Island of Blood Rat Ogre WIP - C&C please

[Stewsayer]

Hi,

This is what I'm working on at the moment and would like some comments and crits to help me do him as well as I can.

Sorry the photos are not great.

I'm reasonably happy with the dark fur areas.
The brown areas are partway through process with the the left arm, shoulder blades and lower back being close to what I am after. The tail is to a point where I could call it done, though I have considered some blue glazes into the darker areas. None of the other little details apart from the warp shard are started. Having said that nothing is past changing or improving. So any C&C will be most welcome.

Also any ideas/advice on making the edge between the brown and flesh coloured areas look like the brown is a layer of finer fur would be great. Currently I have lined these areas with hashes of black brown and I tried adding some hashes of a brown slightly lighter than the surrounding areas, but didn't get the effect I was looking for. I may have not placed the lighter brown well enough or had the paint to thin. Or the idea just isnt going to work.

Cheers

Stew

 

[SkelettetS]

personally, im not that much of a fan of the dark skin. imo, more pink, teracotta/tanned flesh based skin suits rats better. but the blue-ish fur works out fine.
I dig the metals, especially that thing on the shoulder, looking good!

 

[Stewsayer]

Hi Skel,

Thanks. Its nice to get some comments from someone with your skills. The brown "skin" came out of wanting him to be different to other Rat Ogres I've been looking at and wanting something to set off the infected flesh area effect I have in mind around the warp stone shard. Your Rat Ogre is pretty inspirational, I had a good look at your photo's before tackling the tail on this guy.

Is there anything apart from the colour choice that is glaringly bad or subpar? This guy is likely to be one of my entries for Golden Demon here in Oz next month so i want him to be as good as I can make him. That I really want to improve my brush work.

Cheers

Stew

 

[Trevor]

Good start. To me the skin is looking a little orange, you can knock this back with some washes of ogryn flesh or devlan mud, remember you don't have to wash the whole area (although in this case I would to start with), you can also add in some other subtle colours, some leviathan purple in the deepest shadows would look good, but just small amounts. The important thing to remember is you can add more layers, but can't take away. Finally push the shading and highlighting, eg the tips of the fur with a lighter grey. If you go too far you can tone things down with a light going over with an appropriate wash colour.

 

[SkelettetS]

thanks stewie, nice you dig my rat

its nice to do things different, that is true! i might paint another one myself, but im not all that convinced about the new pack of rat ogres, seems lite the anathomy is screwed like many other gw muscular things nowdays (i know, theyre supposed to be experiments, but still...)
i still think they are badass and some of the coolest creatures in the wh universe.

one thing is the transition between the warp infection and the skin is a bit sharp, id try smoothen that out a bit. on my rat i shaded with scaly green (yeah, my fav colour) purple and VMC cavalry brown (which is 2/3 red 1/3 brown, sort of) in highlight, rotten flesh is a good colour. well just a few hints

good luck with the guy!

 

[Stewsayer]

Thanks Guys,

@Trevor: I hadn't noticed how orangey it looked until you mentioned it. But I can really see it now. I'll give him a hit over with one or both of the washes to tone it back. And purple, now you are talking, I like working some purple into my models. I'll have a look at pushing some lighter blue grey up on the fur too. I had planned to but it started to look pretty good as it is. But maybe that is just my comfort zone thinking for me.

@ Skel,
All your work is great stuff mate. I keep my eye out for updates to your WIP thread. Sorry I haven't commented before now. I just dont feel qualified to say anything much other than Awesome stuff.
On the new Rat Ogres. I haven't really looked at them. I've had a n itch to give the rats a go for a while now. But I have so much other stuff to paint piling up in my collection and didn't want to start another horde army (I'm coming to the conclusion that I will buy what i want to paint from now on and forget playing mostly). So the IOB stuff is my first close look at them. While I like this sculpt a lot it has several oddities. The proportions being one. Another is the fur areas, some of which are textured and others just flat. It makes him seem kind of unfinished. But thats cool because it left some room for painting on the texture.

On the skin transition. Did you mean the section between the right shoulder and the chest (Rotting flesh into tallarn)? That bit is on the to do list once I finish working the brown areas up. Between the RF area and the brown I was going for more of a hairline kind of look over a blend. At the moment I only have a thin shadow line of Black brown and wanted to work it up to look like the brown was raised above the flesh tone. But if you think a well blended transition would work better I can change it (I think).

Cheers

Stew

 

[Stewsayer]

Ok some updated pics.

I tried knocking the orangeness out of the flesh a bit. Starting with some ogryn flesh washes just light though. As expected that knocked the highlights back quite a bit. There were also some cludgy bits in the highlights so I redid them and used some Iraqi Sand (VMC) instead of vomit brown. It looks a lot less orange in my hand now but no matter which white balance setting I use on the camera it seems to boost the orangeness quite a bit.

So I've worked on the flesh again down to about his waist including the right arm. The legs and right arm still need some work. I did some Gryphon Sepia washes on the bandages and some experiments on one of the tubes. I also added some oxford blue (VMC) into the shadows on the brown and the tail. I got some reasonable results on the warp infected flesh using Thraka green, Lev. Purple and dotted rotting flesh. I think I may need to add some bleached bone or white to the RF and do some more dotting on the highest points to give them a bit more of a lift. Still working on the division between the flesh areas and the brown. The last few sections I outlined look good, underside of the warped arm and the spots on his weapon arm. The first areas had more an outline than hashes across the division and dont quite work. Should be able to fix them though

I have just under 2 weeks left before games day. Theoretically enough time to get him done but maybe not (4 kids and work will get in the way a bit). Started his base last night, its ready for some paint before I add the water effects. I'm doing some tests as i haven't used it before.

Any comments and crits would be most welcome.

Cheers

Stew

 

[freakinacage]

love the dappled look on the arm

 

[Stewsayer]

Hi,

Thanks Freak and thanks Alexi Z. I watched her video and thought the dot technique she uses for some clothing highlights would give me the kind of effect I was after.

Cheers

 

[Stewsayer]

Hi,

Updated pics

So i've done a bit more on the legs, the bandages and the loin cloth. I think the loin cloth still needs a little smoothing work and maybe some deeper shades.

I'm happy with the legs in hand but they dont photo well which suggests the highs need some more pushing I guess. I just dont want them to go as bright as the upper body areas or the fist arm.

The bandages conversely look ok in the photos, but I think they need some deepr shadows too.

And also here is my thinking for the base. The patch of sand around the reeds needs painting and then I need to box it in and pour in some murky green resin/water effects (any suggestions on how to make it murky green would be ace. I have inks and tamiya transparents as well as std paints). The wolf tail needs the end painted up to look like a fresh cut and then it will get a pool of blood around it.

Cheers