Hello everybody and welcome to another PMP end of month review. We're back once again And we're reviewing all of these submissions in the PMP the painters motivating painters Facebook group I do apologize. I'm a little under the weather right now. So hopefully this won't be Too problematic. So I'll try to stay on top of it What is this? Well every month we invite those who are part of the PMP to submit to the end of month review event And if they do right here on the show, I'll go through and give them feedback If you'd like to join us you can find a link down below for painters motivating painters You do have to answer all of the questions if you don't answer every question Then you Then we won't let you in it's just that simple. So answer all the questions But no matter where you are on your hobby journey from beginner to master We would love to have you along It's a great positive community full of people who are Ready and willing to give feedback to answer questions and to help us all take our next step together Which is what we're going to do today. So without for any further ado, let's get right into it You can find the monthly events here under the events listing in the PMP Here I'm under the February review submissions and we begin with adrian Who's asking about the skin tone on his arc of flagellant, especially as it relates to parts where the metals underneath So I think on the whole and adrian did include a black and white here, which we always like Always a nice touch. So thank you everybody for including these black and white shots often. This is very helpful So I think this is a good sort of shot because it'll help us get kind of what we we want to do here And I think the answer is is with the skin and this these guys are tough They're not very big and I don't know what level of quality you're going for What I would say is we do still need some additional tonal variation here, especially in the reds and purples So where you get lots of metal or tubes connected things like that You want to bruise the skin out and you do that through a deep maroon red or purple or something like that Just some light glazes of it, especially where the joints connect I to the where skin is connecting to metal. I think can really help that out Overall though, I do very much like the skin tone that you've cut here I like the darker part on the back to sort of create that shadow. I think that's nice I think I just need to see more kind of up here like around his little metal under rare and here where it connects to the leg Things like that. So think about glazing and some bruising. I do have a video on doing brutes But so goodness on doing cuts bruises and scrapes So you can check that out there. Okay But yeah, great stuff. Hopefully that helps All right, next up we have mark who brings us his uh this plague dude from 40k He says he's happy with the eye But he wants to know uh, what else he can do on his blow drone to raise the level without taking attention away And my answer is going to be much the same there. So I think what we need is just to actually Bring focus to the center through deeper shadows So some darker shadows here along the sides of the blow drones, uh face Here along the bottom of the horn. I think by actually darkening things You'll actually create much more focus up in this area here where we want people to look at the eye Um Also, he had asked about lettering how he can do lettering My answer on lettering. So he's you know, because you got a little tattoo back here, which looks really nice I mean, it seems like you can do some nice sharp thin lines Uh, the answer on sharp thin lines is a mix of ink and paint and flow improver That's generally how you get really nice sharp thin lines Uh, I again, I have a video on that but so I would look at something like that Uh, what I think we really need here is just more contrast in the darks I think that you have a really nice attention drawing to the Center of the model and so some more shading, especially around this side of this sort of globular globular shape here Probably some darker spots here on the fans Underneath and darker on the bones and you'll be good to go. So there you go mark. I hope that helps This is a great great blow drone. He looks really nice. So I think this came out well I really like the blue actually being sort of a pop color there but being supported other places I think that actually works well to draw attention to the center of the thing That's good composition Uh, lazy peon uh first time here, uh, wants to know some feedback On his scheme here, particularly with the bones and metals So again, we'll start with a contrast sketch With our black and white picture and I think this is where we can really see Where we need to go when we look at the bone We just need to see more variation there. It looks very gray all over the whole thing So when we flip forward to our color image, what I would say is again Draw me down some more colors into here Uh and pop my highlights up into a little bit brighter white even if it's a very minimal volume It doesn't need to be huge. You don't need a lot of white. You don't want it to I suspect you want the bones to feel somewhat old So just some nice light touches here around like the edge of the eye the edge of the nose the mouth the teeth Just kind of those edges where light would gather around Around the edge and I think you'll you'll really pop that up I think the metals are more or less fine overall, but that's just it. They're fine If we want to go to the next level then we want to instead of washing them Which is what we did here I can see the stains where we didn't clean up our wash properly We want to be more controlled in our application of the of the colors to there So more something like controlled inks You can also do some more rust and stuff to add in some actual Variation of hue in addition to value So we could we can put some browns and some bright browns and some oranges on the rivets and stuff like that And that could very much pop it up, but overall I think this is a really cool idea I mean, I think he looks really nice your your Sort of crosshatch pattern there came out really well for being over such a big space So I think you've definitely on the right road Hope that helps All right oxena with his first ever painted unit from the untamed warband unit from war cry So just general feedback Overall, I think they look nice. I think that this is a good looking unit I would say your major opportunities for improvement here are probably to do with the skin I like the purplish tone. We could go for a little higher highlights in some areas Really pop up and shape the volumes of those muscle structures The other thing that stands out to me is the basing right now. It is a little boring Just being kind of the mud I understand you probably wanted a muddy flat ground These guys are you know down in the muck and mire of the eight points But at the same time you can still have other interesting elements in there Even if it's a few bigger rocks Tuffs some cracks in the ground a skull a discarded sword or dagger You know just little stuff like that can help make it feel alive So don't hold back on those kinds of elements And I think that would be those two things is where I would challenge you But overall very cool submission. You know, these guys are absolutely great. So well done Matthew first time post to the review welcome Looking for general impressions and ways you can improve the composition Specifically some advice and attitudes Where to place fun details that they're noticed but don't steal focus from the model Uh, sure also looking at advice on painting gems as they're yellow and green but came out mostly green Uh, yeah, I mean, I think overall this is a pretty good take on This kind of a guy when we look over here at our value sketch I think we see some nice variation, especially on the armor where I think you executed that well I think we could go a little farther with the skin Uh, and so if we go back to the color image I think that we need to see a little more browns and maroons and stuff down shaded into the skin and some areas This guy has some really gross folds And these kinds of areas here could have a lot deeper shadows in them At the same time when you think about pop colors on this guy's got a lot of little tiny details So adding stuff like rust pitting and brown and orange around the edges of this kind of thing works well with the green Just little light touches when I say some orange I mean like a very slight rusted tone same with things like vertigris on the copper Those are ways you can pop out individual elements Without it becoming overwhelming because the brain expects there to be that kind of weathering on these on these very heavily pitted surfaces And so it doesn't draw the attention as much your brain sees it goes. Yep. That checks out That's exactly what I was expecting and kind of moves on But it still adds that extra color and discovery there You do the same with the open wounds little bits of yellow and and orange and stuff hidden in there Little bits of more pink and bright purple So all those kinds of elements another fun thing is you can take stuff like these weird tendrils that this guy has this kind of Extra this extra like tendril piece. He's got hanging down here And you can change the color of that toward the end that could become something like a more bright pink or maroon or something, right? It doesn't have to all be that skin tone. So going through those kinds of steps can really help Overall, I think the armor is good here. I think you're really establishing a lot of variation on stuff like the purple You will want to go back in and smooth this out. You can see how rough it looks That's just going to be blending and things like that But overall great job Okay Next up we've got caspian first 3d printed dnd character tips on painting fur and red cloaks Sure So with red, I think you you did a pretty nice job here by going into this bright color Honestly, my answer with red is almost always the same You want to highlight it up actually with something like an ivory or a nice yellow any kind or a bone some kind of warm yellow white And then you want to glaze over it with red. That's what's going to give you a really nice red pop And that would be my best advice for you on that one now as to fur I've got a couple different videos on fur But ultimately when it comes to stuff like this where especially when we got chunky fur The key is little thin strokes of the lighter colors when the texture is not there you've got to create the texture So you take a very sharp brush go back and watch the how to paint white hair video And you'll see exactly what i'm talking about that technique would be almost directly transposable here Because a lot of the hair surface on like those sisters isn't actually have threads You know, it's actually have follicles as it were. It's just kind of a flat-ish surface And that's kind of what this is in a lot of space So that'll allow you to create that that texture that density in there without Without when it's even printed in the miniature. So there you go gaspian hope that helps Okay Pekka advice on how you could prove the non-metallic metal armor on this big boy So looking at the black and white especially when you're doing non-metallic is always very instructive And what we see here is we have mostly gray tones We've got a little bit of dark shadow, but we don't quite have the value Transition we'd like and of course when we flip over here. That's exactly what we see So we need a little bit more of that stretch of contrast. I I need to go all the way up into the white and Much more of the mid gray and then down into you know It's probably like a pop color like a blue and then a blue black and then into black So really running that full transition now as to where to place the highlights and things like that A lot of these are very round surfaces So you're going to be using sort of the globe method where there's a light and then it goes to shadow And then there's a small reflected light And that's kind of going to be where you want to go if you want more information on that Search up kujo non-metallic metal and you'll find a great video that he did I think it's the seminar work on how light reacts with shapes in nmm And and that could really help you out there Overall, you've got the right colors and values here. You're slightly into the blue tone, which is right We just need to go Farther on the contrast. So there you go. Hope that helps All right Carl bringing us his fenrever of the knights chapter here. He made Started to move towards display pieces and improving his painting quality Working on improving the use of glazing and freehand Sure. So let's talk about that. So overall I think this guy's nice. I like the freehand and things like the shoulder And the shield looks nice. We need to be very careful with these not all these are completely even So you want to make sure those are nice and sharp, but on the whole it looks good Um, that is a very very very big spear. He has really he's really got it going on with that spear there So talking about Scenic bases and things like that My overall the I think he looks nice I do feel we need more variation still in the yellow and especially in his face, which looks kind of flat By comparison But what really stands out to me is the rock and the area of nature he's standing on which this gives us a nice shot of Like I believe we just use the greens the green texture and the the stuff this isn't painted If because it feels like we just kind of took some of that everything has to be painted Now the rock itself. It's just very gray and I've spent a fair amount of time walking around in nature and I haven't seen any gray rocks yet They just don't exist. Um, that's not to say that granite doesn't exist I understand granite is that base, you know often gray But rocks sitting in nature, especially this close to mud and dirt aren't gray They have browns and reds and purples and greens all over in them because nature happens It rains dirt collects in the water. There's detritus. It dries on here So you really want a lot more as far as texture goes and color and variation Gray rocks are sort of an abomination. They just don't actually exist in nature Um, if you go look at things that look you're and what I mean is you can walk around in a park and see gray rocks And your brain is going to go that's gray, but if you stop and really look at it What you're going to see is it has all these little micro textures and tones and greens and browns and stuff like that in it Because out there in nature, that's just what happens So what I would I think this is really nice overall what I would recommend is pop up the armor some more Get into some more bright white yellow for some highlights. I like your shade colors um sharp edges things like that work especially well on these kinds of On these kinds of volumes and then a lot when it comes to the basing make sure everything's painted Make sure everything has its own variation is placed there very intentionally But overall looking really cool okay Kess looking for some feedback on basically the lighting scheme, which is this hot cold Alternation as well as the non-metallic metal. So let's take a look going for the sort of blue light from behind and the Warm light from the front. So let's take a look actually at the warm light first There we go. So from this side the character is ostensibly lit completely with a sort of yellow light Um, I I think it looks nice. My honest answer is I'm not sure that anything here reads as gold And mainly that's because I just don't really see the the contrast in here I don't see the whites. I don't see the shapes now This is a pretty tricky model to even make that happen on because it's full of all these really weird forms um, the non-metallic off of the The weapon here sells a little better. It's still a little too much orange. You want to back that out some Assumingly it's reflecting, you know, a lot of the ambient light and shape But it shouldn't be reflecting it that cleanly like there's still going to be some of the underlying tone there That's going to desaturate that down But I think this angle works well It looks more just like a sort of yellow orange armor You're not coming up enough into pure white into the reflections and we're not kind of catching it where it would be Now when we look around to the cold side, I think the issue there is this works well on the weapon Works pretty well on the hair, but then I don't feel it really here on the rest um The challenge is is that it's a very weak light, but assumingly it's a weak environmental and broad base light The orange is coming from a specified spot and so should get weaker the farther away from it You get namely it's like some kind of demonic glow Whereas the and it's overwhelming the ambient environmental light of the blue So, you know, I'd see a little more blue around here on the edges here on these reflections on this gold Should be coming up into a blue white and the gold itself should be cold Okay, so it should have more blue tones worked into it There should be some highlights down here like this is this is not Hidden from the light. This is kind of facing it So again light would be coming down reflecting and bouncing back up here Like we have multiple things in this area that would be reflecting this blue light onto that part of the hair It's really easy for your brain to sort of pick out when something doesn't quite look right And you mention that something doesn't feel right and that's absolutely correct Your brain kind of gets it when lighting doesn't work. It's why OSL is one of the most challenging things you can do um so my best advice is You know when you're looking at it pick your angle and then really just like take a picture of it from that side And say this is everything that I'm going to light blue and then flip it around And say take a picture of it and then say this is everything that's going to be lit orange And that would be my best advice for you overall So I do hope that helps when it comes to the things like the gold More mid-tone and something like this and then more up into the white for contrast right now. It's just all a little too dark All right, uh treas new miniature. This is a second one Taken quite a while there. We want to get your sped up eventually We'll get there buddy. That's just a matter of time in practice, but you'll get there What I will say is that your work is doing well. Your work is very clean, which I appreciate very much So and it's clear that you're you for your second miniature. I mean this looks absolutely fantastic You've really incorporated a tremendous amount of lessons. So I think this is really really well done Overall the main thing I would push on you. I think the sword looks good It might be a bit stark in some of those reflections. You might need a little more mid-tone in there between the light and the dark Um, but that looks good. I think the red is where we have the most opportunity Because the red does feel a little flat by comparison So Look at maybe glazing in some more shadows We could use deep browns or purples or even a green mixed with your red To create more of those shadows and then up into a little brighter Color for the for the you know, take some of those ivories or whatever and pop that up in there and then glaze back over it with the red But I think this is fantastic work. Your time is being well spent. I'll say that you're doing some really impressive work Though I'll warn you if you're going to take 45 hours of mini it's going to be quite a while before you have an army So I'm at the same time. Don't neglect that speed muscle over time as you work more things will get faster And and you'll get more comfortable unable to apply some of this stuff more quickly But overall great job. Thanks for submitting. I think the sword all that the The Gold and the cloaks and stuff. I think that guns. I think those will look really nice All right shaky grandmaster volt is gray knight Looking for basically any advice Okay, sure So I think he looks nice. Um, his armor is very, you know, blue silver, which is what we want out of these guys Um, we need to focus up our picture a little more So you may want to stand back a bit because we we're so close to it. It's kind of I'm kind of losing stuff here But what I think ultimately we need is some more dark separation of elements So nothing quite gets as dark as I would want to hear in between sections Uh, so things like black lining and and pin washing having darker lines between the fingers between the joints Between these various levels these connection points the armor. I think would go a very long way Um, also just a little more variation in control through glazing of shadows Into the into the steel to take back control of the reflection. So something like under here Having some more darker color to it. I think would be very beneficial Um, same thing here when we come to the dress the separation of elements like this gold kind of falls into the yellow You generally want to be careful when you're putting gold next to gold because gold's true color is yellow So hence you just put a yellow next to a yellow There's not really a lot of separation elements there the rest of it where you don't have that happening works a lot better Um, I notice the lack of detail the most in things like the hammer and the scrolls, you know, the scroll should have some writing on it It's very easy to do like little you just do little dots and stipples across in a horizontal pattern To make it look like writing you don't actually try to write on it And then individually these elements amongst this wrap should have some darker lines to it And then probably some pop of highlights around the top side So that would be my main piece of advice, but very cool model I think you did a great job capturing that blue steel. So I think that came out well Hope to see more in the future All right, John Alfonso first submission to the group his astral templars Uh, and so he's uh, basically how you can improve his detail work Uh, and you know, he had mentioned using some red glazes into the recesses of the gold So let's take a look Um Okay So they're a little far away. It's going to be hard for me to judge. I'll tell you that John We generally want a little closer picture with a background So, you know something like open a book if you have no if you don't have a good place Take it just open a book get a nice close shot of them or or one or two of them And that'll really help Now that being said I think the plum color does need to come up slightly a little more pop and variation on that I think the red glazed into the the gold actually looks really nice I do feel like we still need a little more highlights. So you need the counterbalance Which is a little silver mixed into your gold at some points The biggest part that sticks out to me is the swords are rather flat. They're just steel Same with the big mace. So I'd love to see that kind of thing have a little more. Um Have a little more dark colors glazed in I have lots of videos on using the lessons of non-metallic metal in true metallic metal So I would advise you to check those out and see like how you can create light up and down a sword things like that. Okay All right Sergei Kingsman from kingdom death miniatures looking for general feedback on the areas you can approve Especially the textured cloak All right, sure So let's take a look around this guy. I think the cloak came out really well, honestly. Yeah Uh, excuse me. I like how that texture turned out. I think that looks nice. Like I I would call that cloak overall quite a success Um, I'd love to see the same level of texture honestly on the feathers that kind of they're there But it's just kind of muted. There's no real big differences in the feathers. I'd love to see a little more in that regard Overall in the kingsman himself. I understand you were going for this very very ultra cold armor Uh, I do feel like I could have seen a little more color glaze into that popped up just a little He's very much in a in a sole light standing alone. I don't hate that at all I quite love the environmental color you've gone for here I do feel like we need a little bit more up in this area Maybe a little bit broader highlights just around the face and the tops of the armor to really draw our attention up to This area It's a minimal touch at best But I feel like that's the area where we need to just bring a little more light into it But overall, I think this looks really nice Uh, I think the cloak works well. I think the gold and the silver do sell I think the feathers feel a little flat and like they don't really have much going on So that's probably my chief place that I would advise you to have some feedback on I really like everything else and think it looks quite nice Okay, uh rs war cry warband the untamed would love some feedback and where you can improve Sure. So some step number one is let's black rim those bases and of course more detail on the bases like again See what I said earlier. Um, in general just sort of sand bases don't really do much They're not they're not there. They're not serving anything but make sure we get a black rim around those bases Um always your your base room can be any color as long as it's black Um, the main thing here is going to be exactly what you might guess for me And that is our old friend tonal variation When I look at things like the skin what I notice is that It's it's very uh Kind of flat unfortunately Right. So what I need to see is a lot more just kind of Color there switches into you know following the muscle structure Something like the cats are really good example where all this is just kind of brown And what we want to see is some glaze use some deep purples use some blacks use some very deep browns Whatever even use some very deep reds Lots of different ways you could go with it to bring down some additional shadows on the volumes there Uh and really shape that up same then with more highlights For some reason everything seems like it has this weird texture Like almost like there was a spray from a distance So i'm not sure why that's happening But you want to watch that because it doesn't look like everything's almost super dusty. I can really see it with him I'm not sure what's going on there on that So you want to figure out that and kind of avoid it that doesn't that doesn't seem great I'm not sure what happened there Like it looks like literally everything is coated in a layer of dust I don't know if maybe you You varnished it and it came out fuzzy and the humidity or something like that if so That sucks my simple recommendation is you know varnish with your airbrush indoors Or something like that uh or testers dull coat if you have to use it and then Avoid varnishing outside like as much as you can that is to say keep the varnish inside Keep the miniature inside walk out varnish bring it back in put it in your bathroom turn the fan on Let it dry Is my best advice, but yeah more tonal variations especially across the skin more red tones more highlights So we need to stretch the contrast farther on that that would really be the number one thing I would have you work on there are some other elements I can see like the bone has much the same challenge But that'll be less obtrusive if we sort of if the skin sort of pops really strongly So that's my best advice for you Uh, Dan Herrera with a little bit of an interesting question about this talking about using lots of colors in other places And you know, he did this fun little watercolor experiment to show how he wanted to use every kind of like the The color of the rainbow here that he had available to him Uh, and so my answer is yeah, I think this is good. This is exactly what I'm talking about And I think you can go farther Uh, when we think about placing the colors around, you know, and this is good You've got the pinks and the reds the purples up here stuff like that Why not have some purples down here in the uh in the shadow of the underbelly? How about some reds as the shadow in our lightly in the shadows of our green? That kind of stuff can really actually help sell. So yeah, exactly what I mean I think this is going the right direction You can use a lot of the rainbow all the time in everything you're doing It's best not to think in terms of white or black or brown But instead to think in terms of true colors and how you can get those true colors utilized Around the miniature in different ways and I think this is a good example where you're using only these bright hues And I think you could use a lot of these in the same way. So hopefully that helps Overall very cool very cool picture All right, Sergei with his uh with his goblin wolf riders here Went for very cold tones wants to make sure it works as part of his diorama Okay, so my answer is it it it works in a sort of artistic fashion I mean his skin would not actually be that blue It's a bit much on the blue. It feels a little more like war paint than it does like cold Um, you know, your skin doesn't actually turn blue in the cold like this color blue like sky blue Your skin turns pale and actually turns more pink So assumingly what would happen is the goblin skin and the cold would actually be quite washed out It would become quite pale and the pink sections would become more intensified Because the blood that he's got would be rushing up to the surface to To try to keep his skin warm That's happening when you're when you get cold your capillaries expand and a lot of blood rushes up to the surface of your skin To try to keep you from your skin from dying Uh because it knows that you're in a situation where your body feels like it's dying and so responds accordingly Um The so that would be my advice. I think honestly, I would probably glaze down that blue with a little Um With a little green try to bring that back in a tone and try instead to wash out the green with a little bit more of Almost like a pale flesh type of color That's what you'd want to go to if you're going to use the blue It would be better set as a deep blue and worked into the shadows That's another thing that can make skin feel very cold when there's blue Or blue purple down in the shadows Now overall, I do feel like this miniature does feel like it's in a cold environment Um, I think you know the ice and stuff like that it it works I think you could go a little farther If you really wanted to sort of wash the color out of everything I would go a little farther on it But on the whole I think this is good. I like the skin on the wolves, especially the Leader guy there. So I think that's fine Um a little more texturing and things like that Can also help because it gives you a chance to integrate gray And gray blue into more of the piece and the more of that you integrate the colder everything feels So there you go, sir. Okay. I hope that helps All right Next up ryan mcdonald with a skink star priest First real attempted basing looking for feedback on the non-metallic metal again and the base and anything else that stands out So let's flip around to something where we can really see the non-metallic So there's a good contrast shot Uh, and if we come over here, I think that contrast shot really shows us one of the challenges The skin is very samey color. I know you weren't asking for feedback on it But she did say anything else that catches my eye and I think that's part of it what catches my eye. It's very um It's very flat and I'd love to see some more colors in there, especially with skinks and dinosaur type things We can be a little crazy, you know a lot more colors worked in there Now as to the gold, honestly, I'm not sure what's meant to be gold here besides his headdress I don't know if the the thing on top here is supposed to be I will say it doesn't really like his his this thing doesn't super sell as gold It just doesn't and it's because there's too much like white and cream and other things going on that just isn't yellow That isn't the the the ochre color of gold. I think it works better here on his helm Though again and and here on his arm, but we don't want to put a highlight You don't want to generally put a highlight right on the edge of something and general highlights should be in the middle So you can see the shade spread to each side, especially on a round surface It's just going to feel a lot better if this if the highlights are off center It will sell the effect more Here I just think we need some general smoothing and stuff like that Uh, and I think that'll help out a lot no who As to the basing Yeah, I think it's cool. I think we could still do a little more color in there So put some more washes and stuff like that on there. It's a very big busy base. I don't think that's really a problem He's meant to be in the jungle and he has a character So I think it's fine to have his base be a little crazy And I think overall it works I just say drops more washes and scattered around some more browns and greens down in the actual grasses and Moss pieces you're using here make sure those are painted as well Use some like yellow green and you know give some dry brushing to the top so that stuff So it looks like it's highlighted those kinds of things. All right Hopefully that helps. All right, but great-looking guy overall ryan. I do enjoy him Okay, shawn looking for feedback in general mostly about the skin and overall composition Sure, so the skin here is something you're going to hear me refrain on a lot. It's quite flat We just need more variation here specifically.  I like this barbarian family. It's a cool take But they are outdoors a lot. So that means their skin is going to have a very ruddy tone to it These people are very muscular. They're fit. They're trim, which means we should we've got a lot of nice volumes to work with So we want to make sure we're working in a lot more of those pink and red and maroon and purple tones Especially when you get into shadows like at the bottom of the muscle structures here Uh under, you know here under the arm things like that That's where you want to start popping a lot more of that color into You know that being said with the basing I think you know, you said you enjoy the basing the least and By the way, this picture really shows what I mean when the skin all is very harmonious and gray Now I'll say things like the metal and stuff like that that actually works really well. This this sells 100 percent I also really like just the rough texture of things like her cloak and the weathering and stuff there I think that works out really well um so the um As to the basing, I mean, I think it's just a question of more again. It's rather flat. It's kind of just some gray slate and Uh and and some dirt, you know The earth is full of all sorts of colors take advantage of that You know use your brown or sorry use your deep browns your light browns your reds your purples Work some deep black shadows in there have grays have greens Just kind of everything or you know, you can work around a lot and just kind of Mix those colors around you can do it with pigment You can do it with paint and washes and dry brushing There's all sorts of different ways to do it You just want to make sure you don't miss an opportunity to work color in when you could especially because It could just help some feel like they're in a more natural organic environment Um, there's a little more browns and tones scattered on the rocks, which I like I just love to see a little bit more Light tones and stippling and stuff like that those big pieces of slate often have A lot of different tones in them and they have a very rough texture So you can capture that with something like stippling So there you go Sean. I hope that helps out All right, so let's keep going So next up Francis just started painting minis this last year first attempt at non-metallic metal So we start here with the black and white and that's always a good sketch And what we see is a pretty good at healthy amount of contrast there Look at how dark we get here to the whites same thing dark to the whites That's the kind of thing we want to see When we flip over to the colored image, I think I see a lot of the same tones So I think this looks really nice. Uh, you've got some really deep shadows You're definitely running the contrast where honestly, we might need a little bit of work is in the mid-tone area So probably a little bit more of the actual ochre Worked into it something like that There's it jumps a little fast from the deepest shadows to the highest highlights And that's what jumps out at me the the strongest other than that I think this piece looks really nice again with the stone see all previous commentaries on gray stone that I've made Uh, and when you're doing red lines like this, you want to make sure you go back with your white and sharpen them up But on the whole good stuff So I think this looks really nice and hopefully that helps out with Your non-metallic a little bit more mid-tone Stretch out that mid-tone volume just a little All right, uh, Sean first time posting looking to enter golden demon this year And wants to make a diorama including this guy So let's talk about golden demon for a moment.  So where we're going from the purple to the green That needs to be a really hyper smooth transition In general, I feel like he's all a little too samey in color Uh, what I mean by that is the armor needs to stand aside a little bit more apart So if you watch Darren Latham's video that he did and his masterclass on painting not this exact guy But obviously very similar nergal character You'll see how he talks about alternating the warm and cool in the skin making sure everything stands out But still has integration And here I feel the challenges. We just don't stand out enough when I look at this from a distance They all kind of feel the same So with the helmet actually having it be a darker color having that bone horn Be uh, you know a nice bone color things like that and really going through and cleaning everything up Making sure those blends are nice and smooth Bringing your highlights up a step. So the green skin is very flat and it's highlights Having some more highlights like here on the top of his belly here on the top of his like droopy little pectorals Shoulder, you know, the edges of these wounds stuff like that is what's really going to help you out there When it comes to things like the bone make sure you you have a little bit more into the clean ivory here down at the bottom Uh and make sure those get nice and uh and bright Again, which will help if the armor is then dark One of the things compositionally that you want to make sure you have happening Is this many alternations between light and dark as you can manage So, but there you go. Hope that helped Sean and I hope to see this as part of that diorama in the case in A month or three months depending on which one you're talking about entering I don't know. You know, I don't have me in the states. You're in the uk Okay, uh, alex Looking for some feedback on his titanicus knight wants to get it up to competition standard specifically curious about the osl Sure, so, um, I love these guys these adepticus titanicus knights I had occasion to paint not this exact model, but a couple of these guys recently. I thought it was very fun Um, you know, does the osl sell? Uh a little um part of the problem of what's not selling the osl Is things like on the back here We don't have deep enough shadows at the edge. So osl is not just a matter of casting light but creating shadows If you, you know, take a torch and you hold it up against something Then there's a darker shadow on the opposite side of that thing. You just put the light against, right? And so the same goes here um, so I would look at Uh, it also deepening some darker greens green blacks here at the edges of like say his thrusters on the back Right? Um, same thing down here on the spear tip where these deep parts could be even darker here down at the bottom And that'll help the light really stand out a little more Uh, now as to the guy himself Uh, what I'll say is when it comes to, you know, competition quality on knights like this They need to be Visually compelling even when they're this small these knights have a lot of heraldry And iconography and you want to make sure you're incorporating that in So think about not just the stripes and the check patterns which you've done here, which are all very nice and good I like them. They're clean. They're well executed but at the same time be thinking about things like, um You know, what's each leg has its own heraldry It's supposed to display the shield and the top of the head and things like that That's sorry the top of the carapace the shoulders make sure you're working in I understand these are very small spaces. So you don't need to necessarily do Uh, everything in these spaces, but if you but you want to have some Call to those, um, they do come with very small decal sets and you can get small decal sets sized for AT So, uh, those can be a great value when it comes to things like this. Don't don't hesitate to To to look at things like that And that would be my main piece of advice. I think your weathering works really well. It's small, but good It's focused especially down at the lower levels around the legs Where at night of this height would naturally take much more damage as you know, he'd be As you can see, there's the tank for scale comparison. So, you know, he'd be kicking tanks and stuff like that So I don't have any problem with that Um, finally what I'd say is his feet should be dirtier. His feet are quite clean and silver This is a giant robot that walks around and weighs, you know, dozens of tons probably So when he steps on regular dirt, he's going to be stepping well down into it and kicking up a lot of dust and dirt It's going to get some dirt down here on the bottom of his feet. So make sure you work that kind of thing in All right, Joe Melor first submission first attempt at painting a bust Siri from project red everybody made this bus has been doing this bus and I see it around a lot And it's such a spoiler for the show. I never read the books or played the games I didn't I didn't know I was that she eventually grows up and becomes like his sort of I guess helper sidekick friend other witcher. I don't know Spellcaster something. I don't know what the future holds. I'm excited to see what the show does But at any rate, uh, his questions were tried a lot of new things with the textures in the osl Um, you know, he's looking for more ways to distinguish them apart Sure. So let's take a look here Um, I think the glow works pretty well. It's not, uh, it's not overwhelming, but it's not Uh, it's it's kind of exactly where it needs to be I would say you could take it a little farther when it comes to things like if it's this intense Here's here's the basic challenge. We have your glow here is very saturated If it's this saturated, it would be brighter. It would go farther. This whole area would have light blues on it So either this needs to weaken Right because this is a red shirt that this thing has completely turned blue If it's that strong Okay If it's that overwhelming here, I'm going to put my light in front of my face for a moment Okay, my hand my blue shirt is is affected by osl, right? There you go. That's super intense Look how much though of this is actually casting light still back here On my hand far away from it because it's that intense Right Whereas your light drops off like right here It's it's this distance away and you've dropped the light off Okay So my point is if it's that intense that saturated of a blue glow It would be it would be far more casting and what it would do Now as to the Leather and things like that stand aside. Let's look at the black and white here Yeah, I mean the the leather feels like very shiny leather, right like super shiny leather Um, I think the the leather jacket that's Sam. Sorry the red leather jacket I think what you'd want to do is Uh Yeah, that's a good good zoom in on that osl. It either needs to be much weaker or much broader in how much it glows Now as to the texture difference Yeah, I mean, I think that my main problem is actually that all the browns, especially around her Belt area here, uh, like your corset type leather is a little flat It does have some texturing in it. I think you could go farther Make one seem really worn and old with scratches and hashes like an old Saddle bag or something right that would make it stand aside because it would have a lot more broken up texture As opposed to the much more smooth volumetric kind of highlights you've got on the red leather Jacket that she's wearing Okay, so like you've got little texture here, but we could go farther have it more scratched scuffed torn up things like that And I think that would really go a long way I think the hair looks really nice. I think the skin has good variation It probably needs to be a little smoother like the the darks under her eyes are really really dark Um, I'm not sure if you're meaning for her to look that tired But I mean that's what that's going to communicate if you have dark circles that extend the whole distance under your eye It makes you look near dead like so tired. You're just exhausted and that's what she's looking like right now Um, you know, my eyes always have pretty dark shadows under them, but they're not that dark, right? They could they stop about right here So just something to think about there as you're looking at your colors Hope that all helps Okay, next up uh scodster with the squig and his main question is the interdependence of the mini in the base Is the difference too harsh? So first off, I think the colors look really nice. You really have the whole color of the rainbow here Um, I do think there is quite a difference and we need to bring a little bit of both down I think some of the green could come down into the base in like some mushrooms or some flora Or fungus, you know, whatever something like that down there And I think some of this red could come up So instead of going just into the purple on the back of the wings If the tips of these wings went into this similar sort of red color this candy red color Not shiny like this but into a same red tone Uh, I think that would actually make a huge difference in balancing the piece because Then we'd have a concentric circle of red Around the piece and the bright yellow green would be doing a great job of drawing our eye to the center So I think that's where you do want to watch when your pieces get completely separated There needs to be something of the base and the mini and something of the mini in the base It doesn't need to be overwhelming It can even just be simple lighting choices or very desaturated bases But the more those two things are kind of related together the better So there you go. I hope that helps overall I love the choices of color on this the blue wings the bright escorpina green on the squake It really stands out You've still done a great job of drawing the eye to the center And the drool with the little uhu glue or whatever you're using looks absolutely fantastic So well very very very well done there All right Dan, uh trying to improve tonal variation eyes cloth texture and placement of highlights on this tabletop piece Uh, and he said he'll retouch the sword after the class has adept gone great Looking forward to seeing you there. It's going to be a really fun class Yeah, I mean the skin is still where we have the most opportunity for variation So and then we we just see it in the black and white I mean I can see it without swapping over all the skin is pretty much one color And when I flip over that's exactly what I see. Oh, there you go. It was good when it recognizes a face Now the texture on the robe actually looks real or cloak or whatever you want to say I think that looks really nice down here. I think that's good Good extrapolation of the hashing technique here looks like wool that sells to me. I dig that The fur and the blonde hair don't I need more variation There are more subtle cps and browns in the hair more whites and greys or something like that more popping out It's that awful fur texture. This is like my least favorite type of fur texture I just it looks like gobbledygook as fur But I still would want to see a little bit more of that I wish sculptors would stop using this type of fur texture Because it just it never looks good It doesn't look like fur. It just looks like spaghetti Now that being said the I would continue pushing on things like the reds You know when we when it comes to the reds like in here, we need to go farther We need to integrate some more tones of things like purples and or dark shadows I'll just hold up on screen here a little piece. I'm working on right now I don't know if it'll come through but you can see the deep shadows on that red Right. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about. You want to have that level That's obviously way bigger scale But still you want to have that level of shadows and contrast captured in there The cloak captures it well the rest of the elements still feel flat And I feel like we could take the lessons and the distance We're running on the cloak and integrate that into the rest of our red leathers But certainly for a tabletop piece for dnd It's very well done. The paint job is very clean. It's very well executed So you've got all the right basics down now It's just a matter of building out that additional tonal variation Jan with his first submission for the end of month review This is gotrek and basically he's looking for some feedback on osl and improving his glazing So, uh, I like this where we took the picture mostly in the dark So just so we can see exactly how the the osl is selling and I think for the most part It's selling pretty well I think the blue against the orange the teal against orange is always nice Look at every movie poster for the past 15 years and you'll see exactly why this is such a good combination Um, I think where we have more opportunity is just in the things like Uh, when we look here in the light where we flip over Um, a little more of the hair probably lit up hair is very reflective very shiny And we kind of lose the top of the mohawk. So even though it's perhaps not as realistic You know capturing some of the blue up here on the front of the mohawk Like why did this mohawk absolutely like a very satin thing theoretically? Not reflect any of the light like why is none of the light catching here A little bit more sweeping up toward like this kind of triangular volume of the fire on the hair And this triangular volume being blue I think would really help um But overall I think this is a really nice take On the on the light. I mean, I think it works pretty well My only other note would be that there's not quite enough shadow in some of the areas that the that the That the orange light would be casting Um, so like this should be a little more lit. This should be a little deeper shadow This should be a little more well lit here Like the side of his head looks very it looks very skull like because it's so All in shadowed right here Whereas this light should be casting a little bit more of an even light around there with maybe a small one Just for the the shadow of the ear and the cheekbone and then but the top of this should be lit We shouldn't have this hard line here. Okay So hopefully that helps. I think this is a great interpretation on this many I think he did a good job, especially if we're just starting to explore the osl concept I think he came out really nice Okay, so next up we've got tom thorb Newbie painter with his test model for from the mortal realms magazine Looking for some advice on good areas of deliberate practice for the rest of the unit Sure So my areas of deliberate practice for you are going to be mainly and I want you to Thin your paints more especially with the whites. I can see the chalkiness Of the whites here. So I do want you to work on that Um and just sort of general my my my big thing all around is going to be a little more smoothness and glazing To your paint in general Uh, this looks a little rough. The white looks a little rough. The purple looks a little rough My my main area of deliberate practice for you is going to be thinning down into a glaze to get smoother blends That's going to be because where we it seems like we need to work on is our paint consistency And being able to really control that Uh, that looks like I think your next area where we can have some big improvement So that's what I'm going to challenge you on tom. Um overall compositionally I would just warn you against using this bright sky blue with with this color It's it can often be a little bit much Also careful this being red and this being plum either. They both need to be that or you know or neither frankly Watch the very bright past alley colors when they get used like this I would also want to see some of that color on the top part like It would make sense to me if this plum color were also his shoulder pad color That would just be a more natural balance think triangles and stuff like that when you're trying to balance a color out With the blue would look better if there were some deeper blues some darker shadows in there And it wouldn't be quite so abrasively sky blue Uh, that's just a compositional note. That's not really something to work on That's something you kind of get over time the more you work with it Hope that helps All right, next up we've got dan Uh first time submitting a month in review Uh, basically looking for you know some advice on tonal variation smoke and metals Uh and the bone color. Uh, yeah as far as getting over the fear of weathering by the way, that's just doing it Um, so while it's still up darin latham's channel will be up until the middle of may He has some great advice on weathering space marine armor I would highly recommend you go watch those videos on doing damage and adding Color and weathering to them. Uh, do go check that out that will that will give you sort of the information you need there Now, I think the the creamy color is very smoothly applied. I do think we need to vary the tone more So that's where we're going to need to practice our glazing and control of our shadows Um, the panels also are very they lack the definition. So again darker colors in there Separating all these lines that kind of thing When it comes to getting things like the feet dirty and stuff like that It can be as easy as you take a brown contrast paint and you go two to one Of contrast medium to some paint you can take a very light sarif from cpo or agrax and thin that with some Lamia medium You can take some base pigment any of these things will work And you just kind of force it down around the feet in the ankle area where it looks like this guy's been walking And you know some kind of natural environment Okay So my main challenge for you would be yeah to continue to push yourself on your glazing and your highlighting You know glazing and some shadows getting these plates well carved out And as far as the battle damage the weathering goes like I said go watch that video He shows you how to be very minimal touch with it and still make it look really good I also have a video on battle damage and weathering you can watch It's back in the 90s of hobby cheating. So go check that out. It's a technique. I still use to this very day And it's uh between those two you should be all set on if you want to get some more stuff weathered up there. Okay All right Next up Michael Conway first entry been painting for about 18 months He says he's learned a lot since joining this group, which is great Uh general feedback on the whole model And uh, yeah, okay and making the wings mesh mesh in Sure. So let's take a look here um So obviously we've got this hell drake because normally they don't have any organic parts But he's kind of combined it with some tiered bits there, which I think is fine Um, yeah, I mean my main pushback for you I I don't know that I like the as far as integration part of the problem is the wings are just a completely separate color than the mechanical parts So ostensibly what should happen here is the the wings the the Um, what do you want to call this like the leathery fabric in between them or whatever the wings themselves Not the bone striations or struts that hold them up Should be the same blue color or some take of the same blue color as this And in fact, my whole piece here is going to be tonal variation. That's that's where we need to be Um, I the blue is very flat all over the place, you know, I need a lot more change in in the individual panels Uh, like this should be more in shadow This should be more in highlight the jewelry shadow running down the side here and this should be highlight center Same with the gold again go watch my videos on that. They'll also be I was I I didn't mention it earlier I apologize There'll be a video linked down below in this that shows all my common feedback on how to create tonal variation So go check that out But ideally the the piece would feel much more integrated if things like the wings themselves If that was the same blue on that in between part as what's blew up on the hell drake, right? Um, you could even take the claws of the like the actual claws and make them gold Like why not and like this is a weird chaos creature. It's yours to decide So that would kind of be my instinct for you there push up your tonal variations more and when you're doing A heavy kit bash like this where you bring two kits together They need to feel coherent and oftentimes the way you can do that is through the color All right, so let's continue Bartos Events like some feedback on his unit of gores, especially regarding the flesh tones trying to work more color into the flesh Not sure if he's gone far enough. I found the red skin tones particularly challenging Also tried oil washing the models, but I got an ultra matte finish that looks a bit funnier in the deeper shadows So Yes, I think you're going the right direction here on the skin. I think actually your shadow colors are looking good I think we just need to pop a few highlights up especially here on the center of the torso Face actually looks pretty good. I think it's my nail the torso Maybe the very tops the muscles things like that little higher highlights that guy's a good example. Yeah but I mean these are gore So I don't really know what level of quality you're aiming for by the standards of tabletop gore. These guys look freaking amazing So, you know, I like there's a limit on what I'll do for any unit I've got to paint 50 of or 80 of or a hundred of and in my estimation you're nailing it here Um, so there's a difference between like what I would do on a character and what I would do on, you know, rank and file gore as it were Now as to the oil wash element, I mean, I think it's coming out fine. Um, yeah, they're really powerful It's a good they will create a very matte shadow Which means that when you hold them up and look at them directly in the right in the light that can that can occur Um, but keep in mind you don't generally view models like that, especially not tabletop models Um, so there's really not anything wrong with that now as to how to do it Or how to navigate that you can go from below with a little bit of satin varnish or something like that You know or or re hit everything in a slight matte satin mix Something like that will will kind of can can help tap that tamp that down Um But yeah, overall I think this is great. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say more variation in the skin tone This guy especially looks wonderful right here. Nice. I like I like the high highlight nice deep shadows Great to variation Yeah, excellent. No issues at all. Good work Okay Uh, Steven Russo first post first non-metallic metal first time trying to display quality Uh, he says, you know, his blends aren't smooth But he wanted to focus on contract and lice play light placement, which is where I look for feedback. Sure So totally fair.  And there are many different painters to use that I think he's just the sort of mo he takes it kind of farther than even most Um on the whole I think it's good when you look at a shape like this You want to think about your recessed highlighted as well as it's almost a globe like shape So it'll go highlight to mid to low to shadow to mid again back here Perhaps like a mid should be right here. So you may want to change that around a little bit just stuff like that Uh, you have it captured well on this side where you have the secondary light reflection. Just don't forget it over here Uh, the sword I think looks really nice lots of good light against shadow. I like the sword the most Um, I think that looks really good when it comes to the smaller areas It's kind of, you know, whatever sells because it's too tiny to really Kind of capture everything when it comes to a shape like this That's kind of generally how I tend to do it as well Now if I was in competition, I might actually place the highlight in the middle Kind of what I mentioned earlier Highlights on non metallic are just more interesting when they have shadows on both sides So you may want to think about like placing a light in the middle and then having shadows run down Is it completely realistic? And depends where the light is right? So that kind of thing, uh, it can be a good little trick with stuff like that to keep it a little more visually compelling Just kind of moving highlights up to bars that are happening in the middle of things will oftentimes help But overall, I think she looks nice Um, make sure you smooth out the blends and yeah, I think that's that's you know When you're going to competition as you said in the beginning, that's where you'd want to go eventually So I think where you've left to here your highlights are in my place and now it's just a matter of refine refine refine All right, jamie foster uh last month I reviewed merlin uh So and I had mentioned to add more variation on the skin tone Uh, also looking for tips on how to improve the medallion Um, so good. We're getting there. We need to go farther It's still like I would really recommend you go somewhere like putty and paint And look at the busts that get painted there And really look at their face like see them. Don't just look at them And you'll see how many tones are worked in the face, especially somebody as heavily wrinkled as this Like they have very furrowed brow and these deep lines You should see a lot more like reds up in this area in between here reds and pinks More yellow up in this area more pinks around the side towards the hairline I mean just look at my face as a good example right of like, you know, see all these pink tones that are in here See the the the light that's shining up in this area, right? So that's the kind of stuff you want to you want to work a little more on a little more blue tones coming down in the the Bottom here that kind of thing. Okay Uh now as to the medallion um Yeah, I mean, I think it's just kind of a regular flat medallion It's not a lot going on to it. I'm not sure that I'd be happy or sad about it You're doing it in tmm, which is fine Like you just need to pop out more of the highlights and Get the elements more individually separated and have some of it brighter. I mean, that's basically the answer there Um, it's a little dark. It's a little bit old and antique right now So popping up a little bit of that and bringing some of the areas out like create more of a strong highlight here And across the center line here Where it looks like this goes into silver and there's a reflection line traveling across because you told me the light's coming down here On this part of his head So the light should be theoretically striking the medallion right here and creating more light lines in those places And I think that'll help So there you go. Hope that helps jamie We're definitely yes, this is the merlin from last month. It's just so people can compare We're definitely going the right direction. We just need to keep pushing a little farther I do like the dots in the age like the the liver spot dots or whatever there Those work really well a plus on that All right, ian, uh biggest commission piece yet first real foray into making a big detailed diorama Looking for thoughts on what works and what doesn't um Yeah, so we've got these, you know, two figures being closed in on in the darkness The thing that doesn't work the most for me is the blonde hair We're in a scene of shadow and yet her hair is as bright as the yellow light. In fact, it's the same color Hair blonde hair is not yellow ever So I would stay away from that Also the light that she's casting here some of these areas are brighter than the light itself Should generally be a softer yellow out here. Like you're a very lemon yellow all around We want to watch that you want it to be more of a Soft ochre almost just passing into barely perceptively yellow where it's casting light onto the back This isn't a yellow light. It's a warm light. Okay, and warm lights cast warm light So it's not turning everything yellow. Like this is what you've painted here Is actually something that literally has a yellow filter on it And I don't think that's what you're intending you this has a flame in it like a literal flame burning oil or something Right, so it's just a warm light not a yellow light Unless these are yellow pieces of glass. That's the only way we'd get this effect. Okay Now as to the placement of the lighting it feels quite fine Like that is I think you've you know sort of captured mostly the right areas with what would be glowing As to the scene itself The the monsters the imposing monsters that are coming in I think they could help by having much deeper shadows around the backsides of them And having only really the front of them cast into any light You have rather despite the fact your your lights are so strong You have very even lighting over the rest of the monsters and stuff like that Whereas I think clearly they're lit by sort of the ambient cold light But it'd be better if they were more in shadow. It would help sort of the creepiness of the scene Um, so casting them a little dimmer the blonde hair Take a look at like what blonde hair looks like at night and it basically will look quite gray Most of the color gets washed out of it Um, so that's kind of where you'd want to go with that Hope that helps All right, Eddie Mullins. I've been painting for about eight months Uh Basically looking for any feedback. Sure. I mean this picture tells everything right here I wouldn't even have to go look at the color and it's all tonal variation. That's why we include this The wings are one color. The skin is one color. The hair is one color, right? Now when I flip over here The skin is all one color. The wings are all one color So like what we really need to work on so compositionally, she doesn't really work to kind of slam together I see a lot of people do this fire thing where they do this like red to orange It doesn't really work. It ends up looking like candy corn So I would kind of stay away from this like you don't want this cherry red in here If this is what you're going for you want mainly in the oranges and uh, and then slight bits of yellow white and then very deep hole type reds This purple skin needs a lot more tonal variation just really like Bringing down like we saw before so if it's if it's this kind of purple skin Then we want to make sure that it's got uh brighter skin tones in it Bring in like a Caucasian skin tone to highlight use deep blues to do that You know have an icy yellow mixed in for your high highlight something like that To really make sure you're popping those highlights out. Okay Uh, but yeah, I think that's and then that and then blending like where you blended gray to black Or where you have the gray highlighting the black. There's no blending So that would be my other main challenge for you to work on. Okay all right Okay, next up william Uh, thanks. You may have finally got a working photo set up car. Sorry painted Working on color and tonal variation for interest contrast and taking a decent photo Yeah, um, yeah good very good hue variation. I love the green underbelly and all of that I think that works well. I think the problem we have is when we look at this shot right here This tells the story right all of the yellow is very even So like what we need is I need this stuff up here To be brighter than this stuff in here now. You've got a light underbelly. So looking back at the color You know, this should be in more darkness. This should be in more light You need at the individual scale level You can pick that out through brushing the edges But it can also happen in things just like your general volumes like down in this area of yellow Should be much more or ochre have much more like soft brown tones where it's deeper than up here on top So think about those kind of universal environmental lights that are going to happen and how those can impact the overall lighting of the thing Okay all right Hopefully that helps But very cool. I love the color choices compositionally. He's great. Now. We just need to push that that variation around okay so next up we have uh, let's call it gurgly that's probably wrong but uh Just finished the support girl guard He said he we helped push a lot his osl lights further Just curious if he's in the right direction create an effect like the skeleton is built from evil magic and is Pouring from him. All right. Well, let's find out Yeah, I mean, I think this is good I think there's a little bit of a hard edge on the back of the cloak where we want to make that a little softer of a glow um Like that line is a bit hard I like the variation the cloak looks really good. I think the eyes sell that looks right And a little bit's coming from the fingertips and stuff It's really just where the the sort of turquoise you're using goes into the red So I think on the most part. Yes. The answer is this does sell for me, especially the ground light It just needs to be softened a little here So a little bit of a red glaze over the top of that to kind of bring it back I think would be the main thing you'd want to work on it What looks nice on the shield you might want to Since this is most meant meant to be made of metal and would be very highly reflective You may want to add a little bit of a white light point a little more on the bottom of the shield where it's catching the most light But beyond that. Yeah, I think that's definitely working. You're definitely going in the right direction there And I think it looks really good Okay, um Kartik looking for some general feedback as well as comments on the red skin and blending Sure So, uh, let's take a look here at this guy. So with the blending We definitely need to smooth some of this out like I can look at the wings and it's there's the transitions are very very harsh Now as far as the skin goes I think basically we need I don't see a problem with the red on the blending red is generally a color that blends well The problem here with your red skin is we need more tonal variation So I need to see more Diverse shadows and more higher highlights. That's basically where the challenge is falling here Um, there's not enough shadow. There's not enough high There's not enough definition of the muscle structures If you go back and look at that gore where you look down at the attached video You'll see a lot what I'm talking about as to the blending. Yeah, we like with stuff like the wings We need to smooth a lot of those out That's going to be going to things like glazes and stuff like that to get those those transitions Solidified there. Okay All right. Hope that helps Piotr first post painting mostly for tabletop. But sometimes he tries to paint something to improve his technique Uh, trying to work on his contrast and looking for feedback as to how to improve that. Sure So here we have captain america from a marvel crisis protocol And you know discussing like the contrast I think for the most part we're we're pretty decent. Um, and you know when we go to this shot you can see kind of Where we're strong and where we're not the shield. I think has the strongest contrast as it's meant to it's meant to be reflective I think where we could have it is a little more into the deeper blues Especially here like under his legs and these folds and these shadows under his arm You could bring that down into more navy tones more deep blue something like that I think that's kind of the chief area where I notice that the other part. It's probably in the brown Of the straps Um, having those a little bit more deeper contrasted would probably be the other place I would go But on the whole I think he's he's good. Um, you could also push some of the darker parts on the shield A little bit farther not much. You don't want them to go all the way to black But they could go just an itty bitty bit farther Uh, but that's pretty minimal. So Yeah, there you go. Hope that helps All right, so Andrew Uh, Andrew Christopher James Wade Uh, bringing us an awesome piece Uh, I had seen this online. This is called Tuesday And a wonderful piece he made from like obviously this big Pine cone and and putting the miniatures on it in their little Their little house as they're they're hunting for this this guy who's hiding around the other side. Um Absolutely wonderful integration between the model and this it's such a cool exploration of just an artistic piece Um, I don't have much to say about this other than I absolutely love it. Um It's obviously, you know, very small. I think if I was going to point out anything It's that I would like some of the elements that you have here Uh, Andrew to kind of pop up a little more to have a little more visual interest like we've got a lot of green It feels very naturey But I'd love it if there were tiny little splashes that were a little bit more eye catching The bird is what I'm talking about like he's really good back here But the rest of these like flowers and little mushrooms all feel kind of flat. They're very naturalistic Which is I suspect what you were going for But I'd still like it if maybe they had just a little bit more pop to them a little bit more yellow A little bit more reds a little bit more saturation Um, not heavily not every piece because yes, that would be overwhelming and steal the attention But just a little bit here or there to kind of break up the green a little more They're so desaturated and soft. I feel they kind of don't do as much the the miniatures themselves. The figs look really great I think it's a very cool Uh, very cool imagination of a piece. So that's kind of where I would push you on that sir, but overall great stuff Okay, Raphael, uh his entry for the month Uh, quite unsure and unhappy about the color and contrast on the helmet for this many In general, I have problems with color balance contrast and to wreck the eye to the light place Um Sure, so let's take a look Um, the face is actually what I think I have no issue with Uh, it goes from like that gray to white and I think that's all right. It needs to be cleaned up So like it's fairly it's kind of messy like we want it more well defined as to the individual elements Um, so that's challenging, but the contrast on the face. I actually don't mind at all It is in fact where I look especially with the blue white framing around it there The biggest challenge I have is actually in like the purple Where it's very very flat your purples and your browns are very very flat Um, they lack all of the appropriate tonal variation And like things like having the edges around the plates Dark lined stuff like that is actually what draws my attention as being as as needing some more love Um, so yeah, I think the face is good. You've got kind of the individual elements picked out well It's bright on the edge. We need to clean up stuff like his face So these individual elements, especially around that tiny mouth are more well defined But I think the actual work I would do if I was you is in adding more variation to the uh Uh To like the purple into the armor and stuff like that Okay, next up tristan, uh, second submission another challenge model from his discord Uh So did his best take photos with diffuse light so lights properly was aiming for a gloss black armor without using any black paint Um, he'd like his feedback on how will he sell the gloss black effect and his true metal effort. Okay, sure So obviously original mini here new mini here I think clearly we can see that we've advanced quite a bit as a miniature painter. So yes, absolutely. It is always wonderful to compare um The so so well done there Uh, I feel like we could probably do a little bit more with the shadows on the gold It does make it hard to tell but nonetheless I feel like especially like around this area here this this flat that's vertical this side That could be more heavily in shadowed underneath here could be more heavily in shadowed Now as to the glossiness on the armor Yeah, I think for the most part that sells we could smooth that out a little bit Is some of the high highlights are a little bit sharp But I think for the most part that sells like some of it's a little rough, but I think that's okay Uh, so overall, I think this is a great Uh, a great example on how much you've You know gone forward in your journey here as an artist. I think it's it's good keep pushing that contrast I think with the black armor a little bit broader volumes on the glossiness So take me a little bit higher into the highlights. I think we'll be in a good place All right, Derek, uh Keep it short looking for advice and feedback on the gold Okay, let's take a look at the gold Uh So overall what I see is that Um, I think shapes like the legs and places like that as you mentioned do work Better um than some of the other volumes like around the chest. So so let's you have a black and white in the back Yes Okay, so here's where I think it works. Well when we look at the black and white on the back You can see how we've got all this nice variation where we're going into dark colors and up to light these nice light lines When we look at it on the black and white on the front I don't see as much of that right down here. I do on the feet But not up here on the chest and the arm We lost some of our deep shadows in here Uh, and so I think that's where our opportunity is to keep pushing Uh there so like bringing some darker shadows up Popping out some higher highlights around the edge of that that shape is like pectoral armor plate shape there Uh, I think it's kind of a good way to go You may also want to look at your spot highlights just having some small dots of white where it's really The sort of specular lighting where it's really just capturing the the exact reflection Some of that around will also really help Uh Darren latham on his blog on raza miniature painting has a great article on this where he did the old Sanguinius model i'm going to say and I don't know 40k models well enough, but I think that's what it was that uh That really explains that kind of um specular lighting really well Okay, uh henrik first time poster. This is his entry into a local competition We'd love to get feedback on it as a competition piece what works and what doesn't uh Sure, and then uh, just you know, ask about humor. I don't think there's anything wrong with humor in pieces I love humor in pieces and if a judge takes it less seriously because it's funny I think they're a bad judge and and I don't most judges. I know would not Would not hold that against anybody Um, sure. So what works what doesn't um, okay, great. So we'll start with the the non-metallic steel um, it doesn't Supercell because it doesn't The contrasts are very direct very flat and they don't go high enough into the white.  You haven't gone far enough.  I need more pink tones Worked in here around his nose and his lips He got a little bit here on the bottom lip none on the top more around his eyes things like that This highlighting needs to come way way up The yellow and such up top here all feels kind of flat So something more like weathering scratching more variation on that would be very solid Uh, I think those are your main areas for improvement that I would latch on to immediately if I was judging the model Uh in a competition. Okay, so I hope that helps. It's it's very well done. It's a very cool piece It tells a nice narrative. I enjoy all of that Uh, so I think all of that sells perfectly I think we just need to have like when it comes to like this purple thing up here Like there's a lot of detail on that and none of it's really doing anything, right? So just make sure we have areas and interests all throughout any time we've got those details All right, Sebastian first time poster started his night hot army and uh paying this lady Uh, like some overall opinions. Sure Um, yeah, I mean, I think she's good overall It's a pretty straightforward paint job on it depends on what you're aiming at Like are you aiming for on the tabletop quality because then I think she's great I think she's above that You know depending on where you want to go from there things like more variation in The her head ornamentation and the staff making the gem and her staff into an actual gem Calling out a little deeper shadows around the skull face Like you can accentuate that a little more with a little more glazing of that deep Blue black color into the eyes and under the jaw and stuff like that Uh, just kind of making that a little more stark Having these like these little elements of her dress more picked out Those would be the kind of the things that I would be looking at but on the whole I think it's a very nice model. I think you did a good job on it So but those would be my things if I was going to pick out taking some next steps. Hope that helps Sebastian Okay, Alberto looking for feedback in general, uh, where can he improve? Sure So we'll start with the skin much as I said before Uh, see previous commentary on tonal variation in the skin Actually the same with the beard and the hair It needs a lot more of like deep browns and high highlights hair is very satin. It's very reflective He's got this big great beard shape and it doesn't quite have enough It's not going through enough of the colors in it a bright red beard and sort of sunlight as you painted him here It would be very reflective Um, the other tonal variation would be on something like the the dragon itself He feels very just sort of samey green, especially all back here So having a little more detail on that picked out Things like these bone horns need to get more striations more color more variation in them same with the teeth You know up here Just making sure that these all elements of it are visually arresting and compelling especially on a piece of this size I think the axe works, uh I think that I like the top better than the bottom Honestly, if you I would have just kept the same highlight pattern on both I don't think with a shape like that you really need to to vary it This one looks good because it has shadow on both side there You put the highlight on the end if you wanted to vary it Then the highlight should have been here and here as opposed to all the way to the edges because it just doesn't sell as much Uh, see previous couple times that I've said that in this video, right? A high highlight non-metallic Jenna looks better when it has both shadows shadows on both sides of it So that would be my advice. I hope that helps Okay, uh, josh, uh, josh coming in first submission been painting for a year General feedback on what to improve the freehand pattern on the blades is the last thing he painted an attempt to show an artifact in games Uh, I don't know how to correct this without making the face really garish Or repainting the blades Sure, okay um, yeah, so Let's take a look here. And yes, that is definitely too garish like a thousand percent. It's too garish um Yeah, you don't that's that's just too much Um, I I understand you were going for an artifact. I would repaint the blades. I'll be completely honest with you It doesn't work with the rest of the model That's just the bottom line Sometimes we have a cool idea and I appreciate you going to that distance on the freehand like that's super cool It just doesn't work in this case it like that sort of hive structure looks very not like what I would expect on the blades And it just my brain just sees that and it thinks like 1960s laugh in it doesn't it just doesn't fit Um, I would turn them back into blades. Honestly It's a hard thing to say to say paint over something you put that much work into and I'm sure you put a lot of work into it But it just it doesn't sell Uh, now as to the general work Again, see all the previous commentary on more colors and variations again. You have a nice two colors I need more Um, you need to smooth the transition between those two the face needs to become brighter I need a lot more reds and purples and pinks especially in big skaven You want to make sure this part of the face has a lot more pink tones to it Up here in his neck should have a lot more purple tones Things like that is where you want to go. Okay So like right here where I can barely see the blade honestly looks better Than here where I can't see anything else but the sword. So you're 100 right Uh full marks on the warp stone. I think that looks fantastic. So excellent interpretation of that there Zero problems. I have with this this looks spot on very well done Uh, so yeah, I think that's that would be my main advice. It's rough advice, but honestly, that's what I'd say josh Okay, uh, maddo bryan, uh vice on chibi model challenges the skin in the face Uh, okay, so Basically looking for that kind of you know skin thought Yeah, I mean the answer is with chibis. You need more color like her cheeks need pinks and rosiness to it You know stuff like that Her eyes need a sharper definition like with the eyes. You want them to be really well defined Um, her eyes still have white around them. That's they can have white on one side not both sides You they your eyes need to irises need to be offset Into the eye in one way or the other where there's like you can't have white around it Even all the way around it even on a chibi. You should generally avoid that Um, so like she can she can be looking down at something and hence have white above her eye But then the bottom of the iris needs to meet that Also, make sure that that's very smooth in there with that white gray and the red shading into it is nice and subtle The answer using the flesh that is stuff like you want to be glazing in a little more of things like the Indian and African shadow But then go get yourself just a magenta paint because because it says flesh that that doesn't mean that's the only color issue you're allowed to use right Higher highlights pop things like her nose and the top of her cheeks up higher use something like an ice yellow And then bring down here put red into the lower part of the cheek. So upper cheekbone is very bright Fades into like a cheek here go watch some makeup contouring videos This is my best advice for you. Watch how they construct Their face using makeup and you'll once you do that for a couple hours You'll never have a problem painting female faces again The best thing you can do with your time is go watch a bunch of makeup contour videos I say it all the time and I really do mean it's not a joke You will learn so much about how to Place lights and shadows on a face Okay, adam craig first time posting here Also first time attempting osl and doing it on metallic paints, uh, okay, sure So let's take a look So in general, um, I think this is nice. I think it's well executed. It looks very clean Uh, I don't think I I think the osl works Uh, pretty well. I think the way you carried out the blue light on there is is minimal but effective So I I appreciate that I think the patterning on that looks really nice We can really see the contrast here when we look this in black and white. So I think that works very well I think the gold is good. I think you can get a little more shadow into some places. It's tough Also a little more glazing of some inks, but on the whole I think it's pretty darn solid Yeah, I think the biggest opportunity you have is probably in the face the skin Again working in a little more colors there sharpening up the eyes But on the whole I think this guy looks really great, man I I think this is really good work May want to think about running a little bit of a dark underneath the beads here or like a black ink being dropped in between each bead To kind of, you know, really make them feel individual Yeah, for the most part, that's kind of what jumps out at me. I think this is a really nice take on this model I think you did a good job okay, um Grezy, um, greg here. That's right. It's just greg greg. Hey greg Entry for february looking for overall opinion criticism on color composition perhaps a little discussing basing. Sure Okay, so I think here the great thing I say all the time is still in effect We do need to push the tonal variation some more the red feels flat and the green of his skin feels flat so The red is a little better from this angle, but like why is this red here as bright as this red here? This is a knee stuck jutting way out into the light This is a part of his robe that's way back in the shadow and yet you've told me to the same red All right, so it's not just the folds you need to think about the volume of whatever it is as well Same with like the greens on his skin the goblins the squigs things like that Now as the basing no, I don't think there's anything wrong with mini diorama type stuff like this Watch when you've got the cork still looking very much like a cork You may want to break that up a little more have some more rock texture on the side take some grit And and rocks and stuff and stick it to the side Um the skull just kind of floating there is a bit weird this one's I like this one This one's kind of strange because it just feels like literally so it's stuck to the side of all with glue It should be like up on the top level with them Um, and then in general with this kind of turquoise stone Um, I like the crackle paint on the top I just feel like it would be better if the crackle paint extended around the side here And I had a bunch of it coming down again break up that sort of thing Uh, and I think it'll be a lot stronger now this guy's like a cacophony of colors But all of it's relatively well in balance. It's all fairly saturated, but you've got a lot of it scattered around everywhere None of it really works, uh, sorry Excuse me, none of it fails to work it all It all sells because you've got nice spots of it kind of evenly placed around So I think despite the fact we're using four very bright colors They all I think work because you've kept them in relative balance The yellow is the only one that's a little light with the big moon So maybe a little more yellow in some places like but that's pretty minimal Because you also are using a fairly faded yellow The biggest opportunity we have here is to draw more attention to the face through higher highlights around the edge of the robe The edge of his nose and his The edge of his face like bringing pinks and bright tones into his face So he has this really expressive bright face Greg, I think that's what I would really focus on and that's that's where I would go That'll really draw your attention back to here, which is where you want him looking you want him looking at scars next face or not scars Nick Whatever this guy's name is. I don't remember the loon boss. Nope. That's an individual thing too. I don't know The the gitz leader All right, finally rednecks, uh Being mostly entirely true metallic metal pushing himself on also wondering if the blood spear effect sells. So let's take a look Yeah, I mean, I think with all the true metallic metal. We need to uh go a little farther again So black lining I've got a video on that you'll want to go look at that but black lining individual elements can work better Making sure our edges are nice and sharp with the silver We've really got to push that contrast some darker inks down in the shadows stuff like that Like when I look at this even in true metal There's just not enough contrast here like this having such a weak separation line again It's partly because the print like these kinds of 3d prints or resin prints or whatever they are Are just kind of weak on this their details are soft Which unfortunately means that as a painter you've got to go in and really create dark lines and shadows between everything And really push it to make it sell Okay, um now as far as a bloody spear tip um Yeah, I mean you want some darker reds in there go watch my video on blood splatter and I think that'll that'll help So there you go. That's uh, that's what I have to say about that rednecks. Hope that all helps That brings us to the end of the month. So folks, thank you to everybody who submitted Very much appreciated beautiful entries this month. Thank you everyone very much Like I said, if you want to join us down below you can find the link to come join us Make sure you answer all the questions Otherwise, we won't hit accept even if you look like a human if you give two really funny answers And don't answer the third question. I won't let you in. That's how this works Uh, you must answer all three I don't care what your answers are you just have to answer them Well to the to the last one you must agree to the policies if you don't agree to our policies of our code of conduct You don't get in the other two you can answer them however you like Uh, so at any rate, there you go folks. I hope that certainly helps. Thank you to everybody who submitted look forward to next month Thank you to everybody keep giving feedback I love doing this once a month, but everybody else who's commenting who's giving positive feedback who's answering questions You are the ones who keep this community great. Let's keep it positive Let's keep helping everybody take their next step on their hobby journey. So thank you very much everybody I really appreciate it. We'll see you next time