"New Painting Books" Topic

"Last week was quite a good one for swag. Among the many things I acquired were two different painting books, both of which look really good. Just had a quick flick through so far, and they seem to be taking quite a different approach, which is also good as they don't just repeat each other…"

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Amicalement
Armand

I like the way I paint but this is above me and I doubt a book will help :)

I have the Angel Giraldez on preorder. I am expecting it to be a lot of airbrushing work.

I have not seen the other book before.

Even if its above your grade, you can still gleam some good types out of them.

Don't loose your hopes my friend! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Got both books after seeing this post, of the two I'd say Figopedia is the better book. I've only recently started using an airbrush, so maybe I'm too much of a newbie to learn from the Giraldez book, but to me it only tells you the colour recipe not spray angles or anything really useful, nice pictures though. Figopedia (vol 1) is all about colour theory and lighting lots of good examples to help explain the text. However if you want a how to paint manual I'd recommend Kevin Dallimore's first book.

I just got both books.

The Figopedia is filled with really good information that really focuses on miniature painting (as opposed to general art theory like many so many other miniature books have). The book has lots of examples, "diagrams" and so forth that illustrate well what the author is trying to convey. He goes into detail showing how light "defines" the miniature based on where it comes from.

Conversely, I thought that the Giraldez book is just a contemporary version of the old Citadel painting technique using airbrush and brush. The artist is quite good at what he does. But as I skim through the book, I did not really catch anything new. As a matter of fact, some of the closeups show that his detailing technique is kind of rough. The OSL was not well done either. I was surprised by that. At a glance, his miniatures are striking. But I can't quite help but think that his style is gimmicky. By that I mean the miniatures are striking at first glance because they are very well highlighted to almost white or white. The high contrast is eye catching.
Lardie states "not spray angles ." Until I got the book, I did not really know if this was important. But now I think that Lardie is correct. Giraldez does not seem to give detailed instructions on technique--that would be helpful in learning to paint this style. He lists all the paints he uses for each example. So much so that the book reads like an advertisement for Vallejo Paints (that annoyed me a bit. Every mini painter I have ever met uses all different sorts of painting supplies).

The painting in the Figopedia is of a fine art quality. I suspect that Mr. Giraldez is capable of painting in the Figopedia "styles" as well. I presume that he is under a tight schedule to paint a lot of Infinity figures in their house, tabletop game style--which he created.