MEEYOWRL! A sabertooth tiger by Pingo

[Pingo]

This is Reaper's 02480, Sabertooth Tiger, sculpted by Jason Wiebe. It's a nice muscular rendition of the Ice Age critter.

 

This is my standard priming, with a thin coat of Titanium White paint (Golden matte fluid acrylic) and a wash of Burnt Umber afterwards.

 

 

 

It reminds me of a lynx in general aspect, so I plan to paint it with more or less a lynx's coloration.

 

The first thing I did was paint a sickly green, mixed from Yellow Ochre and Carbon Blck, over the base.  I like to paint thinly enough so underlayers show through, to make things look more realistic.  This works well for fur too.

 

 

... I couldn't help but notice that that skull underneath the creature is mighty small.  Like, child sized.

 

Next:  Fur!

[Loim]

Rawr!

[72moonglum]

Maybe a child, maybe a gnome....

[Pingo]

The first color I put on the cat is Raw Sienna.  It's a natural yellow ochre, subtly different from Yellow Ochre.  Both are iron oxide pigments, but I find Raw Sienna overall a touch more transparent, a touch warmer, a touch richer than Yellow Ochre.

 

As Raw Sienna is a little translucent, the Burnt Umber underneath still shows through.

 

 

I mixed up a creamy yellow-white with Titanium White, Raw Sienna, and a little Yellow Ochre and started glazing on where the white areas would be on a lynx: The muzzle, the eyelids, the paws, the belly, the sideburns (whatever they are called), the tail ...

 

(I also painted some on the skull and bones under the creature.)

 

 

To avoid it looking chalky I glazed over some more Raw Sienna.

 

 

Edited May 2, 2017 by Pingo

[Pingo]

I've been painting a bunch of natural-ish critters lately, and I've found, for me at least, that adding facial features at this point helps me think of this as a living thing and helps me focus on how to make it moreso.

 

So far I've found that simple features added in with pure Carbon Black do a lot to bring animals to life.

 

Lynxes have black undernoses (sometimes with pink too), black eyelids, and black ear and tail tips.  Wolves and almost all of the big cats I've looked at have black claws, so I add them too.

 

 

I had some pink mixed (Red Iron Oxide, Quinacridone Crimson, and Titanium White), so I colored in its nose and mouth.  Then I touched up the ivory teeth with Titanium White mixed with Yellow Ochre.

 

 

 

I added a little glaze of Quinacridone Crimson to the nose and mouth before painting in the teeth, to smooth the harshness of the highlights.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Pingo

[Pezler the Polychromatic]

Kitteh! *hugs*

 

I love how the the variance ofthe hide brings out the details, it looks like a living creature with muscles rippling underneath its skin.

[Inarah]

Do you have a suggestion for a raw sienna color in a Reaper bottle?  I'm painting wild cats too, and having trouble getting just the right warm golden brown. 

 

 

[Glitterwolf]

Looks great so far!

 

Maybe that skull isn't tiny, but maybe the cat is huge!

[Pingo]

1 hour ago, Inarah said:

Do you have a suggestion for a raw sienna color in a Reaper bottle?  I'm painting wild cats too, and having trouble getting just the right warm golden brown. 

 

 

 

I'm not sure, sorry.  I know that Reaper's Palomino Gold is pure Yellow Ochre, and its Chestnut Brown is Burnt Sienna.  You might be able to get a similar effect with just a dab of Chestnut Brown added to Palomino Gold, maybe?

 

1 hour ago, Xherman1964 said:

Looks great so far!

 

Maybe that skull isn't tiny, but maybe the cat is huge!

 

The cat is huge.  But next to regular human Reaper models, that skull looks child-sized.

[Glitterwolf]

Maybe it's the skull of a little monkey.!

 

 

[InvisibleThumb]

15 hours ago, Pingo said:

Say Cheese!

 

 

It's coming along nicely.  Liking the color choices a lot with this.  Also great pictures!  How did you get it to smile like that? 

[Pingo]

10 hours ago, InvisibleThumb said:

 

It's coming along nicely.  Liking the color choices a lot with this.  Also great pictures!  How did you get it to smile like that? 

 

Um?  I just sort of painted what was there.

 

If you mean the angle, I got it the old fashioned way.

[Pillpeddler]

Good paintin'

[kitchen_wolf]

On 5/2/2017 at 11:16 AM, Xherman1964 said:

Maybe it's the skull of a little monkey.!

 

Sort of:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)

[Glitterwolf]

Cool!