Jar's Advanced Painting Class - Review part II

Now back to miniature painting!

After the practical exercices I mentioned in part I of this review we started to prepare the mini we were going to paint and built a base taking into account the general atmosphere around the mini.

I immediately imagined the barbarian in a forest, standing on a tree trunk, with a few rays of pale yellow sunlight coming from above. As I had only painted zenithal lighting unil then, I decided to go for sunlight coming in from top left this time. Which is also more likely in a forest IMO.

Several workshop participants converted their minis. As the axe perfectly fits into a forest environment, I didn't change the weapon and immediately started building a forest base for my barbarian instead.

Next to me, someone got carried away  ... :-D

Here's how mine looked like after the first layer:

At this stage I made a major mistake. Due to the light coming from top left I didn't take into consideration painting the shield in a more interesting way (adding a second colour or some kind of pattern). I just overlooked it because I was concentrating on the completely new situation of light and shadow I painted for the very first time. As the shield was almost completely in the shadowy part of the mini, I didn't think about it until it was too late.

When I realised my mistake, it would have been difficult to correct it considering that we only had one more day to finish and I would have had to add this second colour or pattern in every single shade of colour I had mixed until then.

I'm going to improve this in my next painting session though.

Another WIP pic after adding the first highlights with the atmosphere colours green and yellow. I didn't use the usual white for these highlights. They are generated by starting with desaturated colours and switching to more saturated ones in the next step.

The barbarian's back is in the shadowy part ... and thus much darker in general.

More highlighting done ...

At this point I started to love the concept of adding atmosphere colours to the mini and thus enhancing the atmosphere you create with the base ... what a difference to the usual way of painting!

Take a look at our final results and you'll understand why:

 As I mentioned before, someone got completely carried away ... we called him 'Afro-Hulk'! :-D

As you can see, I kept it simple, without OSL effects or tattoos. Overall, I'm more than satisfied with the outcome though.

When you get the chance to attend one of Jar's Advanced Painting Classes, go for it! I can only recommend the perfect mix of theoretical lessons followed by practical exercices and individual support he offers. One of the best workshops I have attended so far!