David Colwell!

Painting Takeuchi Marina box art by Australian artist

I am very honoured to have world-renowned Aussie miniature painter David Colwell write Stonebeard Miniatures first every community article! Have a look at this amazing insight into how he approached painting the box art for Takeuchi Marina from Neko Galaxy Miniatures and a look into his thought process when approaching this topic with the many many box art commissions he has done since!

Q1: Was there a difference in the way you approach painting a box art commission then how you would usually approach painting a miniature for yourself?

This is an interesting question. Certainly my personal perception is that there is an expectation in the miniature community that a box art job should be painted in a certain way. I don’t know if this is a true perception or if it’s just the way I see things, or maybe it’s just because most box art jobs seem to follow a fairly standard zenithal light type setup. Either way I’ve forced myself to paint some box art jobs like this in the past. While I think those jobs turned out well enough, to my eye they weren’t my best work. Most likely this is a result of a lack of personal experience painting purely zenithal works that causes them to fall behind, I think I can also attribute some of the discontent I feel as a result of not enjoying painting this way as much. This in particular becomes evident as I think a big part of what makes my style is the use of strange and different light situations so it’s an area that I have more experience with, although considering some of the light situations I have never tried before I think I’d put it more down to the amount of enjoyment I derive from the job creating a better finished outcome.

More recently however my attitude to painting box art works has changed and this leads into the next question regarding artistic freedom. Most of the time I’m lucky enough to be able to insist on artistic freedom but I’m always happy to hear any feedback and in fact I would prefer people to tell me when they don’t like something and why they don’t like it. I won’t always run with those ideas, especially if it means I feel it wouldn’t work with the look I’m going for but sometimes you get some really good feedback and taking it on and implementing it often makes the piece turn out better.

Q2: When planning how to paint and base this piece, were there any requirements you were asked to fulfil or guidelines to keep in mind or were you given complete artistic freedom?

For Takeuchi Marina I was given full creative freedom by Piotrek from Neko Galaxy. I always really love working with him because of this he’s very happy for me to go wild and just do things the way I want to do things-in other words complete artistic freedom to the fullest extent of the statement. He seems very trusting and has been happy with the work I’ve done so far. I think feeling this kind of trust from him makes me want to push harder and excel in order to keep him happy and make sure I don’t disappoint. While we were discussing the project there were two main ideas flowing through me. The first was to paint her in a more Nier Automata kind of way and have her standing in a pool of mirrored metallic liquid or something. I was going to try and free hand paint her reflecting in the pool from below with ripples etc and have a background behind her which would end up being all white.

It would have been abstract and strange. I still really like the idea and will use it in the future when I find the right model. For the final idea I’m not exactly sure how it came to me. I spend a lot of time browsing artworks on Pinterest. Artwork of all types and suddenly this idea came to me. I don’t know exactly where it came from and I don’t have any specific reference that triggered it. Now that I’m thinking back on it I may have had the undefined spark of an idea before but it must have been just jangling around in my brain waiting to form into what it did for this model.

I really wish I could be more specific and help to define more where the idea came from but I really don’t know exactly. This sort of thing seems to happen for me a lot though I think one of my best strengths is coming up with strange and original ideas, the issue is I don’t think I could say what specifically makes them come to me other than the fact that I’m constantly browsing other peoples 2D artworks and my brain must piece together parts and pieces of many of the things I see into something that seems to slam together when I see the right model at the right time. For this model, it sort of grew into what it is rather than coming to be in an instant, but I am lucky enough to say that I do often have ideas slam into my head as soon as I see a model. It’s usually those times that make for great stuff but sometimes the very best pieces are the ones that grow and evolve as you’re painting rather than just coming pre-formed from nothing.

I’m sure Piotrek would have been okay with which ever choice I made he’s very trusting like that. I hope I can continue to live up to his expectations as I continue to paint more Neko box arts in the future for which planning is already in the works:)

Q3: How did you go about picking this particular colour scheme for this mini?

This one is a fairly easy question to answer. I hope most of you reading this have at least heard of the Anime Akira? Well the concept art for the model gave me a really large feeling of “this is in the Akira world” somehow. And so while my initial idea intended for her to be painted in a more black and white monochrome way I ended up following the colour scheme that very closely resembles the concept art. I felt like it was right for the model and in some ways this made my job as a painter easier to the extent I didn’t specifically pick the colours for each of the elements of the model.

In previous question we talked about the approach to a box art and sometimes I think it is wise to follow the concept art colours-especially if I feel like it really fits the idea. I will always try and mix things up a little bit in some way be it by using the defined colours and changing the light or something else completely that I have no idea about right now as I type. However when it comes down to it the final result of this box art it was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever attempted and I still believe that. There was a time where I was worried she was going to be lost in the post while it was on the way back to Poland and I was worried I might have to paint it again because surely losing this particular piece would be extremely sad. I don’t think I could do the same job or have it finish the way it was the first time. It was really difficult and I probably won’t do it again(at least painting a shaped cast shadow on a corrugated door!).

Then the colours I chose for the background, the green and blue atmosphere was just taking things to the logical conclusion. I needed to provide a contrast to the main feature colour of the piece which was red and so green and blue are complementary. Of course I wasn’t going for specific ‘across the wheel’ opposite but more a general feel of cold when there was a warm colour red dominating the scene. Even then with the reds I wasn’t going for a warm red I was going for a cold red. It is meant to be at night after all and I like to try and use as much as I can within the choices I make to help sell that idea to the viewer. The more of these subtle choices we can make across the whole model all end up adding up to help the final image. I will go into this a bit further on in the self feedback section, but if I had my choice over I would more closely align the blue and blue green for the background, potentially even just making it a single colour instead of two. I’m not sure if it would have turned out better or worse for this though. What do you think?

Q4: Was there any inspiration or reference material used for this mini?

Actually the reference material for the painting part of this project was kind of small. I was mostly looking at the concept art for the colours and I don’t know of many reference materials available for Miniatures where a character is framed in light and shadow like this so a big part of it was making it up as I went along. The Images below were the only thing I had on my computer screen while I was painting. I pretty much emulated the concept art completely for the character when it comes to colour but then the light position and shadow was all up to me as the painter.

When it comes to references for the base building part of things I had a lot of references of cyberpunk stuff and spent a lot of time looking at what modellers had done to make an alley and background that was enough to make it seem like a small back alley but without restricting the potential for viewers to see something other than I intended. As I’m always striving to make my prices both specific and broad at the same time it’s an interesting balance to try to find, I want to tell the story while making sure the story is clear but allowing for the viewer to interpret the circumstances behind the situation themselves with broad possibilities. I had to also work within my basing skills which are admittedly an area that I lag behind in-without a doubt they’re definitely my weakest area. There was potential for the background to become cluttered and complex. This could take away from the sharp visibility of the scene, especially the border of the cast light.

For example I had originally intended to put some more detail in the back ground. I wanted to paint some graffiti free hand on the corrugated door and also put some words on the standard door behind her. In the end I didn’t do this for two reasons. Reason 1 (which is the primary reason) I felt like cluttering up the background with graffiti might have significantly distracted from the shadow effect. It would have been a real shame to put all the effort into that freehand and have it ruin the shadow. I decided not to risk it because of…. Reason 2 which was that I was not confident enough with my freehand skills to create those shapes on the corrugated door while also doing the shadow. The shadow on the flat door was hard enough let alone the corrugated door. That is some of the most difficult and time consuming work I’ve ever faced and adding freehand to that? I’m sorry I just didn’t believe I could pull it off with my skills at the time (nor do I think I could do it now).

Freehand is another area where my skills are lacking and so I will be looking to find more reasons to including some freehand where I can in the future. I don’t like to force free hand onto a model for freehand sake so I find it difficult to find the right model for these choices, but I am aware of this and very keen to shape up in this area in the future. I have include a collage of a bunch of the references I used for this model below.

Q5:What led to the decision to create a background for this piece?

For some reason I had the desire to create a background for this model from the very beginning. Both ideas incorporate a background and so I think I just rolled with it. I don’t specifically know what drove me to do a background but the shadow idea I had wouldn’t have worked without it. I’m satisfied with how it turned out though I also feel some areas could have been better, but for the most part it looks convincing. I haven’t done a lot of backgrounds. Actually if my memory is serving me correctly I’ve only done one model with a painted background that I would truly count as a ‘background’.

The background in this case is more of a part of the scenery since it’s not just flat and painted on and is built up as part of the model. Backgrounds are tricky to work with and the first time I did it I think the result was good but I didn’t enjoy the flat painting part of it so much. This won’t preclude me from doing it again in the future but I think it will just need to be used only in situations that really call for it. For Marina, I had originally built the background to be about 5cm taller than the finished piece which you can see in the image below. I ended up sawing off the top of the background post painting and repairing it up and thankfully that was possible to do without ruining things which I’m glad about. I felt like it was too tall with the added portion on top and because it was in the dark the air conditioner was only getting blue and green light from the sides. It looked ugly to me so it had to go. Maybe it could have worked in person but in picture sit would probably detract from the finished result and I think in the end it was best to go for the more focused look on this model. What do you think, did I make the right call here?

Q5. Did you find you learnt anything new about painting or as a painter yourself after completing the commission of this box art?

I’m not sure whether it sunk in at the time or not but I try to be very self critical about my own painting. So looking back now I believe there are many things I can look at and criticize about this model, things I’ve learned about and are still learning with regards to painting shadow and things I’m still struggling with in terms of identity. I think a big part of my signature in painting is using light and shadows and painting things with very strong chiaroscuro or visible coloured light effects. I think this is something that is not really done to a huge degree in minis and I am always very self conscious about how this will be received especially on something like a box art. Sometimes I wonder if people look down on me as being lazy or “getting away with” not painting the back of a model or part of a model to the same level as the front or more important angles of a model. Is this seen as a big negative of my painting by lots of people but they just don’t say it? I’ve had a few comments on different platforms which have pointed this out and specifically saying that they think this or that part looks unfinished but then I think to myself if that area was painted to the commonly perceived standard of’ finished’ it would subtract from the look of the overall piece when viewed as a whole.

What is the right answer here? I don’t believe there is one. It’s just a different choice from different artists and I’ve said it before and will keep on saying it-this is what makes painting minis such an awesome community type of artwork because we can see how other people make different choices on the same 3D canvas but they will get a completely different look or feel or story and that is just pure awesome to me. There is no other type of art or even anything else in the world where people can share those kinds of experiences that yet involve such variety of choice. It’s the best part about mini painting to me. I would like to think I am very aware of the position I’m making for myself in the miniature painting community but I also worry that if I do my thing, paint the back of a model really dark to help make the main angle look better will the person who receives such a box art be disappointed that the model is ‘not really finished’? Most of the time I am willing to sacrifice the look of completeness on certain parts of a model in order for the overall model to look the better for it but I’m also aware that there has got to be a way to make those off angles and areas look as good as possible without making such large sacrifices of apparent completeness. It’s a really tricky balancing act but also super important I think. I will continue to walk this tightrope in the hope of discovering something significant.

I think I had the beginnings of an epiphany in this regard while painting the recent Thanatos bust for Michael Kontraros Collectibles. It might be possible to more accentuate the back(or less important angles)of a model with its own lighting almost like it’s a separate piece but this is another balancing act as it’s not always possible(at least at my current skill level)to do this without sacrificing the appearance of certain other angles which I feel are far more important. I think this will come down to making informed decisions about how to choose different types of light depending on the model I’m using, because no matter the model sometimes the back is just the back and no matter how you paint it it’s not going to look fancy (at least in my mind anyway).

I mean it can’t be just me that thinks some models just have angles that you just don’t look at and no matter how it’s painted it will never be appealing to look at the model from that angle unless the whole model is painted with flat colours and with miniature painting as a community we have pretty much all accepted that it’s about painting volumes to accentuate the fact of “miniature”. This leads specifically into my personal criticism of this model in particular. It looks pretty cool from the front and I am satisfied with the effect of the shadow and especially the thrown shadow for the most part. But when you look at the model from the side beyond a certain angle (typically in the 180 degrees arc to the rear)the side or side rear it kind of looks ugly tome. My ability to paint shadow was still very infant at the time (I mean it still is now but I think I’m getting better with it the more Iexperimentbut I still have so much to learn) and the coloured lights I chose for both sides of the rear as much too saturated for in shadow lights. It is very difficult to figure out how to work with these things on miniatures since I feel like this sort of thing is very rare, at least for me I have a lot of trouble finding any good references of people painting with heavy shadow. My thinking at the time was that it was a dark night but in a neon lit cyberpunk city where the ambience was neon blue on one side and neon green on the other. This sort of coloured light in the shadow was crucial for the cast shadow to work like it does. You can see the green to blue blend on the background but it’s subtle. When you look at the model though I feel like I probably used colours that were too saturated blue and green for the shadow part, especially for painting shadows on a cloak that was so vibrantly red with the front on light.

The things I’ve learned since though I probably would have kept the green and blue ambience but I would have made the difference much more subtle and de-saturated the colours on her back while also putting a bit more of the true colours into the shadows as she would be receiving quite a lot of light bouncing back from the wall (which I didn’t take enough into account at the time). Thankfully I think the brighter colours I used does help framing the model with a kind of rim light when you’re looking from certain angles which are crucial for selling the cast shadow so it comes back to what is more important. One other thing that probably could have been done better was the size of the shadow behind her. This was really new territory for me and I had no real idea what I was doing but it may have sold the effect from the front just a little bit better if the shadow being cast behind her was blurring out just a little bit more and being a little bit more visible when it was straight on when instead I was painting it just to be exactly the size of the model so it would be hidden from the full frontal view.I still don’t know if I got this exactly right or not but again this is what makes mini painting so awesome, perhaps one day we might see this idea remixed with someone else’s interpretation on another model, at least I hope so. Thankfully for the most part it works and you have to go out of your way to look at the back of the model. It was extremely difficult to get the light to sit correctly while I was photographing and so it’s just about as hard when you’re holding it in hand. I would hope the viewer is dragged to the front and will want to go back there as soon as they turn the model too far into the shadow angles. It’s fun looking at the model from the front and as you turn it you see the shadow appear. That is something I’m very proud of and which makes me think this is one of the best “different light” situations I have pulled off so far.

I must thank Jim from Stonebeard for the opportunity to write this article and would like to state up front that I will be rewarded with a bust for writing this article, it is very generous of him and I will endeavour to do my best work on the model he sends me. If you’ve read the whole article I thank you, you absolute legend I hope you got to see a more detailed glimpse into my mindset and thinking while painting this project. Usually I don’t like to put time into writing that could be taken with painting but I had to take the train into the city for a doctor appointment and so wrote this article on my phone while travelling. I think that’s a smart use of the time, it certainly made the train ride fly.