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Tutorial for the red-head triad?


karpouzian
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So, (and maybe this should be its own thread), why liner instead of a wash?

 

A wash is much thinner than a liner and could not be used to dark line a mini or used to paint tiny details where a liner can. You don't need to buy a liner for this purpose and I don't always use a liner sometimes I will use another color that they do not make in a liner color, I like Reaper's brown liner as it isn't as harsh of a darkline and to me looks more natural on a mini.

 

And what about using a 005 sakura micron pen for blacklining?

 

I've never used a pen for painting minis so I have no input to help you with this. But I imagine Buglips is right that a brush would give you much more control and the more you paint the better your brush control will become with tiny details.

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Marsya, thanks so much for doing this!

 

You're welcome :)

 

Very nice tutorial :)

I especially like the shot of the palette, to show what the mixes look like before they go on the mini. Thats the sort of "process" details that can be really handy but often get missed.

 

Thank you. I am still learning many techniques of mini painting and anytime I've gotten the chance to learn from another painter details like the palettes and colors chosen where important to me and helped me learn how to mix paint better.

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Tonight I started with the Chainmail Chick and started with my 2nd highlight which was one drop of auburn shadow and one drop of Carrottop red. I started with fairly large highlights and later I tightened them up a bit. For this step I switched out my #2 nylon round for a #1 sable. I finished out the highlights with the #1 sable in the following steps.

 

post-5971-0-95805500-1350696192_thumb.jpg

 

The 3rd highlight I used one drop of carrottop red and 1/2 drop of auburn shadow. For the front of her hair I began painting on the highlights not necessarily following sculpted strands.

 

post-5971-0-58566300-1350696391_thumb.jpg

 

post-5971-0-79638200-1350696414_thumb.jpg

 

The last highlight I used was one drop of carrot top red and 1/2 drop of Highlight orange. Making the last highlight in a much smaller area. I also cleaned it up with going back over with my darker highlights working back and forth until it looked better.

 

post-5971-0-29106400-1350696581_thumb.jpg

 

post-5971-0-91433700-1350696607_thumb.jpg

 

post-5971-0-84851400-1350696662_thumb.jpg

 

After all the highlights I used a wash of auburn shadow to even it out a bit and let her dry while I finished the Ranger.

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For the Ranger I reworked my placements a bit and darkened the highlights with a glaze of auburn shadow and redstone shadow. Then I took her highlights up to one drop of auburn shadow and one drop of carrot top red. It's a bit hard to see in the photos but I also took my brown liner after I finished her hair and lined between her hair and cloak also around her face and hair. To make her look better I base coated her face and neck in tanned shadow.

 

post-5971-0-83483700-1350697386_thumb.jpg

 

post-5971-0-06102000-1350697459_thumb.jpg

 

post-5971-0-62481700-1350697488_thumb.jpg

 

After finishing the Ranger I compared both ladies and decided to place a glaze of Reaper's clear red on the Chainmail chick to bring her hair to a brighter red like I intended at the start, but chose to leave the Ranger as is after the last highlight. In this last photo you can see both ladies side by side the glaze was mostly dry on the Chainmail chick but you can see the reflections where it is wet on the top of the head in the picture.

 

post-5971-0-96438700-1350697727_thumb.jpg

 

Overall I'm happy with how they turned out. Now lets see everyone else's red hair.

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Here is a photo of Reaper's 03554 Coral Mermaid that I painted 2 years ago with Reaper's red hair triad and also Privateer Press Kaya the Wildborne with short red hair also using Reaper's red hair triad, to possibly give you an alternative idea.

 

post-5971-0-74326500-1350698939.jpg

 

post-5971-0-30156600-1350698962_thumb.jpg

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fwiw, Here's a Kuler article on choosing colors, including red hair:
http://brokenzealot....r-swatches.html

Thanks for the tutorial -- I have a red bearded dwarf coming through the mail and am now considering a red-headed barbarian...!

EDIT: 005 pens are $3 on Amazon. Cheap enough to try out. Any places you can't get the pen, use the brush. After blacklining several barbarian miniatures, I can say there are MANY such places!

 

EDIT EDIT: I have used a micron pen for blacklining. BUT I will also have a damp brush nearby to "massage" the ink into the area I'm shading. Pretty convenient if you want to do some touch-up without getting out the paints!

Edited by ced1106
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Love what you are doing, especially on the chainmail chick, but I would say go higher on your highlights. Keep going! Higher Highlights! Deeper Shadows! Where the hair turns upwards around her face on the lower left, highlight it a bit more at the turn to help frame her face better. On the ranger, she needs some high points to help show off all the movement in her hair with the wind.

 

Just remember, there are no strands...if it was a cloak or a blob, how would you highlight? If something is perpendicular to the lightsource, it gets the most highlight, so that's the top of a wave and the bottom of a wave or curl as well. Keep your higher highlights tight and blend as you did with glazes of whatever paint/ink/liner you want.

 

The funnest time I had painting red hair was when a woman at the Paint & Take with a nice carrotty orange color, asked what color do we use...and we looked at her and held up the three that worked - Creamy Ivory, Saffron Sunset (er, I use Orange Brown now) and Rust Brown. It is a great way to match hair colors...find a person with that color hair. :-)

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Getting an old style magazine from your hairdresser is a great resource for painting hair. Especially if there is a hair color guide in it. Tons of great pictures that are really well lit and show where you want to highlight.

 

Google images is also handy but dear god use a safe search. I didn't the first time and my wife came by and saw everything on my screen and asked what the hell I was doing. The first 2 pages were very much not safe for public viewing. That's how I learned there is a filter :lol: I told her I was looking for redheads to paint and her comment was. "By looking at a few of those at least you tell the real red heads."

Edited by Qwyksilver
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Thanks Sue for your tips I will try to put them to good use. I love your work and have been looking at quite a few pics of your dragons as I'm trying to get inspired to actually paint one of my own.

 

I will always help folks with hair...and dragons! It is because i love them so much. I am currently going to start putting together the Fire Dragon, so...that's a red head, sorta. ;-) Would it be helpful if I did a step by step here? It's not a huge dragon. And I plan on finally purchasing the better camera next week for my birthday, so I can finally get the better pictures I have been craving. Might be a good test of the camera!

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Thanks Sue for your tips I will try to put them to good use. I love your work and have been looking at quite a few pics of your dragons as I'm trying to get inspired to actually paint one of my own.

 

I will always help folks with hair...and dragons! It is because i love them so much. I am currently going to start putting together the Fire Dragon, so...that's a red head, sorta. ;-) Would it be helpful if I did a step by step here? It's not a huge dragon. And I plan on finally purchasing the better camera next week for my birthday, so I can finally get the better pictures I have been craving. Might be a good test of the camera!

 

Yes, please. ::):

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