Painting Worgen, part 1: experimenting with animal fur

I decided to paint up a Worgen model for a shape-shifting druid. Then, I decided to paint the whole group (8 models), experimenting with different colors of fur.

 

Step 1. Primer

As always, I started up with my trusty white primer.

Step 2. Basecoat

Then, I painted them up in different basecoats. I tried to go for traditional werewolf-y colors:

1 brown, 2 white, 2 light grey, 2 black (1 not shown), 1 dark grey

Step 3. Drybrushing to achieve the "fur effect"

I have previously done fur by painting it in grey, then applying a heavy black wash. This time, I went the other way around: grab your drybrush and go over the whole model. Some color combos look better than other, as below.

Lesson 1. Very high contrast does not work well

 black on white

black on light grey

They kind of look burnt; the color scheme is not natural. I later applied a black wash on the white model to try to fix it; it got better, but I'm still not truly happy with how they look.

Lesson 2. Very low contrast does not work either

dark brown on light brown

The picture does not show what I mean - the flash increases contrast to unnatural levels. At a distance, by natural light, the drybrushing is barely visible.

Lesson 3. Don't overdo crazy combos

dark brown on black

It's barely visible and doesn't look natural.

Lesson 4. Somewhere in the middle...

 black on dark grey

 dark grey on light grey

 light grey on white ("White Fang" effect)

light grey on black (the best one, I think)

I'm happy with how these 4 look, although the best one is - ironically - the one I painted up first: light grey drybrushed on black. This looks pretty natural, but also gives a sinister vibe to how the model looks. I can easily imagine this scheme on Daemon Princes and Bloodthirsters, the black fur contrasting nicely with red skin.