Tzeentch Daemon Prince
Ok first post, jumping right in :). This is a Daemon Prince that took me far longer to convert and paint than it should have. I entered it at Gamesday Canada in the Battlescene category which I unfortunately didn't make first cut in. It is definitely my best work so far however so I figured I would ask opinions here on it as well.

Looks good. I think a staff would have suited the model better than the sword. the deamon prince is well done, I think the worst part of the model is the base and the fact that the crisis suit on the base was not painted to nearly the same standard as the rest of the model.

I like it, some nice color scheme on the sword and the white cloth; however, I think it did not make it past 1st cut for 2 reasons. 1st, the color choice: Imo there's too much blue and not enough contrast between the skin color and the armor. The armor itself gold and chainmail/blue needed more contrast as well to really seperate the rims from the lower part. Maybe use a warmer gold for the rims and use some obsidian black or another cold color for the rest. Or keep that white and gold contrast you had going for the waist cloth, it looks great and very clean. 2nd, the proportions: Some part of the minis are disproportionate like the wings which overwhelm the rest of the model. Lastly the head could have used more detail, eyes, horns...I think the head is the most important part of you model when you enter a painting contest of such a high level . It's the one part that can really captures the emotions or intensity of you model character. Hope I was not too critical, just giving my opinion. Sometimes (and I think it's true for most painters) we get into a project and spend so much time on it, it becomes hard to take a step back and see what could have been done differently. Hope to see more work from you soon.

Not sure what you mean about the gold Yann. How would I go about achieving a warmer gold? And where would I use obsidian black while painting gold? No worries about being critical. You explained what you were getting at so it is cool. Now if you had just come out and said "this sucks" and nothing else... :)

Without going too much in details regarding color theory. You can achieve a warmer gold in 3 ways. 1) You can increase the intensity value of it by using more pigment in your paint.(usually done by adding very little water or using a higher pigment paint or a simply by usinga brighter yellow/gold) 2)You can create luminosity through contrast. Simple example: If I paint 2 squares. 1st one is red and in it's center I draw a green circle. 2nd one is purple and it's center I draw a green circle as well. Which green circle will look brighter? The circle in the red square will look brighter because it's surrounded by a color that offers a greater contrast. 3)Hardest to master especially considering it's a metallic color is value. By having a lighter value dominate your overall color choice you can create dramatic lighting. This is a technique taken from classic 2 dimensional painting. Most mini painters refer to it a non metallic metal ( NMM ). NMM would allow you to create a much brighter gold at the expense of realism. To come back to your question: And where would I use obsidian black while painting gold? If you had painted the lower part of the armor obsidian black instead of blue, the gold rims would have contrasted more and the daemon skin would have also stand out. The blue skin would have then become a clear defined spot color. If you can buy or borrow a book on color theory. You'll learn a lot about colors and more importantly you'll be able to learn a lot more from just watching great painted minis. You'll understand how and why their color choice worked so well. You could have the best techniques in the world and bulls eye paintbrush accuracy, but if you don't master colors, you'll have a very slow learning curve. I hoped this help. I could have written a lot more on the subject but you're just better off getting a good book with full color pics. ^^

Thanks guys, I appreciate the tips. Definitely going to look into trying them. akaranseth: I wondered which member here you were :)

The three examples you give have nothing to do with color warmness or coldness but with light intensity and contrast which is a totally different subject... Thx old git for correcting me. I agree with you on this. I should have used more precise terminology ( was early morning); what I meant to say is the daemon model needs more balance temperature among other things. Since this is a predominantly cool model because of the deep blue, one way to achieve some balance would be to create a warmer gold. It would distribute color temperature in a 30%warm 70%cool pattern. But getting a warmer gold alone would not be enough, you would need intensity and contrast to make the model really stand out.

Aside from layering and such, I do know that metals are one thing I really need to work on. For so long now I have simply painted them on with possibly just a light inking and touch ups. I have no real idea how to change the 'temp' of metals or what colours to go with to make say, a gold, contrast better with a silver or my metallic blue armour on this model.

Here's a way to make nmm using gw paints. ScorchedBrown, SnakebiteLeather, DesertYellow, BleachedBone, SkullWhite. 1. Start with a base coat of scorched brown. 2. Cover around 80-90% of coat with snakebite leather, the remaining 10-20% being the darkest areas. 3. Paint thin layers (very thin) of desert yellow on top of the snakebite leather. 4. Mix Desert Yellow with Bleached Bone, then highlight the areas you want to be reflecting light.(really think where to put your highlight, it's the key to nmm) 5.Keep adding bleached bone to your mix as you paint multiple thin layers of highlight. Keep doing this until desired effect is achieved or your mix becomes pure Bleached Bone. 6.At this point you mix Bleached Bone with Skull White and continue your highlight. 7.For your final highlight just take your finest brush and paint little pure skull white dots where you want your most striking reflections. Now this is 1 way to make nmm. It's not the best but it's an easy linear way to do it. There's no wash, shading... involved, only highlighting from your darkest color to skullwhite. You can use the same technique to make almost any color of armor/metal, just find the right colors and keep highlighting until you reach pure skullwhite.