WiP: Angrislaug

In this post, I get really, really scared. Why? DRAGON.

(as of the 2/12 update)

Remember back when Krull intimidated me enough that I put him on a shelf back in September and haven't touched him yet? Angrislaug really, really wanted to do the same thing to me.

See how awesome he is? Check out all his majesty!

I spent an hour last night after priming him just staring at him, trying to figure out how I wanted to paint him up. I went online and started researching draconic color schemes, trying to find one that was just right. When I finally did, and clicked the thumbnail: surprise! It was Sebastian Picque's official Mierce-commissioned Angrislaug. While I try to use the manufacturer's original color schemes where I can, I know that I'm not at Sebastian's level of painting, and just trying to copy what he did is would result in a poor copy of what he did. His work is amazing, and brilliant, and there's a reason that he's paid a lot of money to paint models on commission, and I just paint stuff and post it on a blog.

I grumbled for a bit, and opened a bottle of my second-favorite beer: Avery's Samael (16.8% ABV). I started getting ideas. The Samael ran out, so I poured a pint of my Krull's Sabbitical clone of Avery's The Beast (15% ABV). I drank that pint, too. I started feeling a bit better. 

Finally, I pulled out my paint and just started throwing it down on a piece of wood.

Hey, look, an out-of-focus color scheme! I was literally just mixing drops of paint together and slapping them down. However, it provided me a flash of insight. The swatch above is a mix of reds and browns. While I stared at it, I had a nice buzzed flash of insight. My resolve set, I started mixing paint and set of on what I hope will be the coolest paint job I've ever done.

I decided to paint Angrislaug in sections. The model is designed to be detached into four parts - a body, two wings, and a tail - and I'm probably going to paint him in those sections.
The buzzed flash of insight I had was to split my color palette to differentiate between Angrislaug's bare hide, and his armored scales. The palette I mixed above was equal parts of red to brown. For the model, I'm going to throw that proportion off: the skintone will be 2:1 red to brown, and the scales will be 2 brown to 1 red. This will do two things: it will set off the scales and allow me to keep them separate (and darker) from the skintone, which will let me emphasize the shine on them, and it will make this model different from Mierce's official model.

The first layer of red is 2 parts of Vallejo Red to 1 part SS camo Black Brown. I mixed 8 drops to 4, and then added two drops of black to make the tint dark. I'm deliberately trying to keep my colors dark here, to fit the aesthetic of the Darklands, and keeping the option open for me to do some cool source-lighting tricks. I'm using browns instead of yellows for the mix color for the same reason: it'll let me do some source lighting in yellow and make it distinct from the colors actually used to paint the model.

The first shade completed. I've also decided that the underbelly is going to be a lighter shade of brown, and I'm intending to use that lighter shade on the wings (hence why the area between the finials is still black).
Feeling less intimidated, I poured myself a pint of Karbach's Sympathy for the Lager, and kept working.


The second shade is 2 parts Vallejo Red to 1 part Beasty Brown. This time I did the 8:4 mix, but added a single drop of black to keep it dark.


A shot of the wings, to show that they're getting painted too! The tail is getting neglected in this layer, but I'll live with that.

A reverse of the second layer. I'm two layers in, and pour myself another pint.
I painted a third layer (using Vallejo bloody Red and Beasty Brown), but finished at about 2 AM, and with quite a buzz going from all the beer. As a result, I forgot to take pictures of the status! I'll start tomorrow's update with those pictures. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Day 2]

Well, as promised, we'll start off with the third layer from yesterday. This one is 2 parts Bloody Red : 1 part Bestial Brown. No black was added, which is why it's so crisp.
A reverse of the third layer. I'm using a Size 2 brush from Games & Gears, and viewing it today realize I was doing a lot of drybrushing, which I try to avoid. We'll see if I can rescue the paint job in the next few layers...
The third layer on the left wing.

Third layer on the right wing. No politics jokes, please.


Here's the fourth layer. I switched to a Games & Gear 0 for this one, but it's still looking a lot more drybrushed than I want, and I feel like I'm losing a lot of detail. I might have to just start over if I can't fix it.
A close-up on the face for the fourth layer. You can see the rough transition strokes from the drybrushing. The fourth layer is 2 parts Bloody Red : 1 part Plague Brown.

The left side, fourth layer.


For the fifth layer I switched over to a Winsor-Newton Series 7, and upped the mix to 2 parts Hot Orange : 1 part Plague Brown.
You can see that the colors are starting to pop out in my typical style.
A reverse view of the fourth layer. The Winsor-Newton brush is giving me more control, but I'm still not satisfied, as you'll see in a second.

Here's a close up (and for some reason poorly exposed) shot of the head. I can see really rough transitions in this layer, and feel like I'm trashing a lot of the detail with this paint job. At 2 AM I quit for the night, thoroughly disheartened.
Once in bed, I laid awake for a while trying to figure out how I'm going to salvage the paint job. For now, I think I'm going to do the last two layers of highlights, and then see if I can run a midtone red glaze to clean up the transitions. If that doesn't work, well, I can always paint over it! We'll see what tomorrow brings!

(Spoiler alert: it brought even more red.)

Friday night, I resolved to plow along and see how it looks with all the highlights done. So resolved, I mixed a concoction of 3 Hot Orange : 1 Dwarf Flesh. I dropped brush size to a 00, and set to work!

The reverse of the face. There are places the highlights are working - like the feet and hands - and places they are not - like the biceps.

The two wings get off pretty easily, because they're only minor amounts of painting.

For the sixth layer, I went all dwarf skin. This had the effect of "yellowing" the skintone, but it was required because the orange was just pulling the shade too dark.

At a distance, the transititions don't seem so bad.

In the close-up of the face, you can see that the transitions are looking cleaner as the highlighting continues. It's the larger, flatter areas that seem to be suffering from the style.

Stuck the wings back in for a full-body shot.

For the final layer, I added some white to the last mixture and used it very sparingly. 

Again, it's working on the smaller portions, but I'm unconvinced about the larger. Maybe it's because there are large, unpainted black areas tricking my eye? I guess that's the next stop!

After taking Saturday night off for some much-needed sleep after eight 2-AM nights in a row, I started Sunday on the brown shade. These will be used for the scales on the top of the model and the interior of the wings.

For the first blurry layer, I started with 6 parts SS Camo Black Brown : 3 parts Red : 2 parts Black. See the symmetry between this color and the reds? Yep, the reds and browns are reversed. Hopefully it will make the model seem cohesive, with the same tints running throughout.

A shot of the base coated wings. 

The inside gets the same layer as the outside, though the highlighting will be inverted.

Finally, some paint on the tail!

For the second layer, I used 6 parts Bestial Brown : 3 parts Red : 1 part Black.

You can see that the contours of the scale, along with the texture sculpted into it, is going to make my life a lot easier for this shade than the red. I can be lazier painting, and let the model do more of the work!

I hit 1:30, and called it a night. Tonight, I hope to get three more layers down on the brown. We shall see how I can do; the middle layers seem to take the longest!

[Monday night (I'm not even keeping track of days anymore)]

For the third layer, I chose to skip the Hot Orange mix I'd used for the reds, in the hopes of keeping the tint on the browner shade. This one is 3 parts Bloody Red : 6 parts Bestial Brown.

It's going very burnt orange, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On the reverse, you can see the difference in tint on the midtones between the scales and the skin.

The model's so large, my phone's having trouble keeping it in focus! Here's a reverse of the third layer.

For the fourth layer, I used 3:1 Dwarf Fleshtone to Bloody Red. 

You can see those two color swatches starting to blend into each other. Here's hoping the final stages of highlighting will separate them again!

A shot of some of the wing detail, which looks kind of sloppy this morning.

A shot of the scales along the tail, and the back.

A close-in shot on the head.

A shot of the wing interiors. I think they're going to need a glaze at the end to clean up some of the muddiness.

Along the flank, showing the torso scales and interior of the left wing.

For the next layer, I kept the 1 part bloody red, but this time used 3 parts Pale Flesh.

A close-in shot of the head, right shounder, and neckline, with the wings and tail in the background.

Tomorrow's task: the last two highlights of the scales, and then we move on to the last color mix: the claws, teeth, horns, and chest scales!

[Didn't bother cropping these photos. Feel free to lay on the hate!]

First off, someone on Dakka asked for a scale pic, so here's Angrislaug with a Savage Orc.

Next to last highlight was pure Pale White, as the Elf Flesh was going a tad more pink than I was hoping for.

You can see the difference in highlight intensity between the scales and the wings; while both are the same color range, this should make them appear to be different.

A closer shot of the tops of the wings.

A reverse view showing how the scales seem to be going bone colored, while the wings go light red/orange.

For the final highlight on the scales, I broke my normal rule and went pure white. Usually I'd do a 50/50 of Pale Flesh to white, but I really wanted the scales to have a hit of glossiness to them. As usual, this final layer is what gives it that "pop". This was done very delicately, with a Winsor-Newton 000 brush.

Front-angle shot of the final scale highlight.

Again, a reverse view showing the difference between the wing highlighting and the scales.

Once the scales were done, I threw down a very fast layer for the next component: the horns, claws, and chest (aka the "bony bits").

I started with my favorite brown utility color, SS Camo Black Brown.

There's not much of a visual difference between that and the black primer, is there?

One quick, final, 2-AM-semi-blurry shot of the next layer, which was 50/50 SS Camo Black Brown and Leather brown.

Before this past weekend, I finished off Angrislaug, but unfortunately didn't have time to put his photos online until now. Sorry for the delay!

First layer on the "bone" colors - a 50/50 mix of SS Camo Black Brown and Leather Brown.

The second layer was all Leather Brown.

Looking at the layer closer, I probably should have done a 2:1 Leather Brown to SS Camo Black, but I've done what I have done!

A distant shot of the third layer, which was 50/50 Leather Brown and Bone White.

Fourth layer: all Bone White

A close-up shot of the wing to let you see the detail of this sculpt!

A distance shot of the next to last layer. I did one more after this at 50/50 Bone White to White, but I'm holding off on showing the final model in case I want to submit this to a WAMP contest.

The model was a joy to paint, and I enjoyed every single layer. Looking at it finished, I see areas I can improve if I want to paint a second Angrislaug. 

First, I started my colors at least one layer too dark. On a model this large, I don't need to exaggerate the light/dark contrast as much as I do on an infantry model, so I don't have to draw the paint into darker shades as much. The contour of the models and natural shading will help that, and I don't have to force it so much with paint.

Second, my colors are too close together. The wings and wing membranes were supposed to be two distinctive colors, but they have drifted too close together because their last few highlights are almost identical. Similarly, the color of the scales is too close to the "bone" color I used. The palette decision was made in case I chose to source light the model (which I still intend to do at some point), where using yellows would interfere in that effect. As it sits right now, though, the model just sort of blends together.

Still, for what I accomplished in 10 days work, I'm pleased with myself. I'd give myself a solid B on this one, and look forward to improving on it with Angrislaug II: Angrierslaug!!