Sparrow Paints a Bookish Dragon

[SparrowMarie]

So here I am posting yet another WIP thread. I will probably finish this one this time since it is a gift for my SIL. It is the Bookish Dragon from Wildspire Games. I am currently pre-planning colors with an app on my tablet. I am thoroughly stuck though. I want the main color to be a purple. Problem with this is that green is the complementary color and I don't want it to look like Barney or the Joker.

 

I am currently using swatches of MSP Monarch Purple, MSP Amethyst Purple, and a few different browns/tans that I'm not sure I'm happy with. This is where I'm at so far. Any suggestions are welcome. Under the spoiler are uncolored photos of the pieces.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Inarah]

It looks like you have a nice range of purples and pinks, but only the two very dark greens.  If you used some yellow-greens as highlights and did dark purple in the shadows, you get some cool effects. 

 

Inspiration pictures: 

 

 

 

 

 

[SparrowMarie]

4 minutes ago, Inarah said:

It looks like you have a nice range of purples and pinks, but only the two very dark greens.  If you used some yellow-greens as highlights and did dark purple in the shadows, you get some cool effects. 

 

Inspiration pictures: 

 

 

 

 

 

Ooooo, didn't even think about lighter greens. I'll play around and see what happens.

[Mad Jack]

 

 You can get a lot of variation and contrast out of purple, particularly if you use both red-purples and blue-purples for different parts of the mini.

As Inarah mentioned, lighter shades of purple and green will lessen the Barney/Joker similarity.

Or, rather than using green as a base color, you could use it for the shadows. Or tie the mini together by using light purples shaded with dark greens and light greens shaded with dark purples.

 

 Another thing you could do to make it less Barny-ish would be to do a green-to-purple or purple-to-green fade on the dorsal spines, horns and wing membranes...

 

This is a purple dragon familiar I painted years ago, which definitely doesn't look Barney-ish, and another one with a color fade on the wings...

 

 

 

 

[SparrowMarie]

Had to go with a slightly different purple since I couldn't find my bottle of the Monarch Purple. My small lamp's battery died so this is all I accomplished on this today. Worked on putting a base coat on the base as well. I am not finished.

 

 

[Painting Dog]

Just adding to the color discussion: I struggle with choosing complementary colors that then make my mini look like Barney/Superman/a Halloween decoration, too. 😆 I've found this usually happens because I'm focusing on the very basic, saturated versions of the main colors. Try moving into more desaturated versions of the greens and purples, at least for some of the tones, and see if that helps. 

[SparrowMarie]

So minor (major?) issue with a wing. It doesn't quite fit like it should and I'm not sure how to fix it currently. I want to avoid green stuff of at all possible. The top part is supposed to fit into the small divot that's in the shoulder. The wing isn't even going all the way in. Help?

 

 

 

[Inarah]

I would use a sharp knife and slowly shave off parts of the wing "peg" until it fits more snugly.  I've had to do that with some Reaper stuff, too. 

[Painting Dog]

You could also try heating the plastic to soften it, then muscling the tab into the slot. That can sometimes also help avoid gapping, since it will then shrink down tight again as it cools. (Still use some super glue, too.)

[SparrowMarie]

Got it to fit almost perfectly except for the gap. Now looking at other colors for wings/scales/horns/etc.

 

[SparrowMarie]

Wings are based! Need to figure out what claw/horn/etc. colors I want to do.

 

 

ETA: Wing membrane is a mix of Desna Blue and Eldritch Purple.

Edited September 27, 2022 by SparrowMarie

[SparrowMarie]

So this dragon has some nice scales through out the body. I want to line them but not sure how to approach the ones on the face. Any advice?

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by SparrowMarie

[aku-chan]

My go to would be to hit it with a dark purpley wash and then pick out the scales individually, don't know if there's enough definition there for that to work though.

[Mad Jack]

On 9/28/2022 at 7:35 AM, aku-chan said:

My go to would be to hit it with a dark purpley wash and then pick out the scales individually, don't know if there's enough definition there for that to work though.

 

 Yeah, that's sort of what I was thinking as well. If you're taking the time to line all the scales, you might want to do a heavy wash with something close to black (What's the darkest purple? Nightshade purple? Is Black Indigo a purple?), then go back and pick out the scales with your base color again, or maybe drybrush them.

 

 

[SparrowMarie]

On 9/28/2022 at 4:35 AM, aku-chan said:

My go to would be to hit it with a dark purpley wash and then pick out the scales individually, don't know if there's enough definition there for that to work though.

 

2 hours ago, Mad Jack said:

 

 Yeah, that's sort of what I was thinking as well. If you're taking the time to line all the scales, you might want to do a heavy wash with something close to black (What's the darkest purple? Nightshade purple? Is Black Indigo a purple?), then go back and pick out the scales with your base color again, or maybe drybrush them.

 

 

 

I ended up mixing a color out of Kraken Ink and Clear Magenta to get a really pretty dark purple. I am currently in the process of picking out the scales on the face slowly 

with what was my base color.This is giving me much better contrast.

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by SparrowMarie