Darksword red dragon for Reapercon

[Kangaroorex]

Pretty late in the mini to start a WIP but I could use some thoughts and suggestions, in particular in the area of contrast.  I am looking to bring up the contrast on the scales but I don't want to shift to an orange or pink.  The skin shows a decent contrast but to my eye it's more orange than red at this point.  I love the different shading going on for each scale type but I want more from the upper body scales without going into orange and yellow.

 

My challenge to myself this year is to gel my reds to be red.  It's not an easy color to work with and a lot of these paints are either transparent or chalk when thinned.  It has been a long road to get this far but I want a richer color.

 

Thoughts would be welcomed along with critique.  Pictures were snapped off my work bench but I will shoot for better ones this weekend.  In the meantime...

 

the photos are raw and taken without flash to try and show the pieces in the most natural light

 

The body.  Trying for three textures plus the crest.  The heavy armored back scales are under layered with corpreal shadow to make them stand out, then shaded from a dark purple red to blood red.  The body scales are undershaded with brick red and shaded up to a highlight of Phoenix red.  The body skin on the arms starts at Gore red and shaded up to a lantern yellow.  Problem is with the body.  I would like more highlight but whatever I try changes the tone to either orange or pink. 

The head: still a work in progress.  Needing to clean up the horns and again highlight without going to the orange or pink

 

Upper side of wing.  Looking pretty good although a set of missed mold lines is making me repaint the horns

 

Wing underside.  Subdued and darker as this part is solidly cast in shadow and the horns are in the process of being repainted... again

 

So thanks again for anyone who would like to help out.

[Glitterwolf]

Awesome mini!

 

As for highlighting red without turning to orange/pink.

 

First, apply a green wash, this will bring out the red of the scales more.

 

Then, go the other way around.

Paint the darker part of the scales a bit darker red ( red mixed with a tad brown, or a cinnamon red?)

Then paint the parts you want to highlight the brightest red you have.

 

 

Edited July 27, 2018 by Glitterwolf

[Kangaroorex]

Thanks for the tip.  using counter colors in shading is something I have a mental block with.  I appreciate the suggestion, although I am going to try it on Ollie the mini red dragon first. (dragon that was an option with one of Impact's kicstarter.  it turns out that most of the scale patterns on the darksword mini are also represented on Ollie, making him an excellent test case.)  Ollie is the reason I know I cant go more yellow or orange without losing the "red" color to my eye.  Ollie has turned into the mandarin dragon (as in the fruit) twice in this endeavor.  I will give it a shot with new pics tonight. 

 

Editing to shoe body with green wash (okay it's more of a glaze, I had some trepidation to overcome)  but it seems to have had the desired effect.  The red just is redder.  (On the other hand the one spot of orange red I tried turned very green very quick.  Lesson learned :) )  here's a comparison photo of the body same lighting same phone no touch up or adjustment.  Thank you for the tidbit

 

More highlight to the crest bones and skin I think... and of course have to go retouch the orange test spot

Edited July 28, 2018 by Kangaroorex

[Kangaroorex]

Today's efforts.  I've been using museum was to hold the dragon together while I'm painting to check the separate parts for fit and highlighting.  Thought I would show what he looks like assembled.  Been doing a lot of pinhole fixes and detail shading and highlighting 

 

Hope people like him.

 

 

[kazmania7]

museum? Never heard of it, may I ask what it is? lol

[Warlady]

He's looking great.

[Kangaroorex]

5 hours ago, kazmania7 said:

museum? Never heard of it, may I ask what it is? lol

Sorry auto corrupt at work.  It's museum wax.  It's a stiff sticky wax used to hold display pieces to shelving but it does a good job temporarily holding larger mini pieces together and scrapes off cleanly when you are ready to glue.  It's a lot stickier than poster tack and has no rebound so I can check fit and do gap filling while keeping the pieces separate to paint.

[Warlady]

Where do you get it?  Online?

[Limey72]

This is really progressing well it looks superb

[Kangaroorex]

1 hour ago, Warlady said:

Where do you get it?  Online?

This one came directly from darksword and was their first resin dragon.  It's well fitting but some of the mold lines are treacherous.  I made the conscious decision to treat some of them as scars because cleaning them would have destroyed large chunks of the skin art in the insides of the legs.  It is a lot easier to handle than the metal Elmore series though.  Much easier on the wrists.

1 hour ago, Limey72 said:

This is really progressing well it looks superb

Thank you,  It means a lot.  I've been trying to push my skills on this one!

[LittleBluberry]

I know I'm really late to the party, but if you're not happy with an orange tone in your highlights you can glaze with clear red to get that red tone back while still keeping most of the highlighting.  I've only played with it a little, but Pingo has a better explanation in this thread.  

 

I find that Brilliant Red (which is an HD color) gives a pretty bright red color, but it might not quite be light enough for you.  I do sometimes use Phoenix Red to try and get those highlights brighter, but you're right, it is very orange.  I'm still working on highlighting red myself, but hopefully the link inspires you.  Your dragon is looking pretty great so far!   

[Warlady]

18 hours ago, Kangaroorex said:

Sorry auto corrupt at work.  It's museum wax.  It's a stiff sticky wax used to hold display pieces to shelving but it does a good job temporarily holding larger mini pieces together and scrapes off cleanly when you are ready to glue.  It's a lot stickier than poster tack and has no rebound so I can check fit and do gap filling while keeping the pieces separate to paint.

 

Sorry, I meant where do you get museum wax?

[Kangaroorex]

8 hours ago, LittleBluberry said:

I know I'm really late to the party, but if you're not happy with an orange tone in your highlights you can glaze with clear red to get that red tone back while still keeping most of the highlighting.  I've only played with it a little, but Pingo has a better explanation in this thread.  

 

I find that Brilliant Red (which is an HD color) gives a pretty bright red color, but it might not quite be light enough for you.  I do sometimes use Phoenix Red to try and get those highlights brighter, but you're right, it is very orange.  I'm still working on highlighting red myself, but hopefully the link inspires you.  Your dragon is looking pretty great so far!   

never too late!  Thanks for the insight.  the highest level of brightness on the scales I am at for the main body is phoenix red.  anything higher winds up looking to orange.  the body 'skin' goes all the way up to lantern yellow for the highlights on his upper arms and nose.  the main scales are maxed out at reapers Blood Red because I want to keep them a definitely darker shade.  oddly enough, the wings also go to blood red but since they start at brown, they look much darker.

 

One thing I haven't found is an opaque bright red.  Wonder if there is something about the pigment that wont let it work.  I usually try to move 1 step darker then I want and add a drop of pure white to get some opacity, but it washes out the redness pretty quickly.

 

7 hours ago, Warlady said:

 

Sorry, I meant where do you get museum wax?

  I got it through amazon.  comes in a little tub which is probably enough for life.  It also works great for holding minis to display case shelves

[LittleBluberry]

Red is super translucent and I think it's the nature of the pigment.  I only use HD reds because otherwise coverage takes forever.  Makes the blending easier, though!   

[Kangaroorex]

2 hours ago, LittleBluberry said:

Red is super translucent and I think it's the nature of the pigment.  I only use HD reds because otherwise coverage takes forever.  Makes the blending easier, though!   

True enough.  but I imagine there has to be something out there.  Yellow is another color that is super translucent but Golden Glow is very opaque and I use it a lot, if not as the color then blended with another yellow to get better coverage.

 

This dragon, for example took 4 basecoats before the color looked like red and not grey.  and I am still not sure I should have gone with a white primer rather than a light grey...