Dynamic Highlights and Contrast
Okey Dokie,
How about we talk a little about Dynamic Highlights and Contrast. Since we've decided to paint a Horde Army (and by 'WE' I mean 'ME', unless you'd like to take the blame for my madness) and it would be nice to be able play said Horde Army soon, we're skipping some of the more time consuming techniques of painting, and going right for the jugular. Speed Painting...yes folks, we need to kick out this pile of rats quickly. That doesn't mean it has to look like crap, so since we're cutting corners what are some things we can do to make our sloppy quick work look acceptable?
Dynamic Highlights and Contrast. So, we'll tackle the highlights part first. We really don't want to spend hours upon hours wet blending our highlights and shadows, so we used a wash to quickly make our shadows and now we have to highlight. I personally lean towards artistic flare over realism, so if that's not your thing get ready to cringe. To highlight our wood I used the Desert Yellow color, and applied it to the shield as if the light was coming from over and above the models left shoulder. I then used Wolf Gray to highlight the silver, instead of spending time building up layers of metallic (yuk!) variants. This immediately draws the eye to the highlight and provides the desired effect. Also, it's Fast!
Here's an example:
Now, the silver on the rat's weapon is just to add a lighter tone to that area because we are going to use some Contrast to pop our models into the next level of table top quality. We're going to add a dark green, followed by a light greet highlight (using our airbrush, of course) to get that immediate eye grabbing effect. This variant to our pallet, which until now has been Brown, Red, White and Black, will give us a much needed change of pace, from our otherwise earthy choices.
Join me next time to the see the finished horde (well, 60 of them at least) and then we'll tackle something a little more individualistic, say the Warlord or a weapons team.
Until then,
Casey
How about we talk a little about Dynamic Highlights and Contrast. Since we've decided to paint a Horde Army (and by 'WE' I mean 'ME', unless you'd like to take the blame for my madness) and it would be nice to be able play said Horde Army soon, we're skipping some of the more time consuming techniques of painting, and going right for the jugular. Speed Painting...yes folks, we need to kick out this pile of rats quickly. That doesn't mean it has to look like crap, so since we're cutting corners what are some things we can do to make our sloppy quick work look acceptable?
Dynamic Highlights and Contrast. So, we'll tackle the highlights part first. We really don't want to spend hours upon hours wet blending our highlights and shadows, so we used a wash to quickly make our shadows and now we have to highlight. I personally lean towards artistic flare over realism, so if that's not your thing get ready to cringe. To highlight our wood I used the Desert Yellow color, and applied it to the shield as if the light was coming from over and above the models left shoulder. I then used Wolf Gray to highlight the silver, instead of spending time building up layers of metallic (yuk!) variants. This immediately draws the eye to the highlight and provides the desired effect. Also, it's Fast!
Here's an example:
 |
| Before Highlights |
 |
| After Highlights |
Join me next time to the see the finished horde (well, 60 of them at least) and then we'll tackle something a little more individualistic, say the Warlord or a weapons team.
Until then,
Casey
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