A view from the back.
After talking about painting more like David Imrie over at the League of Augsburg, then immediately starting a painting session, I’ve put my brush where my mouth was. Midway through painting the shirts on my orcs, I started to apply my highlights Imrie-style.
The main feature of David’s work that appeals to me is the impressionistic placement of highlights. He doesn’t strictly follow the sculpting when highlighting, but seems to place random highlights over a surface, creating a pleasing organic texture. For the most part the shade is where one would expect it, the miniature still needs depth. However, he breaks up his large surfaces with this pattern to create more visual interest.
I’m using the Dallimore three-step highlight to create the effect. It’s not clear in the picture because I started using the technique spontaneously in the middle of a painting session. There needs to be a bit more contrast between the various layers. It will show up a little stronger after varnishing as the slight gloss of the paint detracts from the effect.
Here are some rough ideas I am using to reach this effect:
| Dark Shade | Starting from a black basecoat, I apply a dark shade leaving a black outline between different colours/items or for particularly deep creases or cuts. Of the total surface, you are covering 99% of it with your dark shade. |
| 1st Highlight | 1st Highlight will have a strong contrast with the shade while not being garish. It covers 90% of the dark shade, with thin lines of the shade showing between roughly equal sized random blotches of the 1st Highlight. The size of the blotches is hard to describe as my sense of scale is skewed when I’m painting. Roughly, I’d say that the average 28mm upper arm would have 2-3 splotches. I look at David Imrie’s miniatures for sizing. |
| 2nd Highlight | This is 80% of the 1st Highlight, breaking up each larger section of 1st Highlight into 2 or sometimes 3 smaller sections. In some cases, the 2nd Highlight may simply fill an area of 1st Highlight if the area of 1st Highlight isn’t very large. |
| Quick, random brush-strokes | A seemingly random, organic look is a big part of the effect. Work quickly, don’t think too hard and use a loaded brush to put enough paint on the surface to prevent having to come back for another coat. |
| Paint viscosity is important | The freedom of the effect doesn’t give much of an option for returning for recoats. Too thick paint will gum up the surface and leave brush-strokes. Too thin, and it will run everywhere. I use Liquitex Airbrush Medium for my thinning, as I find it a helpful mix of matte medium, flow aid, slow-dri and water. Practice makes perfect. |
| Stress Lines | For this technique, you aren’t really following the sculpting of the miniature for the placement of highlights. However, for the most part, leave the darkest layer visible in lines radiating outward from areas of stress. Often, this is from a bent knee or elbow. This is not the folds that occur when fabric is bunched, but what happens when fabric tries to wrap around an edge. |
| Break up large surfaces | We want to avoid large areas of flat colours, while also avoiding trying to highlight a flat surface as if it were somehow creased. This means that most regions of 1st highlight should be broken into at least two sections in the second highlight, again, following stress lines. |
| Break the rules | Don’t be afraid to invent detail, create thin, sharp highlights to accentuate a crease or fold, or to break surfaces up perpendicular to stress lines, or just for the heck of it. This helps the organic, random look as well as adding visual interests. If the majority of the highlighting follows the stress lines than a few exceptions won’t spoil the effect. |
It’s barely visible in this picture. Proper contrast is key to the technique.
One of the interesting things about trying to copy someone else’s technique is that you can rarely match it exactly. Often you make incorrect assumptions about how something is done, or disagree with part of the technique. This is better than perfectly aping someone, as it helps you define your own style. I believe that the Imrie technique is an extension of the Dallimore technique. My guess is that over the years it has evolved into something different.
If someone has really followed this blog from the beginning they will notice that I’m always trying some new technique. It’s true, I’m never happy for very long with the work I am currently producing and always seek to match what I see from other painters. Trying to break down techniques from pictures is a good exercise, though, and I think I am a better painter for it. Painting is my primary participation in this hobby for a variety of reasons. Painting, and thinking about painting, is important to me, and I hope you, my few readers, are able to get something out of it. Next week I will spend some time discussing some of my theories behind highlighting. Writing this article has crystallized some concepts for me, which I’d like to share.
Until then.
Tyler