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Gray Experiment


MamaGeek
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So, when I went to Games Day Baltimore this year (because it was the only CON close to my home), I was lucky enough to win a Mines of Moria box set of the LOTR minis game. There are a lot of figures in there, so I'll be using them to experiment with color theory.

 

 

The first is Gandalf the Gray. He has an overcloak that covers his back and sides, inner robes, and his iconic pointy hat. I wanted to paint the overcloak a different, lighter, gray than the inner robes and hat, and I had two different ideas of how to go about painting gray, so I decided to try one method for the overcloak and the other for the inner robes and hat. The two are opposite methods, meaning their base and shadow colors compliment each other. Putting them together, therefore, on the same figure, turned out to be a mistake, but I learned a lot about gray, and came up with a formula I plan to use again on future pieces.

 

Overcloak:

Base color: orange + gray = dull brown

Shadow: teal + little black = dark teal

Highlight: white + gray = very light gray

 

I am very pleased with the way this looks. It has enough color to bring it to life, while still maintaining an overall impression of "gray."

 

post-4823-12897921720219.jpg

 

Inner robes and hat:

Base color: blue + gray = bluish gray

Shadow: orange + little black = rust brown

Highlight: white + gray = very light gray

 

This, in my opinion, doesn't look nearly as nice, or at least it would look ok by itself, but next to its color opposite (above), it looks terrible. I wish I'd painted all the gray robes with the Overcloak recipe, but this was an experiment, and you can't expect all experiments to succeed.

 

On the bright side, the hat looks pretty nice with this scheme, I think.

 

post-4823-12897921723522.jpg

 

 

Some more photos of the Gandalf WIP:

post-4823-12897921726104_thumb.jpg

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I think the 2 grey techniques look fine together, and I would never have thought of either one. The whole thing looks great, and the only suggestion I have would be to bring the glowing gem on his staff up a fair bit brighter; could be just the pix and the angles shown, but it looks a bit like it's being lit up by something nearby rather than being the light source itself.

 

Eager to see how this progresses,

 

Kang

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I think the 2 grey techniques look fine together, and I would never have thought of either one. The whole thing looks great, and the only suggestion I have would be to bring the glowing gem on his staff up a fair bit brighter; could be just the pix and the angles shown, but it looks a bit like it's being lit up by something nearby rather than being the light source itself.

 

Eager to see how this progresses,

 

Kang

 

Thanks for the compliments!

 

Yeah, I thought the staff needed to be brighter, too, but I've put so many layers of white on it. I think the base of brown is what's killing me, there. Any suggestions, other than going over the whole top of the staff with white, then shading with the blue?

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