Laurana the Sorceress

[Hinton]

Here's my lastest work. It seems that no matter what I do, the pics turn out a little blurry. It may be the camera, but there's no way I can get new one for a long, long time.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2953/lauranarn4.jpg

[supervike]

Damn Hinton! Thats really good. You have the smooth bright colors I have been trying to get for years. Well done.

[Wren]

Lovely colour selection, too, she has a nice fresh, natural look. She needs maybe a bit more definition in the face - around the eyes and a darker mouth. Both are frustratingly hard to do, of course!

[Illustrange]

just to check :
besides the camera it could be either the lightsource or that you dont use a macrofunction (or have one at all.)
for lightsource I think 2 lightsources work best, of wich one should be natural or close to natural sun light .. the other at a closer proximity, probably some sort of direct light like a desk light.
havent photographed many miniatures tough... this comes from other stuff.

also dont hold the camera when pressing the button works too, or press the button-breath-and slowly release finger from the button, your hands can give a *shockback* wich blurs the picture.

mind you, Im not remotely a camera expert, neither pretending to be and maybe some others have better advice (or it might just be the camera after all :)) just repeating stuff I remember from art school.

[Nathan Caroland]

Good stuff there Hinton!

[Hinton]

supervike: Thanks!

Wren: Thank you. I'm finding that faces are one of the hardest things for me, but I keep practicing.

Illustrange: Thanks for the tips, but I'm doing all that: two light sources (although, both are incandescent bulbs - maybe that's part of the problem?) and macro setting. When I take the picture, the camera is sitting on the table; I learned to not hold the camera. I also set the WB for incandescent light. I think it's just a cheap camera.

Frustrated Father: Thanks!

[Wren]

It's early days for you yet Hinton, and I'm pretty confident you'll catch the hang of faces and then some as you practice, given what a quick start you're off to. My first few were certainly nothing to brag about, and now faces seem to be what people like best about my painting. Eyes in particular took me some time to get the hang of, both in what I was aiming for and the brush control to do it. I'm enjoying watching how quickly you're improving!

[callumrice]

Yep, its nice to see your developing skill, I too am new(ish) to the hobby and enjoy looking at others work.

[Maestro]

Very nice model, lovely smooth colours. Well done! Only thing that might be nice to do, is make the paper look a bit older, instead of the nicely bleached print-out..

This is easilly done with a very thin brown glaze/wash..
Still, overall it's a very good job!

John