I finished up my latest
Eastern Front Studio piece and once again did a detailed step by step on how I
painted it. I was looking forward to
this piece as an experiment on how to highlight black in a warmer tone, unlike
the usual “shades of gray” that I had done in the past.
I started with the skin as I typically do. The skin obviously makes up a large part of
this model and I was wanting to get started with it first as it was the
experimental part of the model, which is (usually) the fun part. For this minotaur, I was inspired by a piece
done by Angel Giraldez I had seen
previously and opted to modify it a bit to fit this model. The skin was going to be “two tone”
alternating black and brown. Both areas
were going to have similar recipes to help tie them together. The brown skin of the torso and arms was
based with VMC Black (which I forgot to photograph...), but was “highlighted”
nearly completely with RMS Russet Brown, then a mixture of Russett Brown and
VMC Cork Brown to pure Cork Brown, and finally small highlights of Cork Brown
and RMS Linen White.
For the legs, head, and hair, I started with VMC Black as
the base coat. I then added VMC Cork
Brown in a 1:1 ratio as seen in the second pic.
This lightened it a bit too much for me, so I went back and darkened the
shadowed areas again to bring it back to read as black. I then added incremental amounts of Cork
Brown (this time over a smaller surface area) until I was using pure Cork
Brown.
The trick with highlighting black is to lighten it to a
limited degree. If you overhighlight the
area, it ends up changing the color.
Both areas of skin are made up largely of Black and Cork Brown, it is
just a degree of highlighting. I’ve read
that if you keep about 50% of the area black it will read as “black” and not
the highlight color. This is more easily
appreciated when highlighting with gray; in my experience, it is definitely a
fine line between highlighting to get the black to pop and overhighlighting, in
which case it comes off as gray. It’s
not quite as much of a problem with brown, but still something to watch
for. As a side note, I’ve also used a
dark blue (RMS Blue Liner is my usual go to color for this) to “shade”
black. The viewer’s eye sees the dark
blue and the mind interprets it as cooler or more distant.
The next step were the horns and hooves. Both parts were based initially with RMS Polished Bone. The horns were then glazed with GW Griffon Sepia, followed by Devlan Mud, and finally by Badab Black. These washes were used straight from the bottle and painted carefully brushing the paint from the base toward the tip of the horns. The hooves were done similarly. After the base coat, Griffon Sepia was apply over nearly all of the hooves. Devlan Mud was then glazed over the upper parts of the hooves nearest the fur. Finally, very thin vertical lines were freehanded on the hooves to give them some texture.
The leather bits were based with VMC Black Red. The shading was done with a mixture of VMC
Black Red and VMC Dark Sea Blue, which gave a cooler purple tone. Highlighting was then done with progressive
amounts of RMS Oiled Leather and edge highlights done with VMC Yellowed Bone.
The axe handle was based with RMS Shield Brown. I then added wood grain freehand with RMS
Brown Liner, thinned slightly with flow improver. The lower half of the handle was shaded with
RMS Woodstain Brown, and the top portion highlighted with RMS Driftwood Brown
and subsequently by RMS Yellowed Bone for the brightest highlights.
In the home stretch now!
The metallics were achieved with a black undercoat (initially seen on
the primer photos). The shackle and axe
head were then based with Vallejo Air Color (VAC) Gunmetal. A generous coating of GW Devlan Mud was
applied over the metallic areas to knock down some of the reflectivity from the
Gunmetal. I then put on successive
layers of GW Badab Black to add additional shading. Once this was completed, I added very thin
Gunmetal to the areas that would receive some light, followed by VAC Silver for
the bright highlights. I kept the
metallic fairly “dirty” and did not add any additional color as I wanted the
metals to look worn and beaten, but not neglected.
Basing was done last.
As this was a studio piece, I kept the base simple and left it on the
base as it would be purchased. The
flagstone was based with black, highlighted with the RMS Stone Triad (Shadowed
Stone, Stone Gray, Weathered Stone) with a few brightest highlights with RMS
Leather White.
I then went back with GW Leviathan Purple and Thraka Green
to add some visual interest (a very good tip I picked up at WaMP). The cracks were then given some foliage with
flock and some static grass glued into place.
The last part is always the toughest to describe. It’s basically going back and tweaking things
here and there to get a smoother look or add something that is missing or needs
additional work. In this case, I tweaked
the metallics a little to get the blends smoother and added some point
highlights. I did some additional
highlighting of the face to lighten it up some and added a thin glaze of RMS
Blood Red to the nostrils.
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