60067 Nyrissa

[wdmartin]

I'm working on 60067 Nyrissa.  She's a major NPC in the Kingmaker adventure path from Paizo.  I'm trying to follow the reference art from the cover of the AP pretty closely, though I've checked other threads on the forums for inspiration too.

 

So far I've got a base:

 

 

 

The base is from Micro Arts Studio.  I gouged a slot in it for the tab at the base of her wings.  It's coming along okay, but it's awfully muted.  It needs more contrast -- particularly brighter highlights.

 

I've base coated her wings.

 

 

 

The wings are 3:3:1 Pine Green/Linen White/Pale Saffron.  The vines are in Formula P3 Wurm Green, and the interior petals are your basic Fire Orange.

 

It doesn't come through in the photography very well, but in person the blue in the main wings is a LOT more noticeable.  I need to push it more towards the yellow end of the spectrum -- I want them to be the pale, nearly yellow green of fresh leaf growth, before it's had time to mature and darken.  I don't quite know what I'm going to do about that.  I don't really have any pale green paints -- I generally like dark greens, and have a wide selection of those.  I may need to mix something custom.

 

The interior petals are off to a good start, but need to shift red in the deepest parts, and yellow at the edges.  I'm less worried about those.

 

I haven't even primed her body yet.  I'm not quite sure how to handle it, frankly.  It's a lovely sculpt, but difficult to work with.  She has a little nubbin between her shoulder blades that fits into the hole you can see in her wings up above, leaving her hovering mid-air.  Literally every other part of the mini needs to be painted -- there's no place to hold the part while I'm working.  Ordinarily I stick the figures to bottle caps with poster putty (as with the base, above), and I just got that fancy Rathcore mini holder thing that I'm using for her wings.  But neither of those will work, because any part of the mini I stick in putty isn't available for painting, and if I stick the nubbin into the cork, that leaves her back inaccessible.  Plus I worry that the pressure of the cork might deform the nubbin and cause it not to fit its matching hole properly.

 

So I may need to paint her body in two different phases, first her torso/arms/head, and then her legs.  I'll take notes on painting procedures as I go so I can match them on the second half.

[Gargs]

I'm also currently running KM, so I'll be following this closely!  Lucky for me, I'm still a ways off before my players will encounter her, but this will be fun to watch.  Great start on the wings!

[CorallineAlgae]

Loving the wings so far. Great pastel colors. 

[SGHawkins09]

You are off to a great start. When I painted this mini, I used this to hold the body:

 

 

The pressure did not deform the nub too much.

[Clearman]

Very nice.

 

I completely missed this one.  It's going in my next order

[wdmartin]

Progress!

 

First the base:

 

 

 

I did a little more highlighting on the vines (Wurm Green + a drop of Pale Saffron), and added some slightly brighter green (Forest Green) to the moss.  The moss didn't come through in the photo very well, it's still quite dark.  I think I may hit it again with some even lighter green, just to punch it up a little.  Oh, and I outlined the edges of the stones in a mixture of 1:1:1 Stone Grey/Sandy Brown/Linen White.  At least I think it's Sandy Brown -- the ink on the label has rubbed to the point where I can't read it any more.

 

Aaaand wings.

 

 

 

I went over the teal-green with several layers of a shade closer to green -- same formula as before, but I added a drop each of Linen White and Pale Saffron.  Then I made a super-thin mixture of Clear Red and put in many layers on the edge.  I may have nightmares about that teal-to-red gradient.  BRUSH STROKES ARE DEATH FOR SMOOTH GRADIENTS.

 

Ahem.  I also put a thin line of the same clear red mixture into the crevices of the orange interior petals.

 

Then I went back and worked on that gradient some more, followed by a quick wash and some highlighting on the vines.

 

 

 

Oh, and I did some highlighting on the interior petals -- used some Fireball Orange plus Pale Saffron to bring the centers of the petals a little closer to yellow, though still basically orange.

 

Todo:

1. Maybe add some spots and blotches to the wings.  In the reference art she's got spots.
2. Make some more visible streaks on the wings where the veins of her leaves would be.
3. Seal the wings.
4. Paint the top of the bar to match the stone work in the base -- this'll have to be done once it's sealed and out of the cork.
5. Attach wings to base, fill in any gaps, paint as needed to make a smooth blend.
6. Seal the base.
7. Start worrying about the body.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Very nice wings. I'm really liking it so far. 

[wdmartin]

Spots and stripes!

 

 

 

Time to seal them and work on putting them together with the base.

[wdmartin]

Okay! Sealed and attached.

 

 

 

I blocked in some orange around the hole where her body will be attached -- it would make sense for the orange to extend all the way up and not abruptly shift to teal-green, as it did earlier.

 

If you look down at the base from on top, you can see the bar connecting the two wings:

 

 

It's not super noticeable, as it looks a lot like the rest of the stones in the base.  But it might have been better to snip that and have two separate posts supporting the wings rather than one bar.  Would have been easier to drill the holes in the base, too, rather than excavating a whole slot.  Oh, well -- live and learn.

 

Her body is primed, but I haven't put any paint on it yet.  It may be a few days before I can return to this project, I have a busy gaming schedule this weekend.

[Gargs]

Those wings are gorgeous!  As for the post showing, you might be able to greenstuff some more vines or somesuch over the post onto the base to completely cover it (though honestly, given what you've done with the wings already, I doubt highly that anyone is going to be looking for a bar showing in the base -- unless maybe you enter it in a competition).

 

Just watching the WIP makes me really glad I have  a looong way to go before she shows up in my KM campaign because I know I couldn't do her justice at the moment.  :P

[wdmartin]

Progress.

 

 

 

As mentioned, I'm doing it top half first.

 

Eyes: went well for once.  First a layer of Pine Green covering the sockets and a bit around it. Linen White for the Sclera.  Dark Walnut for the pupils, then Dragon Blue inside that, then dots of Linen White.

 

The base coat on the skin is 2 brushfuls of Formula P3 Wurm Green with 1 drop of Amethyst Purple.

 

And THAT'S when I discovered the mold lines. -.-;

 

I think I got them now.

Edited June 25, 2017 by wdmartin

[wdmartin]

Further progress -- only another hour or so, due to a social visit.

 

 

 

 

Started highlighting and shading the torso skin:

 

Base layer is: 2:1 Formula P3 Wurm Green/Amethyst Purple

First highlight layer is: pure Wurm Green, thinned

Second highlight layer is: 2:1 Wurm Green/Pale Saffron

 

And I dabbed some very thin pure Amethyst Purple into shadowed areas -- the crevices where her body emerges from the leaf clothing, in the hollow of her throat, inside the ears, and in her belly button.  Incidentally, why does a plant person have a belly button?  Was that where she was attached to her seed or something?

 

The leaves have been base coated in Sandy Brown.  Later I'll go through and pick out individual leaves in yellows, oranges, and pale greens.

 

Still trying to figure out what to do about the vines around her arms.  They need to stand out, which means contrast, which means either Not-Green or a Different-Green from the rest of her.

 

On an unrelated note, I just got a ceramic paint palette, and it is SO MUCH easier to clean than the cheap plastic one I'd been using before.  <3

[Glitterwolf]

Lovely so far!

[wdmartin]

Further progress!  Skin highlighting with 3:1 Pale Saffron/Wurm Green.

 

 

The edge of her belly was a bit too sharply defined there, but I smoothed it out.

 

 

There, a bit smoother.  Not perfect, but less noticeable.

 

I base coated her hands in Fireball Orange, washed them in thin Clear Red, and highlighted with Pale Saffron.  They're a bit gaudy.  And I decided to go with Grass Green for the vines and her shoulder spikes.

 

 

Her other little spikes have been coated with Aged Bone.

 

Looking at the reference art, I see that the interior of her ears are supposed to be orange.  Well, you know what?  I don't care.  I like the amethyst purple in there.  It seems more natural.  Anyway, while I am trying to follow the reference art reasonably closely, there's no need to copy it slavishly.

 

Todo:

 

 - color leaves

 - highlight vines

 - hair

 - belly and arm speckles

 - seal torso, move on to legs and kilt.

 

Happily, I think the legs and the kilt will probably go quicker than the torso.  They're just not as complex.

[wdmartin]

Okay.  Okay.  The torso is finished.

 

 

 

 

 

I pushed the skin highlights a little further - a layer of pure Pale Saffron, then some thinned Linen White for the brightest spots.  The speckles are 1:2 Pine Green/Wurm Green thinned and dotted on.

 

The leaves I just painted in some yellow/orange/red spots, and washed with burnt sienna.  I did a little highlighting on the vines with some wurm green, but not a lot as they started getting too close in color to the rest of her.

 

For the hair, base coat of Sandy Brown, wash with Dark Walnut, highlight in Sandy Brown, then Clear Red for the stripe.

 

And now I'm going to go seal the torso.  Soon -- probably tomorrow night -- I will finish it.  This has really felt like a slog. X_X