[PLOG] Daeron's Blues

[Daeron]

Well I quickly photoshopped the image to try some stuff out. In order:
- Grey, which is equally disappointing on the photo as it was IRL.
- Ivory-ish (difficult colour to photoshop given the darkness of the picture). My only concern is a lack of contrast with the hands.
- Blue and it is indeed too much blue.
- Purple, looks good, but takes away attention of the blue.
- Reds, work if they are sufficiently dark. Bright reds don't work at all. Still I find it breaks the blue a bit.

I'm tempted to go for ivory, but the classic colour scheme for that is very similar to my pale-skinned elf scheme. There's just a fleshy mid-tone for the skin that marks the difference.

[Amboadine]

You could look at the ivory over a brown base and chestnut wash to give the separation to the hands. Darkens it up some what.

How would a darkened Yellow look?

[Payce]

How would a darkened Yellow look?

Swedish.

[MangoPunch]

I am really liking the look Daeron! The armor is excellent and your trial and error has brought the unit a long way to an excellent point.

Yellows and Reds are across the color wheel from blue, so if you ascribe to that, then it would make sense that they look good as a complement (i.e. the dark reds and ivory working). Have you thought about using the same wood tone for the spears as for your rxbs? They might look less courtly, but it would probably go well. The spear wraps could be a dark brown/red leather.

[Amboadine]

How would a darkened Yellow look?

Swedish.

Didn't even cross my mind.

[direweasel]

How would a darkened Yellow look?

Swedish.

You win the internet today Payce

[Daeron]

Meanwhile I gave the chainmail more definition and highlighted the rim chain. I'm pleased with the effect but hoped for a bit more contrast on that final line. I could give it a colour, but I am saving that (gold rim) for the command group.
At Rowenas request, some Corsairs on the side to give an impression of what is coming




I painted a spare spear (say that ten times in a row) in the middle with a darker ivory colour.

How would a darkened Yellow look?

Swedish.

You win the internet today Payce

Indeed

[Rowena]

I like the ivory, especially with the corsairs next to them, it would tie in with the inside of their cloaks.

Also, thanks for showing the corsairs. The look great and the effect of the colour scheme is even bigger when you see more different units together. Really awesome!

[flatworldsedge]

+1 The blue is so amazingly consistent, love the way the silver and then tan work to mark the units as distinct despite the tie in, and the tan/blue contrast on the Corsairs is beautifully judged. Nice work.

[Daeron]

Thanks you! I will give it one or two tests before diving into it. Meanwhile I did the leather belts.

[Daeron]

Bases done and got started on the handles.

[Phierlihy]

That blue leather really stands out!

[Amboadine]

Nice work on the basing

[Daeron]

Hope to finish this this week(end)

With a bit of skin


It's amazing how much colour just the skin adds. But I regret starting with such a dark base colour. I will have to add a layer too many to come to the pale skin stge now. Initially I wanted to start with skull white undercoat, until I realized that it would be a nightmare to get the hair black. I considered using the base colour Ushabti Bone, and darkening the shades as required, following Georc's example... But I concluded to fall back on a tried and proven recipe which I use for my corsair heads. In retrospect, I should have started one tone brighter... But ahh, there's no going back now!

[Daeron]

Brightening the skin...
And the result.


All in all I'm happe with the outcome, but I really think I can do a better job if I would have started with the brighter tone straight away. While the colours turned alright, I find the paintwork to become messier and grainier with every layer. I suffer the same issue with my blue armour. I'll be looking into reducing the number of layers to improve the painting quality.. Hopefully

[Amboadine]

The skin tone is nice, but agree that if you start lighter the number of layers would be less.

Overall though I think the sorceress is coming along very nicely.

[Schism20]

The skin on the Sorceress looks fantastic, can't imagine how long you spent on it after starting with such a dark base.
I found it interesting that you painted the eyes first before anything else. I've never thought of doing them first but the end result looks fantastic.

[Rowena]

The skin looks awesome, so smooth from such a dark base! In regards to layers, maybe you could also thin the paints even more? That might help as well, but it would definitely take much more time to paint.

Schism20: I do that too. Painting eyes is really fiddly (at least for me) and this way when I have to correct around the eyes, I don't have to worry aboutany shading, I just use the base colour. When I am happy with the eyes, I add all the shading around and do my best not to touch them again.

[Daeron]

Thank you all for the encouraging feedback!

can't imagine how long you spent on it after starting with such a dark base.

Well it's only a single model so it went fast. I did the brown-ish basecoat one evening, and the rest of the skin work was done in a single evening so it's not that bad in terms of time investment
In fact, I finished the gold armour, hair, eye make-up and eyebrows as well yesterday but my wife ran off with the iPad so I couldn't take a picture of that

I found it interesting that you painted the eyes first before anything else. I've never thought of doing them first but the end result looks fantastic.

Ahh, there's two reasons to paint them first:
1 - It's easy to mess up, and it's less risky to correct eyes or start over when the skin's not painted yet.
2 - To make the eyes stand out more, it helps to give them an "eyeliner". So, after painting the white (and perhaps add some black again if the pupils became too small), it's easier to paint a contour in brown or black around the eyes at this point. This covers up any excesses with the white. You can then paint the skin and gradually diminish the contours or eyeliner as you deem fit. It's easier this way, than to try to fit in the white afterwards. I didn't invent this... It's inspired on this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhH-GWvHG00 but I feel my approach is "simple" by comparison.

Maybe you could also thin the paints even more?

Yeah, I tried different degrees of thinning. It's a challenge though because the first bright colour looks very messy in a first layer. It's also a lot of maintenance to keep the paint smooth and thinned :S
I guess I just need a bit more practice and experience in this

[Schism20]

Ahh, there's two reasons to paint them first:
1 - It's easy to mess up, and it's less risky to correct eyes or start over when the skin's not painted yet.
2 - To make the eyes stand out more, it helps to give them an "eyeliner". So, after painting the white (and perhaps add some black again if the pupils became too small), it's easier to paint a contour in brown or black around the eyes at this point. This covers up any excesses with the white. You can then paint the skin and gradually diminish the contours or eyeliner as you deem fit. It's easier this way, than to try to fit in the white afterwards. I didn't invent this... It's inspired on this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhH-GWvHG00 but I feel my approach is "simple" by comparison.

That's interesting, I'll give it a try at some point.
I've always found it easier to paint the entire face up to the point where I'm about to add highlights and then do they eyes.
I know what you mean about the 'eyeliner' look, I paint the entire eye area black and paint two white dots on either side and it gives a similar effect.

[Daeron]

Yeah, I used the white dot technique before as well. It's just her eyes are bigger than the usual soldier so I thought I'd try this method. IT's actually the first time that I really tried it like this, I think (might have tested it before). I actually find it easier than the dotting technique.

[Daeron]

Done!


Overall i am happy with the model and the result. I do think it shows I have some training ahead of me still the blue cloth did not work out as cleanly, so it's clear I need a different style to paint cloth than armour. I tried a bigger contrast on the gold, but all I got was a gradient. Oh well. It was a really fun model to paint. I'm happy I already have another one in queue :p

[T.D.]

That is really nicely done

[Schism20]

Fantastic work, the blue robe looks great to me and I like the touch of blue in her hair to balance the colour.

[Malys the younger]

Very sharp!