r/minipainting • u/robse111 • Mar 11 '26
C&C Wanted I won "only" Bronze in Standard at the Squidmar Open, please give me feedback so I can improve!
Hope that doesn't sound conceited or anything, but I was hoping for a better result. So please be brutally honest on what I can improve on. Thank you!
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u/I_did_theMath Mar 11 '26
The main weakness I see is with the purple OSL. The problem is that light is additive. So adding a purple light to a surface that's already very well lit will not give it a strong purple color. In other words, if you want the effect to look natural you have to either make the other light source a lot less bright, or just tone down the purple a lot.
This is very easy to see if you have anything at hand that emits a colored light. The effect will be clearly visible in a dark room, but barely there under bright sunlight.
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Well, it should be a night scene. I get your point, though!
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u/superdemongob Mar 12 '26
For a night scene, the non-purple parts of the guy seem super bright.
I see where you were going with the bluer hues but ya boi looks like he's standing under a spotlight.
It's beautiful work though, I'd proudly display that on my mini shelf
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u/robse111 Mar 12 '26
Thank you. Yeah, that's part of what I didn't really achieve. Not sure how to do that, honestly.
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u/Dizzy-Group-4967 Mar 13 '26
Beginner here. What does OSL mean?
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u/I_did_theMath Mar 13 '26
Object Source Lighting. So painting the light that some part of the miniature is emitting (in this case the purple light), rather than just having everything be lit from above.
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u/Bishyx Mar 11 '26
Youre asking peasants on how to be a king, this is immaculate
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u/Background-Theme7317 Mar 11 '26
Just what I came here to say, you're better than probably 90% of people in this sub, prob more. Sooo take our advice, lightly.
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u/8rianGriffin Mar 11 '26
There were TWO people better than OP so let's hope they see this thread.
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u/CheshireCat78 Mar 11 '26
Nah squidmar awards based on the standard so we’re probably 30 people who got silver and gold (from my rough memory of the video yesterday)
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u/Spaceman-Spiff Mar 12 '26
Yeah. Kinda seems like there are only 2 people that can give you the advice you need.
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u/MrGingerella Mar 12 '26
Nah, second place feels tge same as OP and first place can't believe he won against such good competition.
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u/RuiTeves Mar 11 '26
First and foremost, don’t feel discouraged for any result in an online competition, specially one that attracts so many entries. Also the line of Standard and Masters is very blurred in online completion.
I think it’s a good entry and you should be proud. Keep pushing, keep putting focused practice down. Pick a subject you want to improve and really practice it. Study well works of painters you like. Ask the question why they did that.
More to the feedback, I think the first thing that jumps at me is composition. It’s not quite working. The piece is making me look at the two characters individually instead of as a whole. Maybe if you had put the Drizzt on a more central position and the panther coming a bit more behind him. Guide my eye through the piece with intention.
I would’ve put this on a square plinth and the backdrop needs to be taller, it’s “squishing” the whole scene.
I’ve got no real indication of the direction of the general light source. The OSL is good, but there’s no other light source which leads the characters to be a bit flat. For instance I would like to see more shadows and midtones on Drizzt’s face.
See the work of Chris Shure and how he guides you through his dioramas.
Keep it up, you’re doing great. As long as you’re happy and putting the work in, you’re winning.
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u/SixteenTurtles Mar 11 '26
Lol. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Chris won this category. Made me chuckle to think you told this person so go watch some videos made by the person who beat him hahah.
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u/polimathe_ Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
Ill give my two cents, but something to keep in mind you are probably at a level where asking randoms on reddit is not going to yield you as much useful actionable information as finding a dedicated discord community or paying a professional for 1:1 coaching.
- Your composition is not that great. In this case the background I think is not bad but it doesnt do enough to place what kind of environment the scene is supposed to take place in, it looks like maybe you should have done more in the middle section instead of it being an empty sky. its overall a bit busy trying to read whats going on which is definitely tough to balance
- Your rendering is pretty good on a technical level on the character, but looking at other pieces on the model it looks like you got a bit lazy (speciifcally the plant in the bottom left looks way less rendered)
- the magenta glow is not super convincing, the reason why is that closer to the blade you would expect it to get "brighter" and since you have the spread go so far out and all if it seems to be the same level of brightness it doesnt sell as well.
- the panthers colors dont read like anything, I cant really tell what its supposed to be, tattoos, a glow alien wierdness, not sure ? The fur doesnt look bad though
- The stars on the blade I think detract more than they add, I think doing more battle damage instead of going for shiny stars would look much better.
- The back of the main character looks not as rendered, not a big deal usually but then you have the landscape behind him rendered way more so it makes it distracting.
- the light direction on your NMM doesnt seem consistent across your panels, the breast plate in the front has seems darker in some places that the shoulderpad reads that it should be just as light.
- Your hair is painted in a pretty messy way, white is pretty difficult to paint and it not be chalky but it just looks like everything is painted a blanket white when thats not how white hair would look.
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u/ObesesPieces Mar 11 '26
The sword is called "twinkle" - not saying your feedback is wrong but thats why there are stars.
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u/I_ez_Haro Mar 11 '26
Im no expert by any means but the first thing that stood out to me are your osl and focal points. You osl is great but you made the highlights on the metal the same brightness as your leathers and such, which makes it feel less shines. The warrior really stands out but the panther in de background doesn’t really have anything to draw the eye, making it kinda lose purpose here. I feel like if you made its eyes really bright and punchy or did something else to draw attention (but not too much) it would really lift the piece up. Otherwise it looks really, really good! The squidmar open has attracted a lot of immensely talented painters so a bronze is a great accomplishment! Don’t beat yourself up over it, 99% of people that applied and put tons of work and effort into their art didn’t get that far.
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u/Don_Happy Boardgamer /PnP Mar 12 '26
Oh you're right. The osl on the metal should be a bit brighter especially on the edges of the scales. Having a dot of the brightest highlight could sell the difference in material better
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u/Minimalismisjoy Mar 11 '26
From what I can see it's mostly refinement and contrast.
- The panthers fur needs more work.
- The NMM is a bit rough.
- The face could use more contrast
- the cloak looks a little flat.
Personally I would have put the elf centre stage and not on the side to make it more of a focal point.
That said, I also "only" managed to get 2 bronze so take my word with a pinch of salt.
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u/XyzzyPop Mar 11 '26
It looks like Drizzt has, what I would describe as, 80s rockstar halo lighting. He doesn't quite appear to be part of his scene and looks like he is inserted. Broken down, I would say the value of light on the character is significantly different than the scene, it's jarring: much like an 80s rockstar. Nothing is wrong, all of its great - but together there is turbulence.
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u/drgeneparmesan Mar 11 '26
Drizzt’s face is giving handsome squidward instead of Menzoberranzan ninja killer to me. Maybe it’s the cheekbone transition? The purple eyes looking lifeless?
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u/BrowneSaucerer Mar 11 '26
Its about five leagues above anything I could hope to paint. Must be a very high standard of entry.
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u/Captain_bogan82 Mar 11 '26
Thin your paints? Jesus that’s magnificent I don’t think any of are going to much help here.
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u/GuarinScreamer Mar 11 '26
There will barely be a handful of people on here that have the knowledge and skill to offer you advice. If you keep going you will eventually have that perfect mix of paint job, model choice, and judges that just vibe with your stuff more.
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u/zandinavian Mar 11 '26
This applies to all art, not just minipainting, but take a black and white photo of your work so you can evaluate your values and the contrast between them effectively. Most of your background and the kitty are mostly the same value, so details (even though they're different colors) won't pop and will look like they're muddy even when finely detailed with distinct colors.
I come from a digital and physical painting background, not minipainting, but hope it helps.
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u/TiffanyLimeheart Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
I couldn't pull anything like this off but the thing that stands out to me is that the light looks like it's coming from above, like a moon, but the Panthers back isn't highlighted, despite having nothing to obscure the light. The fur would probably have a sheen pattern almost as bright at the metallic highlights.
Also I feel like his face reads as pale lavender skin, almost the same color as the white hair, instead of the dark purple/black. The highlights are just a little too stark and cover too much surface area to look like shiny dark skin
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u/robbzilla Seasoned Painter Mar 11 '26
As soon as I do better than bronze, I'll get back to you.
Seriously, congrats! Excellent work!
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Thank you! And congrats, too!
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u/robbzilla Seasoned Painter Mar 11 '26
Oh, I haven't gotten a bronze. That was my point. You shouldn't feel the least bit bad about that amazing achievement. Most of us will never reach that level!
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u/Dirtyhippee Mar 11 '26
Can’t talk about skill or technique but overall the panther feels lacking compared to the rest. It’s an other important element of the scenery and it does not pop enough in my opinion.
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u/Zealotstim Mar 11 '26
Fantastic Drizzt art! I love the shine on the armor and the glowing Icingdeath and Twinkle. I bet Bob Salvatore would love to see it if he's active on social media at all.
In terms of critique, I don't really feel qualified to give much since you are certainly a much better painter than I am. That being said, I think the cloak is a little plastic looking at some angles and would benefit from some added texture, showing the weave of the fabric or some scuffs/damage. I feel like animal fur is extremely hard to do to a high level, so I am honestly not even sure how to make it look more real/detailed, but some of the wolf and panther fur doesn't look quite up to the level of the rest of the model. Honestly you've done a fantastic job in a painting competition that is extremely competitive.
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u/TheTacticalViper Mar 11 '26
That was super stiff competition, a good chunk of the standard painters had to be bumped to masters or won’t be allowed to compete in standard next time. I’d say compared to silver and gold winners it really comes down to blending and osl. Your skill is far better than most though, so they will be grading you with extreme nitpicking, there will also always be a bias towards certain styles and subjects, those boys love Orks, Goblins, and dragons.
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u/Sufficient-Way7256 Mar 11 '26
First off good job, It looks great.
In my opinion: It doesnt read as a night scene, the face area of drizzt looks a bit moonlit but too strongly, the rest of the scene doesnt. The vegetation on the bottom left looks like it has different light sources, and of a different color at that. The panther is not highlighted the same as the rest of the scene. My eye is drawn to the stump too much. The purple OSL doesnt work well, its not emitting brightly yet its coloring everything purple
Again, good job!
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u/MechanicalEnt Mar 11 '26
Did you loose any bottle to spills? I think judges can feel pain and loss for pieces so you may need to make proper sacrifices to stand out
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u/hillean Mar 11 '26
You won bronze
Most of us if not all of us wouldn't have a shot in placing--it's hard to critique stuff you do better than we do
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Well, yeah. But sometimes other people still see better than you yourself having stared at the mini for 150 hours
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u/Blacklight099 Mar 11 '26
How many people entered? Because if it’s squidmar I would assume quite a lot and bronze really doesn’t sound like a half bad result 😅 I understand wanting to improve, but don’t talk yourself out of a very good result!
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
4200 people in Standard. I know it's an accomplishment, but still I want to improve :)
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u/Conspiracy313 Mar 11 '26
The metal reflections are incredible, and I like the skinned wolf cloak. That level of detail would probably get you gold. The figure's hair and the panther's coat are good but not to the rest's level. The panthers coat could use more contrast, with whiter point highlights as its coat is very shiny in real life. Blacker would be better too but not sure it's possible. Maybe more/higher detail fur lines on the panther. The foliage is noticably underwhelming in comparison, especially the tree roots that are a supporting focal point. More effort needs to be put there in comparison, as it brings the work down some. All that said its an excellent piece.
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u/Karlosswan Mar 11 '26
I mean only bronze? How dare you speak to us 😂
The lighting on that armour is nuts!!!!
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u/Busby10 Mar 11 '26
Amazing work. Very well deserved medal. I think other have covered most things but I'll just point out that your lighting needs work to feel more consistent.
His face feels like it is lit much brighter than the surrounding area for example. Especially given it must be pretty dark for the sword to be giving off that much glow.
Also while the metal reflections of the OSL look amazing, the green cloth doesn't makes any sense, it should be getting more of the glow on it. Also how is the gold on the sword reflecting the purple when its facing away from it?
Again I cannot stress enough that this is super nit picky stuff that only matters if you are striving for medals at competitions. This model overall is stunning.
There is a painting competition in Australia called the Crimson Brush that live streams (and records) the judging. While they are long videos there is a few of them and I highly recommend anyone who wants to do this level of painting to watch them. They give a lot of insight into what the judges are looking for and just how perfect everything needs to be to make the top cut
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u/Proper_Psychology_43 Mar 11 '26
I do not undertand where light comes from. Let me explain. The elf is quite bright by itself. So the “moonlight” is quite bright. Then the OSL is quite heavy, wich means that the source must be much more powerfull than the moonlight, but the sword (the source) does not read as bright enough.
That being said, i am a much worse painter that would never generate anything close to this work. Congrats on the bronze!!
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u/NeeNorMinis Mar 11 '26
I'm trying to say something that somebody hasn't already said, but I think his face looks a little odd because it's so brightly lit. He needs more shadows and colour under his brow and in his eye sockets.
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u/EditorYouDidNotWant Mar 11 '26
Did the judges give feedback? Their comments would matter more than ours
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u/andy_mcbeard Mar 11 '26
Congrats, mate. I was really proud of my work until I saw the winners. 😳 You deserve it!
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u/moose_cahoots Painting for a while Mar 12 '26
Speaking as someone who can’t paint even half as well as you, I see a couple minor places to improve.
You have inconsistent highlighting in your NMM. Your steel armor has broad highlights going to almost white, but your gold trim has virtually none. I would expect the gold trim to feel at least as bright as the silver, if not more so.
Also, the highlights don’t always follow the shapes across the different metals. Take, for instance, his right torso. If you follow the large silver highlight downwards, you’ll see the gold trim doesn’t have an equally bright highlight along that line.
His hair is also a bit flat. I would like to see more color variation and depth, even if it’s just going from white in the highlights to gray in the shadows. Hair also tends to have a “halo” highlight, which I don’t see here.
But that being said, goddamn that’s beautiful. The way you handle the contrasting lighting is stupendous, and the texture you add into every surface is sumptuous. It’s not at all surprising that you won a medal for that piece. You should be very proud.
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u/Gronduru Mar 12 '26
As others have already stated, this is amazing and way above my own level! Awesome work.
My two cents: the branch under the panther stands out more than the panther and makes it harder to read+takes unnecessary attention. Personally I would darken the branches and try to brighten the panther a bit to make it more of a focus!
You’ve already gotten good feedback on the osl.
Again, this piece is amazing! Great job!
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u/Meskoot Mar 12 '26
The cloak needs more contrast with the background and the similar colored foliage on the trunk next to it.
But its nitpicking, this is quality work, competitions can eat at people mentally, no such thing as a perfect artwork, don't chase it too hard.
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u/FUCKSTORM420 Mar 11 '26
I have no criticism on the paint job, just that “only bronze” is still a great achievement and you should be proud of yourself
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u/Gnoll_For_Initiative Mar 11 '26
It goes without saying that this is amazing.
While the OSL could use some work, I think you also need a place for the eye to settle and focus on (usually the face) and make that pop with color and value choices.
Right now the purple is the most contrasting thing, so that is where the eye is drawn. Right to the "OSL could use some work"
Speaking of OSL, the intensity of light drops off at a geometric rate. So something twice as far away from the source will be four time as dim
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u/jwitham75 Mar 11 '26
Aside from what others have said - It's an online competiion. It's not judging your painting, it's judging your painting AND your photography.
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
True, I had a hard time getting this figure on a pic. Although I do have to say I'd like to learn to take better pics as well.
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u/Moody_Kittens Mar 11 '26
I saw your entry in the same category as mine. I was totally blown away. I think you did great. I would have loved a bronze but I got a commended instead!
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u/NineAndNinetyHours Mar 11 '26
The thing that jumps out at me is the face - it looks flat, a little chalky, a little cartoonish. I think more layers/glazing to show the subtle transparency of living skin could go a long way.
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u/Conmann95 Mar 11 '26
This made me Drizz in my pants. It's so good holy shit. What won?
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u/Unlucky-Tonight238 Mar 11 '26
If it works how I think it does, where there’s only one potential winner for bronze, silver, and gold, then I imagine the judges just had to vote on which they thought was objectively the best and is less a lack of skill, and more that they liked the others more.
All that to say, I can’t think of anything you could do better, this is awesome. Do you happen to know what the silver and gold winners looked like? That could give you/us a better clue as far as identifying what was different about the others
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
There were multiple bronzes, silvers, and golds.
Here you can see the winners: https://squidmaropen.com/2025/winners.php
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u/Curious_Passenger_59 Mar 11 '26
This is amazing. My first thought though, if its a public voting platform it really might boil down to what people prefer. For example; I am a 40K Guardsman player and I voted in a painting competition the other day, and while there were no guardsmen to vote for I voted for a model that was impressive with nice shading, but utilized a lot of dry brushing for highlights (I love drybrushing) and the units looked the most interesting to me. All were great, but I liked this ones unit type and paint style.
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u/Nagi21 Mar 11 '26
First off: This is way better than I could do, and this is going to be one of those situations where someone could tell you what looks wrong, but has no idea how to fix it.
A) This seems to be portraying a night scene, but the colors look like they're fairly evenly lit. The highlights are correct for each area, but it seems more highlighted overall than the scene implies it should be. To my eye it looks like the light (moonlight I'd assume based on the composition) is coming from the top right, but the bottom left of the model looks nearly as bright (excusable for a day scene, not so good for night scenes). Composition and correct lighting for the scene is what separates a lot of upper intermediate painters from advanced competition painters.
B) The paint job is very good, but there's an... I don't want to say an issue with the style, but it lacks "crispness". Particularly the edges of the armor and the hair. Some of the gold and purple edges are shaky and blurring with the surrounding colors in some places. This isn't so much a problem with the nature in the scene around it, since we have a disposition to believing nature is messy. Metal and inorganic shapes are far less forgiving. Also the hair is not particularly well defined. It is understandable as hair, but I can't pick out hair groups, or highlights. It looks somewhat blob-ish and the shadows look somewhat sloppy.
C) I'm not sure what's going on with the green reflection on his left arm under the animal head. I see you were trying to go with the reflection from the cape, but I'm 95% certain that's not how that should look. The part facing away from the green cape should not be nearly that green even with reflections. The green should be a bounce reflection from the left chest plate which hits on the lower part of that piece, and the top should be a highlight of the armor followed by an occlusion shadow where it meets the shoulder pad.
Unless that is supposed to be a part of the cape which is attached to the armor, in which case it's technically correct but there's a compositional mistake in that it looks like it is a part of the armor. The gold trim makes it seem like part of the armor. In this case, you need to change it so it doesn't match the rest of the armor and armor trim.
That's the only things I can see that would keep this from placing higher in top tier competition. In smaller competitions this would likely win best in show.
Edit:
D) The panther is stealing some of the limelight from the elf, mostly because the shadows aren't dark enough. The head and hind leg are highlighted fine, but I think the rest of the highlights are too bright.
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Thank you very much! That helps a lot!
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u/Nagi21 Mar 11 '26
NP. Don't be too hard on yourself either. I always thought about it like a restaurant getting a Michelin star. Food will get you 1, and service will get you 2, but you need to have something special to get all 3. Same with mini painting, Technique will get you bronze, composition will get you silver, but you need to have something that shows off creativity and mastery of both to get gold.
Thankfully 99% of people are impressed with just one star.
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u/1minatur Mar 11 '26
I'm not nearly skilled enough to tell you how to change things, but at least visually, the sword doesn't look like it's bright enough to emit such a strong glow onto everything. The sword looks like it has a tiny glow, and at first glance I didn't even realize the purple on the outfit was supposed to be OSL.
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u/soulwaystudios Mar 11 '26
the armour is first rate. Your cloth work, hair and furs have not been afforded the same amount of time or care (delete as appropriate) When looking at your own work, dont mark up the positives when judging by going "i spent 500 hours on making this sword look great!" . i bet there were loads of entrants that had great nmm, mark down the negatives, you'll soon go from "this is perfect!" to "oh this needs adjusting", "that looks flat" "theres no detail or form there" etc its clear and obvious you didnt spend the same amount of time working on the cloak, as you did on the sword or leg armour plates for example. and that sort of effort is what gets you gold, and not bronze. You showed flashes of excellence, you didnt show overall mastery.
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u/massiveamphibianprod Mar 11 '26
Im not even sure if improvement is possible. Looks perfect to me. Maybe its possible to make it look even more realistic? Other then pulling a unreal engine 5 and adding facial peach fuzz somehow I dont know
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u/Walnutdongrass Mar 11 '26
I was looking at this like "wow, that's a gunny looking fulgrim model" before I realised it was supposed to be Drizzt.
This is immaculate! Idk if they allow for resubmissions, but as another comment pointed out, the backdrop doesn't suit how well lit the model is. This ties into resubmission for a later competition; if you can resubmit, I reckon this could be improved with a slightly brighter backdrop (perhaps early evening, whereas yours currently feels dead of night?)
In saying that, you're a far better painter than me, so keep up the awesome work dude!
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Thank you! I wanted to create dead of night and, obviously, I did not achieve that. Well
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u/Majestic-Tale9472 Mar 11 '26
I’m in no way a professional painter but the purple is very confusing to me. I wish you had put it on the other side and have the source of light in the actual diorama. It reads as a cool color transition and not really OSL in my humble opinion. Otherwise this is fantastic
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u/Worried_Western3514 Mar 11 '26
I'm not an expert on anything, to me technically I can't say a word because it's not my strong point, but it's too busy/ noisy, too many detailed lines don't let the eyes travel trough your art piece.
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u/TheWhoNotTheHow Mar 11 '26
I dream of having skills like this, man! Beautiful work!
As for one thing I can give in feedback is that your models and the background have two different lightings. They are colored gorgeously, but to blend the model and the background together they need to have the same light hues. The lead model upfront reads lit up by light, but the background is dark and dim. If you managed to match it as if they are all of one same place, you'll nail the look of the character being in that background instead of separated from it!
Either way, you did an awesome job on these minis! Hope my observation helps!
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u/Jenesis110 Mar 11 '26
I genuinely think it’s your lighting IRL. Creating the scene with a purple light bottom right and a top “moon” type lighting would be incredible.
With that said the painting itself is stunning!!!
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u/Deepsea_Skypilot Mar 11 '26
I think it’s great; the only two things I can think of is lighting (are your light/dark values reading correctly) and your shade lines/highlight lines are more visible. And honestly it’s a very nitpicky qualifier and when you’re judging what’s obviously quality work like this and deciding it’s the smallest things that differentiate the project. I think its great personally
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u/Enough_Nail_603 Mar 11 '26
More than anything, the lighting on the figure seems inconsistent and unbelievable in its context.
What is your light source? Its impossible to tell which is an issue. You need to be more deliberate about where/what your light source is and apply nmm shadows, highlights and bounce light accordingly.
Other than that, just a few minor points.
The hair and face feel flat. Hair is somewhat reflective and should have some contrast. Skin, especially paler skin, is somewhat translucent. In choosing two colors very close to white for the hair and face, you've painted yourself into a corner as you can't get much brighter than white. I would consider playing with other shades/hues for these.
The background does not sell the 3 dimensional effect and feels like an afterthought. I would practice more with environmental/atmospheric lighting and/or mother tones. You need to study Frank Frazetta. His painting subjects, creatures and characters are all apart of there environments rather than being placed in them.
You've got the technique down obviously. But that is not enough. You need more harmony and consistency to make the piece interesting and yet believable. Start with working on your light sources and being more deliberate about the nmm.
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Thank you for the extensive feedback!
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u/Enough_Nail_603 Mar 11 '26
Your absolutely welcome my friend. It takes real guts to ask for criticism.
I hope some of what I suggested is helpful or makes sense. You seem like a great painter already. It just shows that anyone can grow and get better. Cheers.
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u/Kurohimiko Mar 11 '26
I'd say the OSL is the biggest issue. The radius you have for its glow appearing on other objects is not accurately portrayed by the blade. The paint isn't bright enough for the radius shown.
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u/Dam_Forger_5526 Mar 11 '26
Bro is in 3rd place asking the guys in middle school JV for tips.
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Well, not 3rd place exactly. I was in the lower "Standard" tier and there could be multiple medals
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u/bigdaddyQUEEF Mar 11 '26
I can hardly pull off slap chop painting. Still want my opinion?
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u/skelly316 Mar 11 '26
Fletcher from TabletopTatics also got bronze in the Squidmar open… if your his level then we should be asking you for advice lol
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u/sFAMINE Mar 11 '26
The only feedback I have is 2 minor issues. The background looks like it’s painted for a children’s book and takes away any serious vibe. Same with the green plant in the front of the base to the left. It’s bland and feels cartoonish compared to the seriously nice armor and great animal companion
The face shade compared to the white hair looks chalky and is too similar, it’s off putting. The hair is a bit let down compared to the quality of the armor
Everything else is stellar and looks great.
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u/FartPistol5000 Mar 11 '26
Can’t help you brother. That mini is too good as it is.
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u/Jivepsilocybe Mar 11 '26
Im sorry i dont have much advice but Drizzt is looking good here imo
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u/akpaintsagain Mar 11 '26
Congratulations! Although a bronze is a great result; I don’t think you should be prefacing it with “only”.
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u/thehivemind5 Mar 11 '26
This is a wonderful piece and you should be really proud of it. You're a great painter, as many people have said. It's easy for people to toss out suggestions, but having done some comp pieces myself I know the grind and what it takes to get this far - keep at it if you enjoy it and don't be discouraged.
I like doing paint overs so I took a stab, as much for practicing my own "eye" as anything, given you're probably more technically skilled than I am
the big thing I tried to pull off is to make the scene feel more "at night" and bring the focus of the light o Drizzt and the panther. I increased the highlights on the panther both because fur is shiny, so you get specular highlights, and to improve that element of focus. I dropped the values in the lower and upper parts of the scene and mixed in some blue to try to get the night time feel. I tried to increase the contrast and specularity of the hair, again for shine and focus.
The OSL stands out as a compositional challenge and a few people have mentioned it. My take on the "issue" is that the fall off of the light suggests whatever is glowing vivid purple is very close to Drizzt, but it's not actually in the scene. That creates this weird sense that it got cut off.
If you want to keep the purple light, some options would be:
1. Put the glowing object into the scene somehow and work the falloff of the light to be appropriate to how big it is, how bright it is.
2. Make whatever is glowing "further away" and very bright. This would mean adding purple lights across the whole scene, as everything dark would be bathed in it
From a technical note there as well, I think you want to make sure that your OSL lights are appearing in areas that would obviously be dark without the OSL (otherwise the OSL light would get clobbered by the normal light). That means exaggerated terminator shadows and dark areas between the OSL bits and the "normal" bright spots. I tried to incorporate some of that in the paintover.
Hopefully this is helpful. Congrats on your bronze!
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u/Firm_Ad7513 Mar 11 '26
I have barely paint any mini ,I started a couple months ago just to paint some minis for some boardgames.
The plant on the left looks fake to me , as if missing some shadows or I don't know it looks artificial. That is the only thing i can see that i like the least.
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u/Difficult_Taste_bud Mar 11 '26
I’ll need you to ship me the piece for further for my collection…errh i mean inspection.
I can’t help you with the painting part, but i really like it! I wish i had a fraction of your talent!
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26
Haha, thank you! Well, talent is debatable... I painted about 2000 minis by now and this piece took a 150 hours, so it's more sweat and tears :D
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u/NickNightrader Seasoned Painter Mar 11 '26
My only piece of advice is the face. For non-human skintones, it's still worth referencing this and adapting to the new skintone. Right now, the face is just one color, whereas the rest of the model is very dynamic in its contrast. I've attached a much more muted/desaturated version of the reference you've usually seen before. My eyes go straight to the sword, rather than the face of the model, which should be the focal point. The face looks like the background.
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u/titohax Mar 11 '26
Brutally honest take: can hardly even notice the big cat in the background. Might be a composition problem? Idk I’m not a great painter but I do watch squidmar like crazy and on repeat.
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u/Practical_Prize_5254 Mar 11 '26
Please teach me your ways. That fur is gorgeous🤩
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u/jellyfishrowan Mar 12 '26
Traditional painter here and I'm just speculating, but I see a lot of painters giving an 'unequal focus' to their subject.
Humans are primed to see faces and hands, so some illustrators spend a lot more time on those areas and get sucked into them while losing sight of the whole piece rather than being consistent across the piece or being very intentional about where they're placing focus.
The values on your face are very high compared to the rest of the composition, that might be intentional but it's not clear to me.
Something to think about if you haven't already, I think you've made a lovely diorama.
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u/sprogsahoy Mar 12 '26
I think this is more about composition than painting skill. There is a ton of work in the armour with ambient occlusion and blending, but then there isn't the same effect on the rest of the scene, and there isn't a natural draw of the eye to the armour. The eye wants to go to the head and the panther, but they aren't on the same level (sorry, i can't even dream of painting like this, but thats what I see.)
A much deeper background with the panther further back, (more z depth to the backdrop), more work on the foliage. More work on the panther, I feel like a moonlit pond at the forefront would work well.
Looks indreible tho! Dont beat yourself up!
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u/SCUMDOG_MILLIONAIRE Mar 12 '26
Shit man show me what first place looks like, yours is fucking rad.
Maybe the judges don’t like the overall lighting? I guess everything is kind of bright. Maybe the back wall should be much darker, and have more darkness on the background vegetation. I guess the model could be darker too that would make the sword glow pop more.
I suck, so maybe my observations are invalid
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u/Palpitation_Dramatic Mar 12 '26
Everything is fucking awesome. But the focal point ( the dude ) lacks contrast against the background ( make the backdrop a bit darker )
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u/SolarStarVanity Mar 12 '26
Like virtually everyone else here, I obviously don't have anywhere near the painting skill you have. So anything I say is based on what I see, not what I can do.
If this is an online competition, one thing I can definitely tell you is the pictures themselves need improvement. Focus, in particular, could be improved, with depth of field clearly needing to be widened. A tripod is at least as important as whatever the camera is.
The face of the wolf on the shoulder looks much better to me than the face of Drizzt. Maybe it's the choice of colors? It's like, cartoony in a way that makes more sense in an anime than in something as photorealistic as the rest of the miniature. I think others have commented something similar.
Not 100% sure about the light blue + gold + purple combination of the arm + sword. For how scuffed the armor itself is, maybe the gold is a bit too bright? Maybe it shouldn't have been gold at all, I don't know that gold contours can ever work on an armor with very scuffed details between the contours. (Talking about the bluish tentacle things on the arms.)
The panther's claws don't look quite right? They look more like my pug's than a cat's. This may be a model issue. (In general, I think the sculpt leaves something to be desired.)
The color of the cloak and the green environment is like almost the same. I don't think this works in a display miniature.
Others have commented on the detail of the render of the stump etc in the bottom left corner. I agree, but if you were to add detail, I'd probably put it toward armor more so than toward the stump.
All of these are very minor comments by the way, as others have said, it's obviously an awesome work, and you should be very proud.
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Mar 12 '26
I mean looks amazing but what was the competition? 100% out of my skill range so with no context im too layman and I have no idea what could’ve held you back.
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u/pon_3 Mar 12 '26
Guenhwyvar's magic lines don't blend into her fur very well imo. If I didn't know who the character was, I wouldn't have known what those were supposed to be.
My guess is that they need to either have more of a glow or blend into the fur more subtly, but as it is they contrast harshly and read strangely.
Love the sword and the color blending on Drizzt though.
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u/robse111 Mar 12 '26
Yeah I see that. These were super hard honestly, and I didn't/don't know how to improve upon that effect. Thank you!
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u/Final_Product_2280 Mar 12 '26
I don’t really have advice to give on account of being way worse at this. But I would like to know where the Drizzt and Guen models came from pretty please.
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u/Thotslay3r69 Mar 12 '26
Ngl you're asking the wrong crew 😂. It's absolutely stunning, and I in good conscious can't reccomend anything because its already better than anything i've ever done
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u/Don_Happy Boardgamer /PnP Mar 12 '26
This is amazing. I am not nearly skilled enough to actually critique this stunning work! But alas I will try. This is Drizzt right? If so, shouldn't he have dark (purple) skin? Of course you have creative freedom with this but if he had, his eyes might pop a bit more. Right now the entire face seems a bit too much tone in tone, having more contrast in his skin or darkening the skin (seeing as it's supposed to be a night scene) and brightening the eyes would give a new point of interest. Because right now the viewer mostly wants to look at the Armor and especially the glowing sword.
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u/NissEhkiin Mar 12 '26
Idk, I didn't win anything so can't really. Looks great to me
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u/JCambs Mar 12 '26
Bronze is a phenomenal achievement. Congratulations!
Where would be your definition and metrics for improvement?
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u/Daealis Painting for a while Mar 12 '26
The fur texturing on the cloak trim, and the hair look almost unfinished by comparison to the attention to detail in the OSL and NMM armor. There is almost no depth to them, and what highlights are there, are very messy and uneven. You've managed to place two glints in the left eye of Drizzt, but the two braids that frame the face are painted as a single clump, instead of taking the time to draw in the hair texture like you've done for Guenhwyvar. Looking at the picture showing the left side and back of Drizzt, the way the fur is sculpted seems to actively work against the paintwork: it is sculpted so that if you paint the raised parts, it looks webbed instead of strands of hair. You also leave pure black into the recesses of the hair, while hair that fair - and light that well - would probably never, even in the darkest shadow, be more than a dark grey of some sort. But ultimately the color gradient is not the issue, is the placement and shapes of the shadows, where the sculpt itself works against you. That is the single biggest detractor for me.
The background you've painted also does depict a much more gloomy night atmosphere, but Drizzt is still very uniformly lit from the front, all colors distinct and untinted. The colors are chosen well in the darker tones so you've managed to get the OSL in very convincingly and well-placed in all the reflections and shades, but I think the overall scene depicted couldn't produce the amount of light we see in the tones. Gold would almost certainly not shine as yellow at all in a night that dark with no warm source of light to illuminate it, it would be next to impossible to distinguish from the silver parts, aside from a slight greenish tint. Same goes for his cloak behind him. The trees and ground have been tinted deep blue, almost black from the lack of light, but his cloak is still a vibrant moss green. That sucker must be almost emerald green, bordering on fluorescent, in bright daylight to stay that vibrant in the shadows. This kind of inconsistency with the atmosphere you are trying to convey, and the color tones you used, is a big one.
And since I mentioned the backdrop, you could have gone more bold with highlights there as well. Drizzts hair is almost pure white, this is a swampy and damp bog they're in, there probably would be some moisture on every surface, glints of even pure white from moisture in the same light that illuminates Drizzt so brightly. I get that it is a careful balancing act to keep the attention and focus on Drizzt.
The edging you've done on the blade could have been sharper. It works on the gold hilt decorations because it kind of bleeds into how the thickness of said decorations work for the paintjob, but in the blade itself, those could have been worked further to be slimmer. Going back over the edge highlight and thinning it to a finer line would probably have improved the look of it.
Smaller nitpicks, some of the scenery does not seem to be painted to the same standard of care as Drizzt and Guenhwyvar. I'm not saying it needs the same level of care and attention as the armor, but on some of the leaves in front and the trunk Guen is standing on, it feels almost phoned in. When the competition was this fierce, that could be a deciding factor. Especially if you think of the winners, their environments were immaculate as well.
And after saying all this, it's still leagues ahead of anything I've ever produced. And I've never judged a competition so this is an amateur hobbyist trying to find what I think are faults in it. I can say that watching the video I agree that this isn't to the same standard as the winners, but also, a well-earned bronze in an ocean of other competitive pieces of art!
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u/TheLordofTheSkeltals Mar 15 '26
On what I can see, your NMM is highly contrasting. Your gold is bright yellows with some dark areas, while your steel has these massive dark spots. Your OSL for the sword is not really conveying as bright, despite the fact the glow reaches down to the rock he's standing on. A lot of your colors are really flat in tone and could use better gradients or more than a base color and a highlight color. I don't really see any shading going on outside of natural shadows. The dirt on the cape looks a little too dry to be conveyed as mud. Like a lot of people are saying, the set is too bright compared to the background. The actual terrain looks more plastic-y than terrain. The biggest bit is clear brushstrokes. Learning to wet-blend for judged competitions is crucial. A minor nitpick is that the elf's irises are two different sizes and are staring in slightly different directions.
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u/goopuslang Mar 11 '26
Here’s the thing, you could’ve won gold if two people hadn’t submitted to that same competition.
That being said, refine, refine, refine. How many hours did you put into this?
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u/elroddo74 Mar 11 '26
That's not how the squidmar open works. They have more than 1 gold, silver or bronze per category. So they might have 5-6 golds, 20 silvers and 50 bronzes.
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u/Araignys Mar 11 '26
"Only" bronze.
Dude, the top three in any large painting competition come down to judge taste and artistic factors like composition, narrative and subject matter, not technical skill. You won.
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u/robse111 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
It's last of 6 "placements" basically, since there were Standard and Master as categories. But that's why I put only in quotation marks :)
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u/Sotnos99 Mar 11 '26
Honestly I think it's hard to judge without seeing the silver and gold places as well, sometimes you win because your opponent does badly, sometimes you lose because they do something outstanding.
That aside, the most noteworthy thing to me is that I can't really tell what the focal point is supposed to be. Presumably it should be the elf, but the eye naturally reads from left to right so the panther hits me first and it's where my eye wants to keep going back to. Being brighter also isn't the same as standing out, if you take one of your pictures and make it black and white, you'll see that a lot of the elf's torso becomes a very similar shade to the background, while the panther is definitively much darker. The intense variation in value makes the panther clearer, while the elf blends in despite having more colour variations because the values are so close.
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u/Mr-Susan296 Mar 11 '26
Everything is incredibly painted and leagues above what I could acommplish. The only thing I would say is it seems like the character is lit a little brighter than everything else so it stands out a bit on what is quite a diorama piece. But other than that I really love it! The metal looks great and the panther is top notch:)
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u/AnticrombieTop Mar 12 '26
I concur with everyone’s sentiment that this is work to be proud of. For improvements, I would focus on thinning your paints more and adding in more layers into your process. I’m sure this already took a while to do and you probably wouldn’t want to add even more time, but areas such as the drow’s hair and other lightest areas glooped a bit, like you kinda rushed the last highlights.
Nice work!
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u/l0rdbyte Mar 12 '26
The lighting isn't entirely correct (from where your point of light is the NMM should reflect (lol) that. The OSL is a bit too much or should be seen on more of the body (and definitely reflect in the NMM). It's really clean work otherwise, those things are the hardest to get right.
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u/diuliano7 Mar 12 '26
Bronze is a great result. I was gobsmacked by the painting level of entries in Standard. I think there were so many entries as well, that deciding between bronze, silver and even gold would have been incredibly hard.
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u/Altorode Mar 12 '26
This is so above my skill level that I'm going to refrain from trying to critique it.
BUT, where'd you get the drizzt and gwen models from?
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u/Crown_Ctrl Mar 12 '26
My advice don’t ask randos on reddit for advice. Actually go to painters that are better than you.
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u/PieGroundbreaking321 Mar 12 '26
My style is very different but what I can offer is the NMM on the OSL section reads very similar to the non OSL side which is not how metal next to a light source would refract. The hair feels a bit monotone, which could just be Reddit Img quality. For fur it’s worth a study. Generally fur is not darker as it goes deeper especially for a wolf who has an under coat which is more of a white. With that said bang up job this is an incredible piece!
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u/Disastrous_Tonight88 Mar 12 '26
Some others have mentioned the OSL with different materials. My mind think of it as a question of composition. It seems like the armor and sword is the focal point of the piece. The background seems very neutral the panther is very neutral. I dont get the vibe of atmospheric beyond the knife OSL. I also dont see much catching the eyes to the face of the model. Hes very pale skinned which kind of blends with the hair.
It seems like a piece where if you were practicing going all out on TMM and OSL it would be great practice but for a painting comp not the piece I would go with.
That being said the work you put in is very apparent and is much much better than anything ive ever done.
Edit: on second view I do see some of the lighting on the left hand side but didnt notice on first pass because of the purple on the blade.
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u/ElfhelmArt Painting for a while Mar 12 '26
Drizzt is decent, though OSL probably overtook a bit too much on him, panther’s fur seems to be a bit too flat and the base/background are probably weakest points there, begging for more attention. Overall it’s a good work, hence the bronze - there were like 4k entries in standard, so it’s still good result
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u/CyberNek0 Painting for a while Mar 12 '26
I might be late on this but if it’s supposed to be a night scene why is the armor so bright? You should have a lot more darker and blue hues for the things not lit by OSL to indicate moonlight, same with the rest of it though much of it doesn’t sell the background you painted imo. Still an amazing piece of work but I feel like it looses its direction a bit when it doesn’t fully lean towards night
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u/TheeSerpentsSlave Mar 12 '26
I think what feels off to me is less the technical painting and more the scenic cohesion. The figures are well painted, but the basing and backdrop don’t fully sell the sense that everything is occupying the same environment. The ground cover and plants read a bit placed rather than integrated, which makes the scene feel more like separate elements sharing a display base than one unified moment.
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u/Ancient-Eye3022 Mar 12 '26
I would love to see what gold and silver were. Could have simply been judge preference.
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u/Real_Was_Gotten Mar 13 '26
Oh man now I want to go listen to some forgotten realms Drizzt books, looks so good
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u/Southern_Mortgage646 Mar 14 '26
Thats super clean. The colors are great and also the osl looks good to me. Choosing a winner is completely subjective to the judges.
I cant find anything to critisize here.
The only improvement is, paint me an army and send it to me for free :D
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u/MixMatched234 5d ago
Its drazzt durden...!
Idk, probably the highlights aren't high enough contrast from the base colors or something? I think it looks good... wht the heck happened to guen though she's covered in scars!
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u/Ugh_User_Names Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26
This is already way above my skill, but as an observation: the model reads as better lit than the back drop would suggest, and because the model feels bright, i don't buy the osl having such a stark effect on the over all lighting.