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SlyRebirth

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  1. SlyRebirth

    Complete: Dryads

    By SlyRebirth,

    This is probably my favourite shot - I feel like facing this bunch would be pretty scary...

    The recipe for these dryads was pretty straightforward. After priming, the bulk of it is the wood, and if you do this before anything else you can be quick and messy.
    Dryad Bark all over (except for the loin cloths, skeleton, etc), then Baneblade Brown on any surfaces that would catch light from above (zenithal lighting). Then a highlight of Karak Stone on the lightest/sharpest edges. Then a wash of Agrax Earthshade all over; then a highlight of Rakarth Flesh. And to catch the light and really bring out the forms, a super-light highlight of Stormhost Silver sparingly.
    The eyes are just Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet and a glaze of Bloodletter.
    The greens (leaves/loincloths and also the same recipe for drybrushing the base) is Castellan Green followed by Loren Forest working outwards. Then highlights of Elysian Green followed by Ogryn Camo. And finally a glaze of Lamenters Yellow really changes the last highlight (Ogryn Camo) and makes it really fresh.
    That's about it - it's possible to paint the whole unit to a decent standard in just a few hours in this way, with only a bit of extra time for details on stones/skeletons, etc.
  2. SlyRebirth
    So it was a little while ago I finished my Sylvaneth, but it's taken a while (and a new camera) to get some decent pictures. So here's the completed Treelord Ancient, with the loincloth sampled in to match Alarielle's dress and leaves in the colour of Autumn (because he is ancient, after all).

    Just to show the contrast, here's a snap with the TLA next to the much younger Treelord back-to-back.
    And here's another just to show the theming of the wider army, with a Tree Revenant (I prefer pale flesh to creepy blue skin!) and a Dryad.

    Hope you like them! Comments, feedback, advice or questions always welcome. I'm working on some shots of the other elements of the army, will post soon.
  3. SlyRebirth

    Before/After shots

    By SlyRebirth,

    I think it's always fun to look back over time and see how your hobby has progressed with practice, learning new techniques... and the influence of Duncan videos! With the most recent batch of pictures I took, I found some efforts from about seven years ago.
    To put this in perspective, I didn't progress beyond this stage until about 18 months ago (when I watched my first Duncan video to tackle Archaon) - and since then I've painted regularly. But the change between early and recent is quite significant, and I believe that anybody can achieve these results with time, patience, techniques and practice.
    Here's the first one - a before/after of a good old Dryad.

     
     
     
    Obviously, the key point here is just that the old picture is base coat only - but then I had no idea about washes, or highlights. I think the skeleton was a dark grey base with a light grey over the top to achieve the dark recess.
    It's interesting that you can barely make out any detail on the old model - hardly even see the face, or any real shape to the body.
    So the use of highlights and zenithal lighting style (ie top-down light source given more prominence) definitely helps here.
     
     
     
     
    The next one is probably even more stark. A Glade Guard - recently painted since GHB2017 (and painted over the old 'colour scheme') as they may become interesting for allies.

     
     
    Similar to the Dryad, all I had in the old days were about 10-12 paints, and no understanding of how to bring out the detail of a model.
    I had three units of 10 Glade Guard, and they were all green/brown, with red, yellow or blue hoods to differentiate the units.
    Urgh!
    I think I'll enjoy painting over all that old stuff... but nice to have a record of how it's changed.
     
     
     
  4. SlyRebirth
    Just a quick update to show the finished Treelord Ancient with the autumnal leaves/beard now in context.
    I'm quite pleased with the results, and this guy really stands out from the normal Treelord that's painted in nice, fresh Spring greens.
    Note on the cloth - this light blue colour is used to match in with Alarielle's dress, in case you were wondering why such a colour departure from the rest of the model 
    Questions/comments/feedback welcome.

  5. SlyRebirth
    More Sylvaneth from my army today, here's one of the Tree Revenants up close. After Allarielle this was one of the first models I painted, and was keen to use them to try to bridge the wood vs flesh themes. Allarielle (and maybe Drycha I guess) are the only other models with the opportunity for flesh tones, and while GW's scheme make the Revs ethereal, I wanted something that would tie in with Allarielle's flesh tones.
    It was also the first model that I established the green tones - a recipe I've followed for all other 'spring greens' across the army now. It's as follows (you can see it on the leaves and thingy hanging from the belt... whatever it is  and grades out from low to high:
    Castellan Green Loren Green Elysian Green Ogryn Camo Hexos Palesun (edges/tips) Lamenter's Yellow (over Hexos Palesun/Ogryn Camo areas) It's given a nice blend, I think. And complements the blue rinse nicely... (I have a second unit of five with a purple rinse). Meanwhile, ornaments follow the exact same scheme as Allarielle's danglies, to echo that consistency. Hope you like it! (edit: this one's not based yet...)

  6. SlyRebirth
    Moving away from the WIP stuff, to something finished a couple of weeks ago. Across the Sylvaneth force I've tried to maintain some consistency, taking the lead from Allarielle. So the Tree Revenant banner is blue/purple, or purple/blue, because those are Allarielle's dress and soul amphora shades.
    For the tree-based stuff (Revenants' lower body, dryads, K hunters, treeman, Drycha) I also wanted a consistent recipe and approach. I also wanted to experiment with zenithal lighting to see if it would make the models a bit more striking on the tabletop.
    So here's an example Dryad. I'll post unit pictures and some of the other models in due course, but it's enough to show the direction I wanted. The advantage to this style on wood/natural models is that unlike smooth armour, you don't need to be quite so precise. So it's more... artistic... is perhaps the kind description!
    The recipe is as follows:
    Zandri Dust primer Dryad Bark base Baneblade Brown lighter areas Karak Stone highlights Agrax Earthshade Wash Rakarth Flesh highlights Stormhost Silver super-highlights Instead of the normal diffuse lighting technique, lighter areas and highlights were focused on those areas as if the light source was directly above. Only slight highlights applied to shadowed areas to bring out a little depth, but no more. I found that I could complete a unit of 5 models quite painlessly, and actually managed to complete a batch of 10 within a week to this standard. As a unit, they look consistent, but the variety of Dryad poses/branches, etc still makes means they avoid looking uniform.
    The silver highlights don't really show in this picture, but it's a subtle ploy to catch and reflect the light on the most important parts. The faces are interesting... they look a little bit like the Terminator (with the red eyes), but the contours and scary face is really emphasised. Elsewhere on the body the silver is used very sparingly on the sharpest/most prominent parts only. Upper edges of claws, shoulderblade ridges, etc. It's almost dry-brushed, more like a sheen than a paint layer... but if you try it and put too much on, it's easy to tone down with some careful Nuln Oil.
    Obviously this model wasn't fully based, but for reference, the recipe there is:
    Lustrian Undergrowth Nuln Oil Castellan Green drybrush Loren Green drybrush Elysian Green drybrush Ogryn Camo drybrush Citadel grass tufts (I forget, but the lighter green and red/green varieties). Steel Legion Drab (rim) I'll post more pics later of the unit together, and you'll be able to see the basing too.

  7. SlyRebirth
    A little update - I extended the same colour range to the beard stuff around his face. Not sure if I'll keep it all like this when I'm done, but nice to see the tones extended out over a longer space. Yet to do any detail, or a wash/highlight pass, but I really want the colours to stand out against the browns of the wood. I've used green-yellow range in other models, but I'm hoping this will bring more variety.

  8. SlyRebirth
    To kick things off - my current army (almost finished) is Sylvaneth. I started off with Allarielle and followed Duncan's video, but from then on I followed my own path. I'll go through my paint lists and post a few models in due course, but a quick snippet to start with:
    While the Dryads and Treeman leaves are nice and spring-fresh in shades of green to yellow, I wanted to mark out the Ancient as, well... older. So I decided to give him more autumnal colours by way of contrast. So in a spare moment (!) today I did a little test on the larger leaves hanging off the staff.
    I used quite a range to get a dynamic contrast, in the following order, from middle to outside of the leaf:
    Xereus Purple Screamer Pink Khorne Read Mephiston Red Evil Sunz Scarlet Wild Rider Red Squig Orange Jokaero Orange Averland Sunset So... these are bigger leaves than the normal ones growing out of the body, but probably overkill all the same. Ultimately I decided that XP/SP were probably a step too far on one end, so I repainted starting with KR, building out the main body of the leaf through to SO. Then the edges just highlighted with JO (more recessed edges) and AS (for tips of edges).
    This repaint worked more effectively, I think. It's not particularly neat, so I'll go back and improve, but from 12" away the effect is reasonably striking.
    For the smaller leaves, I will likely just use KR/MR/WRR/JO/AS stages.
     

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