Bark painting suggestions for my "smoldering" Aqshy Autumn themed Sylvaneth

[albionsangel]

Hi all,

Just got my Sylvaneth starter box, first AoS army, and I wanted a total departure from my cold 40k Drukhari (lots of harsh blues and deep sea greens and blacks). I was inspired by someone who had made an Aqshy Sylvaneth army that was totally black based, drybrushed with white, and highlighted with orange, giving a totally charred look.

For my own army, I want to make an Autumn themed set, particularly painting the leaves so they fade yellow into orange into red, as you would paint flames. Eyes and mouths done with orange, yellow and white. Symbols probably drybrushed with orange. And then drybrushing their feet and part way up their legs totally black, with white drybrushing on top so just the ends of their legs, and maybe arms too, look burned to a crisp. I think it will give a really nice effect.

But I dont know what to do for the rest of the bark. And for the bare wood of the TLA (making my TL into a TLA). It cant be too complex, this is already going to tax my limited abilities. But I have never painted "wood" before and dont know where to start.

I am guessing base with white as opposed to black as I usually would. But where from there? What do you think would both fade well into black at the burned bits, contrast nicely with the orange highlights, and look good with the "flaming" leaves?

Advice on both colours and techniques would be appreciated. No airbrushing please, I simply dont have the space/equipment/budget for that.

[Ggom]

Black and yellow/orange go nicely together and give you very good contrast in terms of value range. Your yellow and orange will probably be high intensity, I would suggest not adding  other saturated colors to avoid the christmas tree effect. Why not have the bark be black, or black mixed with purple or green? 

One thing I’ve started to think more about is how I want the models to look when set together. A “trap” I’ve found after painting several armies is that if you really focus on 2 or 3 colors and use them heavily, from a distance the army looks like a blob of those 2 or 3 colors. Some people seem to like that effect, but I’ve been seeing if it’s possible to break away from that since personally it makes things feel same-y. Something I like to think about is how to vary the amount of each theme on different units to create the impression of more variety, while using the same set of colors to create consistency. For instance, some of your larger models might have more of the heat effect to draw the eye to centerpiece models and features, whereas your smaller ones might have only spots of it (eg. Dryad eyes) with more of the cold desaturated ash effect. If you had a treelird for instance, you can explore going really heavily into the flaming weapons and eyes and he will stand out even more amongst the ashen dryads.

Without an airbrush, I would suggest using black and white spray cans for the starting layers. It takes a bit if oractice, but can help alot with underpainting fire/osl effects. If you get the underlying shadows to a place you like, the rest is just glazing in colors (and/or drybrushing, especially for ash)

Edited January 9, 2021 by Ggom

[Aelfric]

34 minutes ago, Ggom said:

One thing I’ve started to think more about is how I want the models to look when set together. A “trap” I’ve found after painting several armies is that if you really focus on 2 or 3 colors and use them heavily, from a distance the army looks like a blob of those 2 or 3 colors. Some people seem to like that effect, but I’ve been seeing if it’s possible to break away from that since personally it makes things feel same-y.

I understand where you're coming from.  For me it depends on the faction.  My Lumineth are having a similar colour scheme throughout, with minor variation for Temples.  My Troggoth army, on the other hand, has a wide variety of colour, with no more than 3 Troggoths in the same scheme.  I have a small force of Sylvaneth and I have gone down the route (pardon the pun) of having a variety of bark colour to give the idea of a mixed woodland.  After all, there are many different types of tree in nature with a variety of colouration, both leaves and bark, so it felt a natural thing to do.  My Ironjaws are greenskinned, but with different hues of green, though the rest of each model follows a regulated scheme.  

Sylvaneth is a faction that lends itself easily to a wide selection of colour and shade.  It also makes the painting process less monotonous when painting 30 Dryads which is also nice. 

Edited January 9, 2021 by Aelfric

[Ggom]

30 minutes ago, Aelfric said:

 it also makes the painting process less monotonous when painting 30 Dryads which is also nice. 

Totally agree. Also a reason why I don't think I could make myself paint 40k space marines lol.