Hi all. Just working on a Blood-maw from Mierce Minis.
This one does not have too many WIP shots but I got too overzealous in painting and did not take enough photos. It is a gaming figure commission so I have to be efficient when painting. The model itself is enormous, about four inches tall, and hyper-detailed with all sorts of skin wrinkles like a naked mole rat. With something this large and textured, it screams for painting with washes and glazes. An airbrush could have worked also but the texture would be difficult to highlight since it was basically all muscles and lots of wrinkles, and it would need washes to make shadows anyways.
The first step was to prime in white and give the skin a wash of green-gray (white + black + touch of Pthalo blue and Sap green, + Matte Medium). This was mixed with roughly 50% water so that it left light areas on the raised texture. After the base wash dried, a wash of purple-black (black + Dioxazine Purple ink + Matte Medium) was painted into the shadows. This was mixed with more water, maybe 75%, than the first wash. After that wash dried, a light glaze of Raw Sienna ink was painted in shadows and on some upper surfaces. More ink was used for the rough skin on the elbows and knees and on the hands and feet. The interior of the mouth was painted with a basic wash of flesh tone, simply a pinkish skin.
The first washes and mouth look pretty ugly (you can even see a drop of raw sienna glaze on the head that I later removed), but they are just laying the foundation. It was important to have some complexity to the skin tone, as plain gray skin is really boring.
The next step was to give the inside of the mouth a wash of "bloody tissue", (Burnt Sienna ink, Quinicridone crimson paint + black paint + matte medium). This was applied in two washes, one drying before the next one applied. The skin was given glaze of Turquoise ink here and there to add a bit more color, then drybrushed lightly with a mix of green-white (Sap green + Raw Sienna + white paint). To make cleaner highlights, the green-white was painted in glazes onto the uppers surfaces where light would strike most. These glazes of opaque paint helped reduce the contrast of the multiple dark washes. Finally, almost pure white was lightly painted on some of the raised edges to help them stand out.
The claws and teeth were painted with a light wash of a yellow ochre, then drybrushed lightly with bone white, then washed with Burnt Umber ink. The key was to use almost pure ink near the base and then thin with water (dip the brush in water) and paint from the tip backwards so the washes made a nice gradient. There were some light highlights with white added here and there to the teeth and the gums to help make the stand out, then some Blood for the Blood god was added for a bit of gloss (after the whole model was dullcoted).
Next comes the base, which I'll probably keep simple since this is a gaming mini.
17 November 2009, 08:54:05 AM
