[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - The sword

For the sword, the idea was to paint a demonic ice blade.
I've started with a wet blending of azure, blue, purple and black. Then I've highlighted the details with pure white to create the illusion of ice.
I've finished the job with a gloss varnish to increase the effect.
The handle has been painted with the same colour I've used for the other bones parts.

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - The machete

Some progress with my Grand Crane. I've painted the legs and the hoofs. Nothing special with that step, I've simply followed the same color scheme than the clothes under the armor.
The machete instead was more complicated. I was very hesitant about how to paint it. Then looking for some background, I've discovered that this blade was actually a big sharpe of ancient demon's teeth. So I've gone toward a old looking bone scheme.
I've first painted the foundation in wet blending mixing pale skin, ocre, white, sky blue and a touch of green. Then I've applied several layer of ink and washes mainly dark sepia, stone wash, blue and green.
Once dried, I've used drybrush with white in order to create some textures on the blade.
Last touch: some 3d effects to add some scratches and battle damages.    

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - The horns

After a little bit of anger  for my "non painting" situation, I've been lucky yesterday evening as my kids have decided to go to bed early. (Finally!!!)

So I've catched the opportunity to go ahead with my Grand Crane. Just a short session but enough to complete the huge horns of my skull warrior.

The base color was already painted. I used a  yellow ocre + a touch of blue wet blended with pure black.

Mainly I've worked the light and shadow, defining again the volume. For the color recipe I've semply used the base color with black and white to desaturate the overall color. The base color was a little bit too yellow, not in line with the rest of the miniature and because I wanted to make the horns old and worn, it was important to not let the colors too satutared.

I've also painted some dammages  just to add a little bit of texture because the horns were a little bit too flat for my taste.

    

Next step: finish the legs and the hoofs.

[ACHERON ARMY- WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE- finishing the metals

After finishing my steel metal, I've decided to add some details to make my undead warrior more realistic. So I've painted some battle damage on the armor. The effect is very simple to do and it's a cool added value to the overall result.
Paint your damage in black and underline the reflection of the light in silver on the lower part of the damage. And you have a 3D effect on your flat surface. Quick and simple.
I've also created a little bit of weathering just to make the armor even more broken looking. I've painted the rust with orange brown focusing the effect on the deep spot (including the fake battle damage).
I've decided to go very easy with the rust because I want to keep my color hue the most colder as possible which is quite incompatible with the orange of the rust.  

Enough with the steel metal, it's time to proceed with the golden part of the armor.
Following the same principle than the other color of the mini, I've choosen a cold color for my gold. So pale gold (warcolour) with a drop of black to desature it and a drop of blue to make it colder.
 The result is a fondation of pale greenish gold.

Then I've worked the shades with a first washe of Dark Sepia (secret weapon) and a second wash for the extreme shades of Dark Sepia + Black ink (warcolour) then finished the shading process with a glaze of purple ink (warcolour) always for the extreme shades.

 For the highlights, I've come back first on the light zone with my fondation of pale gold and then increase the light adding silver (warcolour) to the mix until reach pure silver for the extreme lights.
Then some glazes of green ink (warcolour) in the mid light area and finally some touches of turquoise on the deeper textured area to create some verd-de-gris.

 

That's all for today. Next step: the horns.

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - let's play with metal.

A little bit of advancement with my Almighty Skull.
I've decided to work with true metal for the armor parts. I've tried to follow the good tips of Ben Komets on his TMM tutorial.
The most difficult part with true metal is to make it interesting in term of color and not only "metal looking". By the way, mixing pure color to the metal recipe and applying inks you can reach interesting results.

Unfortunatly, my pics are not good enough to catch the color reflections but at least you have an idea of the overall results.

It still in progress because I've planned to paint some damages and weathering to make the skull warrior more credible.     

  

So about the method:
Surface: pure black
The base color has been painted in wet blending mixing Steel (with a touch of blue), black metal and silver following light and shadows of course.
The shades has been increased first with washes of black metal + pure black and then with washes of Black armor (secret weapon).
The higlights has been increased with pure silver I've added to the blue steel I've used for the base color.

For the color variation, I've used very diluted glazes of dark brown ink in the mid shades and blue ink for the mid lights.

Next step: damages and weathering on steel part. If I 've found enough time maybe I will work also on the golden parts. 

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE pt 1

After a break away from my pencils, I've finally come back and decided to start painting my Rackham Acheron undead army. Inspired by the new Game of Thrones season, I've choosen to paint my army in a frozen atmosphere. It's also an opportunity for me to try new techniques as I've never created winter and snow base.
Flying on the wave of motivation, I've decided to kick off with the biggest piece of the undead serie: Le Grand Crane ( the Almighty Skull) . It's not only the biggest in term of army point as he's a "living legend" which is, in Confrontation game, the most powerful unit of the army but it also in literary the biggest miniature.
The guy is a massive skull warrior, the skeleton I put on the base give you an idea of the scale. Considering he's a metal miniature, that's also mean he's very heavy. In fact I've struggle a lot to put together and consolidate the different pieces and the base.
The wooden pike I've placed on the base are not only for aesthetic purpose but to maintain the cork under the weight of the mini.
In term of painting, Le Grand Crane is going to be challenging. Not only because he's large but due to the profusion of elements in the sculpture, each of them heavily textured.
Fortunatly the most confusing part of the sculpture is on his back which will be mostly hidden by the huge cloak (which will be itself a challenge in the challenge).
After a black and white priming, I've started to paint to face and the skin parts. Because the colours hue will be mainly cold, I've tried to put some magic effect on his eyes with flashy orange just to create a contrasting focus on his face.
I think it's too soon to understand if the idea is good...

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- project finished

I'm quite busy in this period, unfortunatly not for painting but for professional reason.

But I've found the time to finish Valeros for the GGS painting contest. I'm quite happy with the final result, less about the quality of the picture. In fact it has been the most difficult part of the project because I have not good equipment to do picture. I've spent 3 days just to shoot my mini and find the better position as possible.
I've tried different lightning sources, even the natural light. But at the end I've decided to take the pictures made with a light box I've improvised at the last moment.
Hope you'll enjoy my work on Valeros.
You can see larger pics on my gallery on coolmini:

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- Painting Valeros.

I was in holidays at home during the last weeks. I've catched the moment to work on Valeros for the GGS Contest. I have to say that the paintjob has been exhausting. The mini is full of details with several stripes of clothing and all sort of equipments.

 But finally I've quite finished the overall painting. Now I'm going to switch on the last details, probably repaint the sword (i'm not happy at all with the NMM of the blade), work on the atmosphere and the general colors hue between the figure and the base.

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- Painting Valeros (flesh)

I've started with the face because it will be the focus of the scene, I wanted to be sure to do the best as possible since the beginning of the process before painting anything else.
Some consideration:
_ The face is very expressive, it means that the sculpture is full of details and wrinkled. It means also that I had to think about how the colors change with the expression. Usually, when you're angry or  under pression, your face is more reddish due the blood flow.  So I've played a lot with glazes to create saturation and contrast not only between lights and shades but also between reddish area versus the rest of the face.
My palette was full of colors, red, yellow, blue, violet trying to create different hue following the area. Warmer around the eyes, nose and cheek, cooler on the down part.

_ As described in my previous article about the base building, I didn't choose the usual zenithal lightning for Valeros. The reason is that the background of the scene is a dungeon. There is no reason the lighting come from above in an closed environment, instead I've choosen a frontal lighting because we presume that the light source comes from the foes facing Valeros.
Yes I know it seems complicated but actually with you watch the draft of the base and how are placed the shadows, the direction of the lights is clearer.

Coming back to the miniature painting, I had to follow the same process and adapt the lightning of the face to the general light source direction. That's why the face seems maybe a little bit brighter than it should because it's fully exposed to the frontal light source.

I have the feeling that this lightning choice will make me crazy with the armour paintjob....

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- base painting

I've learned a lot about painting thanks to the articles and videos our comunity shares on Internet.
There is a lot of talented artists but I like especially the guys from Massive Voodoo for the way they live, see and explain the colors.
I've learned that sometimes It's good to do a mess with paints, don't be afraid to play with the colors, experiment and focus more on the atmosphere than on the details.
In the article below, Roman explains how he's painted his dungeon display using the base like a palette, playing directly with brush and colors on the wall and ground. I recommand to watch the video.
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.it/2011/06/creating-dungeon-display-base-part-2.html
I've used the same technique for my base and I have to say I had a lot of fun. Basically I've focused only the choice of colors and where to place them. The darker on the front and the lighter on top of the wall.
On the picture below, we can see the result of the first draft. I've rougly placed the colors and after 10 minutes of wet blending with my big brush, the global overview is quite finished. My palette was composed mainly with ocre, orange brown, warm grey, beige and black.
As you notice, I've also painted the first shadows. In front the foe's shades and on the wall Valeros' shade.  
 



After this first draft, I work with a smaller brush and increase the contrast of the different elements. More black on the shades, more saturated colors on the wall and the wood, higlights on the edges. I have also added some washes (secret weapon) of black green, stones, sepia and dark amor.

I put the mini again on the base to check the general atmosphere and the placement of the shades.
I've noticed that the scene was a little bit empty. The shadows of the foes were not very defined and didn't give the idea of the their presence. So I've added some weapons, arrows and dards. Probably I will come back on this details later to make them more realistics.

Enough of base painting for now. I will finish the details at the end of the project. I' going to start the miniature paintjob to be sure that Valeros matches well with the display.  

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- WIP on base 2

Yesterday, I've proceed with the base for Valeros.
First, I've added some elements to fill the space and make the environment more interesting.
The small flocking between the slabs has been fixed with a mix of PVA glue and water. Actually, I haven't pigment to create the dust so I use this kind of flocking instead.
In this phase I've also placed the mini to have a clear overview.
As Valeros is tintled toward the right of viewer, I've placed a piece of wood on the opposite direction to create a triangle. It's a tip I've learned from the diorama makers, the triangle lead the viewer toward the focus point of the scene which is Valeros'face.


Now, my idea for the scene was to use the front of the base to place the shadows of the foes. Because I want to create the idea of the ambush but I cannot place other minis due to the rules of the contest.

So I've made an experiment: as I always use pre-shading techniques for the priming of my bases, I though It could be a good idea to integrate directly this shadows during this step.
I've created a mask representing the foes and place it in front of Valeros.



Then I proceed with the priming of the base following the pre shading techniques:

_ first step, I spray the base in black without the miniature and without the mask to be sure that all the areas are fully primed.
_ second step, I place the miniature and the mask and now use the white colorspray to place the lights. I spray the white only in one direction directly in front of the base. My intent is to place naturally the shadows thanks to the mask and the mini which should let the area behind in black. 
Here the result.

It doesn't work. Actually I have a zone of shades in the front of the base and also on the wall behind Valeros but I didn't succeed to create a clear definition of the shadows.  I think it's due to the distance I spray the white, too far away from the mask to create the effect. I suppose It's the kind of job I should do at short distance with an airbrush.

Ok, it was an experiment, not a big deal because anyway I'm happy with the general lightning of the scene.  I will define the shadows with my brush during the painting process.
Ok, I think I've done with the building of the base. Now it's time to play with the colors.

[Reaper Pathfinder] GGS painting contest- concept and WIP on base

I've decided to let my survivors appart and focus on the painting of my warrior for the GGS contest also because the deadline is in september and there is a lot of work to do.
The mini is full of details and will be quite complicated to paint and I have also an idea for the base which will require also some working hours to be finished.


Let's talk about the project.
The miniature of B.Jackson is more than dynamic, actually it's dramatic. This is the feature I prefer and the reason of my choice for this contest. The subject is "present a hero in a  mediavel fantasy environment".  Valeros really seems to fight for his life (or maybe for someone else), not only the position but also the expression intend the idea of a desperate battle.
Originally I bough the mini with the idea to do a diorama with some foes but I cannot take this idea for this contest because I must present a stand alone figure on a smal base (max 10 cm2).



  So I've decided to take the idea of a last ressort battle but without other minis creating the idea of the foes ambushing Valeros throw the atmosphere of the base.
I've choosen a dungeon for the environment (yep, ultra classic choice...but, hey, it's still Pathfinder), slab ground, a wall of brick behind Valleros to increase the sense of the ambush and some features like old abandoned weapons.... and an other detail but I don't want to spoil anything. Let's say it's going to be experimental (at least for me).

I will build and paint the base before the miniature because I want to be sure that everything match with the idea. The other painters of the contest are far away better than me technically speaking so I have to bet on the base to do the difference.

The fundation is mainly made with cork. It's a material easy to use and perfect to simulate the stones.
I use putty filler to create the texture. The slabs on the ground are made with eggs shell covered with the putty. The wood parts are balsa.