Hi all,
Here is a short step-by-step painting guide for the Dagathonan Reef Lord for DeepWars. This model was part of the Blood Reef Kickstarter and is being released now.
The model was primed with white and painted using Liquitex Acrylic Inks, Golden Fluid Acrylics (GFA) and some basic craft paints for black, white and tan. Some small amounts of Reaper Master Series Paint (MSP), Golden Highlight were also used. Those who have seen some of my other tutorials will recognize most of the colors used here, as the style is the same wash/glaze method described before.
So the first step for the model was to apply thin layers of base colors, at about 50% water an paint. The goal was to have very light colors as the underlying base so they could show through the subsequent glazes and washes. The body was painted with a bright primary yellow paint, thinned enough so that some white still appeared on raised areas. The claws, teeth, shells and straps were painted with MSP Golden Highlight while crystals were given a thin layer of Cerulean Blue ink.
The staff of the trident was painted with a mix of Golden Highlight and a bit of Yellow. The shell prongs of the trident were painted with a mix of black/white/Golden Highlight to make a tan-gray. The contrasting part of the model is the armor, which was painted with a thin layer of Red-Orange paint. Finally, the coral was painted with tan paint. These were all allowed to dry fully.
The next step was the dark washes. The goal here was to try to use multiple washes and glazes to build up color and shadows without obscuring the highlights from the base coats. Raw Umber and Burnt Sienna inks were used to glaze the belly, hands and feet. The fins around the head were glazed with Burnt Sienna ink while the teeth were glazed with Burnt Umber ink mixed with a bit of black paint.
Darker shadows were added with Dioxazene Purple ink, mixed with a bit of Matte Medium. The hands and toes were shaded more than the rest of the body. Scales were washed with multiple layers of Sap Green ink mixed with Matte Medium and water. These washes were approximately 50% ink and 25% of each water an medium. Three to four washes were applied to the scales and allowed to flow into muscle shadows.
The armor and shield are meant to be crab or lobster shell, so they were meant to be rough and textured. The armor and shield was washed with a mixture of Red paint, Dioxazene Purple Ink and Matte Medium. This wash was also allowed to shade the hands.
The trident and staff were washed with Burnt Umber ink, mixed with a bit of black paint and Matte Medium. The loincloth was glazed with Sap Green and Burnt Umber ink to make a dirty looking olive color. Straps and shells were glazed with Burnt Umber ink. Some crystals on the straps were glazed with Phthalo Blue ink.
The highlighting stage took a white to clean up the relative sloppiness of the washes. The idea here is to try to enhance the natural highlights left by the washes and glazes. The belly, upper arms and fins were highlighted with multiple thin layers of opaque paint, a mixture of Golden Highlight, Yellow and White paint. After a few layers were applied, a glaze of very thin Burnt Sienna ink was applied again to the belly, arms and fins to reduce the chalkiness of the opaque paint and blend the colors more. After the glaze dried, some final highlights were added on the upper edges, where light would be reflecting.
For the green skin and scales, the same highlight mixture was used, but the washes afterwards were more Sap Green ink. Edges of the scales were painted with the tip of the brush with thinned white paint to make them stand out more. The armor, staff, claws and trident head were highlighted with thinned white, mixed with a bit of Golden Highlight. Edge highlights were done using the side of the brush on large edges, and the tip for smaller features. Teeth were tricky to highlight and required a mix of light drybrushing with Golden highlight, glazing down with thinned black paint, then final highlights with thinned white paint. The lips were highlighted with thinned white and glazed with Cerulean Blue ink. Eyes were shaded with Burnt Sienna ink, then highlighted with yellow + white paint. The iris was a star pattern - more like an asterisk actually. It was meant to look a big like a Lionfish eye.
The base was done with multiple washes of Raw Umber, Blue, Sienna, Purple, Magenta and Sap Green inks, then highlighted with thinned white, adding many small dots of white on the rock.
Here is the final product, after Dull Cote.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 27, 2024, 05:56:40 PM
September 02, 2010, 03:51:55 PM