Thursday, March 23, 2017

Heroes for Dungeonquest: Farendil, Elf Ranger









Well, this one didn't follow too closely on the heels of the others, but I think I can line up some posts pretty well for the next short while. Here is Farendil the elf. If I recall he has the same stats in the game as El-Adoran Sureshot from the base set.

I primed him gray and then white. With these DungeonQuest figures I wanted to capture a sense I have of great paintjobs I saw photos of in the late 80s and very early 90s that seemed to glow from within, with glazing being the key. The goal is what I think of as a candy-like quality. His Lincoln green attire and leggings were done light to dark with thin layers and glazes. Although highlights were added between layers where needed, most of the light is the white of the primer visible through the layers. Most of the DungeonQuest figures I did this way. By way of contrast, El-Adoran was painted purely over black, and you can perhaps see the difference if I put them side-by-side here.I actually intended to spray the El-Adoran figure with white too, but he was the first I painted on a day when I wanted to get started without having to go outside and prime white, and wait for the smell to lessen.




You can see a muted quality of the El-Adoran figure that is also desirable, and has a benefit of pulling the palette together and acting as a guard against the bright paints of today making a gaudy riot of color. The photos above are pretty true to life, that's how they look when you put them side by side (I should have taken a photo of them together but I'm lazy).

Both styles have their pluses. Straight dark to light is my comfort zone and is more reliable. On the other hand, going for the candy-like glazed quality is a fun challenge, and there's more a chance to wind up with something slightly different than expected (the "happy accident").

Some painters have one dependable style. I'm sure I have a certain stamp but I approach Oldhammer in a different way than I approach D&D and that different to some other collection of figures. I think I made the right choice for these DungeonQuest figures. When I get the quality I want in a figure, whatever I'm going for, it's like a little jolt of a thrill. Then I say to myself that it "sings" and pat myself on the back. Maybe that sounds a little funny to say out loud or read on the screen, but that's the truth of it, I work to make the figures sing, and its a narrow little zone in which they do it, can't be even a little off on the one side or the other, and when it sings it gives me the little jolt to do the next ones.



5 comments:

  1. You did a great job recreating the artwork again. I have to say I like both, but you're right, the first figure really pops and looks more like the figures of yore.

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  2. This is interesting, as my painting style has always been based on the tried-and-tested formula of going dark-light from a black undercoat (notwithstanding a wash), but I am about to start experimenting with using grey-white undercoats and thinned down paints. I'm not sure I have the abilities to pull it off, but we shall see!

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  3. Just started painting again after a long hiatus and your old skool, saturated paintjobs are a great inspiration. As it happens, I'm painting up some old Citadel Orcs and found your recipe from a while back, which is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. Would you be willing to revisit and elaborate a bit?! It went like:
    GW Orkhide Shade, P3 Necrotite green, GW Snakebite leather and/or Bestial Brown, GW Tausept Ochre, GW Golden Yellow, For the gums, mix in a little GW Dwarf Flesh, Add a tiny bit of Vallejo Pale Sand if needed for final highlights.
    My question is: do you just pour some of the next color up into the preceding mix or is a particular highlight color only a mix of two adjacent colors (in relation to the recipe)? Does that make sense?!
    Keep up the eye-candy and happy painting☺

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