. I think this concept was why that sisters army beat israel at LVO last year. While aspects were dark, the freehand, dioramas and what not were very bright and stood out.

 

Also, I hate you.

 

Love and kisses,

Aaron

[scottshoemaker]

I really like the force.  Excellent execution.

 

I will take a different stand on the contrast discussion.  I would agree that the color of your bases does tend to blend with the miniature, reducing impact.  The highlight/shade points are valid, with the exception of personal intent.  Did you intend to have a more realistic look to your scheme, thus a flatter contrast overall?  When I painted my orks I made the decision to have a flatter scheme that relied heavier on technical weathering.

 

Is either right.  Nope.  Art.

[KAPcom]

I really like the force.  Excellent execution.

 

I will take a different stand on the contrast discussion.  I would agree that the color of your bases does tend to blend with the miniature, reducing impact.  The highlight/shade points are valid, with the exception of personal intent.  Did you intend to have a more realistic look to your scheme, thus a flatter contrast overall?  When I painted my orks I made the decision to have a flatter scheme that relied heavier on technical weathering.

 

Is either right.  Nope.  Art.

 

 

Honestly, the more realistic look was what I was after when I started the force. I was reading a lot of the Foregworld painting books and adopted the weathering and painting tecniques from that. It wasn't until I had the army pretty much done and on the display board that I realized that the scheme just didn't have the impact I was hoping for. Honestly it was my mistake, I should have just picked a brighter scheme to begin with, I was just looking for something different (my last army was imperial fists, which are pretty much as bright as it gets). 

 

Despite my wanting a darker army, I'll probably go back and brighten all the reds and change the base color to something that will provide better contrast. 

[Psilence]

Beautiful army :)

 

It looks like a ton of work went into matching the units bases to the display board, blending army and board together.

 

I think once the army is standing on a regular table most of the color issues would vanish, and the models would 'pop' just fine :)

 

I'd leave them be.

 

Just my 2 c.