Pingo paints Hasslefree HFA004 "Kat" as a solar for Exalted

[Pingo]

This is a PC for a game of Exalted mashed up with the World of Darkness.  The GM is pretty inventive and has found ways to make it work that have all the players pretty interested.  For complex reasons (which I do think I will get into somewhere, because this is one fun game), in the modern world a trickle of old-style Exalts have been popping up, which are the PCs.

 

This character is a Persian ex-vampire who reverted to human when the Exaltation hit her.  She has a lot of issues.

 

The figure is Hasslefree's HFA004, "Kat".  She's dressed a little more wildly than the character, who was mostly a businesswoman and philanthropist, but the sword is about accurate.  It's a manifestation of the sun itself.  The mini requires some firm pinning of the arms and I added some chunks of pewter under her base to help keep her from toppling over.

 

Here she is primed and washed with Burnt Umber (I left the umber off her sword so that it would have a more intense solar "glow" later on).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pingo]

I started, more or less as usual, with the skin.  I include these pictures because it's important to see how terrible painting can look in intermediate stages.

 

As a Persian, this figure has essentially light skin, not the palest, with slight dusky golden overtones.  I'm using my basic Caucasian mix on her, Titanium White plus Burnt Sienna, plus a little Yellow Ochre to warm it up some.

 

 

I wanted to emphasize her healthy pinkness contrasting to her previous undead condition, so I mixed in a little more Burnt Sienna (which despite being a firey dark orange adds a good bit of pink to flesh tones) to paint her face and fingertips.

 

 

I mixed in some Red Iron Oxide, which gives a warm, natural look to her cheeks and lips.  If I had wanted a little more "made up" look I might have used a colder violet-red like Quinacridone Magenta.  That's also good for paler "peaches and cream" complexions.

 

Her hair is blocked in with black.

 

 

[Pingo]

Rather than paint straight black I like to mix colors for a richer, more natural look.  This is a transparent glaze of Ultramarine Blue mixed with Burnt Umber, which makes a cold, very dark near-black.

 

 

 

 

[Pingo]

I mixed a dull sandy color from Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber and Titanium White and scumbled some on her base.  I then mixed a dull medium blue from Ultramarine Blue, a little Red Iron Oxide and Titanium White and brushed some lights onto her outfit.

 

 

 

 

I then mixed a purple out of Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Magenta, made opaque but kept dark with the tiniest bit of Titanium White, and added more lights (possibly most visible in the back of her hair).

 

 

 

Then I toned the whole outfit down with a glaze of my favorite shadow color, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, and laid a bit of shadow on the base.

 

[Cyradis]

She's looking really great! I like the blue-ninja stylings and her combat focused face. 

 

What are you using for your WIP photo setup? I got my equipment running (still relearning), but it takes a while for me to set it all up and take down, so I hadn't thought to use it for WIPs. 

[Pingo]

1 hour ago, Cyradis said:

She's looking really great! I like the blue-ninja stylings and her combat focused face. 

 

What are you using for your WIP photo setup? I got my equipment running (still relearning), but it takes a while for me to set it all up and take down, so I hadn't thought to use it for WIPs. 

 

My WIP setup is super simple.  

 

I have a swing arm lamp on my drafting table, and at one end of its arc I have two sheets (for opacity) of unbleached (for a neutral-ish brown paper background color) parchment paper laid against (i.e. curved, not folded) an upright box lid.

 

To document the WIP I set the mini down a few inches in front of the back curve, swing the lamp until it illuminates behind the figure, and take a photo with a small aperture (for sharper focus and greater depth of field) and the flash enabled.

[Cyradis]

You have a pretty darn good painting setup then; I don't think I have space to do that at my painting station. Will definitely try to find the setting on my camera to lower the aperture too. Thanks :) 

[Pingo]

At this point I started painting her golden sun-sword (technically a "Glorious Solar Saber" -- Exalted charms are rather pompously named).  I wanted to keep it bright (which is why I didn't put any Burnt Umber priming on it).  To begin with, there's just a thin layer of Hansa Yellow Opaque, a pure almost-cold lemon yellow.

 

 

 

Now comes the tricky part.  I'm planning on painting an illuminating effect on her -- there's a name, or several for it, but I can never remember it.  I'm going to start building up yellow lights on her, sighting along the sword to see where they will fall.

 

This is the very first layer, a medium gold mixed from Hansa Yellow Opaque and Yellow Ochre.  You can see a few glazes of it also on the handle end of the sword blade.

 

 

 

 

Large it looks blodgy, but small it looks subtle.  Whenever I do this I keep thinking "I could stop this while it is still subtle" and then I never do ...

 

 

[Pingo]

I built up the golden lights with a pale primrose yellow mixed from Hansa Yellow Opaque and Titanium White.

 

I also started doing some fiddly bits on her sword.

 

 

 

 

 

Every time I do this I think the highlights should not be as bright as the light source, but I usually end up making them so anyway.  I guess if it looks more or less right in the end it's okay.

 

A bit more transparent gold, a mix of Hansa Yellow Opaque and Yellow Ochre (no white) to intensify the color.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2017 by Pingo

[Pingo]

I started refining the darks on her front, smoothing the transition between the night side and the day side, as it were, while still building up the yellows.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2017 by Pingo

[Pingo]

I was thinking of her two sides as night and day now, so I added some twilight blending.  This is an orange mixed from Yellow Ochre, Quinacridone Magenta, and a dab of Red Iron Oxide.

 

 

 

 

 

I also added further details to her front and hair, using mostly a grey mixed from Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and increasing amounts of Titanium White.

 

I added a "caste mark" of the sun's disk to her forehead, with a little hint that it is giving off light also.

 

 

 

[Pingo]

I think she's basically done.  I added thin washes of metallic gold over her sword and caste mark, but I don't know that they actually make much difference except in very subtle ways.  I think I tinkered with her face a bit after I took these photos, sharpening up her mouth and smoothing some highlights.  But basically, she's done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Show Off thread to follow soon.^TM

[Silvervane]

Like bombing away......

 

Wow, I love HF mini's and this is looking great.

[robinh]

Great!   And the lighting effect is OSL or Object Source Lighting.    (You just knew someone would pop in and name it)

 

I love how you manage to have the courage to bring the highlights so high... I always chicken out!

Edited June 16, 2017 by robinh

[Dr_Automaton]

Sooo glowy!  I love how bright the OSL turned out, along with the sunset effect on the transitions!