The Satyr's Waterfall

[Stonebred]

Here is my journey making my first water base. I'm not quite done yet, as I still have some work to do on the Satyr, but I'm so close to finishing. This was a huge experiment for me, but I'm planning to do it again. I'd like to enter a water piece into ReaperCon this year, and I think this was good progress on the way to doing just that.

 

I would love your feedback if you have any.

 

Photo 1 - I started with some foam board (first time using that too!!) and glued it together. I used regular old Elmer's glue for this.

Photo 2 - I started carving out the foam board and playing with where I wanted the main rock to be.

Photo 3 - I used some Vallejo Plastic Putty to smooth out the sides of the base. Neat stuff. Was recommended on another forum.

Photo 4 - I started to use some Milliput to seal in the foam in preparation for adding "water"

Photo 5 - I used Milliput and some cork to make "rocks"

Photo 6 - I decided I didn't really like the cork rocks at all and sculpted them to look like slate instead. I also started sculpting some river stones for the basin.

Photo 7 - More river stones, and placed the satyr to make sure it would work.

Photo 8 - Priming and zenithal light.

Photo 9 - Finally adding some color.

Photo 10  - Flocking and some plants added. I made the vine out of wire and paper. The "fern" was from a laser cut set of leaves I had. I'm not really happy with the fern looking thing. I've crushed it more than once now while painting, but it will have to do for now. Would love some feedback if you have any.

Photo 11 - I taped it and held my breath and add two part clear epoxy. IT LEAKED EVERYWHERE!  It was terrible. I added more tape and stemmed the flow, but it was pretty bad.  First time for water... I expected this to happen deep down inside lol.

Photos 12, 13, and 14 - I started adding scenic fibres to simulate the waterfall. I also used some water effects called Making Waves to "glue" it in place.

Photo 15 - I added another round of two part clear epoxy to make the water deeper and to fix some of the mistakes I made with the water effects and fibres.

Photo 16 - I used some micro sanders to bring the front of the water to a shine. I also added some more water effect to show some flow in the water. I also started painting the Satyr and playing with colors.

Photo 17 - I used some pure white paint to show water activity a bit more. I also did more work on the Satyr and glued him in place. I didn't pin him, and probably should have, but he's holding so far.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Stonebred
put photo descriptions in line and added tags

[Cicciopiu]

wow! Fantastic! It looks real, now I'm really inspired 

[Glitterwolf]

[Rigel]

Magnificent work! Beautiful scene, well-imagined and well-executed!

[blargney]

I love it

[Glitterwolf]

What kind of tape did you use?

[malefactus]

What a SPLENDID idea! I would never have thought of doing a waterfall that way. It is BEAUTIFULLY done & very inspiring. OUTSTANDING WORK!

[Stonebred]

Thanks everyone!  I really appreciate the encouragement and kind words!  It's been a labor of love and I'm learning so much. I plan to finish this one off and do it again pretty quickly to see if I can apply what I've learned.

 

2 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

What kind of tape did you use?

Great question... Apparently the wrong kind of tape the first time. haha.  I used painters tape (the green tape). It leaked everywhere. I then had to act quickly and I wrapped regular old masking tape around the base twice to keep the painters tape in place. That seemed to hold much better.

 

The second time I poured, I just used the masking tape and didn't seem to have any issues.

 

I've heard of folks using "Plasticard," but quite frankly, I have no idea where to find it, or how to set it up. Anyone else have experience with "plasticard?"

[vhaidra]

Wow, stunning!!! Thank you so much for this pretty cool step by step for giving us the chance to learn something. I think this all looks quite impressive and professional. I simply love the whole concept and the execution. The base is just amazing and this satyr also looks damned good. I checked out your homepage and have seen a lot of supercool projects: Please post them here too bit by bit. I would love to comment them.

 

I had an idea when I have seen this, but I don`t know if you like it. So this is just a suggestion meant as inspiration and it is no problem if you refuse this. It is just what I was thinking when I have seen the whole scene: The satyr is painted in a quite limited palette of browns which is cool and suits well of course.

 

My idea now is: What if you connect him better with the base by painting very subtle green shades over the darker midtones and shadows? Or another idea is: You could also use the complementary colour to green according the colour theory of Harald Küppers (not the one by Itten) which has created a different colour wheel with different complementary pairs which are also very cool. Originally Küppers determinded magenta as the complementary to green, but a bit further to the left on his colour wheel green also works great with purple. Purple shades at this browns would also look good. But as said...just a suggestion.

 

Concerning plasticcard as the border for the water... any kind of smooth and even plastic pieces should work. I have seen this one here in the german Bemalforum. The artist who made this base is called Ildfus Mahler and his waterbases always turned out crystal clear so I think this is recommandable. But as we see your attempt with the hobby tape also worked fantastic and so I`m not sure if you need to try plasticcard or plastic in general, because the tape you used worked very well and is mostlikely way easier to use/to handle than the plasticcard. I will share this way with the hobby tape in my german forum too. They will be quite happy about this great tip THANKS!!!

[Stonebred]

5 hours ago, vhaidra said:

Wow, stunning!!! Thank you so much for this pretty cool step by step for giving us the chance to learn something. I think this all looks quite impressive and professional. I simply love the whole concept and the execution. The base is just amazing and this satyr also looks damned good. I checked out your homepage and have seen a lot of supercool projects: Please post them here too bit by bit. I would love to comment them.

Thanks! :)  I'll endeavor to post more of my work on the forums. I'm kind of a noob when it comes to posting here, but I'll make an effort to do so more often.

 

5 hours ago, vhaidra said:

I had an idea when I have seen this, but I don`t know if you like it. So this is just a suggestion meant as inspiration and it is no problem if you refuse this. It is just what I was thinking when I have seen the whole scene: The satyr is painted in a quite limited palette of browns which is cool and suits well of course.

 

My idea now is: What if you connect him better with the base by painting very subtle green shades over the darker midtones and shadows? Or another idea is: You could also use the complementary colour to green according the colour theory of Harald Küppers (not the one by Itten) which has created a different colour wheel with different complementary pairs which are also very cool. Originally Küppers determinded magenta as the complementary to green, but a bit further to the left on his colour wheel green also works great with purple. Purple shades at this browns would also look good. But as said...just a suggestion.

Great suggestion. I'm always open to new ideas and suggestions. I'm a lifelong student and have not been painting and working with miniatures for very long, so please PLEASE continue providing me with ideas! I love it!

 

I'm not done with the Satyr yet, so I'll definitely looking into color theory by Harald Küppers as I work toward finishing him. I tried using greens in the shadows, but I like the idea of choosing a complementary color or even a contrasting one to create shadow.

 

5 hours ago, vhaidra said:

Concerning plasticcard as the border for the water... any kind of smooth and even plastic pieces should work. I have seen this one here in the german Bemalforum. The artist who made this base is called Ildfus Mahler and his waterbases always turned out crystal clear so I think this is recommandable. But as we see your attempt with the hobby tape also worked fantastic and so I`m not sure if you need to try plasticcard or plastic in general, because the tape you used worked very well and is mostlikely way easier to use/to handle than the plasticcard. I will share this way with the hobby tape in my german forum too. They will be quite happy about this great tip THANKS!!!

I'm going to try some plastic next time as well, as the tape has the one drawback of being short. I suppose I could do multiple layers of the tape to build up height, but it would be nice to address that concern with one solid piece.

 

Thanks very much for the great feedback!

[vhaidra]

22 hours ago, Stonebred said:

Thanks! :)  I'll endeavor to post more of my work on the forums. I'm kind of a noob when it comes to posting here, but I'll make an effort to do so more often.

 

I`m glad to hear this

 

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Great suggestion. I'm always open to new ideas and suggestions. I'm a lifelong student and have not been painting and working with miniatures for very long,

 

What??? May I ask since when you are painting? I think it looks like you are doing this all since ever haha.

 

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so please PLEASE continue providing me with ideas! I love it!

 

Cool, yes I will do

 

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I'm not done with the Satyr yet, so I'll definitely looking into color theory by Harald Küppers as I work toward finishing him. I tried using greens in the shadows, but I like the idea of choosing a complementary color or even a contrasting one to create shadow.

 

If you are interested into the topic colourschemes in general you should study both colour theories: The one by Johannes Itten (this is the most known and the most used colour theory) and the one by Harald Küppers who developed a different colour wheel and so different colour schemes resulting from this different colour wheel which are more seldom used but that exactly is the great thing at it, because with the colour theory by Küppers you can create uncommon colour schemes which are surprising and nevertheless good looking.

 

I don`t know if you know this already, I just make a try here, because for the colour wheel created by Johannes Itten there are so called colour scheme generators available at the internet. I post here one for you, but you can look for different ones and select the one you like most then:

 

http://colorschemedesigner.com/csd-3.5/

 

Above the colour wheel you see different colour schemes: Mono, complement, triad, tetrad and so on. And at the colour wheel itself you see dots. Klick on one of this dots, hold the left button at your pc mouse and move the dot or dots. It is one dot if you have selected mono, two dots if you have selected complement, three dots if you selected triad and so on. You can change the distance between the dots and you can move the dots all around the colour wheel.

 

For example you wish to see complementary pairs: Click above on complement and drag one of the dot to the red, then you will see that according Johannes Itten green is the complemetary to red. Drag the dot to purple and you see that yellow is the complentary colour to purple and so on. Really intresting it becomes when selected a triad or tetrad or some split complementary colour schemes.

 

Below the colour wheel is another intresting button called "Adjust scheme" there you can move the dot in the left square for determining the saturation and lightness and in the right square you can select how the preview image right beside the colour wheel appears. This means you can check out how a colour scheme would look in pastel or with very saturated colours or with rather dark colours and so. Just play around with this tool, it is great fun and a very relaxing and joyful way of learning colour theory and try things, before messing up a miniature with the wrong decisions.

 

If you study colour schemes a completely new world opens up, because you can use them not only for to decide in which colours you wish to paint your miniature, but also for considering how to paint the base. Last but not least you can create very delicate colour schemes for painting by knowing for example that orange is the complementary to blue you can use for more neutral colours like browns for example a slightly orange brown for leather parts and bluegrey for the skin or other parts. Means: You can use this knowledge also by just going in a certain direction. Slightly orange skin and blueish armor for example.

 

It is not necessary to use the colours in it`s pure and highly saturated form. It works especially great if you wish to create a natural looking miniature with a lot of neutral colours like beige, brown, white, greys and so on, by giving the neutral tones just a bit of any colour which is either complementary or analog to other details you have painted in more saturated colours or in subtle colours too.

 

The high art of creating amazing colour schemes is to use simply the basics of colour theory, but then being creative with it. For example: Blue is not just blue. There are warm, cold, greenish, reddish, greyish, saturated, desaturated variants of blue. It is the tone which decides if something looks great and harmonious or just accidentally.

 

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I'm going to try some plastic next time as well, as the tape has the one drawback of being short. I suppose I could do multiple layers of the tape to build up height, but it would be nice to address that concern with one solid piece.

 

Ah I understand. Okay, well then...

 

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Thanks very much for the great feedback!

 

You`re welcome