|
|
|
Reaper Sophie by Ixminis
|
|---|
| Description |
: |
I started out with a 50/50 Blackened Brown/Ruddy Leather covering 100% + of the skintone areas. In fact, I blocked in all colors of the miniature. Anywhere that was gold got walnut brown (9136), Skintone got the 50/50 and The Wings sat around for most of the time I spent on Sophie-proper (based in Walnut). I had plans to do the skintone all the way up to it's highest highlight before starting anything else, but 1/2-way through I figured out that I wouldn't get the harmony I was looking for without bringing the rest of the model up as I went. So the key point of this paragraph is that I was careful to maintain an intensity balance between all colors on her as I highlighted up.
With the base skintone in place, I then did a few layers of rough layers with Blackened Brown / Ruddy Leather - all the while slowly increasing the percent of Ruddy Leather until I got to a pure Ruddy Leather layer. I was at 50% coverage by the time I got to Ruddy Leather. That is, no more than 50% of the figures skintone was covered by a pure Ruddy Leather color. By rough layers, I mean that I did some wetblending/pushing of the pigment to smooth it out, but I did not focus on a smooth transition between the colors. I *DID* focus on keeping the paint surface very even. No clumping, pooling, or generally nasty looking textures... That way, the glazing would go well.
Once I had finished my Ruddy Leather placement, I went back and smoothed the transitions out. This is a futzing stage. That is, I put a pool of Blackened Brown and a Pool of Ruddy Brown next to each other in a palette well, and draw out a smaller pool to combine them to the exact shade I need for the glaze. I'll adjust the glaze (both in color and opacity) as I work around the mini. For example... her upper arm is going to have a little bit more highlighting than the underside of her arm. Even though I used the same color placement during the layering, I'll use a slightly brighter glaze on the top to represent the centered overhead light-source. Or, while the small bit of inner thigh that's showing is the exact same color as her arms, it needs to be highlight a little brighter because of the camera angle/shadows... that is, the picture won't look good if it's I don't compensate with the glaze.
A bit more about my layering + wet-blending. Push the pigment while it's wet. Really. Paint a base color, then quickly add the next highlight before any drying has happened. Rinse your brush, don't completely dry it, but instead use your slightlly moist brush to push/dodge the pigments together smoothly. If the brush has trouble retaining it's point, you've got it too wet. While I'd like to say this will save you time, it may not. It just depends. It's definitely not mandatory (I've seen some folks who do better with lot's of glazes vs. blending while the paint is wet)...
Final skintone finishing was done after everything else was complete. I would say that I didn't get any more coverage than 25% of the skin surface with a 50/50 Ruddy Leather & Chesnut Brown. I didn't go above 10% coverage with the 50/50 Chesnut Brown and Burnt Orange. and I'd say I did 1% or less coverage with the Burnt Orange. No skin highlights went above Burnt Orange. |
Poll results:
Number 5 overall.
First Place: one vote
Second Place: 4 votes
Third Place: 4 votes
|
|
Back to Painting Clinics Lobby 
