Eh, so I painted...

Fr0 · Post by **Fr0** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:12 am

Craptonne of stuff on the table atm..
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/F ... 0059-1.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/F ... 130058.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b65/F ... 130060.jpg

More pics, updated coming soon. I could use advice on skin.. I'm having a hell of a time, and it's really, really frustrating to redo it so many times.. I just can't get that smooth blend I always see.

Fr0

Gnosis · Post by **Gnosis** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:14 am

I'll just comment on your Dark Riders, as I'm in a bit of a hurry. The basics look good, but there are several things you should consider:

- More work on detailing the faces. I can't see it that well in the pics, but they look like you gave them one badly covering coat of Elf Flesh the undercoat is showing through.

- Tone down the horse hair. The drybrush with light grey over pure black is very extreme, I advise a black or dark grey wash, not too thin, to tone it down a bit.

- Highlights on the cloaks. I think this speaks for itself, the cloaks are the most prominent part of the models.

I'll comment on the other models asap.

Harabec · Post by **Harabec** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:57 am

- More work on detailing the faces. I can't see it that well in the pics, but they look like you gave them one badly covering coat of Elf Flesh the undercoat is showing through.

Thats my biggest point at this time, is the skin. In alot of places the black is still coming through. As you said everything was done in a hurry for the conflict, but touching this up alone will really help them along.

Also alot of the models have to much of the black undercouting still visible (even for a dark elf) Try and get a couple layers with differnet shades. Even a darkened grey is as sharp loooking when compared to solid black. The jump from pure black to light grey (white) is very sharp (to sharp) at this point. Maybe even consider adding an additional colour to the army palette.

Fr0 · Post by **Fr0** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:10 pm

Damnation, thanks man. Like I said, I'm having a lot of frustration in making the skin look decent. I tried to ink, I tried to layer and blend and they all turned out like crap.

I appreciate any comments though.. any tips, since I'm a novice painter.

Fr0

Gnosis · Post by **Gnosis** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:20 pm

I've always used Dwarf Flesh as basecoat, inked with Chestnut Ink, and retouched with Dwarf Flesh and highlighted with Elf Flesh. Always done the trick for me.

Omnichron · Post by **Omnichron** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:52 pm

I've always found the Dwarf flesh color to have too much red in it. I usually just mix dwarf flesh and elf flesh with a tiny drop of scorched brown to get a darker skin as base color. Then I dry brush elven flesh to cover the parts of the model which stands out.

I guess you want a dark theme for your dark elves, but I would recommend that you don't use black much. It's good for the mounts for the dark riders, and maybe some of the cloaks, but black tends to make details disappear, and highlighting black usually don't look as good as highlighting other colours. You can get a dark themed army with lots of different colours.

When you have lots of metal, bring in some gold touches (or other touches) to make details stand out, and when you drybrush, be careful that you go for the same kind of color with more light (Highlighting black with skull white is kinda extreme).

Fr0 · Post by **Fr0** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:42 am

Do you suggest dry brushing say, Elf Flesh over the Dwarf Flesh then or just paint it on?

Fr0

Neves · Post by **Neves** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:27 am

Fr0 wrote:Do you suggest dry brushing say, Elf Flesh over the Dwarf Flesh then or just paint it on?

Fr0

I'd go for painting. Drybrushing could give a gritty finish which would be a shame with skin. I always water down my skin paints a little to avoid grittyness.

Only remark is that the snow is a bit over the top. You should have smeared it out equally on the base and then build upwards.

[llct]kain · Post by **[llct]kain** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:19 am

A simple version for a light skincolour would be to undercoat with white and then give it a ink with Space Wolves Grey. This ink should be with alittle bit less water than a normal ink. After this you can apply some hightlights with white - just paint a little bit watered down white on.

Only remark is that the snow is a bit over the top.

I like the snow very much, it looks like the snow you can find on snowdrifts etc, which fits very good to Nagaroth - coold, harsh and windy (stormy?).
With the snow I would be realy interested in which method you used to create it.

Dread lord malice · Post by **Dread lord malice** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:29 pm

Also you can try several tricks with the paint itself. Try thinning it down a tad with some water if you notice it clumping up. And only do it in very small doses. You can always add a little more, but its damned difficult to work with paint the consistancy of ink.
Also try dropping a small bb or pellet round (think pellet rifle) into your paint pots. This will act as a ball bearing when you shake up your paints, making the paint the same color throughout, helping eliminate the "marble" effect when you open up the pot.
Any questions, dont hesitate to ask!
Hope i helped

.

Omnichron · Post by **Omnichron** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:49 pm

I did some very soft drybrushing and then took a little bit wet paint to smothen things out on top. I guess just painting on top is better if you have a steady hand (or maybe even while you don't)... not sure why I drybrushed skin really. Managed to get it smooth though

Post by **Dyvim tvar** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:24 am

Fr0 wrote:Damnation, thanks man. Like I said, I'm having a lot of frustration in making the skin look decent. I tried to ink, I tried to layer and blend and they all turned out like crap.

I appreciate any comments though.. any tips, since I'm a novice painter.

Fr0

Probably the easiest way to get good skin tone results is 3 step process:

1) Base coat

2) Shade

3) Highlight

If you want gray-toned flesh like Lion of Flanders or Georc use, you will have to use different colors, but here's my progression for a more regular skin tone.

Base coat -- Paint the skin areas with Elf Flesh. If you are painting over a black undercoat, this may require up to 3 layers of paint to get good coverage, but 2 is usually enough. Be sure to thin your paint slightly with water. If you try to shortcut by not thinning, you'll just end up obscuring detail with thick paint. If the paint just pools in the low parts your paint is too thin -- mop it up with a clean, dry brush and try again.

Shade -- An ink wash is the easiest way to get good shading results. But if you use straight ink, you just end up staining the entire skin area instead of getting real shading. Once again, you need to thin the ink. Also, I highly recommend using an additive like acrylic medium or retarder (available at art supply stores). Use an empty paint pot to mix up an ink wash mix. If all you have is water, mix 1 part Flesh Wash ink with 2 parts water. I use a mix of 1 part ink, 1 part water, 1 part acrylic medium. Apply the mix heavily to the skin areas. It should settle into the cracks and low spots, and it should dry without staining the high points.

Highlight -- After the ink wash is completely dry you can go back and highlight with a slightly lighter version of your base color. For Elf Flesh, your highlight would be a mix of Elf Flesh with a bit of Skull White--about a 3 to 1 ratio of Elf Flesh to White. ONce again, you want to thin it with water but not too much. Use this to go back and hit just the high points of the face and hands.

You can make this technique more complicated by blending the highlights when you apply them or by doing multiple levels of highlights. I wouldn't bother with it at this point.

Also, trying to blend wet paint into wet paint generally ends up looks like crap. The best blending technique it to wait for one layer of paint to dry completely before moving on to the next. Apply a highlight color, and then immediately switch to a second, clean and wet brush and use it to "feather" the highlight layer while the paint you just applied is still wet.

Again, I wouldn't worry about trying that yet.

Sedro · Post by **Sedro** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 6:18 pm

I painted a corsair... first i mixed echanted blue with skull white
then i took a small layer of bleched bone and then rotting flesh the skin look rotten but its cool

Kamahl · Post by **Kamahl** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 8:56 pm

Damnation wrote:I've always used Dwarf Flesh as basecoat, inked with Chestnut Ink, and retouched with Dwarf Flesh and highlighted with Elf Flesh. Always done the trick for me.

if ur in a hurry you could even skip the inkin and do a twon layer skin still looks good and makes for some turbo painting without looking rushed or crappy (if done neat) works especialy well on hands if u leave the black undercoat between the fingers (going over basecoat with white (overbrush), then do dwarf flesh a bit firmer, and end with the elf flesh lightly looks great without al lot of effort and messy ink.) works on faces too (leave black in eyes and mouth)

done it on all my models and im satisfied with the results

@ the hydra i realy like the greens but its a bit too shiny for my taste (may be the pic though)

Thompie · Post by **Thompie** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 5:39 pm

nice scaner/printer ( got the same)