Horthak: Skin and cloth

The base of the skin consisted of a mix of alizarin crimson, yellow ochre and titanium white. It took me quite awhile to get the right color I wanted to go from. It was mostly yellow ochre with a bit of the others added in to make it look like flesh.

The first shadows and highlights were added using more alizarin crimson into the base mix for the shadow, and titanium white into the base mix for the highlight. Small amounts of burnt umber were used in the deepest shadows.

Deeper shadows and brighter highlights were added to the extremes blending in more of the previously mentioned shadow and highlight mixes. I found it was easier to work with the second highlight after I let the mini sit for about an hour to let some of the paint set (it was too easy to see the base under the highlight).

The top of the kilt was based in Winsor Orange. The shadows were done with small amounts  of alzarin crimson. The highlights were done with Winsor Yellow. The lower section of the kilt was based in Bright Red. The shadows were again done in Alzarin Crimson, and a small amount of Winsor Yellow was used to highlight the tips. All of the blending was wet on wet oils.

New Project: Horthak Black Crow

This is a 54mm Andrea Miniatures model from their Warlord series. I primed it with Vallejo Black aerosol primer (it's what I had on hand). We'll see how it comes out. Updates to come!

Orc Finished except the base

The only thing I did this week was the skull on the belt, the metal on the tusks, the eyes, and touch-ups. the bone was done in the same fashion as the tusks. The eyes were painted with a highly diluted vallejo flat red with a vallejo black slit painted on top.

I'll give everything a few days to dry and then paint the base. Almost done!

Orc: axe, cloak, starting the belt.

Sometimes something goes wrong and it turns out pretty darn well. I was originally planning for the axe to be a wet blend of black-gray-white. As it turns out, one of the grays that I bought was more of a black, and the black that I bought has a blue tint to it. So, I decided to try it out anyway. The black was brushed around the head of the axe. A 1:1 mix of titanium white and perylene black gave the blue/gray color in the middle, and the the same white was used on the edge. The colors were blended together which proved much more difficult with lighter colors than with the rest of the model which is significantly darker.

The pelt turned out to be the most frustrating piece to paint so far with this mini. I used the perylene black, burnt umber, yellow ochre and titanium white. The blending would not have been difficult except for when the yellow ochre came into contact with any of the black, it turned green! So, I had to go through and reshadow with a heavy layer of burnt umber (luckily it's fur so thickness doesn't matter).

Here is the beginning of the belt. The fur lining was finished using a similar color scheme as the pelt (with more white). The dark red is alazarin crimson and I'll probably be using this color as a base for my blood angel army. the highlight on the raised swirls was yellow ochre pale which made the belt really look like it's catching the sun. I can't do the skull for a couple of days unless I want it pink! The red needs to be completely dry in order for it not to taint the white highlights that will go on the skull.

More of the orc: Shield, bone

I tried a few new color schemes here. I have no experience in painting bone or wood in oils, so I just guessed. I think it turned out pretty well.

For the shield, I used burnt umber for the shadows (underneath the skulls and between the planks), yellow ochre for the mid highlights and yellow ochre pale for the upper highlights.

 

The skulls (not finished yet) were painted using burnt umber as a shadow and blending upto titanium white. The tusks were painted with burn umber, 1:1 mix of titanium white and yellow ochre, and titanium white.

For the metal, I undercoated in a thin layer of bronze acrylic. Yellow ochre was then painted on the raised area to take away some of the sheen. Burnt Umber was added into the recesses for shadow and weathering.

Orc Part 2: leather

I used a combination of Winsor Newton Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre, and Winsor Yellow for the leather wet blending (darkest to lightest). The cloak was based in a thin layer of acrylic brown. The colors were added in the previously mentioned order to the raised areas of the cloak, belt and various straps for highlighting.

Oils and Wet Blending

So I've started up on an Andrea Miniatures orc that I've had boxed away for quite some time. I've been wanting to try wet blending with oils for awhile as acrylic wet blending hasn't worked out too well for me. This is the first of a series of step by step pics that I'll post as the figure progresses.

I used Winsor Newton Artist Oils for this figure. One of the best thing with oils is drying time. These oils will take about two days to dry, and this really helps when you're trying to blend colors together. When painting with oils, it's important to use an undercoat of either acrylic or lacquer as sometimes you thin out the oil paint to a point where you can see through (you don't want to see the primer underneath!). So for the skin, an acrylic green (vallejo model colors) was used. For the wet blending, I decided I wanted to use an overhead lighting  scheme. The initial oil coat of a dark green was applied to all of the skin areas. When using oils you have to play with the paint until the brush marks go away. Don't use too much paint as it will clump. The next color was added to the raised areas of the muscles. As I progressed through the color scheme I added slight amounts of yellow to the original dark green. After you brush on the yellow/green, remove the excess paint on a towel and begin to brush the margins of the two layers together. Clean your brush frequently to enhance blending. Add yellow to the original dark green until you have reached the desired highlight level. Look at the figure under varying degrees of light for a good impression.
 I hope this has helped some of you that want to get into wet blending and oils. More posts to come.