60092: Cleric of Calistria

[fanguad]

Given the problems I had with painting black on Tiviel, and how much I like black, I figured I would try to get better at painting it. The Cleric of Calistria was already primed, between her "official" color scheme being mostly black and looking more like a rogue than a cleric, I decided to do her next.

 

I did the eyes first, getting something that I liked on the 3rd try. I don't think my camera is physically capable of getting a good picture of the face, but I attached the best one I could get.

 

I knew that I didn't want to paint her armor and hair pure black, and I also wanted them to look like different blacks, so I started off with very dark colors. I did her hair with Dark Elf Shadow, but that looked too purple, so I put a black wash over it. It is very close to pure black at this point. The armor is a mix of black, MSP Winter Blue, and Dark Elf Whadow. I plan to highlight the hair towards Dark Elf Highlight and the armor towards Winter Blue.

 

The skin is a mix of MSP Woodland Brown and MSP Caucasian Flesh. Originally my plan was to use that as the shadow and highlight to Caucasian Flesh, but I kind of like how that color turned out and may use it as the midtone instead.

 

Next steps are to color in the little straps and doodads on her pants, boots and shirt. Haven't decided on a color for these, but it probably won't be yellow because I will be mega frustrated trying to get good coverage of yellow over so many tiny things without getting all over the pants. Her daggers also need a few more colors than just dark brown.

 

C&C much appreciated!

[Girot]

well done on the eyes. she actually looks like she's looking at someone (or thing) and that's damn tricky. I feel the same way you do about too much black. I've been known to use a very dark blue as the basecoat and then a REALLY heavy wash of black followed up by a gentle highlight of dark grey.

 

another way to go would be to decide what each part of her outfit is made of (what kinds of leathers and fabrics) and do some research into what they look like. you'd be shocked at the color variance is in objects that should be colorless!

[Teskal]

I hate eyes, I can't believe that it is possible to get it done. And my friends made it several times beneath me.

 

Good work.

[fanguad]

My only skill in eyes is to just keep doing them until I get a pair that looks okay. I do like how these ones came out, especially with how her head is kind of tilted down.

 

I started in with the accents on the armor. I used Winter Blue, but gave up halfway because I couldn't stay in the lines. I may switch to purple, since having the same accent and the highlight might not be a good idea.

[fanguad]

After futzing with my camera's settings and throwing about twice as much light on the mini, I was able to get a slightly better picture of her face. And this one has enough detail to show off every mistake.

 

 

[badocter]

Great work. Those eyes make me think that I need a better magnifier and a brush with fewer hairs.

[fanguad]

I use a fairly cheap 5/0 brush for the eyes (was $5 for two, the 10/0 that I got for the other half of the deal actually has a worse point). For the pupil and white spot, I let the paint partially dry so it wouldn't flow very much, then 'poked' very gently. This is my manual for eyes: http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/12

The only thing I did differently was black down first, then white, then clean up the bits where the white extended too much. For some reason, I just couldn't manage to get a good black border over the white without screwing it up. I didn't use a magnifier as I don't have enough control to need one.

[Pingo]

We have that mini. The general consensus in our family is no way that's a cleric, but that's neither here nor there.

 

That's a nicely expressive face, but the skin tone is somewhat flat. Have you considered a slight pink tinge to the cheeks and lips? And perhaps a slight shading between and under the lips.

[Girot]

We have that mini. The general consensus in our family is no way that's a cleric, but that's neither here nor there.

 

That's a nicely expressive face, but the skin tone is somewhat flat. Have you considered a slight pink tinge to the cheeks and lips? And perhaps a slight shading between and under the lips.

 

I played in a 3.5 campign many moons ago with a guy who insisted on running a Not-Dominatrix Cleric of some dark god. It was actually pretty ingenious despite his typical lack of good taste. This model would have been perfect if one of those blades was replaced with a full length, nine-headed, bull whip that healed you if you were struck by it. Healz have never been more awkward.

[fanguad]

I've only done the base coat so far, so she'll definitely be getting more shading. She got bumped to #2 in the queue after my exchange mini. Also, the detail work on her clothing is kicking my butt.

 

Calistria is the goddess of lust (among other things) and the character in question has levels in rogue as well (in addition to Charm and Trickery domains). So, I can buy this character as a cleric (but only barely).

[MonkeySloth]

The skin looks really rough. The black doesn't have the same texture so I'm assuming you didn't water down the paint enough. You can sometimes fix that by glazes of the same color.

 

Keep up the good work, liking how she's turned out so far.

[fanguad]

I'm still working on my technique for painting eyes, and I ran into same the problem here that I did with Kara Foehunter - when I paint in the flesh around the eyes, it starts to build up and gets grainy. I tried to keep it thin but not thin enough apparently.

[MonkeySloth]

If you go too thin, or not thin enough, with flesh tones they go grainy. Reaper brush on sealer mixed into the paint will fix #1.

[fanguad]

I've been using a flow improver/slow dry/water mix to thin paints, which seems to work well for most cases, but apparently not for flesh tones. What ratio of brush on sealer/water/paint would you recommend? I also have matte medium - I understand that's basically the same, so I could use that, right?

Edited January 15, 2013 by fanguad

[Tranquil Ape]

I use matte medium from liquitex and it seems to work well so I'll say yes. Also... Read the eye article above, don't know how i missed that before... well presented... im going to attempt to do my eyes this way from now on... Thanks!