Here be dragons!

[me_in_japan]

the guy on the pegasus is actually paint too.

Blimey - shows what I know...

Well, pigments or paint - your work with metallics is ace, and tbh you've already become my go-to artist when I want to see some examples of nice metallics. (and horses, of course ) I'm keen to see what you do with the non-metallic parts of the mini. Claws n teeth n suchlike. I'd ask for more pics, but I appreciate that them dragony types don't paint up so fast...

 

[kathrynloch]

Awww...why thank you MiJ, that's very sweet of you to say. Made my day.

I'm working on the teeth and horns now, teeth are giving me fits because of some red-bleed through when I accidentally got red paint on them from the mouth. grrr!

And here's a quandary - what color to paint the eyes because red and yellow blend right in. I've got green on there now but not sure if it will work.

 

[TrystanGST]

Probably depends on the green. With the bright metallics around the eyes, it's going to be hard to make any color noticable unless you basically black out the eye sockets.

 

[kathrynloch]

Well I went for an emerald green and painted the area around the eyes a really dark brown.

 

[TrystanGST]

Sounds good, but you know what they say..show me the mon-er pics!

 

[kathrynloch]

lol Give me a sec. Sheesh!

That's what he looks like now but still working on horns and teef.

 

[TrystanGST]

Interesting. I can definitely see the green, but his eyes look really small.

 

[marjedi]

The models eyes are very small

Wonderfull work sofar Kath :claply:

 

[Meph]

Oh, a gold dragon, shiny! Lookin' good Kat!

 

[Aureo]

Looking great Kat! Keep it up!

 

[me_in_japan]

wow - his eyes really are teensyweensy li'l peepers. Hmmn. How about green, but highlight em up to yellowish white? Kind of like you see on a lot of Cryx models from Warmachine. It might look odd, but I think at that size of eye compared to the rest of the mini, it would need a dang strong colour to show up at all. Or....you could OSL them and use the surrounding eye socket to show them up more?

 

[Stewsayer]

Hi Kath,

Looking good there. I have to do a dragon one day. Once I finished all the half finished stuff and found one my wife approves of. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

[kathrynloch]

Interesting. I can definitely see the green, but his eyes look really small.

The models eyes are very small

Wonderfull work sofar Kath :claply:

Thanks Mar! And Trys - it's one of those things where you really don't realize how tiny they are until you're slapping down paint. Then it's like, oh, wait - that's part of the eye socket, hold on a sec, that's the eyelid, holy crap that's the edge of the eyeball....I think. lol!

Oh, a gold dragon, shiny! Lookin' good Kat!

lol! Thanks Meph!

Looking great Kat! Keep it up!

Workin' on it! Started the body but not fit to take pics of yet.

wow - his eyes really are teensyweensy li'l peepers. Hmmn. How about green, but highlight em up to yellowish white? Kind of like you see on a lot of Cryx models from Warmachine. It might look odd, but I think at that size of eye compared to the rest of the mini, it would need a dang strong colour to show up at all. Or....you could OSL them and use the surrounding eye socket to show them up more?

Wow MiJ! Those are some big plans for such tiny eyeballs. I figured I was lucky to get the green where it belonged. lol!

Hi Kath,

Looking good there. I have to do a dragon one day. Once I finished all the half finished stuff and found one my wife approves of. Can't wait to see the rest.

Stewie!!!! Where ya been? I was wondering where you skeedaddled off to. Hope you're feeling better and managed to get some painting in. I love this Forge World dragon but Reaper also has a nice variety.

Don't be such a stranger!

 

[crystella333]

Okay, I am now going to have to get one of this little beauties for myself (and yes, it will have to be the one with the rider)

On other notes, love how the metallics work well with the dragon and can't wait to see how it turns out keep on painting hun

 

[kathrynloch]

Thanks Crys!

Well I've been painting but went through a bit of a slow down. I had a good idea of what I wanted him to look like but needed some reference photos on some specific effects. I looked and looked and looked and couldn't find anything.

But I kept trying, kept Googling different search terms. Then I tripped over it. I mean it's so perfect for what I want to do that I thought old Aro here is molting and itched off a piece of his hide, someone found it and posted a pic of it on the net.

While I like to gold, it's really tough to get enough depth, that's why I'm looking for a good reference. I had been researching gold and looking at raw unrefined nuggets just out of the mines, but it still didn't work. Then I changed tactics and searched for what is usually found with gold during the mining process. Thats when I tripped over this photo.

It's name is even close Aragonite.

Doesn't it look like his gold hide and the dorsal spikes?

This is going to be TOUGH tho. I've read all the articles on crystals and gems I can find.

These are excellent quality photos so I can see all the details, I paint the details but I'm still not getting the effect I want even though my painting is pretty much dead on, so I'm really going to need y'alls help.

I put another layer of my red ink wash and then hit it with layer 1 of thinned shining gold highlight, next highlight layer will be gold mix with silver.

The right side I haven't highlighted yet, so you're still seeing the red wash. I've also started basecoating the dorsal spikes. If anyone has any suggestions for the crystals, please feel free to post 'em. They're going to to be the toughest part of the entire dragon I think. lol!

 

[me_in_japan]

ooh, pretty sparklies!

You've certainly caught the gold effect very well. As for doing the spines as crystals, hmmn. One of the defining visual characteristics of most crystals is their faceted nature, so keeping each face of each spine distinct will be important. Maybe some kind of like-NMM-but-not-actual-NMM might be a good starting point? Regardless, I think the pale blueish colour (as seen on the full body shot) sets off the gold very nicely, so whatever technique you decide to use, the pale blue/whiteish transparent colour should work in your favour.

Keep up the good work!

 

[marjedi]

Looks very nice Kat. Im not sure crystal spines would be my first chioce though. I think obsidian or dark green crystal would look good

 

[Meph]

Crystal spines... brilliant! I wouldn't try to paint 'm though. I'd start chopping up some glass, plastic, or real crystal for that, to keep 'm truly transparent.

 

[Broke n English]

Now that does look gorgeous, love metallic things but can't really paint em well

 

[kathrynloch]

ooh, pretty sparklies!

You've certainly caught the gold effect very well. As for doing the spines as crystals, hmmn. One of the defining visual characteristics of most crystals is their faceted nature, so keeping each face of each spine distinct will be important. Maybe some kind of like-NMM-but-not-actual-NMM might be a good starting point? Regardless, I think the pale blueish colour (as seen on the full body shot) sets off the gold very nicely, so whatever technique you decide to use, the pale blue/whiteish transparent colour should work in your favour.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks MiJ! The NMM and the faceted sides is actually the idea I had too. Although because the spines are round, it's easy to mess that up. I thought about taking a step back and adding apoxie or green stuff to make them more square...more crystal shaped. I'm glad that the blue/white is working, I had hoped that it would help accent the gold.

Looks very nice Kat. Im not sure crystal spines would be my first chioce though. I think obsidian or dark green crystal would look good

Thanks mar! I had been kicking around the idea of emerald or ruby spines but the crystal was on the forefront and when I found the Aragonite, it was just too perfect. I like the obsidian idea though...hmmmm.

Crystal spines... brilliant! I wouldn't try to paint 'm though. I'd start chopping up some glass, plastic, or real crystal for that, to keep 'm truly transparent.

Thanks Meph! Good idea! I might still give the painted version a shot because while I've toyed around with it, I haven't really gone full force yet. But if it doesn't work...surely I could find something on Ebay or at the craft store that would be usable for crystals. I think if I do it that way, I'd go the whole nine yards and get as close to real crystals as I possibly can.

Now that does look gorgeous, love metallic things but can't really paint em well

Thanks BnE! I'm really pushing myself to go above and beyond on this TMM. I accidentally tripped over Mathieu Fontaine's blog. He has an article that discusses TMM or TMP whatever you want to call it and I really liked the points he made. A big one was that metallics are so difficult because it's all about contrast. But it's not just dark vs. light. He uses washes but he does not use inks. Why? Because inks leave a natural shine. That competes with the shine of the metallics. Instead use paint and glazes that are flat. So you not only get a contrast with dark vs. light, contrast with your color choice and such as complementary colors whenever possible but you also get contrast with shine vs. flat.

So I've been going that direction and I think it does make a difference.

Thanks guys! We'll see if I can get more work done on him today.