Henchman painted - and exploring

I painted this henchman really fast the other night and did a simple photo-setup last night. The image came out too dark, but a quick auto-contrast sloved this one easily. Fun to paint, not perfect to technical standards, but gritty and dark. I need to do more of these fast-paced models.

Painting the model I was reminded og the strong but simple colour schemes that Mike Anderson used to do all the time. He has done some awsome models with a subtle grey/black being the main part of the palette.

SNAPSHOT - expressive surfaces

A few snaps of a current project I am working on. Full images in late March or so.

 

Anyway, I wanted to show the attetion to detail in these surfaces. Some deliberately random patterns and blends with strong contrasting colours. These days my painting is more expressive than ever. But that does not mean that less time goes into a surface than when I am doing smooth blends. The expression is just very different.

Cape fabric effects

While occupied with paperwork I recieved a communiqué from the Spiky Rat Pack asking questions regarding my recent endavour with Inquisitor Velk. The Pack wanted knowledge about my dealings with the cape. Here is my return message in brief:


The cape was painted using airbrush over the zenith primed mini. The airbrushing work was done before any other areas were painted.

About 4 successive layers of grey going from dark grey towards light grey/Bleached Bone. The final two layers or so layers were sprayed on at an angle straight from above to get the zenith effect.

Over this I worked in some shades (using various browns, greens, reds) now and then as I was working on the other areas.

When most of the model was done I sponged on some almost pure black with a bit of blister foam. And over this I sponged a light colour - Bleached bone. I also did few "scratch"-highlights on some of the black spots using bleached bone. "Scratch"-highlights meaning that the black sponge marks were highlighted illusionistic by adding a highlight to the grey cape just under the black spot. This makes the black spots looks like tine holes in the fabric.

Finally, I worked in some more washes in certain areas - mainly to emphasize the folds and areas that are in the shadows.

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I hope you can use the information provided above. I plan to bring this technique to good use on some Astartes within the year...

Desktop - brush, paints, inks, and a huge orc

I love images of painting sessions:

The way the paints move around on the table, the intuitive colour choices that follow a general plan but also add a slight variation to the overall look. At least that is the way I paint when I enjoy the hobby the most. Playing around with colours, mixes, and sometimes taking that brown shade for the axe shaft somewhere else...

More shots of the orc when I have his base finished. These will be studio-style pictures btw.