WiP: Aradae Mawr, Pencawrdraig of Dugadw

Another week, another Darklands model to work on! This one's Aradae Mawr.
From  to  after the jump...


I originally bought him to be a draconic monstrous beast for a different gaming system, but think that as large as he is, a chariot might be a better option. I also haven't decided if I'm going to give him a deity to follow, so my color palette is extremely limited. Without green, red, or blue available I was pretty much limited to yellow, orange, or purple being the primary skin color. I ended up going with purple because its a color I use very very rarely, and want to practice with.
[Author's Note: the steps on this one are focusing purely on colors. I always, always, thin my paint with water as well. As a rough guide, I use a drop of water for every 3 drops of paint in a mix. So if you see that a layer was 3:1:2 of certain colors, there are also two drops of water in there. I'm just too lazy to include them when writing a WIP.]

Skintone, Layer 1:

Using purple, I had a few decisions to make. Did I want to use the Vallejo purple paint colors (which highlight up towards pink), or did I want to mix my own? I decided on mixing my own, to give me better control of the tints, and so that I could try to balance the red and blue against each other.
The first layer was 3 drops of Vallejo Red, to two drops of Medium Blue, and two drops of SS Camo Black Brown (to darken it up). I used the brown instead of the black to produce a warmer shadow, rather than a cold one. I'll most likely use Camo Black for the entire model, where I can, to keep the shadows consistent in tint. The first layer was painted with a Games & Gears 2 brush.

Skintone Layer 2:

For the second layer, I used 3 parts Vallejo Red to two parts of Camine Red, to two parts of Medium Blue, and a single drop of SS Camo Black Brown. I stuck with the Games & Gears brush, but moved to a 1.

Skintone Layer 3:

For the third layer, I grabbed a Clown Shoes Very Angry Beast (since Aradae is probably himself very angry), and mixed three drops of Carmine Red with one drop of Medium Blue and one drop of SS Camo Black Brown. I actually re-mixed this shade; the first time I used two drops of Medium Blue, and it completely overwhelmed the reds and looked perfectly blue. I'd keep 3:1 or 4:1 red:blue ratios throughout the rest of the model.

Skintone Layer 4:

For the fourth layer, I mixed two drops of Carmine Red with two drops of Bloody Red, and then added a drop of Medium Blue. Looking back at the photos now, I think this layer and the one below are almost identical to layers 2 and 3. I have a feeling I will drop those two layers, as I have too many transition layers in this model, and the first four are all dark and subtle. This layer really should have been the second.

Skintone Layer 5:

The fifth layer used three drops of Bloody Red to one drop of Medium Blue. Again, this should have been the third layer, as the second and third do exactly the same thing that the fourth layer and this layer do. My next Tawyrdraig will correct this. Frustrated at myself for making this mistake (two unnecessary layers) and out of beer, I called it a night. This layer and the previous one were done with a Games & Gear 0 brush.

The next day, I jumped back in with a single layer:

Skintone Layer 6:

The sixth layer was painted after a Mordheim game, so I only had time for a single layer before I had to go to bed. This layer was two drops of Bloody Red to two drops of German Orange, followed by two drops of Medium Blue. I initially only did a single drop of the blue, but the orange completely overwhelmed the blue, and the layer went pink almost immediately. I was hoping for an iridescent indigo effect for the model, so I had to go overboard on the blue to correct it. I'd rather have the shade looking too blue than too pink, as the whole point of mixing my own shades of purple was to avoid that Squid Pink highlight. I was back to my Winsor & Newton Series 7's for this layer; this one was done with a 1.
After a single layer, I gave up for the night and resolved to come back.

For day three, I grabbed a Flemish Red ale (commonly known as a "sour" and jumped right back into it!

Skintone Layer 7:

Now we're getting somewhere! The seventh layer dialed back the orange, using two drops of Bloody Red to only a single drop of German Orange. I also increased the blue shade, by going with 1/2 a drop of Medium Blue, and half a drop of Sky Blue. The sky blue is much closer to white than the medium, and combined with the more restrained orange levels, is starting to approach that iridescent color I'm hoping for. The brush shifted down in size, to a Winsor and Newton Series 7 size 0.

Skintone Layer 8: Switched over to a porter for smoother brush control.

For the eighth layer, I used the same 2 Bloody Red : 1 German Orange, but this time added a single drop of Sky Blue. This layer was very lightly applied, but as is usually the case with my models, the last two layers are the least amount of paint on the model, but provide the most "pop". Brushwork was done with a Winsor & Newton Series 7 size 00.

Skintone Layer Nine:

For the final layer, I added a drop of white to what was left over from the above layer, and downsized brushes again to a Winsor & Newton Series 7, size 000. This was very, very sparingly added to the points of the model that face my light source. Content with the skintone, I called it a night.

Day Four: Now for the metallics!

Silver Layer 1:

When I'm painting models that I want to be awesome looking, I always end up going non-metallic over metallic. The reflection off a metallic paint scheme is a bit unrealistic to my eyes, and I hate the washes and tinting that I have to do to emphasize contrasts with metallic paint. Since my paint style relies on high-contrast painting to the level of almost being white, using metallics (which provide pure reflected light) always breaks the highlight illusions I run. If I'm painting hordes of infantry I don't mind as much, but for centerpiece models like this one, I prefer to just run with greys.

So, now that I've justified using NMM, I'm going to actually have to do it! When doing gold I tend to start with the medium level and paint up or down from there, but I'm never as comfortable with silver, so I layer it the same way I would any other shade. This layer started with 1 1/2 drops of black, 2 drops of SS Camo Black Brown, and 3 drops of Basalt Grey. I also decided to give the Games & Gears brushes a shot at this, since I knew I'd be wet blending at some point, and that's what they're designed for. I used a size 1 for everything in this color range, except for the final highlight.

Silver Layer 2:

The second layer of silver was done with pure, unmixed, unchanged Basalt Grey.

"Ryan," you ask. "I see a lot of parts of this model that are supposed to be metallic, but you've not got any grey on them? What are you thinking?"

I decided with the first layer that I didn't trust my skills with silver to do justice to this model, but my NMM golds always appear much more pleasing to my eyes. As a result, I'll come back and do the remainder of the metallic portions in a bronze/golden yellow. The silver will be restricted to the chainmail, the buckles, and the halberd blade.

Silver Layer 3:

For the third layer, I wrote down that I used Medium Grey, but I blame that Flemish Red in the background for that one; this tint is not nearly brown enough for Medium Grey. I believe this is Stonewall Grey instead. Since I'm wet-blending as I go, I'm not doing transition layers between shades, I'm just mixing the new one into the old.

I'm disappointed at this point with the way the halberd is shaping up, so I make the decision that I'm going to come back in and wet blend it on its own once all the layers are done. I'm covering my paint as I go at this point, so I'll have access to the previous shades when it comes time to wet blend. This is one of the detriments to the way I do NMM: you can't stop overnight and come back to it; it's all got to be done in one sitting. Fortunately for me, the family is all in bed, so I'm able to work until (what turns out to be) 2 AM to get it all finished.

Silver Layer 4:

The fourth layer is pure Wolf Grey. I'm wet blending it into the chainmail, and painted myself a few highlight notes on the halberd, but otherwise ignored it. Once done, I went back and completely wet blended the halberd. The first layer went in lines across each layer, followed by progressively faster additions of the previous layers. When done, I ended up with this:

When wet blending, I over-saturate my water so that I can work with it. Rather than going 3 parts paint to one part water, it's much closer to 3:2 (and with the wolf grey, 1:1).

Silver Layer 5:

When I'm giving paint advice, I always tell the people I'm teaching to highlight models to the point where their next level would be all white, and then stop. For the vast majority of painting, I never want to use pure white. There's no way to highlight past it, it grabs the eye and forces attention, and you have to be exceedingly careful with it for fear of blowing away the rest of the model's highlights.

One of the two exceptions to that is non metallic metals. With NMM, you want to create the illusion that the metal is directly reflecting the light. White is the only way, short of metallic paints, that you can do that. This layer is pure white, applied very sparingly with a Winsor & Newton Series 7, size 000, to the tips of the metallic parts (where the light would reflect off it). As you can see, the addition of the white has caused my purple to now look under-highlighted, so I call it a night here while I try to decide if it's acceptable (as the other layers might be able to bring that popping contrast back; right now they're just black pits that emphasize the darkness of the model instead of its brightness) and grab a few hours of sleep before work in the morning.