Ggom Posted September 9, 2020 Share Posted September 9, 2020 I have always loved elves, ever since I got into the “traditional” high fantasy settings in my pre-teens. It started with the Lord of the Rings and Warcraft III when I was 12 or so, and it has sort of persisted In the background as a preference all of these years. I just find the idea of a tragic, fading race of obsessive personalities fascinating. Now that I’ve found myself struggling through a rocky stretch of my adult life, it has brought me quite a bit of solace to indulge in my fantasy whims whenever the opportunity presents. I’m starting this thread to record my slow, hopefully methodical progress of meditation through painting, dwelling largely for now on my love of fantasy elves. The Daughters of Khaine are such beautiful models, and yet so small and fine. The dynamism of the sculpts and the lithe sensuality are wonderful, but my god they are hard to do justice with paint. I have tried to start things off on the right foot, or wing, here: Apologies for the potato resolution. Next up, I am making a start on repainting battleline. This girl needs to be redone in nmm and get her base updated. 5 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted September 13, 2020 Author Share Posted September 13, 2020 Got another witch elf repainted with nmm and some more hilights (I originally did a bevy of 10 last year but they are kind of potato now.) This girl brings me up to 2 witch elves done. I’m enjoying learning the nmm gold and hilighting hair to appear luxurious. I think the face painting is still quite potato, but I can live with it for now. A big challenge for me is accuracy with the eyes, eyebrows, and general expression. I think the leather also could use a lot of work, but I’m not super keen on playing with that for now and may just leave it as is. Also, at some point I have to trade off speed against quality, so maybe the leather will just look flat for now. Still need to redo the bases, probably wait until I have a batch done before busting out the airbrush for that. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuminethMage Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 Great to see that you enthusiasm for elves and painting is helpful for you. Painting miniatures does have a meditative quality. The models look great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 29 minutes ago, LuminethMage said: Great to see that you enthusiasm for elves and painting is helpful for you. Painting miniatures does have a meditative quality. The models look great! Thanks. Elf power!!! Presumably you are of that lofty branch of the race armed with 3 meter pikes and fancy helmets, and beautiful steeds shod in silver/mithril. To you I say good day and smirk at the lesser races 😜 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuminethMage Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 Thank you - what gave me away?? : ) . I train to achieve a proper, condescending smirk for a hour every morning (you have to get your priorities right!). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted September 15, 2020 Author Share Posted September 15, 2020 (edited) Today I wanted to paint a different color so spent my alloted 1 hr hobby time painting a blue corset on the next khnierai It was pretty fun. The ****** are spherical (i know, not super anatomical, but I can live with it) so they were pretty easy to paint the light and shadows for. More interesting was using lights and shadows to accentuate the collar bones. I love me a shapely collar bone. I decided to do the gold nmm trim because I have no idea what the heck is supposed to be wrapped around the cloth. I used stronger purple shadows in the gold to tie in with the purple shadows in the cloth. Probably not very supportive clothing overall there but I think it looks cool. I do like that the Daughters are not unrealistically endowed - while the armor here is not very believable, the proportions are at least plausible, if highly stylized. Pretty happy with how things are coming together on her, might tackle her face next, or perhaps not. I find that sometimes I am happiest with my work when I’m not too focused on accomplishing some specific goal, and instead paint with my mood. Conversely, when I set a goal like “Finish 5 troops by end of month” sometimes they come out a bit... unlovely? I don’t know if it’s just a consequence of my being bored when I batch paint though, and whether there is an objective difference in the outcome on the models. EDIT - why is the common word for mammary glands filtered by the forum 😑 Edited September 15, 2020 by Ggom 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted September 19, 2020 Author Share Posted September 19, 2020 My last few sessions covered her face, crown and shield. I fiddled with the crown quite a bit and ended up going with a good friend’s advice in the end in placing the lights. I think the face is still the weakest part, although the shield could use more love too. I may not make any changes and just call these parts done for now. Painting the face is just frustrating because I cant actually see where the eyelids are... I definitely need new glasses... Next up is probably some chillaxation with paynes gray oil paint in her hair and then hilighting that up to white. Maybe I will airbrush the wings this time to see if I can get a smoother finish (the first khinerais wings are a lesson in that respect.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted September 26, 2020 Author Share Posted September 26, 2020 (edited) Over the last week or so I finished the khinerai and another witch elf, and updated the bases on the witch elves. Pretty pleased with progress on the army, this brings me up to 3 witch elves and 2 khinerai 😆 I I’ve simplified the nmm gold abit, or perhaps just gotten used to the colors. The base of it is reddish brown and greenish brown, with more reddish brown in the shadows, as well as some purple and green to make a color close to dark dark brown. Then I paint the lights with flayed one flesh up to titanium white, and glaze a little bit of yriel yellow until I’m satisfied. There’s probably a simpler way to do this, I just worked with what I had lol. Going to paint some more witches next. I’ve got a banner girl on the table and am thinking about trying out freehand on her banner to keep things fresh. In my head I’m envisioning a golden serpent on a red field, but we’ll see... Edited September 26, 2020 by Ggom 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted October 9, 2020 Author Share Posted October 9, 2020 Been busy with work of late and have little to show for hobby. Painted another witch elf, and undercoated 5 more, alongside 2 khinerai. Also assembled Morgwaeth's blade coven and filled gaps, but that was from earlier in last month. I ended up not freehanding a banner and just left it blank for now... Hope to paint abit more this weekend and next week - I feel oddly motivated to practice faces next, given how much frustration they've given me previously. My recent bout of sickness seems to be passing, and the idea of squinting hard in artificial lighting with my tongue out and my brush head vibrating erratically seems perversely titillating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted October 10, 2020 Author Share Posted October 10, 2020 Painted a face this morning, and was happy to have gotten it to an OK spot after a tricky start where I realized too late that I needed to switch brushes (the point on the old one wasn’t really holding up so great.) I’ve noticed recently that its hard to keep my colors consistent, so I’m going to try to set out at least a log of the paints I am using over time so I don’t deviate too much unintentionally. For the skin, I need A black primer GW Flayed one GW Pallid Wych Titanium white GW Reikland flesh GW Evil Sunz GW Caledor sky GW Abaddon black The gold is GW Doombull brown Vallejo green brown GW Flayed one Titanium white GW Yriel yellow GW Warpstone glow Scale75 Eldandil violet I need to figure out what the hell is in the blue next. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 It's been a productive month, I painted 4 witch elves and 1 khinerai. Also reached 80% on the fourth khinerai and settled on a scheme for the sisters of silence (above.) In contrast to the witch elves, the Sisters shall be colder in colors to create some contrast. White hair, and just gold for the body armor. I'm also going for a colder gold by removing the doombull brown entirely. Psyched to paint new colors! Also have some big bad melusai built. I find the unmasked mulusai faces dinky so I'm masking them ... They may be the only masked models in my army... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psicorps Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 very nice painted models may i ask what is the recipe for the skin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 On 12/3/2020 at 5:48 PM, Psicorps said: very nice painted models may i ask what is the recipe for the skin? Thanks! I have used a few different recipes, but my current recipe is pretty quick and dirty: Prime vallejo black (I think priming maroon would also work really well) Airbrush a mix of GW Flayed one flesh and WN titanium white, but keep a gradient for shadows, which get less of the mix and stay darker. This part is tricky for me, I have to thin the mix well and practice to avoid speckling. Add more Titanium white, maybe some GW Pallid Wych to the mixture from 2, and add brighter lights from a few directions I generally try to place 2 main light sources for step 2 and 3, which means more of the white colors getting airbrushed on from 2 directions. Once that is done, I use some thinned GW Reikland fleshshade to tint things a little into the redder spectrum. I might do some brush highlights with Pallid Wych but avoid too much Titanium White since the metals need the Titanium White for the brightest reflections, and using it on the skin as well reduces the overall contrast. For the face, I use little bit of thinned down GW Caledor sky and Evil sunz scarlet to glaze some areas. Blue under the brows, red on the cheeks. Add more white to cheekbones, center of forehead, wherever the light should catch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted December 10, 2020 Author Share Posted December 10, 2020 Working out my Melusai scheme, pretty stoked with the general direction so far. Gold and leather! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackStreicher Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 7 hours ago, Ggom said: Working out my Melusai scheme, pretty stoked with the general direction so far. Gold and leather! That armor looks rad! black and drybrush with turquiose? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 8 hours ago, JackStreicher said: That armor looks rad! black and drybrush with turquiose? Thanks! I used black, a dark turquoise and white for it, but went with glazing and then some brush strokes of thicker paint at the end. I would probably need to get better at precision with drybrush to use it here, there's some crazy effects out there that people get with stippling... Haha maybe something to try down the road! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 Some progress on the Melusai. My conclusion is that painting scales seems like too much effort and I'll have to stick with the other kids for the bulk of the army. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted January 6, 2021 Author Share Posted January 6, 2021 Today’s update is mostly a ramble, with no pictures 😜 Been plodding away for a few weeks, finishing the melusai, 90% of the khinerai number 5 and 90% of a slaughter queen. I’ve been hopping around abit hobby wise, and haven’t completed much else... though I got a hankering to paint faces so finished just the faces for 2 more sisters. Painting tiny faces just gets more and more fun with practice! I have been struggling with airbrush lately - there’s a bunch of faff to set it up/tear it down and clean it, and I always end up fighting it for white (which is a big component of the underpainting for my DoK before the hair brush steps.) White, unlike other colors, seems really prone to speckling, possibly because of the size of the particles being larger. After my last frustrating session last week I think I need to reduce how much I pull back the trigger, keep the paint thinner, and do super thin coats. I’ve occasionally had nice sessions in the past when all the factors came together for a creamy finish, and the trouble is I have trouble reproducing that confluence of factors since I airbrush very irregularly. Must remember that for white I want just a whisper of paint flow, at least with my current dilution and psi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted January 9, 2021 Author Share Posted January 9, 2021 Happy with my progress these last 4 months. Here are 19 models fully painted, sealed and based! And a closer shot of the hag who leads the warband wielding a deathsword Stoked, at this rate I'll be able to play 500 pt games this summer if things are better on the pandemic front! 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted January 11, 2021 Author Share Posted January 11, 2021 (edited) Massive headache this evening, I am suspicious I might be coming down with something. Decided to just do some gold nmm on an elf. Pretty laid back now that I've gotten so much practice on simple gold now Probably do the leather tomorrow... Edited January 11, 2021 by Ggom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted January 13, 2021 Author Share Posted January 13, 2021 (edited) Leather and steel done now. Just the pteruges or w/e they are called and the whip to paint, then this girl will be ready to seal and join the collection! Random thought of this evening’s session - trying a desaturated green as a replacement for a desaturated blue looks pretty cool and still reads as steel. I think I will use the green more often in the steel going forward. It also means that the leather and steel use the exact same colors, so it should harmonize more. Might try a reddish brown leather for the pteruges.... or maybe stick with the green leather hmmmmmm Edited January 13, 2021 by Ggom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 (edited) Moving on to Melusai now! The undercoat of shadows is in, now to layer colors in. Decided to do a steel curaiss, and will probably do gold for the mask. I think brilliant red and purple will contrast nicely. Edited January 23, 2021 by Ggom Added updated wip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted January 27, 2021 Author Share Posted January 27, 2021 I got super excited recently to do the freehand banner I had prepared previously. I decided to pick a khainite rune and paint it on the banner since this is my first attempt to freehand. I spent a few hours and now I think it looks like garbage 🙃 I am not sure what to do next. Maybe repaint it to the base red and try a transfer? Maybe keep this as a memento and try painting other banners? Might set this aside for abit and come back with fresh eyes in a few weeks. I think a black rune transfer with some weathering will look better, but isn't really a chance to learn. Looking for any advice people have! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted February 7, 2021 Author Share Posted February 7, 2021 (edited) A small update this evening, as I’ve continued to paint the banner elf. I ended up painting over the abysmal freehand and just adding a false shadow to create more interest. The rest of the elf was a pleasure to paint, and I took my time with the nmm and leather. Now just to lay down some reds and browns for the base, and she’ll be ready to seal. Maybe another day for revisiting freehand. I think what is holding me back there is manual dexterity with the brush, and drawing lines of consistent thickness. I normally draw with pencil and it’s a very different feel, since the tip is sturdy. Drawing with a brush feels harder because the brush gives, and I just end up with fatter lines. More practice needed, no doubt. I also cheated and started painting another member of the blade coven, this time a Sister with a gold mask! Pretty fun to paint the mask, I think I might put masks on a few more of the elves now that I’ve enjoyed this one. The Sister’s masks are smaller but also simpler in shape than the Melusai ones, so it’s easier to imagine where the reflections go. Definitely a bonus for noobs like yours truly. Edited February 9, 2021 by Ggom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ggom Posted February 14, 2021 Author Share Posted February 14, 2021 Took a break for a week with work being busy. Spent some time today finishing some odds and ends on the most recent 2 models, these are probably ready for sealing pending a look with fresh eyes. Noticing I need to smooth the blend on one boot now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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