A Party of Drow and a Drider, by Pingo, very slowly.

[Pingo]

How slowly has this WIP gone? I started these elves in late spring 2016. Because of events and shake-ups I set aside all my work from that time, but now I have picked them up again. For this WIP I am making a warband of three female and one male Drow with support from a female sorceress Drider.

 

The three women are the wonderful set 03516: DHL Classics: Dark Elves sculpted by the inimitable Sandra Garrity. I'm going to identify each separately because they also have individual SKUs and names and it's easier to keep track of them that way. The man is 14046: Ardynn, Elf Hero sculpted by Werner Klocke; he is not intended as a Drow, but he looks so cranky I think he will do well as one. The Drider is a Bones mash-up of 77182: Arachnid Archer plus the torso of 77057: Juliette, Sorceress, as detailed in this thread.

 

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.

 

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. It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers.

 

To begin with I painted the three women's weaponry straight Carbon Black, with the thought that I would paint over it later with metallics or iridescents, which always look better against a dark underpainting.

 

I mixed a transparent dark blue-black from Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue and washed it over the three women's skin, and a bit lightly over their hair to begin to work where shadows will be,

 

The first dark elf in the Garrity set is also sold as 02574: Female Dark Elf.

  

 

The second is also Reaper's 02524: Female Dark Elf Cleric

 

 

 

And the third is 02460: Vernicia

 

 

 

I then mixed some Titanium White with the blue-black to make a cold blue grey and added rough lights to the skin, and white to the hair.

 

 

 

Ardynn I started a little differently, with blue-grey mixes from Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Titanium White and a bit of straight white in his hair from the start.

 

 

 

This is my custom-made Drider, primed with Reaper's Brown Liner diluted somewhat:

 

I painted her skin and hair the same way I did Ardynn's. This is the crude beginnings:

 

 

Next time: Faces! And arghy bits I missed, like Ardynn's hands.

 

[Loim]

I love these.

 

[Glitterwolf]

Very cool!

[Rigel]

Really enjoying the color scheme...that sepia armor and neatly lined hair make them look like a Rackham illustration. And that guy knew from creepy fey, I can tell you!

[Pingo]

1 hour ago, Rigel said:

Really enjoying the color scheme...that sepia armor and neatly lined hair make them look like a Rackham illustration. And that guy knew from creepy fey, I can tell you!

 

We had a bunch of his books when I was a kid. Very inspiring.

[Pingo]

So then I zoomed in and focused on the faces. They continue to be a blue-tilted greyish mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, lightened with Titanium White. I think I lined their eye sockets with Carbon Black before painting the eyes, but mostly I stuck with a very limited palette.

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

[Glitterwolf]

I love how you paint faces!

 

[Warlady]

The eyes on all of them look great!

[Pingo]

I refined their hair, using the medium mix for their skin as shading for their hair (Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna lightened with Titanium White).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was a little dissatisfied with Ardynn's face, so I refined it a little.

  

 

I painted the armor and weaponry on these two black, or blackish. Some of this is pure Carbon Black and some of it is a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. Later I plan to brush some silver metallic paint lightly over it, leaving a lot of the black showing.

 

 

 

[Darcstaar]

Great start.

Awesome conversion to obtain a unique Drider Sorceress.

[Pingo]

I laid in some lavender on Arachnid-Juliette's robe. This was a straightforward mix of Ultramarine Blue and Quinacridone Magenta, lightened with Titanium White. I also colored her spider body with a cream color mixed from Titanium White and Yellow Ochre, with a little Burnt Umber to take down the yellow. Right now the color is thin and the priming under it makes it look grey in places. I'm not sure if there is a real spider with this coloration, but I had an idea to make her spider-body cream colored, shaded on top with translucent gold-orange, with tiny black spots. We'll see how well this plan survives contact with reality.

 

 

I thinly brushed silver metallic paint over their weapons and armor. I wanted the silver to look dark and heavy, so I left it thin so the black underpainting would show through.

 

 

 

Normally I would put the silver on a raised surface like these spiderwebs after painting the color under them, but I wanted to see what would happen if I did it in this order.

 

 

In addition to silver, I primed the crown on the skull this one is holding with a bright opaque brick red (Red Oxide), which is traditional under gilding and makes gold metallic paint look richer when painted over it. I haven't painted the gold yet.

 

[Glitterwolf]

Going strong !