Pingo hurtles with 77109: Fire Dragon into the unknown

[Pingo]

So.

I tried painting some minis without WIPs and found myself having a hard time keeping track of what and how much I had done. So I'm back, although these may be sporadic and really slow to update. We'll see.

Anyhow, after painting a lot of tiny figures for the January Bones Beauty Pageant, I decided to move in the opposite direction and tackle some of the big figures from Bones I to clear out room for Bones II.

So I am painting dragons. Five of them, if you count the Frost Wyrm. Each one gets its own thread, though, since I don't know how I'm going to progress through them.

 

I didn't know the names of the dragons when I decided what colors to make them.  Since I'm painting five, to keep up interest I'm using a slightly different approach to each one.  This one, at least for the moment, I am imagining as something warm and desert-like, gold with red undertones.  When I looked at it I thought of brass or gold dragons, although I don't know if I'm going to actually attempt metallics on it.

 

As you might have gathered, I improvise a lot when I am painting.  If I were a writer I would be what they call a pantser.

 

Anyhow, to make sure I didn't get all those unglued wings mixed up, the first painting session I made sure to put a wash on each dragon and its wings of a major color element I had planned for it.  So after I primed everything with Reaper's Brown Liner, this one got a terracotta red wash of pure thinned-down Iron Oxide Red.

 

The other dragons I'm painting concurrently are Deathsleet, Ebonwrath, the Shadow Dragon, and the Frost Wyrm.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Pingo

[Pingo]

I softly brushed Yellow Ochre all over the figure.  I don't know if you could call it drybrushing, since the paint was actually pretty thinned and wet.  I just breathed on layers until the color came out.  Then I added some golden brown to the undersides.  I am leaving shadows of the wings, but I do not know yet what final effects I'm aiming for.

 

 

I then mixed up some paler golden yellows and started rounding the form.  I also washed some Burnt Sienna (= Reaper's Chestnut Brown) into the crannies, especially in those darned spots where the paint missed the Bones.

 

[72moonglum]

"I softly brushed Yellow Ochre all over the figure. I don't know if you could call it drybrushing, since the paint was actually pretty thinned and wet. I just breathed on layers until the color came out. Then I added some golden brown to the undersides. I am leaving shadows of the wings, but I do not know yet what final effects I'm aiming for."

 

I wonder if you call it wet brushing? I do that a lot with paint when I'm going up to white from my base color.......

[Pingo]

I honestly don't know. We didn't get taught names of techniques like that in art school, and most of my painting has been "whatever works with what I've got on hand right now."

 

I've used soft brushes and firm brushes and finely pointed brushes and brushes that look like they've been chewed by badgers. I paint loosely or tightly, thin or thick (not so much on miniatures), watered down, glazed, scumbled, blended, or overlain.

 

I don't easily have words for what I do because a lot of it is like the thread title says, hurtling into the unknown.

[terminalmancer]

I've heard "dampbrushing" thrown around sometimes.

 

You might be hurtling into the unknown, but the dragon's looking good while you're doing it. I'm looking forward to seeing how you put this all together.

[Lochar]

I've heard "dampbrushing" thrown around sometimes.

 

You might be hurtling into the unknown, but the dragon's looking good while you're doing it. I'm looking forward to seeing how you put this all together.

 

What better to have while you're in the unknown than a damn fine dragon? :D

[cthulhudarren]

Aren't you going to have to repaint after you attach the wings and fill in the gaps with greenstuff?

[Pingo]

Aren't you going to have to repaint after you attach the wings and fill in the gaps with greenstuff?

I'll have to touch things up, yes.

 

But I've done things like this before.  I'm dry-fitting the wings as I paint, to help keep things harmonious.

 

I may glue in the wings before I'm done, once I have some idea of where I'm going with the painting.

 

I don't use greenstuff, myself.  I have a jar of Golden Molding Paste, the stuff that GW colors green and sells at ridiculous markups as "liquid greenstuff."  It's a matte white filler made from acrylic medium and marble dust and fills gaps a right treat.

 

Anyhow, I m not too worried.

[Pingo]

Did some work on the dragons all at once today.  I mixed up Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna to produce a near-black with purple undertones for some other work and washed it onto this figure as a shadow on the dragon, its wings and the base.

 

 

[Sirithiliel]

Ooooh I love how it is looking so far!

[klarg1]

Pingo, you have a very poetic way of describing your technique. 

[Corporea]

Great colors!!  It looks almost like copper.

[smokingwreckage]

I love watching this unfold. In my head it goes something like this.

 

Pingo announces painting. Yay!

Pingo bangs on a basecoat. I am all over that. I can totally basecoat. It's a brown dragon thingie whatsit.

Pingo slams down a light "drybrush". HA! I would have done that! I am totally painting like Pingo! It looks like somesortova orange dragon doodad.

Pingo dabs on a bit more. YEAH! I am like Pingo! I am owning this. If anything I am better than Pingo. My theoretical dragon would not be looking like an orange brown lizardy thing.

 

Pingo thinks for a moment, dabs on a tiny quantity of extra paint.

 

The 10% finished dragon gleams; the sunlight glances from his majestic flanks, his form glows from within with the fires of his heritage. The scale of the dragon has become apparent; I had mistook him for a toy, or plaything, but now I see how vast this monster truly is, and I am afraid! Forests will burn! Kingdoms will fall! TREMBLE BEFORE THE DRAGON.

 

 

I am not better than Pingo

 

 

Hope you don't mind. I love watching you work.

[Lochar]

Pingo thinks for a moment, dabs on a tiny quantity of extra paint.

 

The 10% finished dragon gleams; the sunlight glances from his majestic flanks, his form glows from within with the fires of his heritage. The scale of the dragon has become apparent; I had mistook him for a toy, or plaything, but now I see how vast this monster truly is, and I am afraid! Forests will burn! Kingdoms will fall! TREMBLE BEFORE THE DRAGON.

 

 

I am not better than Pingo

 

 

Hope you don't mind. I love watching you work.

 

So... does your username reflect the 'my painting skills' vs Pingo battle? :P

[PingosHusband]

 

Pingo thinks for a moment, dabs on a tiny quantity of extra paint.

 

The 10% finished dragon gleams; the sunlight glances from his majestic flanks, his form glows from within with the fires of his heritage. The scale of the dragon has become apparent; I had mistook him for a toy, or plaything, but now I see how vast this monster truly is, and I am afraid! Forests will burn! Kingdoms will fall! TREMBLE BEFORE THE DRAGON.

 

 

This is actually what it's like watching her work. 

Me: I don't think this part is working.

Pingo, pauses and stares for a moment.

Face grows intense.

Two seconds of painting:

Entire work has changed into something amazing.