Eastern Front Studios Ogress Step by Step

This article was originally published in Portal magazine #10 in May of 2011.  If you have not checked out the Portal E-zines, they are a great resource for the miniature hobby!  Check it out along with all the other issues at http://www.wampforum.com/VB4/downloads.php?do=cat&id=1.

I decided to do a detailed step by step on how I painted my Eastern Front Studios ogress miniature.  I had painted her once before several years ago, but got the chance to paint her again and improve (hopefully!) on my previous piece.  You'll have to forgive me for some of the photos.  This is an older tutorial and the blog doesn't like it when I stack five or six pictures are top of one another; those particular pictures are quite small.

 My first step after prepping is to apply a coat of primer to the miniature.  This provides some “teeth” for the following layers of paint to adhere to.  I also find this initial primer will uncover any mold lines I may have missed during the initial prep work.  For this particular mini I mixed black and white primer and brushed it on.  Sometimes, I will do a specific area in black or white as an undercoat, as I did with on this model with the club and hair.  My next step is then to take my brightest lamp and place it down close to the mini at the angle where the lighting will be coming from to give me an idea where the shadows and highlights will fall.

 I generally paint my miniatures “inside-out”, that is I start with the skin tone, then the deepest recessed areas/clothing and working my way out.  I find this helps to minimize errant brush marks if I would try and reach something deep on the model.  Here I have laid down my base coat in 2 or 3 thin passes with Reaper Master Series (RMS) Green Ochre and I've also done the work on the eyes.  The eye socket was painted with RMS Brown Liner, then the eyeball, painted with Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Ivory, followed by RMS Brown Liner again for the pupil.  Finally, I placed a very small light reflection point on the iris with VMC White.  Personally, I prefer to do the eyes very early on in the process as it is tough for me to get everything just right and I frequently am having to go back and touch up here and there.  Once again, this helps to minimize the effect of an errant brush stroke if all I am having to fix is a base coat on the cheek instead of an area that has been fully highlighted and shaded.  I had some left over Ivory, so I did an undercoat on the teeth and nails.

 

The next step is thinned down RMS Uniform Brown in the areas of the skin that will be shaded based on the light source(zenithal or overhead in this case) I have chosen and seen in the initial primer picture.  I’ve also added just a bit of the Uniform Brown to the base of the nails and painted the base of the lower lip, which is a combination of RMS Rosy Shadow and Bruise Purple 1:1.

Taking the shading deeper, I’m now using RMS Russet Brown, keeping to the areas in darkest shadow, under the jaw, elbow creases, inside of the arms and legs, and under the buttocks.  Again, I’ve add just a hint to the base of the nails.  Some of the shadows here are from the lighting of course.  I’ve also begun lining where the skin will meet everything else.  My darklining typically is done with RMS Brown Liner, although black can also be used if you are looking for a more “cartoonish” look.  Darklining, IMHO, is a simple way to help get your mini to “pop”.  At the scale I usually work at (28-32mm), it helps to accentuate the areas of separation between two adjacent objects on the miniature.  At life size, the ambient light will naturally do this, but on such a small scale, I need to help that along as the recess between the arm and fur shawl (for example) on the sculpt will be very shallow and not go into deep shadow.

Here I have completed the darklining and gone back and began smoothing the transitions between the various shades that were quite evident on the previous pictures.  For me this is a time consuming effort and one that is difficult to capture with photos.  It is very much a back and forth process with multiple thin glazes of paint.  I tend to paint with thin paint but use few steps between colors.  One method to combat this is to have mix more steps between pure colors.  For example, as you transition from Green Ochre to Uniform Brown start out with pure Green Ochre, then 2:1 Green Ochre to Uniform Brown, then 1:1, then 1:2 Green Ochre to Uniform Brown, etc.  If you have a prolonged period to paint or use a wet palette, that may be a good choice.  I paint fairly erratically and usually for short periods of time, so I don’t like to mix colors often and I paint rather slowly as well, which complicates the process in that my paints end up drying out.  Personal preference, of course, and I am sure there are much more efficient ways to do it.  

Now comes the bane of my painting–highlighting.  I find this to be one of the more challenging parts of painting and is something I am constantly struggling with.  Here I have added RMS Yellowed Bone to the mix and have begun highlighting the forehead, cheeks, chin (the so-called “cross” on the face) and well as the upper arms and breasts, and top of the forearms, buttocks, and thighs.  You can also see a hint above the belly button.

The final step on the skin tone is just a touch of RMS Linen White on the cheeks and breasts.  Whew!   All done, although I will likely go back and smooth transitions more and will need to touch things up after the application of the tattoos.

 

Fur Shawl and Leggings:

 

The painting will hopefully go quicker at this point.  The reading certainly will.  ;D

For the fur, I’ve based with Vallejo Game Color (VGC) Charred Brown, then RMS Shield Brown, then a 1:1 mix of RMS Shield Brown and Aged Bone, then pure Aged Bone, and finally Linen White.  I then went back and glazed some Shield Brown to smooth some of the transitions.  Lastly, very thin RMS Blue Liner was utilized to do deep shading of the fur.  For fur, I tend to use a nearly dry brush for the technique.  I also find it easier to rough things in and actually overhighlight a bit, then use my base coat and deeper shaded to glaze over areas to smooth the transitions and tone down the highlights if needed.  Since I prefer to work with glazes, it is just easier to control the paint by allow the natural capillary action of the water to "pull" the paint into the recesses as opposed to trying to keep thinned highlight paints out of the recesses.
 

 

And the rear shot, showing the same stepwise approach:

Leathers:

 This next part was fun for me.  I try and do something new or different on nearly every mini I paint.  For the leathers, I decided to utilize a technique I had initially seen demonstrated on CmoN by Automaton.  He does a wonderful job of breaking it down and comes up with some stunning results: http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1888-telcharion-painting-the-flesh-robes-textured-apron-and-building-the-base .  It give some “texture” to the leather and adds some visual interest.  The leathers were based with RMS Earth Brown.  I then began stippling VMC Smoke, RMS Mahogany Brown, RMS Midnight Blue, RMS Leather Brown, and RMS Rainy Gray in a random pattern over the base coat.  All colors were applied on all over the leather bits; however, the darker tones (Smoke, Mahogany Brown, and Midnight Blue) received more stippling where that shading would naturally occur and the lighter tones (Leather Brown and Rainy Gray) were applied preferentially on the highlighted areas.  I then placed a few scratches with thinned down black and an underline of Linen White for light reflection.  The reverse side of the leather bra was simply RMS Tanned Skin with a glaze or two of VMC Smoke.
 

 

 

Loin Cloth:

The red portion of the loin cloth was based with Reaper Pro Paint (RPP) Crimson Red, then highlighted with RMS Blood Red, a 1:1 mix of Blood Red and Privateer Press (PP) Menoth White, then the deep shading was done with RMS Blue Liner, and finally the highlights were glazed back down a bit with Blood Red as they were getting a little pinkish.  The checks along the bottom of the loincloth were a succession of VMC Black, then highlighted with VMC Gray-Green, and RMS Rainy Gray.

Wrist Wraps and Rope:

 For the wraps, I based them with RMS Ruddy Leather, shaded with RMS Blackened Brown and subsequently with RMS Blue Liner.  The highlighting was done with mix of 1:1 RMS Ruddy Leather and RMS Burnt Orange, followed by a mix of Ruddy Leather and RMS Yellowed Bone and then finally pure Yellowed Bone.

 The rope was RMS Stained Ivory, shaded with Uniform Brown and Russet Brown, and highlighted with RMS Creamy Ivory.

 

Club:

The club was based with RMS Bone Shadow and then shaded with RMS Blue Liner.  Successive highlights were done with RMS Aged Bone, through RMS Polished Bone, then RMS Leather White.  I then went back and glazed some RMS Woodstain Brown and Muddy Olive to add a bit of variety and color to the club.  The Bone Triad from Reaper is a gray brown color and is very neutral.
 

 

Metallics:

Over recent years, I have become a fan of a technique called “shaded metallics”.  It involves taking true metallic paints and shading them with acrylics to obtain more realistic metallics; it is difficult at times to capture this photographically, but I feel look very good in hand.

The metallics on the ogress are started with an acrylic black undercoat.  I typically will use a black primer for this and touch it up with regular black if needed.  The first step is Vallejo Air Color (VAC) Silver.  Since much of this technique involves successive shading, I prefer to start with a brighter metallic and work down.  Alternatively, you can begin with VAC Gun Metal, then work up to Silver.  The next step is to knock down the reflectivity of the true metallic with GW Devlan Mud followed by Badab Black.  I will the typically go back with thinned down Silver and bring back just a hint of the shine of the metal.  Very bright pin point light reflections are done with VAC Aluminum.
 

Rust weathering is accomplished with an initial application of RMS Dark Skin, followed by a 1:1 mix of RMS Chestnut Brown and Rust Brown.  The most rusted areas (generally reserved for cracks and other areas where water might accumulate for longer periods of time) is glazed with small amounts of RMS Lava Orange.  If the end result is too strong, I will sometimes go back with the darker colors or thinned VMC Smoke to tone it down.

 

Finishing up:

Nearly there!  If you are still reading this essay, hang in there.  I'm almost done...

I was getting tired of taking pictures myself, so things got a bit abbreviated, hehe.

The stone base was the RMS Stone Triad, followed by RMS Leather White.  I think I jumped from RMS Shadowed Stone in the top picture to nearly completely done in the next.  Sorry!

The hair was done in a progression from black primer to RMS Rainy Gray to RMS Misty Gray and then selective shading with RMS Midnight blue to tone things back.
 

Now comes the last bit which can actually take me a while to finish.  I’ll putter a bit smoothing blends.  I added some stronger highlighting on the skin.  Tattoos were done with RMS Blue Liner and then were “sunk” underneath the skin with another glaze of the skin basecoat, RMS Green Ochre.  Leaving the paint unglazed will generally impart more of a warpaint look as opposed to a tattoo.  I added some green and purple glazes to the stone work on the base for some additional visual interest and a bit of scenic grass as well.

I hope you enjoyed this step by step and neither crashed your computer from all the pictures or fell asleep.  ::)

Jabber