Ender's Crafts: Painting a female elf archer

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Painting a female elf archer

Introduction

I was pleasantly surprised when one of my players brought her own miniature to play with, and asked me to paint it. Of course, I agreed. I don't know where the miniature comes from.

Green clothes

Basecoat dark green. Two coats were necessary.

Highlight the raised areas with sick green, then wash biel-tan.

Highlight some of the raised areas with sick green.

Minimal highlight with sick green/scorpion green 1:1 mix.

White shirt

Basecoat the white linen shirt (as well as other areas at this point) with bonewhite.

Wash with sepia, then highlight the middle of each strip with bonewhite.

Later I wasn't happy with the lack of contrast, so I applied black wash in the recesses between strips of cloth.

White sash

I basecoated some leather areas with brown, then realized that I need to paint some underlying layers first. For the sash, I decided on a cold white (as opposed to the warm white of the shirt), as I did not want another color to intrude right on the midsection of the mini.

Basecoat light grey.

Black wash in the recesses.

Correct with grey all the raised areas tainted by the wash.

Highlight all the raised areas with white.

Red potion bottle

Health potions are traditionally red, and it also contrasts well with green.

Basecoat gore red.

Spot highlight bloody red.

Leather

Thick edge highlight with leather brown.

Wash Agrax Earthshade.

Thin edge highlight leather brown.

Face and eyes

As per the painting tip.

Wood

Basecoat the bow and the knifehandle in Dark Fleshtone, which is essentially a reddish brown.

Wash black.

Highlight, covering 80% of the area.

Wash Agrax and highlight again.

Bone

The ends of the bow were already basecoated bonewhite, washed in sepia, and the outer parts washed with agrax. Now wash the base (next to the wood) in black.

Edge highlight bonewhite.

Feathers

I thought about doing colorful feathers, but I didn't want to break the harmony achieved on this model. I decided on white feathers. Already basecoated bonewhite, I washed in black.

Then highlight bonewhite.

Metallics

I thought about doing traditional metallics, but again, that seemed too divergent from the green base tone of the model. So I decided to bring it together, somehow.

Basecoat the shoulder plate, as well as the boot plates, in gunmetal.

Base the decorative metal elements - clasps, armor trims - in gold.

Instead of black on silver and brown on gold, I washed all metallic areas in blue-green Coelia Greenshade.

Highlight with silver.

Highlight with gold.

Hair

With so many brownish areas, I decided to make the hair also distinctive.

Basecoat in 1:1 black / dark fleshtone mix.

Highlight with 1:1 brown/dark fleshtone mix.

Highlight brown.

Wash in sepia to mesh it together and add some warmth, then line highlight brown.

Fur

I wasn't initially sure on how I want the furs around the neckline to look. I decided I liked the white look to them (with the primer still visible).

Basecoat in white.

Wash sepia.

Highlight white.

Cat

I initially imagined the cat in a grey gradient, but then thought that it would be lost on the grey cobblestone base. I asked the owner/player of the miniature and she provided me with a picture of her own, real-life cat. I based the color scheme off of that.

I based the cat in Sun Yellow. Note to self. Always base in white before, as the yellow is somewhat transparent and doesn't cover well.

Wash in Cassandora Yellow. I expected an orange-y look, but the yellow tone didn't really change.

Wash in Fuegan Orange. This was orange enough.

Draw some stripes on the back with Heavy Orange.To my surprise, this came out pinkish.

So I highlight the middle of the stripes in Orange fire. That was better. Then wash again in Fuegan Orange, to mesh together and tint the pinkish lines.