Paint it Black (finished dark rider)

[Astonia]

Hi!
In the WIP thread I showed you the horse, now his rider is finished too.
I tried to get a very dark model, it is a dark elf after all, but I still wanted different nuances of black. That actually shows more irl than on the picture, but I\'m happy anyways. I was thinking of painting the sword in NMM too, but in the end I decided that the model needed at least a little bit of colour, so it became green.

There are better pics in the link:
Dark Rider Champion

Hope you like him, now he\'s off to the local GW store competition

/Anja

 

[Avicenna]

Voted and commented

Very nice!

 

[EricJ]

The color on the blade actually works perfectly, the eye in drawn to both the blade and the reddish of the rust on the base...so the result is settling between the two onto the horse and rider. Your blending of the black is perfect and so impressive because of how difficult it is to do with black!

This piece just became the newest reason why you\'re one of my favorite painters on cmon, I look forward to seeing more.

-Eric

 

[Grumb]

Beautiful Work...

Anja, just incredible. I wish I could blend black like that. Very, very nice... :bouncy:

Grumb

 

[Astonia]

Thanks!

Black is indeed a tricky colour, but with lots and lots of thin, transparent layers and thin black washes, I managed to get pretty smooth blendings.
But I will go out and buy some acrylic retarder as soon as I get the student\'s loan, because on larger areas, like horses, it might be easier to do wet blending. And there\'s lots of cavalry in the HE Army..

 

[Legacy Account]

Very nice work (again )

If you\'re struggling photographing black models, try putting them on a more neutral coloured background (grey/light blue as opposed to white), and you should get a better exposure.

 

[Braveheart712]

Excellent work

This model is one of the best I have seen you do, and I think one of the reasons it is so nice is that it is simple. You only used a few colors, but you let your blending and highlighting make this model shine. Excellent, you should do an article on this to show others how to paint black!!!!!

 

[Astonia]

@ Spacemunkie
Thanks for the tip, I\'ll try that

@ Braveheart
Hm, a tutorial eh? Maybe a little later, those things take forever to do, but I\'ll keep it in mind. And thanks for your comment

 

[Primeval]

Nice work, the black horse is great and the green on the sword is a nice contrast.

 

[Ritual]

Very nice, Anja! The blending is excellent! If you\'re going to invest in an acryllic retarder, let me suggest Liquitex Slo-dri. I bought a bottle of it from Kreatima and I\'m very pleased with how it works. It wasn\'t too expensive and it\'ll last for years.

Good luck in the competition!

 

[Astonia]

Thanks for the tip Ritual. I was at Kreatima a few months ago and was very confused about what brand and type of product to buy, but now I know

 

[donga666]

Very good work Anja!

The complimentary Red blades & Green sword work very well, but as everyone has said the blending kicks bottom

Good luck in the comp! Its a winner

Andy

 

[Modderrhu]

Oh, I\'ve had a look at real black horses, and their coats are as glossy and shiny as a marathon runner\'s brow. That highlighting was emulated, but the comments were that it looked messy, as a real black horse\'s highlights actually do.

I\'ve tried various things, but Astonia, I think I know how I want to do black horses now. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I\'ll be wanting that tutorial too.

\"I see a red horse and I want to paint it black, no colours anymore, just want them to turn black...\"

 

[Astonia]

OK, just wanted to tell you that I made a little write-up of how I painted the horse. Check it out at my website

 

[dauber22]

Good job on the tutorial, Astonia. Thanks. I think two of the toughest colors to work with on large areas are black and white. Any help on them is greatly appreciated.

 

[Astonia]

Thanks dauber

I will paint a lot of white horses later this spring, so I\'ll try to make a similar write-up of that too.