Decided to stray a little from the Dragon King colour scheme, and go all kinds of pink. Like how it looks up against the yellow.
Paint used are Scale75 unless otherwise noted:
Tyrant Skin: Violet Grey, Moonray Flesh People Skin: Basic Flesh, Violet Grey, Light Skin, Moonray Flesh Red Cloth: Bloodfest Crimson, Light Skin Yellow Cloth: Naples Yellow, Mid Borwn (Army Painter) + Red Tone (Army Painter), Titan Buff (Golden), Red Ochre Cane and wood: Yellow Ochre, Soft Tone (Army Painter) Metal: Viiking Gold, Soft Tone (Army Painter), Elven Gold
Painting the pattern on both the dragon and the tyrant is really easy. I guess there’s many way s to do it, but here’s how I did it for both of them
I start by laying down the base colours, roughly where I want them to overlap. You obviously don’t have to be as neat as I have been here, since we will paint over the edges
It doesn’t matter if you start from the ‘outside’ going in, like I have with the red here going into the yellow. Or the other way around. Just note that whatever colour is ‘creeping’ into teh other one, will take up more space.
Once I have the red in a somewhat nice ‘outline’, I use the yellow to add some interest, making spots and patterns in the red part of the clothing, as well as making the red spots a bit more interesting. Once all that is done, all that’s left is to clean it up, and add highlights and shadows.
The phoenix feathers aren’t all that hard to do, just takes a bit of patience since there’s so many of them. The colors I’ve been using are Scale75s: Violet SC-56, Mediterranean Blue SC-51, Carribean Blue SC-49, Graphene Grey SC-58, Creme Weiss SW-027
I start by giving the entire area a layer or two of the violet.
Normally I work on a row of feathers, but for this walkthrough, I’ll show on a single. I cover approximately two thirds of the feather in the Mediterranean Blue. I try to follow the lines in the feather, so the flow looks more natural.
Then I add a few layers of the Carribean Blue in approximately the last third of the feather.
Now I start mixing my colors. The violet gets mixed with the Mediterranean Blue. I add some airbrush thinner to the mix. Not that I am using an aribrush, but it makes the paint more transparent. Then I glaze this color over the transition between the violet and blue on the feather, blending the colors a little bit. I blend the Mediterranean Blue with the Carribean Blue and do the same for the lower part of the feather. Lastly I thin some Graphene Grey with water, to an almost inky consistency, and draw a line down the middle of the feather. Lifting up the brush in the end, so it doesn’t go all the way down.
I then mix some of the Violet with the Creme White, and paint small lines on the Violet part of the feather, going halfway down the Violet and Blue mix on the feather. I repeat this with a mix of the Mediterrenean Blue and Creme White, going over the Blue area, and a bit down into the mix of the Mediterrenean Blue and Carribean Blue. And then finishing the last part of the feather with Carribean Blue and Creme White mixed together. The lighter you make these lines, the more contrast you’ll get on your wings, giving depth to the thing.
And this is how the feather looks when its all done (this picture is more true to the colors than the ones above). A lot of work, but not very difficult.
And here’s how my palette looks, while working. The top row from left to right is the 5 base colors I work with. Below is the Violet and Mediterranean Blue mix and the Mediterranean Blue and carribean Blue mix. and the bottom row shows the 3 base colors mixed with the creme white.
Some thoughts: For big projects like this I really like working with the Scale75 colors, cause I can thin them quite a lot, even with just water, and the pigments still hold together. If you work with different brands, consider using a thinner medium, rather than water, for thinning the colors. Specially if you go all the way to an inky consistency.
I originaly zenith primed this bird, but chose to ignore highlight and shadows, when i decided to go this route with the feathers. Its taking long enough as it is, and I think the vibrancy of the wings makes up for the lack of depth. That said, adding some even lighter stribes in the middle of the feathers where they are at their highest, and darkening down the feathers close to the body, would probably add a lot to the bird (including work :p )
Bag Interior 