Earthy knights proof of concept

[MoldyApe]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post here.

I've been working on Bretonnians lately, and having a struggle with selecting the army colors. I just finished off a unit using GW's approach to bret color scheme; basically a little from every paint pot you own... but at the end, I didn't really get a satisfied feeling when I look at them all ranked up:

So I've been looking through all the minis on Reaper website gallery, and a big difference that I notice about those painting is that the colors are a whole lot more muted than what you'd see in GW photos... If you go through the whole collection, you'll rarely see any bright colors. Mostly, the colors are really muted and dull. I think it gives a really nice, more realistic feel...

What I'm thinking about is to do my army in muted earthy tones like mud/sand/rock... but I also plan to tie the whole army in with touches of really bright and deep red.

Here's a horse painted up as a proof of concept. I'm almost thinking there needs to be one more color to mix it up a little bit. Right now I'm thinking of using a GW Ice Blue that's been dulled with a little brown, as the darkest color, and highlight that up... or im thinking about a dark/dulled/muted blue...

I would really like anyone's comments as to what they think about the color scheme. Especially on if you think I need another main color and what it should be...

 

[freakinacage]

they look great ranked up but the highlights on the yellow seem a little big, gives it a washed out feel

 

[MoldyApe]

I freak,

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Actually, that suggestion was made to me on another forum I'm on, and I think it's completely accurate. Unfortunately, those horses were already varnished and sealed before I got that feedback, so cant do anything right now....

... BUT ... I put that advice to use on later yellows that I painted.

Thanks
MoldyApe

 

[MoldyApe]

Someone on another forum suggested to me to look into color theory to help me make the decision on what other colors to use for my army. I actually found a great article on this forum about color theory. It's great, cause it talks about all the different types of contrasts you can use to make your models 'pop':
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums...Sticky-Thread-Links-to-Tips-Threads-Tutorials

What I think Im going to do to practice some of these theories is to paint a few models in monochrome of all the primary colors... so like I'll have a monochrome blue, red, yellow... the way I understand it, this will force me to use mixes with their complement for shading... maybe sounds crazy... not sure... we'll find out..

So, before I started investigating color theory today, I finished up another proof of concept that adds the GW Ice Blue into the color scheme that I used on the knight above. I was trying to dull the Ice Blue with some Khemri brown for the shadow color, and increasing quantities of Dheneb Stone for the highlight color. Im not really happy with how the blue color works with the rest of, so I think I'll keep searching for now, but anyways, here it is;

 

[Avelorn]

Some sharp army painting there! The muted colours are nice, but I suggest you go a tad less muted then you'd want under the lamp as you'd probably play in places with poor lightingconditions that will make them look even more muted. Could result in an army that looks a bit dull.

 

[Chrome]

Loving the earthy tones! Though I took the liberty of adjusting the last pic of your archer a bit, did it get close to how they look?

 

[bronzeback40]

Icy Blue + Brown might work, but maybe mixing it with a darker grey (not sure what GW name for is). The brown will sort of muddy it up, which might work, but the grey will give it a cooler shading, which always contasts nicely with neutral shades. (I gather you are going with a lot more browns for the horses and whatnot. The proof model looks good to this point.)

 

[MoldyApe]

Hi guys,

wow, thanks everyone for taking the time to comment.

@Avelorn: Thanks a lot, and that's a a really good suggestion that I never thought about. Will have to consider on that for a while.

@Chrome: wow, you worked some magic there that I dont understand, but yes that's SPOT on!!! Sorry for the crappy photos, I only have a cell phone camera on my Motorola CLIQ, and it doesn't even have a flash... though not knowing anything about photog, can't say for sure that a flash would solve my issues...

My buddy David Song took the first photo in this thread for me. He's an AWESOME photographer and made my models look better than they do in real life.

bronzeback40: grey... got it... I'll try that out...
"I gather you are going with a lot more browns for the horses and whatnot." - Are you talking about the horse skin color, or the horse barding (I forget the correct word for the cloth covering the barding)

If you're talking about the 'barding', are you suggesting using a variety of different browns within the unit?? That's actually a great idea that I never thought of. Only problem being to pick browns that all work well togehter.

If you're talking abt the horse skin, this is actually an issue that i haven't quite really solved, I think the grey color I've used works in well with the color scheme, but I also want variety in horse colors, and so Im back to the problem of picking a colors that work well with the color scheme...

Someone on another thread has kindly exposed me to color theory of which I was previously working in a vacuum, and I found this AWESOME link to a tutorial on this site:http://www.ttcreation.org/modules/articles/lire.php?id=6&langue=en

So I plan to do some study of color theory to help me answer those questions. What I think Im going to do to practice some of these theories is to paint a few models in monochrome of all the primary colors... so like I'll have a monochrome blue, red, yellow... the way I understand it, this will force me to use mixes with their complement for shading... maybe sounds crazy... not sure... we'll find out..

Thanks again
MoldyApe

 

[bronzeback40]

Hi

bronzeback40: grey... got it... I'll try that out...
"I gather you are going with a lot more browns for the horses and whatnot." - Are you talking about the horse skin color, or the horse barding (I forget the correct word for the cloth covering the barding)

If you're talking abt the horse skin, this is actually an issue that i haven't quite really solved, I think the grey color I've used works in well with the color scheme, but I also want variety in horse colors, and so Im back to the problem of picking a colors that work well with the color scheme...

MoldyApe

I was thinking mostly about the horses' skintones, but also the tack and bridle (saddle, reins, etc.) The barding (armor) could be an interesting fly in the ointment. If you're going for a polished steel look (stereotypical knight's armor), it might be too close value-wise to the icy blue and greys. If you go a more grungy steel (out in the field), the icy blue and grey will be beautiful.

Regardless of how it goes, I'd like to see the finished proof model.

 

[MoldyApe]

Hi bronzeback40,

Thanks for taking the time to clarify that. Every bit of feedback I get is great, cause it gives me something to think about that I might not have thought of myself.

MoldyApe