Irix the Fury - ID: 32253

[xMANIGHTx]

As requested from farseerlum, I explain where I used inks to blend on the model.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/?id=32253
Almost everywhere..
Usually my tech is this: medium basecoat, highliths with acrylics, and then shadowing with inks (the brush must be dry and the inks watered). Eventually if the highlights are not smoothed, I smooth them with inks as well.
On Irix model in particular I used inks for smoothing on the skin (where highilits originally were a bit crispy) and on the NMM helm.
Also the helm is shadowed with black ink (very watered).
The blade part on the staff is completely shaded with inks (no higlight there just base colors) a mix of blue/black wash.
old the golden parts are shaded with chestnut wash.
The decoration on the middle of the staff are golden yellow + white for highlits and shaded with chestnut wash and then brown wash.
The red robes are ruby red+golden yellow+white for highlits and shaded with red wash+blue wash and a bit of black wash for final shading...
The bends are bleached bone shaded with chestnut wash+yellow wash.
The red cristal on the other side of the staff is shaded with red+blue wash as well.
Finally the blue artifact on irix back is shaded with blue wash

 

[Daan]

Looks great, especially the blue artifact jump right at you. Now could you be persuaded (spelling???) to write a nice article with pictures

 

[kittykat23uk]

Very nice model and thanks for the tips! Its a shame she\'s at a bit of an angle though, that is rather duistracting.

Regards

Kat

 

[xMANIGHTx]

... to write a nice article with pictures

LOL! This could be an idea.. I hope I can do this asap with step by step pics!
In hte meanwhile I\'ll post a more detailed way of doing this on a NMM sword at the end of this post (simplest case to start I guess).

Its a shame she\'s at a bit of an angle though, that is rather duistracting.

That\'s because I don\'t have a digital camera and all the pics you actually see are taken scanning directly the model! Yes I made direct scans of the model trying to achieve the best views I could, but the overflow of direct light screws up some of the blending/shading and that\'s because the ink is more reflective too.
The same happened with Razhem ( http://www.coolminiornot.com/index.php?id=32193&c=All&m=All&nm=none ) wich is much better than it seems on the pic :~( But I cannot do in another way...

Shading with inks (GW washes)

Try on the sword first wich is a larger and flat area. Here you can experiment it best!
Let\'s try a simple shading first, making the top of the sword lighter and the bottom darker. Somehow like this: http://www.audiopro.it/userz/rackham/blade.jpg but not so dirty. Try to keep it very even and smooth.
1)- Paint the sword with a medium/light gray (GW: Space Wolf Grey)
2)- Mix Black Wash + Water (3/2) NOTE: this is not much watery but will let you catch faster what effect are you actualy creating
3)- Dive your brush in to the mix and then DRY it almost completely on a cloth
4) Start from the top of the sword and paint down to the bottom, keeping your brush FLAT. If you can avoid painting with brush tip, since the surface is flat, is better to paint with the whole prush side to have a more even fading.
5) Repeat the process to darken it even more. Remember to always reach the bottom of the sword, never stop before!
6) Are you getting any appreciable result? Is the gray actually darkening slowly on each pass? Well, shorten your area of passing! Don\'t start from the top of the sword anymore. Start half-way and then go straight to the bottom again. Repeat this several times. Then shorten again the area, starting always closer to the bottom of the sword...
NOTE: what\'s really important is that your brush is dry. When yu start painting you shouldn\'t have drops of wash, you must have the feeling that your are not even painting, till you repeat the process several times or you have a very strong light on your model and you can see results on each pass. Keep the brush DRY!

 

[finn17]

I got to print this off....

Your technique is fantastic...I have only just seen this model and have yet to look at your gallery, but so far I am very impressed...

Most importantly, thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us. I can\'t honestly say I have had time to study it yet but the simple fact that you have been prepared to post so much information about your methods makes you a hero in my books...:flip:

 

[wightzombie]

wow, i really dig the lightning on that weapon, it seems to leap right off in waves of energy, nice clean model there mate!

 

[xMANIGHTx]

About scanning the models directly (not hte pics of them) here you can see how much of the blending is messed up:
http://www.audiopro.it/userz/rackham/shields.jpg
This is the shield of my last model (painted 4 years ago) on CMON ID: 32403
My only complain is that on my other models here on CMON (Razhem,Minotaur Champion,...) I couldn\'t overcome this and much of the blending is gone
I really should buy a digicam I guess

 

[farseerlum]

everywhere
well that doens\'t leave much room for comparison!
so let me get this right.
watered inks (thin)
very small amounts (nearly drybrush)
wow that would take forever!
i see how it works though. layering with transperent paint.
yes that would work.
i think you should try some vallejo medium into the mix instead of water!
it drys faster and is less runny than water.
if you do this tell us how it goes!

 

[Daan]

Thanks! Very helpfull indeed! :flip:

 

[xMANIGHTx]

wow that would take forever!

Much faster than layering and much smoother. You have to use layering just for highlits.
It\'s fast because you are using an extremely darker color to shade (black ink for white or grey, blue+red for red,...) so the result is quite fast. Just add less water to do it even faster. More water to have it smoother (not too much or it will be dirty even if you dry the brush).
If you don\'t want the \"shiny\" effect of inks, just add a matt component to the mix (never tryed this, a suggestion of a guy here)

 

[Kamui K]

So this is kinda like wet blending, but with a dry brush? Wow. I gotta check this out. I\'ve always avoided inks before.
Hmm...
more experimentation is in order.

Question tho.
If the brush is dry, then isn\'t it basically pushing the paint on the mini around?
Doesn\'t this mean that there\'s a good amount of paint floating around to do such a thing? Doesn\'t this end up being thick?
Or am I misreading?

 

[xMANIGHTx]

Hi Kamui K.
No this isn\'t. You use ink instead of acrylics (wich is already much more thin) and also add water to it. When you dry your brush (ALMOST completely) your kinda glazing around... something like applying translucent darker coats on each passage. Try also where the area is bigger to use the whole side of the brush and not just the tip to have an even shading.
Infact this tech is easier on flat large areas, otherwise drybrush is efficent on reliefs.
Farseerlum, you can notice more the effect on Irix NMM helmet, on her horns blending from red to black and on the blue artifact on the back.
Alse the blade of the staff (the lighting bolt one) is done completely this way (except for a bicolor basecoat and a final white line to make the lighting)

 

[farseerlum]

If you don\'t want the \"shiny\" effect of inks, just add a matt component to the mix (never tryed this, a suggestion of a guy here)

yah, me!
glad to see your paying attention
seriously its worth a go. an experts inky opinion on it would be cool.

 

[xMANIGHTx]

Ok I\'m going to llok for it.. Here stores are not much big and it won\'t be an easy task