Eldar Firedragon WIP (help with highlights)

[mcewan7]

Heres my WIP so far of the Firedragon. White undercoat > Firey Orange basecoat > Baal Red wash > Sunburst Yellow highlight.

I\'m not sure I\'m 100% happy with how it came out, I think the highlight is too yellow maybe. Was wondering what a better option would have been for the armour edges. Maybe a 1:1 mix of Firey Orange / Bleached Bone?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by mcewan7
White undercoat > Firey Orange basecoat > Baal Red wash > Sunburst Yellow highlight.

Hummmmn, I\'d suspect that the Baal Red might have been a bit too thin as It\'s not showing in the photo.

Personally I \'d be tempted to re-work the Baal Red again and then use some of the Ogryn Flesh wash concentrating it into the deeper areas.
That might give you a darker base, without too much loss of highlights.

 

[mattsterbenz]

I think it looks great. I\'d avoid using Bleached Bone to highlight orange, as it is a \"cool\" color in comparison. Your highlights won\'t \"pop\" as much as they would with a yellow orange.

I think some red washes would do the trick like Dragonsreach suggested.

I had pretty good luck on my Fire Dragons using a Blood Red basecoat, Scab Red wash, and highlighting with Blazing followed by Fiery Orange. Generally I avoid highlighting up to pure yellow when painting reds/oranges and prefer to shade a bit darker to compensate. It keeps them looking bright and realistic at the same time, so to speak.

-Matt

 

[Gapow]

I think it looks really good, I was planning on doing mine in blazing orange, and using fiery orange as the highlight, but I might take mine up to yellow now, perhaps golden yellow as that has quite an oranegy tint

Matt do you have any pics of yours? Sounds like an unusual way of painting them, but after looking through your gallery trying to find them, I\'m sure they\'ll look amazing

 

[mcewan7]

Some updates, I didn\'t go back and wash the whole model with Baal Red as suggested, instead I just washed some key areas instead. The shading looks pretty good to the eye, I think my camera work washes it out somewhat.

I highlighted the black areas and just cleaned up my Sunburst Yellow highlights by painting more Firey Orange to sharpen the edges. Its an improvement overall I feel and one that I\'m much happier with.

I have tried some different camera settings this time round.

 

[mcewan7]

Damn, I have to say that my photography is way off. Its still washing out the colours. The shade and highlights are more prominent to the eye.

I think I\'ll have to work on my camera settings for next time!

 

[mattsterbenz]

Much better! Very solid job on that fellow.

-Matt

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by mcewan7
Damn, I have to say that my photography is way off. Its still washing out the colours. The shade and highlights are more prominent to the eye.

I think I\'ll have to work on my camera settings for next time!

Use a more neutral background, it\'s affecting your cameras setting and making it difficult for human eyes to match the contrast...(as for alien eyes well who knows.)

 

[Gapow]

The new highlights work really well, think the model looks great.

I quite like the black helmet instead of yellow, I was planning on painting mine yellow with only the exarch wearing black, but you may have changed my mind