Saturday, November 11, 2017

Shades of Gray


In the previous episodes, you saw how the figures were "Primer Painted" and the first layers of glazing.  The process continues with more work on the bases and the initial glazes on the metal surfaces.


I mentioned in the last post that glazing is not always about making things darker.  You can also do lighter glazes, which is what I am doing here.  In fact, I was also able to add in these lighter colors while the previous layers of glazing were still wet.


This greenish color was used on all the lion cloths, and that process of wet into wet was used to get some lighter tones in very rapidly.


I added in some warmer Secret Weapon weathering paint, and that was used to make the lighter tones.  Again, it was done so quickly, the paint didn't have the time to dry, allowing me to use that wet into wet method.


All the tunics have a decent amount of shading on them.  The deepest darks and highlights are yet to be placed, because I want the 'context' of all the other colors surrounding it first.


I brought out a few Badger paints to work on the snow.  This is mostly due to the requirement that all my snow match previously painted figures.  Since I have a lot of these two Badger colors, I knew that I would never run out!  

Also, I wanted to show that just like the primers, Badger paints can be used with a regular brush... no airbrush required...


The process was pretty simple.  Mix up a middle tone color, and apply that all around the hooves and rocks.


As you might imagine, progressively lighter layers were applied.  While I do emphasize glazing quite a bit, I still use layering when it is the right approach for a given result.


As I work on these layers, I am using one of the #8 round craft brushes which is a bit worn out.  This means that I can "flatten out" the bristles of the brush, which in effect creates a Filbert style brush.  This is excellent for feathering out each layer of paint, acting like an airbrush.


With the bases painted, I moved on to the metals.  These will eventually be heavily weathered, but I need to get some blue/greenish gray shading on them first.  I will use a few Secret Weapon weathering colors, along with the Grey Liner from Reaper.


I thinned down the lightest grey for the first layer, removing the excess with one of the makeup sponges.  I don't want to destroy all of the lighter colors that I established with the primer painting.  Also, keep in mind that several darker layers of glazes will be added after this.


I worked from one beastman to the next, setting up the second and third layers of glazing.


You can see the effect that the second darker layer of glazing has.  Stay tuned for the next episode, where I will put additional layers of glazing on the skin/fur, begin to weather the metals, and work on other elements... stay tuned!

If these kinds of how to articles prove useful, I have the patreon page up and running to try and fund more articles like these.  While I love taking pictures of the process, and making the step by step articles, it does slow down the progress that I can make on commission pieces such as these.

Even a $1 pledge is very helpful, since that will also go towards more supplies which I can use for live experiments, etc.

Here's a link to the page: