Darksword Contest WIPs

[CreganTur]

For my first entry in the Darksword painting contest over at WAMP I've decided to work on Sansa Stark. It's a great little sculpt and I'm planning on incorporating her into a little winter dio scene. So far the skin and her cloak are the only things I would call done.

Her skin was a really big challenge for me because I wanted her to be pale but lovely. I worked a lot of layers into it and a few different colored glazes. Her outer cloak I worked down to a red/purple tint in the shadows to give it the appearance of a rich fabric, which is also why I worked the highlights and folded edges up so high.

Believe it or not her hair is nothing more than 2 thinned coats of VGC Dark Fleshtone over white primer. It's not even close to done, but I'm just surprised at the highlights peeking through from the primer. I guess that shows what proper thinning can do!

 

[CreganTur]

Sansa is almost done, but I don't have any pics of her yet. The only things left are the ornamental lining of the cloak and her hair.

I've been spending most of my time building the base for her. I decided I wanted to do a winter scene since it fits so well with the character and the beginning of the book series. After a lot of thought I decided I wanted her to be standing alone underneath a dead tree in a snow covered forest. I couldn't find any premade trees that looked any good, so I decided to make my own. I grafted it together out of sticks and twigs from my backyard. I think it turned out pretty well because you can't even tell where the greenstuff is that I used to cover the splices.

I painted it with a bunch of layers and a whole lot of differen washes to give it the mottled coloration of a dead tree. I hate that the snow is going to cover almost all of the top of the tree, but I think putting in the work was worth it. The base is completed except for adding in some grass tufts and dead leaves, which will com ein just before I finish adding the snow.

 

[Mr.S.Marbo]

How's it going? What are you going to use for snow? I'd be interested to know, I did a snow display base and used Woodland Scenics which turned out good I think. I like how the model is going, with those colours it is going to look a cold scene if that makes sense. It looks like the lining on the edge of the cape could almost be like ice crystals or frost? Anyway post your next update!

 

[CreganTur]

I've finished Sansa and the base. I ended up having to remove a couple of twigs from the tree to make room for her and because one obscured her from the front. It took some time to build up the snow on the tree and the ground, but once I added some grass tufts and a sprinkling of deak leaves the whole thing really came together.

CMON Voting Link

 

[CreganTur]

I almost forgot I was putting all of my Darksword contest WIPs in this thread.

For my next entry I'm using the Thief of Hearts figure. I decided that I wanted to capitalize on the movement of this piece and came up with the idea of her flying away from some ruins as she fires her bow. I cut up another section of the gothic building I used on my Kingdom Death preacher and worked on distressing it. There's still a lot of work left to do on it. I'll be adding rocks to the ground along with some sandy paste. I'll also be adding vines to the ruins so that they twine through the windows and up the structure. And thanks to some sturdy pinning she stays in place prett well.

 

[CreganTur]

Alright, I have officially finished my entry for this ladder challenge. I've also uploaded it into the Darksword gallery as well, so everything's all official and neatly done.

I seem to have a penchant for grand dioramas, which I think the height of the ruins in this one proves. Maybe I should have made it shorter, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just love the image of her flying away, firing at some unseen enemy while the nearby weasel's looking around wondering what's going on. He was added because I remembered SteveB saying that you should always have something surprising on the back of a dio to surprise the judges. What's more surprising than a Weasel?

I'm pleased with how the wings turned out- they were time consuming, but not as hard as I thought they'd be. For the gold I shaded and glazed it with Babab Black and then purple, then brought the highlights back up with some of the Vallejo Air Metallics. Skin was done with my new Lifecolor skin set- I'm still working out how to best use it, but I do like the stuff.

I also redid Sansa Stark a bit- mainly I painted the middriff panel a different color and picked out the pearls in the fabric. I did a lot of hard thinking, but I cannot get rid of the tree and I don't have the time to add any more branches. I put too much thought into the composition of this piece- I wanted it to a foreboding scene that hints at what Sansa faces in the books. That's why she's alone under this large, looming tree in the cold. I'm very glad to say that I am truly happy with it now.

 

[delta 408]

I'm glad you painted more details on her dress and cloak. I think it brings her out more.

Cheers!

 

[CreganTur]

Managed to finish my last contest entry. This is something I've wanted to do for over a year. My wife gave me this Dark Sword Hunting Wolf mini for my birthday last year. I'm really happy to have a chance to paint him up. I styled him after a Red Wolf. The bushes were fun to make and turned out better than I expected. The unfortunate bunny is a Reaper mini.

 

[SkelettetS]

love that wolf scene, poor bunny!

 

[Mr.S.Marbo]

love that wolf scene, poor bunny!

Yeah me too!