Sanguinor - scrolls and purity seals finished

After a rather minor update last time I thought it was time for a major one. I'm really pleased with how the mini is progressing though I'm not so pleased with the pics I took this time. Anyway I'm so eager to show you the progress I'm afraid you'd have to do with half-decent pics this time. I am actually begining to see the finish line on this project as only the text on the scrolls, the vial and the sword remain. Let's race to the finish!

Sanguinor - minor update

I've finally managed to defeat my laziness and pick up my brushes! I didn't do much work and it was not very enjoyable since I painted stuff that should have been painted in previous stages, namely the round gems and the sword hilt. However I'm now faced with the more enjoyable parts like the scrolls and purity seals. Not so sure about the round gems though. I may leave them as they are or add a white highlight at the top corner or... well I really don't know so all ideas are welcome.

Here's a pic with white reflection dots photoshopped onto the round gems. Take a look and tell me what you think. Should I go withe the dots?

Miniature photography tutorial (sort of)

Taking inspiration from a request for a collaborative post for FTW Bloggers Group I decided to tackle the subject of miniature photography once more. Since there are already many good tutorials around I decided to write an article showcasing two of my favourite tutorials. I chose these tutorials because they are easy to follow even for people with limited knowledge of digital photography and furthermore they need no specialist equipment. They have enabled me to take decent pics with minimum fuss so I highly recommend them for beginners or people who just can’t be bothered spending hours to get a decent shot of their minis. The first tutorial focuses on photographing minis while the second focuses on photoshopping pics of minis.

Tutorial focused on photographing minis

Tutorial focused on photoshoping minis

And a few tips concerning Photoshop and image size…

1) "Auto Levels" in Photoshop does a pretty decent job if you can’t be bothered to adjust Levels manually.  You can try both methods and compare the end results. Usually when I have to edit lots of pics I just use "Auto Levels".

2) Reduce the image size. The standard in CMON and most forums is 600 pixels width.

3) In Photoshop there’s the “Save for Web" option which allows for a decent image quality combined with a small file size. When you choose this option select "High" as the quality setting and you’d have the best balance between image size and picture quality. Anything better than "High" will only increase the file size without any significant improvement in image quality.

And lastly some of the most useful Photoshop shortcuts (very useful when you have to edit 30+ pics):

Auto Levels = Shift+Ctrl+L
Image Size (adjust) = Alt+Ctrl+I
Save for Web = Alt+Shift+Ctrl+S

Sanguinor - gems finished

Since I was pretty happy with how the test gems turned out, I went on and painted the rest of them in the same way. I'm still undecided on the round gems. I am thinking of doing them in the same way as the other gems - glowing towards the middle. I'm unsure of how it will look however since this is an unconventional aproach for round gems. If anybody has tried something similar let me know how it worked out.

Sanguinor - gems test

This project is moving at snail pace lately but at least I managed to paint something on the mini. I painted a couple of gems to test out the technique I "borrowed" from Dezzarfox. I slightly altered the technique and I must say I'm very pleased with the end result so the rest of the gems will be painted in the same way.

Paint recipe for the gems:
- Basecoat Tausept Ochre
- Highlight with Sunburst Yellow
- 2 washes of Baal Red
- Highlight with Sunburst Yellow
- Highlight with Skull white