Dagon: Shading and Highlighting

Continued on Dagon, adding shading and highlighting on all the pink bits and starting on his legs.

Dagon: Base coating. Demon: Jewelry

I started with base coating Dagon himself today. I used my airbrush to put down the base color, then also tried to use it to put in the blue shading and the pink details. I was really happy with the base coat. Much less so with the rest. I'm just not good enough with the airbrush to do that kind of work.

I went back and cleaned up a bunch of it with the brush. Then I decided I was having a lot of trouble placing shadows without him being on the base. So, I filled in the shadow color on the parts of the underside that I had missed with the airbrush, and glued him in place. I think there's plenty of room to work underneath him if I need to...hopefully I won't make too much of a mess in the process.

Next time will be more shading on him.

I did a little work on Big Blue as well. I did an undercoat and then the gold for his necklace. I'm not sure if I like it or not. I'm tempted to do the 'fang' looking parts in silver instead of bone, which was my original idea.

Demon: Back Highlights

Continued on the demon today. I did the highlights and glazing on his back. It's pretty much done; there are a couple spots I might try to smooth further. I'm not going to put as much effort into this view, though. It's clearly not the money shot.

Dagon: Base Done. Demon: Shading back.

I did manage to finish off Dagon's base today.

I'm pretty happy with the result, except I probably could have highlighted the tube coral more.

If I had time after I finished the base, my plan was to start on Dagon's main body with the airbrush. I did have time, but really didn't feel like getting in to the airbrush. Instead, I worked on shading the back of the demon. It's the last skin-area I have for him.

I don't like working with the airbrush in the evenings because I have much more limited time (and I'm usually more tired). So probably what I will do this week is work on finishing him. Another possibility is maybe working on one of the Amazons...but he's awfully close to the 'power through until he's done' point.

Dagon: Base & Detail

Continued working on Dagon's base. I got the rest of the sand base coated and detailed, and moved on to the corals. The branched coral is done, as are the brains. The others all need some more work.

Lesson learned today: Do not use your good brushes to paint scenery/basing. It doesn't need them, and will ruin them. :(

Id been hoping to be done with this today, but no such luck. I should be able to get it wrapped up tomorrow, though.

Dagon: Base coating the base.

I didn't have a lot of time tonight, but I was able to start base coating Dagon's base. I got some primer on the coral and base coated the statues. I've decided in my head that they are made of basalt, so...black. This may be a mistake. Black is tricky under the best conditions. This is a lot of black.

Next I'll probably do the sand, then the coral, then come back and touch up and detail the statues last. I primed the coral after put on the black, and that taught me that in the process of painting the coral I'm going to get paint on the statues.

Dagon: More base. Demon: More horns.

I got a package in the mail today with some little coral bits and shells my wonderful friend Michael Proctor of Clever Crow Studio sent me.

I added a few more bits from there to Dagon's base. Just a handful, as some stuff I couldn't fit in in a way I liked, and some of it I want to try making molds from and casting copies.

Here's the updated base:

After that, I got a little time in on Dagon. I tried putting the dark purple on just the tip of his other horn. I don't have a preference right now for more vs. less dark on the horn, so I'm going to work on the necklace and see if that helps me decide, once more different colors are in place.

Demon: Horns

Tonight I tried to figure out what I wanted to do with the demon's horns. I tried going with a dark brown on the ends, but I did not like that at all. So I went back to purple. I was just roughing in colors here; even if I stick with these colors I will need to clean up the gradient and do the shading/highlighting and detailing.

I'm still debating the single tone vs. multi-tone horns, but I am pretty sure I prefer the two-tone horns. I like having the light color by his face to draw attention to his face, but I think having the dark color on the ends keeps the focus near the face. 

Demon: Face. Dagon: Base

Continued on the demon today. I finished the highlights on his face and some of the details.

Might be too much highlights. Might also need to bring more purple glaze on to the face. But it's nice to have his eyes in. He looks more like a person with character now. I'm tempted to do his horns before finishing off the last of his skin...but I'm already having trouble with consistency between the skin areas, so that's probably not a great idea.

I also worked on the base for Dagon. I've added the coral.

Demon: More highlights

Started the second round of highlight on the demon's face and neck. I'm going to finish the highlights on the face, then go back and do the glazing across the whole area.

Dagon: Color Tests

Today I did some color tests for Dagon, to try to get a color pallete I like. I found a random fish guy figure and started slapping paint on. There's no detail work and pretty much no blending. I like this guy though, so I may come back and finish him later.

This was my first try. I started with pink on his fins and a yellow green for the highlight. Then I tried a dark teal for the fins, and that was not better. While I like the yellow-green, it doesn't suit the look I want for this particular project.

This was my other try. I still don't love the pink, but I think he needs that additional hue and I haven't had any ideas what might be better. But I do like the the blue shadows, and I like the pale green highlights better than the yellow/green. It's more in line with my mental image. I'm going to play with the fin color a little more, but I think the rest I'm going to keep as-is.

Demon: Face highlights

Yesterday I worked on making some more little corals. I finished them today and they are still drying/curing, so I did not get pictures. They look pretty much like the last ones anyway. I also Dagon's legs on, but more on that later.

Today I worked on Big Blue's face, adding some more highlights:

I'm not sure how I feel about it. He's got some pretty sharp lines to him, and I'm afraid it's making him look a little cartoony. Then again, maybe that's not a terrible thing. I'm not sure. As usual, I'm just going to press on and see how it goes. Next will be the brighter highlights.

And, Dagon. I'd glued him up yesterday, so today was gap filling.

See how you can't see any gaps where his legs meet his body? Go me!

The color scheme I'm thinking about doing with him is going to be complicated, so next I'll probably dig out a test figure to try it out on.

19!

Last week I was at Reaper HQ for their Kickstarter wrap up party. I got a fair bit of painting in while I was there, including this Amazon from Knight Models:

Not bad for a quick paint. I want to focus on making my NMM look shinier, though.

I also spent some time on Big Blue. While I was there, I finished the highlights on his arm and futzed with the chest a bit more, as well as getting shading on his face and upper chest.

I kept working on him a bit today. I started highlights on his upper chest and face. I also narrowed the highlights on his lower chest some.