Friday 17 February 2012

Khymerae

Simultaneously completed last night, a pair of Stygian horrors courtesy of Jes Goodwin. I wonder if Jes has Wayne Barlowe art books in his library. Does he even have a library?

I did a cursory search for other painted examples (just to see what others have done), but it seems not many are that bothered with these models... they should be though.





Technique: there was absolutely no 'flat' painting on these, all was done with washes of two primary colours (over Vallejo white primer): Vallejo Prussian Blue; Windsor & Newton Finity Alizarin Crimson; Portrait Pinks from Liquitex, used for a little highlighting in between primary washes; some Vallejo Black for the eyes and deep shading; Daler-Rowney Silver ink for claws, etc. Base was sculpted with standard Milliput with bits of slate and painted in Vallejo browns, later darkened by mixing in some GW Charadon Granite. 

I'm ambivalent about the basing: I was aiming for a streaking effect, to suggest speed, and the texture is OK-ish in that regard, but I found the lines were too linear during painting. Something more like a chevron enhanced by light brush flicking would have been better, I reckon. Anyways, they look decent enough as is, a touch alien, otherworldly (not a terrain you would easily find on Earth)...

~J~

Post Scriptum.
Why silver ink. I had thoughts of alien physiology while painting these. I'm aware of things like comparative biology and such, but I didn't want to do the obvious 'bone' thing. Why couldn't an alien monster have evolved metal laced bone weaponry? 
(yes, like Wolverine) 



3 comments:

  1. Wow! Beautiful tones on those two models. I like the way the crimson blends in to the depth of the sculpt. You say these were painting just with a succession of washes? I had never thought of that!

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  2. Thanks - yes, just washes, apart from some highlighting in between to bring back some contrast. A chap on another forum remarked 'drybrushing bringing out the detail', when in fact there was barely any.

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  3. I don't play WH40K but I am tempted to buy these Khymerae just to pain them after seeing your work. They look very good.

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