Advice and Critique Wanted Reapercon 2017 Sophie

[Paradoxical Mouse]

So, I'm working on the Reapercon 2017 Sophie. I want to paint her to competition level, or at least to the best of my ability. I've already decided several things about her color scheme. 

 

Her dragon mate is going to be a gold dragon. This is to emphasize my primary choice for her wings and clothes, purple. Her skin is going to be utilizing the golden skin triad. The ground is going to be a red brick, going with the brick carved for it. 

 

So, here's this far. At this point, I'm blocking in primary colors for the base, since Sophie blocks several parts of the base once she's added.

 

 

Advice as I go along would be appreciated. I'm going to try to update this with each step. Colors used:

-09074 Palomino Gold to basecoat the dragon

-09401 Dragon Red to basecoat the ground

[Paradoxical Mouse]

Fighting the brick to try and get it to look right. 

[Paradoxical Mouse]

Calling it good with the brick. I did a lot of messing about with washing and drybrushing.

Colors used:

 

Result

[Paradoxical Mouse]

Added the base metallic.

The main body is 09449 Dragon Bronze and the fins are 09697 Retro Gold Silk.

 

[Heisler]

I know its a little late with the brick but I like a combination of Mahogany Brown as the base mixed and highlighted with Rust Brown (from the same tried). Bricks tend to vary significantly in color from one to anther and even if you just dry brush with Rust Brown right now you should get a nice contrast in colors.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Heisler

[Paradoxical Mouse]

I don't actually have rust brown, but I might try dry-brushing it once more. I still haven't gotten that technique down, so I tend to just end up either doing nothing with it or getting too much paint down in the cracks. I still haven't nailed how much paint I want to show up on my hand/paper towel for dry-brushing.

[robinh]

actually if dry-brushing   you want to make sure no paint shows up when lightly passed over a paper towel.  If you see paint you have too much. 

[Paradoxical Mouse]

7 minutes ago, robinh said:

actually if dry-brushing   you want to make sure no paint shows up when lightly passed over a paper towel.  If you see paint you have too much. 

When I do that, I don't see any paint come off onto my mini...

[robinh]

just go over the same area until it starts to show up.  you may have to use a bit more force than normal.   Use a synthetic or old brush for this as it will splay the hairs and ruin a brush.

 

if you can test on your finger you should only see paint show up at the tops of the wrinkles.   basically you are reaching deeper into the brush forcing the paint off by sheer will and force. 

 

test on a piece/mini that has lots of texture or ridges.  Also I only dry-brush a section in one direction (stroke of the brush direction) or you end up painting it instead.

Edited January 29, 2018 by robinh

[kazmania7]

mix in a little dark grey with your dragon red for a pastel look for you bricks.

[Guindyloo]

Rather than giving a paint suggestion, I’m going to suggest that you get a reference picture of red brick that you like and see if you can recreate that look. Just google image search “red brick” and you’ll see plenty of examples. You tend to see a lot of pink and orange tones in red brick, as well as a rusty brown. 

 

As as far as drybrushing, it may be your brush that’s the problem. You want to use a really skuzzy damaged brush for drybrushing. Damaged bristles will hold the pigment better while releasing the moisture from the brush. 

 

These are my current drybrushing brushes:

 

 

These poor brushes have seen terrible, awful things. I’ve beat them up horribly and have let paint dry in them. As a result, they’re really great for drybrushing. 

All 3 of them are cheap synthetic brushes and the one all the way on the right started out all normal with a decent tip to it, but I cruelly cut its bristles in half to make a drybrush that was legal size 0 for 7 day challenges

Edited January 30, 2018 by Guindyloo