60138: Sheila Heidmarch, Venture Captain painted up as a vampire

[Pingo]

I'm playing in a World of Darkness campaign and we need a bunch of vampires.

 

I'm adapting Patrick Keith's 60138: Sheila Heidmarch, Venture Captain to be a vampire, because not all female vampires hang around graveyards in unlikely and suspicious states of undress.

 

All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios.

 

Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated.

 

She's such a pretty and elegant figure! I left off her short sword and staff and filled in the slight dimples where they were meant to go with a little Golden Molding Paste applied with the point of a bamboo skewer. The stuff shrinks when drying, so I heaped it up a little.

 

This is the way I usually start miniature figures: Lightly primed with Titanium White, then when that is dry, washing it over with Burnt Umber. Burnt Umber is a dark, transparent pigment that settles into crannies when thinned down and shows the details very well. (I seem to be having a little trouble with it crackling just a bit in some areas, though.) It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers (even though, eh, with a vampire you don't necessarily want "warmth".)

 

 

 

I like to paint skin first as something of the undermost layer. After I have the skin more or less smooth and correct I paint the features.

 

I have been painting up vampires with stark white skin because I don't seem to have the knack to make them look undead if there is even a little flesh tone in their skin. Maybe I should paint them violet or something ...

 

Anyhow, this is almost the only time I ever mix grey from pure black and white, rather than a complex mix of brighter colors. The flatness of tone conveys something wrong with the individual, and the simplicity of color mix is very easy to shade.

 

I started with a thin wash of pure Titanium White on her face, neck, bust, and hands.

 

 

Then (close ups for a while now) I laid in the first pale shadows. All greys are mixed from Titanium White and Carbon Black.

 

 

Darker shadows and some lights.

   

 

She's rather a mess now, but you can see how the skin shading is beginning to go.

 

 

 

[Glitterwolf]

Another Lady Vampire!

 

I like this!

[Pezler the Polychromatic]

*waits eagerly*

[Pingo]

This afternoon I worked on the faces. Soo many tiny faces!

 

This works out to a grisaille of her skin.

 

 

 

 

Then I painted her mouth, first with a layer of thinned Red Oxide, then washed with a purple made from Phthalocyanine Blue and Quinacridone Magenta, then highlighted on the lower lip with a pink mixed from Quinacridone Magenta, Titanium White, and Yellow Ochre.

 

 

 

[Pingo]

I dabbed a little more Red Oxide on her lower lip and painted her eyes.

 

Paints used: Titanium White, Carbon Black, Hansa Yellow Opaque, Red Oxide.

 

I also laid in some brownish on her hair. It's a complicate mucky mix of everything on my palette, so pretty much the above with some Yellow Ochre added in.

 

The details on her hair are so pretty! She's wearing both a tiara and a comb.

 

 

[Sanael]

I love a lot of what Patrick sculpts...and this is possibly my favorite lady he's ever sculpted. You're doing lovely work as always, such expressive face-work! 

 

Can't wait to see the rest (especially your hinted-at velvet!)

[Geoff Davis]

I find GW warlock purple and a touch of Oxford blue added into the shade layer add a little of the kind of colour you were talking about in your initial post.  I found the idea in a GW tutorial some one wrote about making dead looking witches.  I used it a few times and it looked surprisingly good.

 

Edit: I couldn't find the article I was referencing (it was about 12 years ago) but I can send you an example of how it looks if you are interested.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Geoff Davis
Couldn't find the article I was referencing.

[malefactus]

She has a truly LOVELY face; her eye are WONDERFUL. VERY IMPRESSIVE WORK!

[Pingo]

On 1/17/2018 at 2:05 PM, Sanael said:

I love a lot of what Patrick sculpts...and this is possibly my favorite lady he's ever sculpted. You're doing lovely work as always, such expressive face-work! 

 

Can't wait to see the rest (especially your hinted-at velvet!)

 

On 1/17/2018 at 5:20 PM, malefactus said:

She has a truly LOVELY face; her eye are WONDERFUL. VERY IMPRESSIVE WORK!

 

Thank you! It’s a sweet Patrick Keith sculpt. I only hope I am not obliterating too many details as I paint it.

 

As Sanael brings up, I mentioned in the Randomness thread that I had an idea for how to paint velvet that I wanted to try on this figure.

 

I’ve done it now and it my have worked. There will be a full explanation and pix when I have the time.

 

On 1/17/2018 at 2:31 PM, Geoff Davis said:

I find GW warlock purple and a touch of Oxford blue added into the shade layer add a little of the kind of colour you were talking about in your initial post.  I found the idea in a GW tutorial some one wrote about making dead looking witches.  I used it a few times and it looked surprisingly good.

 

Edit: I couldn't find the article I was referencing (it was about 12 years ago) but I can send you an example of how it looks if you are interested.

 

Thank you. I’m always interested to see people’s solutions to painting problems.

[Pingo]

Velvet update!

 

So ... An idea came to me the other day of how I might be able to paint a velvet effect, and I thought this would be a good figure to experiment on.

 

The thing about velvet is that its appearance is a matter of optical effects. The way the fibers of the material catch the light change its appearance in a dramatic fashion.

 

Velvet was originally made as imitation fur. It is woven with an extra layer of fibers which stand out from the base fabric at approximately 90 degrees (Not perfectly, which is why velvet has a "nap", which is to say a direction with and a direction against the fibers, as with a dog's back. This also affects the appearance.).

 

Where the fibers are pointed more or less at the viewer, light gets trapped and swallowed in the spaces between them and the fabric appears darker. In the deeper jewel-toned velvets I'm working on here, that part of the fabric appears dark and intense, sometimes even light-swallowing black.

 

Where the fibers are pointed at right angles to the viewer they catch the light like the highlights on hair and shine at their brightest.

 

Because of this, velvet appears almost a photo negative of the standard way we shade fabric, darkest in the broad flat areas and high points, lightest at the edges and where the fabric curves away.

 

Photo examples:

Spoiler

 

 

 

There is no way to duplicate the effect of the changing optics as one moves around velvet (much like it is impossible to paint sheer stockings in the round), but with judicious application one might be able to produce an effect that is convincing enough from various angles.

 

And here's my idea for the technique for painting deep jewel-toned velvets:

 

1. Paint all shadows and lights of the velvet in pure black and white first. Do not use grays. Layer the black and white if you need to to shade, but do not mix them. Pay close attention from real life examples to how velvet looks at seams and edges, shadows and wrinkles.

 

2. Perfect everything in the black and white stage. In painting this is called a grisaille.

 

3. When the lights and shadows are arranged to your satisfaction, glaze over the entire garment with a single completely transparent color. Do not do a single layer, but two or three thin ones instead. Phthalo Greens and Blues are excellent for this.

 

Next: The actual work.

 

[Pingo]

I painted her dress with pure but thinned Carbon Black.

 

I started laying in the whites with pure Titanium White. Eventually I plan for the trim to be red with gold decoration, so I am painting it white to be bright under that.

 

It starts out very messy.

 

 

I took back the black with layers of pure Carbon Black. No mixing!

 

 

 

 

Trying for a soft furry effect on some of the smoother surfaces. I am not doing anything special with all of the lovely little sculpted details in the fabric, sorry.

 

 

Day two: Smoother, smoother, smoother:

 

 

 

 

I think she's ready!

 

[Pingo]

This is the paint I used: Golden's Matte Fluid Acrylic, Phthalocyanine Green.

 

It is a completely transparent jewel-like emereald green. Its only drawback is the nature of the pigment, which dries a little glossy no matter what they do to it.  Oh, well.

 

Two layers testing on the skirt:

 

And here she is with the velvet colored (some pictures from a little later when I painted her trim with Hansa Yellow Opaque):

 

 

 

[Pingo]

Whoops, missed a step.  Back up a bit, this is what happened to her hair between the last update and the velvet update:

 

Washed with Burnt Umber, highlighted with mixes of Burnt Umber and Titanium White:

 

 

 

 

Edit: And I just noticed that little smoodge on her forehead.  Will fix that later.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Pingo

[Mierot]

I'm loving this, Pingo! I have a few tiny Golden fluid acrylic bottles I've been meaning to play with. Seeing them in action is a wonderful prompt to just do it.

[Green Eyed Monster]

37 minutes ago, Pingo said:

Whoops, missed a step.  Back up a bit, this is what happened to her hair between the last update and the velvet update:

 

Washed with Burnt Umber, highlighted with mixes of Burnt Umber and Titanium White:

 

 

 

 

Edit: And I just noticed that little smoodge on her forehead.  Will fix that later.

That "smoodge" could be the basis for some interesting character lines.

GEM

Just a thought.