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The Giraldez Masterclass Challenge – Painting Joan Of Arc
John has taken up the challenge of painting up Joan of Arc from Infinity using Angel Giraldez' Masterclass Book One as a guide.
Will he be able to paint her up to the standard of one of the great master of the miniatures painting world, watch and find out.
We'd love to check out your own attempts at Joan of Arc too!
Blogging At This Event:
Welcome To The P-VLog - The GiraldeZ Challenge
We're getting stuck into another Painting VLOG where John has quite the challenge ahead of him. Will he be able to paint Joan of Arc?
Primed & Ready For The First Dark Blue
It's time to get stuck into this model and with it primed we're sorted to get stuck into the dark blue...
Adding The Mid-Tone Blue
With the darkest blue done we move on towards the mid-tone blue. This should form a good basis for the model...
Laying Down A Second Lighter Blue Highlight
We're continuing with blue and now working on some highlights allowing you to bring the model out of the darkness a little bit.
Final Highlighting Airbrush Work
The airbrush can be your friend and so we get to work with doing some highlighting. Have you tried this?
Dark Lining The Darker Areas
This is an interesting technique and one that you might not have heard about. Have you attempted dark lining?
Noticing Deviations In The Paint Scheme & Adding Hard Edge Highlighting
We now have to work on where we might have deviated. We always have to be keeping an eye on what we've painted and the techniques we've used.
Comparing The Miniature To Angel’s Book
We take a look at how the miniature is right now and compare it to the stages in Angel's book. Do you think we're on the right course?
Adding Black, A Very Dark Red & More Highlighting
It's time to mix things up a bit as we work on adding black, dark red and then moving on to some more highlighting...
Adding Flesh Tones - Thin Paints Are Your Friend
Working on flesh and skin tones is something that might take a bit of practise. One thing is for sure is that thin paints are your friend. You keep all the detail of the face and get to work in layers.
Corrections, Extra Details & Skin Highlight
We now have to apply some corrections and work on extra details for Joan of Arc. Highlighting the skin is also another task on our list...
Trying Too Hard, Know When To Stop On Detail Work & A Custom Sculpted Base
Sometimes you have to learn about when to stop. More is more is never the right idea with a miniature and sometimes you have to sit back and take in the model - are you done?
We also get stuck into work on a custom sculpted base.
Painting Shining Blond Hair & Adding Liquid Mask
It's time to go to the hairdresser with Joan and work on her shining blonde hair. We also have a liquid mask to play around with. How does it work - find out!
The Red Tabard & Shoulder Pad
John now gets to work on the Red Tabard of Joan of Arc and her Shoulder Pad. These are nice accents to the model and make it stand out on the tabletop.
Painting Up The Sword & The Tabards Final Details
It's time to work on the sword and make it look stunning. As well as that the tabard is also needing some final detail work...
Final Thoughts With Warren & John
Warren sits down with John to talk about the process of painting the model and what techniques we've been learning as this has progressed.
Finished Miniature 360° Video
And here she is! Check out the finished miniature here and get an eyeful of John's impressive looking Joan of Arc.
What do you think?
Well…I guess John did al right.
;P
Excellent mini, very well done John =)
Great stuff, I thought that model came out really well. I haven’t had the guts to start my Joan yet myself.
I think the thing with Angel’s book that I like most is the structure he provides, once you get the hang of using an airbrush for the basics of base shade and highlight how he shows, the rest falls into place. Not at the level of the man himself of course, but for me personally I like the results I get and they are better than I have done before, so for my level I think its been a real help.
For liquid mask, I think the issue with Humbrol is that they mainly focus on enamel paints, which are harder wearing, and the liquid mask is perhaps designed with those in mind. I use the green coloured one from vallejo and have never had any paint lift off when using it. I think the windsor and newton is very good too, but the Vallejo is cheap and works.
Great video series, and really good stuff from John.
Thanks.
Great I’ve been looking forward to seeing you try out some of Giraldez’s examples. Can’t wait for a chance to watch these.
@warzan we should have got Angel to replicate this last night after you gave him the Poitin 😉
I’ve only tried Vallejo liquid mask once and couldn’t get the dratted stuff off. Not sure what I did wrong.
press some blue tac on the masked area then when you remove the blue tac the mask will come with it, pretty sure this is how angle does it. Even using this method i have had mixed success some times the paint will come away as well which is frustrating to say the least, cleaning your model and a thin coat of varnish has helped remedy this a bit. I tend to just use blue tac in place of liquid mask now days with a cocktail stick you can masked of very detailed areas.
Don’t use the Vallejo mask. Humbrol liquid mask is much more useful. I used the Vallejo Liquid mask and even after varnishing the sections I wanted to mask off first, it pulled paint off the miniature. I’ve now switched to Humbrol entirely which is much easier to get off the mini with either a tooth pick or bluetac.
See ? Gorgeous ! 🙂
This model was way up there on the scale of things I was too nervous to try without a push.
You could’ve looked at my effort for a confidence boost 😉 It looks great John. I really like the way the hair turned out. That’s the Angel effect, making men pay attention to a lady’s hairdo.
Bravo!
Your success after your initial fear gives me some hope!
Pretty tasty paint job!
Looking good. Well done 🙂
@johnlyons when referring to pursian blue, i was a little confussed should that have been prussian blue? as cant find any pursian blue in vallejo?
You are probably right Rob. 🙂
you did a splendid job though:-)
Very nicely done sir!
She’s still sat in her blister on my shelf as I haven’t dared attempt her yet (Having been painting space marines for 23yrs and some Bolt Action in recent years, she’s a bit different from my norm! 🙂 )
@johnlyons you should be very proud of her, especially considering it was way out of your comfort zone and a first attempt. I know it’s way better than I could do myself, so very well done to you.
I liked it John. I can tell you didn’t.
I’ve painted that damn mini 4 times and stripped it back to the metal each time.
And I was using Angels book. Which doesn’t tell you every step as I’m sure
You noticed. As a first go though, it’s pretty damn good. The great thing is this….
You now don’t have to be scared of it any more. And if you do it again you’re
going to get better. It’s a win win mate. p.s. Bet Angel can’t paint a tank like you! 😉
Here’s a question for everyone….I’ve used maskol and the Vallejo version.
It’s not gone very well and ended up pulling paint off I already had on there!
I’ve thrown models because of it. Should I have sealed the paint with varnish first
like I would before say, applying an anarchy HD stencil? Any thoughts?
That’s a bit bloody nice that is. Well done for having the balls to go outside your comfort zone. She turned out pretty darn good. 🙂
To avoid pulling paint you can shoot a thin coat of clear down on the model prior to masking it. Thinned paint doesn’t have a lot of adhesion.
Good tip. I’ll definitely try it. Cheers
@johnlyons you should be really proud of the end results as Romain comments Gorgeous.
After a tiring but cracking trip to salute, meeting Warren and the gang Friday for drinks and games i thought i was going to be bereft of the usual Sunday entertainment with no backstage weekender.
i am so glad this was put up in its place a cracking Vlog easy to follow and having watched Angel yesterday at Salute i can attest that the man has magic in his fingertips when it comes to painting. Your efforts here with Joan despite your own critical comments were just as impressive as you produced a great end result guided by the book yes, but your interpretation with different paints should inspire both newbies and us old farts alike to simply have a go and try something different.
i for one shall be trying some of your techniques myself
Bravo sir!
very nice job 🙂
What a great challenge. Nice work!
Really good job John,
I, LIKE IT.
I’ve just found out a lot more tips, you talking though it also helps.
I read it my self and didn’t connect, but you also talking through it, (and at last a light shines on in yonder window of my mind) that’s how you do it.
These programs are teaching a old dog new tricks.
Big thumbs up from me.
shes looking great john.
What a really useful exercise as a lot of people might just overlook a book like this and think it was just beyond their skill level to attempt to get a similar result.
it is exaclt reasone why I purchased AZ book, to push my limits well done John
Great series John. I will be rewatching these when I approach my Joan.
Great work John.. It gave me the confidence to look and getting my horde of infinity models painted, then my phone bricked so I spent the evening swearing at that instead trying to fix it to no avail..
Anyways.. With the hard lining try using black ink mixed with some blue ink or paint depending on how you need the consistency. When I used to paint years ago and black lines were part of the style then (54mm Napoleonic) inks work well as they naturally run into the recesses and provide a thinner line.. But as you said practise practise practise will make things better..
I have been practising my airbrushing on my KoW army and I think you’ve highlighted where I recently went wrong in that I wasn’t do thin layers I was doing everything like a base layer but still trying to reduce the area I was spraying so thanks for pointing that out 🙂
Great blog post though BOW should do more like this.. How to use the things we probably all bought but not actually used because its out of our comfort zone..
Great work John, I really should get back to finishing my Iguana from the book as well.. Thankyou for the inspiration, I could do with a break from my Kings of War Abyssal Dwarves for a day or two
What a beautiful looking miniature. Wish i could paint like that lol
With the liquid mask, there is a difference between dry paint and cured paint and thin layers are always at risk. Like any tool it’s learning how to use it.
Well done John for going out your comfort zone.
Nothing but praise John, looking at techniques in a book is one thing, painting is another, but putting yourself up and out there takes courage in yourself, it could have been so different mate. So again thanks for the tutorial of the tutorial, I did not get his book but will be looking out for a copy at some point. There was a lot of cross over technique material as well.
I use an artist mask that can be watered down and also use one that is for watercolours sorry cannot supply names as I am out but will drop you a note later. Humbrol mask is very good when surprise using Humbrol paints, I don’t think it has changed its formula much since it was used for Enamels so that may explain the harder tacky side of it, for want of paints.
Try Windsor and Newtons mask it can be put on very lightly. The other tip for mask is not to use it straight from the jar as it is always too thick and globs up way too easy. Blue tack produced a tac for students so that they could put posters up and it left no oily marks, back a while so you did not have to pay for the place decorating after you vacate. It is not just good for using to mask stripes and the one that leaves no marks has no oil residue so it should not effect your painting the rest of the model by introducing an oily film.
When looking at mask materials paint a flat none porous surface build up thin layers of paint and the mask, paint and remove the mask. That way you should also find one that works for you. Maybe a lab test of such materials might make for a good live section.
Good hunting
Chris G
Great work John! After seeing this p-vlog I think I’ll have a go myself at some stage soon. Seeing it in action as well as reading it has tipped the balance. It’ll definitely be pushing me as a painter though 🙂
Nice one John.
I did a similar thing when I first started playing Infinity last year and Joan was the first mini I painted whilst I was replicating Angels technique.
You’ve done a top notch job man.
Thank you everyone for your feedback and comments. Honestly? This one was a serious push on what I could do. As you guessed by the re-working on the face That was where my limit is right now.
Just remember guys, if you’re inspired to give it a try and push your boundaries, it is worth the effort, even if you are unhappy with the results, you still walk away with those hours of experience, both good and bad. Never be scared away from a project simply because someone else out there did a better job than you think you can do yourself.
Well done.
Great job! With the liquid mask, protect your work with a with a flat or satin varnish. The varnish will protect your work from getting lifted by the masking fluid.
Loved the talk through, really good job on Joan. I see in the 360 that you did several touches after the last video. At what point do you say enough and it’s as good as it’s going to get? I don’t use an airbrush, do you think that someone could get the same level of shading/highlights with just a brush/washes/and paints?
you could. But I feel it would become more complicated when trying to achieve the softer shades and tone changes. You would need to be a dab-hand at wet blending 🙂 And yes, it was very difficult to say “thats enough” on this one.
Nice job John, it was good to see you struggle, I know that sounds callous but it made me empathize more, and to see you not only confront these problems head on but also remedy them was truly inspiring.
I’m sure I speak for most people when I say ‘we’ve all been there” and probably still are there, like myself. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve settled for ‘almost there but if I tweak it anymore it’s knackered’ scenario.
Cracking series, loved every second, and a nice finished mini to boot.
Did you get any feedback on the finished job from the man himself John?
What do they mean by “thin layers”? Do they mean they thin the primer/paint or just lightly spray? Great job and video by the way =)
Thanks
Probably the latter first. You get a more even result if you put on several thin layers of paint.
But if the paint is too thick you’ll have to thin it down too. Most airbrush paints that aren’t premixed are thinned down with a bit of water or alcohol, depending on what you are working on.
I just watched this whole series. Very nice job. The only thing that stands out at this point is the Goth eyeliner. From a certain viewpoint she looks very scary. The black lining around the eyes is just a bit too heavy. This can probably still be corrected by brushing one or more glazes of the skintone over the black, stopping just short of the deepest recesses. Again it comes down to brush control.
I actually liked the super close cam views of the painting process. It was very easy to see how the brush touched the model and how the paint was going down. This is something I sometimes miss in Romain’s tutorials.
But then I know color theory and am the type that paints his miniatures using big tubes of artist acrylics. So I understand other viewers much prefer to see the paints being used to get the complete picture.
These videos have encouraged me to have a go at my own Joan miniature using the Giraldez techniques. I just need to find a good yet affordable airbrush somewhere.