Time to raise the bar

[kathrynloch]

It was love at first sight.

That Forge World Dragon captured my heart when I first laid eyes on it.

I'm using TMM techniques and I know what I want the dragon too look like. But this is also going to raise the bar on my techniques. You see being a published author, many of the miniatures I get are as close to the characters in my novels as I can get. So I paint them toward that goal. The FW dragon is no different. His name is Aro.

Anyway, here he is in progress.

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Click to see full-sized image

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I've finshed the washes and just started my first shining gold highlight on the left side.

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The right side, I haven't started the highlighting yet.

Now the dorsal spikes were posing a problem in that if I paint them gold or bone, they don't add any depth to the gold. Plus, I had in my brain exactly what I wanted, I just couldn't figure out how to do it. They I found a reference that matched perfectly!

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image

This is Aragonite crystals on siderite. I think the siderite looks exactly like Aro's hide and the crystals are his dorsal spines.

But I've read every article on painting crystals and precious stones I can find but I'm still struggling with the technique. So any suggestions are very appreciated.

[Maru]

Ana's Aricle how to paint Chaos lord - ther is a large part about ctystals (on her blog - Painting Nun .. or somthing like that )
end about dragon .. hym ... dont forget that just mini end is in scale so you will need to increse shadow / light contrast on it to lvl that would look bad in RW - as scale melds details end "real" shading just looks flat
Aro ?? - Automatic reaction Order ??

well i would sey dont paint gold with gold paint ... but you whant Syradite not gold actualy ... dunno eny way i woud use an erth/ rust colors to it end iven purple in shadows .. but that just me

[kathrynloch]

Thanks Maru!

I'll be sure to check out her blog. With this, thus far, I was following what Mathieu Fontaine wrote on his about TMP. I started out with dark brown, almost black, then went dark red, then applied the gold. After that it was dark brown wash, a dark red wash, and a purple wash. After that, I highlighted gold, then I highlighted with an off brand paint called platinum. It's basically a gold/silver mix but it has a weak pigment value which makes it great for highlighting. I went back through and highlighted only the highest points with mithril silver.

Then I got an idea. You guys are probably going to think I'm nuts but here goes.

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I sanded down the scales on the back and replaced them with snowflake obsidian.

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Now I'm in the middle of cutting off the spikes and replacing them with rough cut Gold Topaz crystals.

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Click to see full-sized image

Yeah, I know, I'm nuts.

As for his name, Aro. Well, I'm a medieval history nut. In heraldry, we use the French word for Gold - Or. The Latin word for gold is Aurum, which is where it's chemical symbol Au comes from. So I kinda mish-mashed those around and came up with Aro.

[Maru]

Then I got an idea. You guys are probably going to think I'm nuts but here goes.

not exacly .. well if you whana get somthing that looks like tree or rock or leaf - the natural 1 in good scale is best at it so tree - roots after litle work with them, rocks - rocks but small 1 or somthing from tree , leaf - some seeds that looks like nini leaf or just real mini leaf
so if you whant obsydians .. well nothing look like real 1 same to topaz, same Glas - nothin no mater how painted well looks like glass - only glass

the question often is - if that fits ?? - thats depends if sombody go for cartoonish look then add somthing real end dont iven cover it with paint it is like "WTF??"
but if gial is realistic look like wih military dioramas - why not , or a jewlery look wher you mix gold silver with gems - thats completly corect way for that

about gold .. well notymine selection of colors but should work end add shades of colors to over all metalic surface - now you just need to define shapes end light .. wich is quite chalenging

[kathrynloch]

about gold .. well notymine selection of colors but should work end add shades of colors to over all metalic surface - now you just need to define shapes end light .. wich is quite chalenging

Thanks Maru. I think I understand what you are saying here. I hope I can define the shapes and light...at least I'll give it my best shot.

[kathrynloch]

Hi guys - sorry for no updates lately but I've been busy, busy! At least it was painting busy. lol! The dragon is on hold for a bit, since I'm using gems for his spines, I was having trouble getting ones to fit properly but a friend of a friend is a jeweler and is sending me some stuff that should work.

In the meanwhile I've been working on a Thundertusk with the goal of putting up on Ebay when it's finished.

I thought y'all might find it interesting since I did the body in pigments. I wanted to show what it looked like with hair detail.



Basically what I did was use gray pan pastels for the base coat and added some yellow oxide to give him a bit of color. I sealed then went over him with Vallejo black glaze to help give the fur more depth, touched up the color with very thin layers of paint and added thin layers of white to the fur tips.

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Here he is as I'm getting him assembled.

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Click to see full-sized image

Click to see full-sized image





I finished the riders too.









Now I'm painting the tiny but time-consuming fiddly bits that hang on the howdah and I need to finish the base.

Any suggestions are most welcome!

[Maru]

it is actualy intresting that fur looks quite vivid end pigments tends to be erthe (not all )

[kathrynloch]

Thanks Maru! With a little effort you can get pigments to pop a little more. After sealing I added Vallejo black glaze and that really helped with the depth.

[Maru]

other topic - are you gona work on ogr flesh tone ?? as it looks flat a bit

[kathrynloch]

Honestly, Maru? I'd love to work on it some more but if I try, I'm afraid I'm going to obliterate what I have. I have a terrible problem with over-highlighting. I work up from my basecoat in thin layers but I keep covering up the previous work until it's all one big highlight - which of course flattens it out. I've been fighting and fighting that and this is actually a HUGE improvement from what I've done previously.

I'm hoping this is just a technique issue that as long as I keep practicing it will get better. At least I can always hope.

In the meantime, I did get some work done on the base.