Jeez, after your last post, when I saw "two figures.." I was almost afraid to look!! Good stuff to the Max... I wish I had a pdf to post, and when I do I'll do so, but the one thing that pops out at me in your excellent figures are the eyes. I paint icons for a second vocation, which involves the careful study of rendering faces through paint. In general we do not look at faces in real life looking directly back at us unless we are involved in direct conversation, and certainly with models never because of the ability to move around it. Likewise, we seldom see people looking directly at us, and if so, more often than not from a sideways position. The part of the eye surrounding the iris is the "sclera". It really isn't ever bright white. Iconographers use a very lightened value of their skin tone, the "sarka". The face of an icon has a base coat of "proplasma", which is a dark neutral brown. Then progressively lighter shades of sarka are added in smaller and smaller areas, ending in the highlighted areas like the brow, cheekbones, nose bulb and chin. I know modelers do the opposite; paint light and darken with washes. But, in principal the end result should be the same. It looks to me like you work dark to light, too. So here's my proposition, gifted one. Try eyes where you paint the sclera with your sarka (light light skin tone) slightly larger on side of the iris than the other, i.e. the iris is not centered. And think about up/down, which means how much of the top of the iris, or in extreme conditions, the bottom, is under the upper/lower lid. There will ALWAYS be some amount hidden, usually on top, unless the figure just discovered his grenade pin loose in his pocket. Then, leave the sarka as is on the smaller side but come back with a light or white dot on the larger side. A dot, like a spot of light. I wish I could show you a sketch, but imagine that as you look at the figure, he is (or she is, but thats another story) turned to his right, your left. His eyes are aimed at you, which means that as you look at his eyes the sclera on the left is bigger than on the right. Put your white dot there, leave the small part of the sclera the slightly darker flesh tone. I'll be trying this, but my skills are not like yours, esp. at 1/35 so I'd be interested if you'd give it a shot. Bill
|