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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Olaf the Stout" data-source="post: 4178252" data-attributes="member: 13703">A week or so ago I decided to crack open the paints again and give miniature painting another go.  Initially I was going to repaint some of my prepainted D&D minis that I had collected.  However in my painting box I found a number of unpainted minis that I got but never actually painted.  So I decided I would give one of them a go just to get myself "back in the saddle".The mini I picked looks like an elven ranger.  He has a large billowing cloak and is holding a sword.  There is some fine details such as straps on his armour, but nothing too difficult so I thought it would be a nice mini to start back into things with.  Here is what I have learned so far.1.  I'm very slow at painting!So far I have spent probably 10 hours painting the 1 mini and there are still a number of things I have to paint/redo before I am finished.  I'm guessing that I will have spent about 15 hours painting this 1 mini by the time I am done.  I know that some of the professionally painted minis can take 50+ hours to paint.  However once my mini is finished it will probably look like something someone could have done in 5 hours!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> 2.  Always make sure you completely scrape off all the mould lines off of your mini before you start painting.I thought that I had already scraped off the mould lines years ago as the mini was sitting in my painting box already primed and ready to pain.  I was so keen to just start painting that I didn't really think about the mould lines.  As it turns out there is quite an obvious line on the shoulder of the cloak.  As I have been drybrushing the cloak the paint has been catching on this mould line, making it stand out.3.  Faces are hard to paint.I've spent ages trying to paint the face on this guy.  I've finally gotten to a stage where a good amount of shading can be seen in the mouth, nose, etc., but it took quite a few goes at it.  Getting the skin to look a natural skin colour has been a challenge.  Another difficulty I had was highlighting.  I don't know if it's because I'm highlighting the wrong areas or I'm overhighlighting the face.  In any case, whatever I was doing just didn't look right.  I think it looks ok for now but I'm sure I can do better.  I've still got to pain the eyes and eyebrows though so there's still time for me to stuff it up!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> 4.  Shading is hard to keep!The cloak on my mini is quite large and it has a number of folds in it, allowing for a fair bit of shadowing and highlighting.  Initially I painted the cloak a dark green colour (Dark Angels Green in the GW range).  However, after I started to drybrush the raised areas it didn't look dark enough overall.  So I went back and repainted it again, this time with some black mixed in as well.  I then painted some of the folds an even darker mix of green/black.  Despite doing that I am finding that by the time I have drybrushed the mini to highlight the raised areas the shadows seem to lighten a lot.  I have to keep going back and darkening the recesses.  Am I overhighlighting or is there something else I'm doing wrong?Olaf the Stout</blockquote>

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