Re: DftE WIP: Galadhrim Cloaks 8/6/14

Valadorn · **Posted:** Mon Jul 14, 2014 2:56 pm

I love all your work! Sry I bring back the conversation but I d ike to know where this green "plants" can be found. Is it natural or ?

Sithious · **Posted:** Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:25 pm

^ this poster is jealous.

I always love Hirst art block projects, they always look awesome. Some day I keep telling myself... I like the bridge and the tower.

Dragon from the East · **Posted:** Tue Jul 15, 2014 4:28 am

Thank you guys for your comments! Right now building stuff from Hirst Arts is my focus and I hope to finish some castle walls for a castle before the summer is over. I just got a few more mold this morning and I'm like a kid in a candy store making new things. I'm particularly excited about the common inn accessories mold because it will allow me to dress up some my existing projects.

Valadorn, the green "plants" from my galadhrim in the first post are just dried moss I got from my local Michaels. I got a very large bag of it for about $4.00-$5.00 which was enough to base ~200 minis? Surprisingly they had a very large variety and selection of dried mosses there and you can even buy it "attached" to a type of mesh that can be cut to size for say a mini's base. I just got the loose stuff but I hope that helps and I can even send you a picture of the bag if you would like.

Dragon from the East · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:46 am

Hi everyone. First off I was to apologize because I just found the WIP guidelines and found out that I wasn't exactly adhering to everything that was suggested. I've never had a WIP before and now that I have read the guidelines, I hope this will become more a work in progress and not so much just a gallery for me to put up finished work.

But moving on, I have some questions for painters out there! I want to add more contrast to my green color scheme for my galadhrim because currently the color seems to just look very "bluh." I've been trying to highlight with thin paints but I just can't seem to get a nice highlight that pops outs without making it so contrasting that it looks unnaturally weird.

Here are the galadhrim I've painted and I'm focusing on the green for the cloaks. You can see the 3 colors I'm using on them with my base as castellan green and my highlights are loren forest and elysian green.

I took a photo with a bright light and one with just normal room lighting. Any suggestions on helping the green come alive? I try to mix the colors but is that too much? Should I just water down the paints straight out of the pot and paint them on as highlights? Add white instead of elysian green? I'm open to any suggestion.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 8:01 am

First thing is paint control, this will help you on thickness
http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/15
Next is colours to use. I keep getting the proverbial taken out of me for this but you need warm and cold colours.
I would start highlighting by mixing in yellow, adding white for further highlights.
The folds need thin glazes of purple then blue.
Getting the contrast is a slow process and one you can't rush.
Make sure you don't overloads our brush. You want just enough paint on the brush so you can see it dry in seconds. This is perhaps the biggest point.
If the blend isn't good, pick a mid tone colour and glaze over the whole area, you will see the blend start to smooth.
The green cloth on the troll gives an idea though I wanted a dirtier colour with this. I never added white on the highlight to keep the overall look darker.

Dragon from the East · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:34 pm

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

Next is colours to use. I keep getting the proverbial taken out of me for this but you need warm and cold colours.
I would start highlighting by mixing in yellow, adding white for further highlights.
The folds need thin glazes of purple then blue.
Getting the contrast is a slow process and one you can't rush.

Thank you Gandalf the Grey. I have read through the article you linked and I am going to try out your recommendations and hopefully get pictures up today of how it comes along. Unfortunately I do not have any extender products but I do have liquitex matt medium which helps the flow of paint a little. I'm going to experiment with adding this and water to my paint.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Aug 06, 2014 8:35 pm

A medium of most sorts should help. When it comes to blending I add vallego glaze medium which extends the working life.
It also has the advantage of spreading the paint pigments so it in theory produces smoother coverage with thinner coats.

Dragon from the East · **Posted:** Thu Aug 07, 2014 3:57 am

I think I might have to look into getting that vallego glaze medium because getting a smooth coverage is definitely a struggle for me currently! But I got some work done tonight on three galadhrim.

The archer on the right has a "finished" cloak I would say and I'm a lot happier how it turned out compared to previous work. It's not perfect but I think it's a move in the right direction. The other two galadhrim warriors are in a pre-highlight stage.

I took your advice on the highlights and added a little bit of yellow for a highlight and then added white for two more stages of highlighting. I also tried using some very thin layers of dark purple/blue followed by even darker blue in the recesses of the folds. What do you think?

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Thu Aug 07, 2014 9:13 am

That coming along nicely.
Look toward thinner lines for the highlights with the final highlight a very thin line down the middle of the fold.
Getting a non smooth coverage could be down to overloading your brush. Have just enough paint so you see the paint dry in seconds with just a noticeable change in colour. Keep applying the layers until you get the look you want.
It takes time to build these layers up but will be worth it.
Watch your shading, the colours look a little thick as the blue on the hood is a bit clear. As an example, the below I used only paint and water, no mediums.

The underside of the belly and the deep areas of the neck is purple then blue glazes.
The highlights were yellow added to the brown base. Can you see the thin highlights down the centre of raised areas like the shoulder muscle at the top of the front right leg ?
Sometimes I stop, leave it overnight and look again to see what is needed.

Valadorn · **Posted:** Sun Aug 31, 2014 10:52 am

Gandalf's advices are really helpful!

Gandlaf the Grey wrote:

The underside of the belly and the deep areas of the neck is purple then blue glazes.

A nice tutorial about this:

Dragon from the East · **Posted:** Tue Sep 02, 2014 1:59 am

Thank you both for your advice. It's been a long and rough month and I haven't picked up a brush in a while. I lost a family member and celebrated the birth of three new ones and I'm just starting to get back to normal.

Gandalf: I'm going to be trying out the shading with a little bit less of a heavy hand. I can definitely see it standing out from the rest of the cloak. Once I have gotten that down then I will move forward to making my highlights become a thin line down the cloak. Thank you for the example picture, that horse looks so realistic I had to look at it twice to make sure it was a miniature!

Valadorn: I really liked that video! I'm going to use his technique of watering down the washes instead of watering down my paints for glazes. Also I wonder if I'm highlighting too much? His looked fine after two highlights and mine look weird with five ... Anyways that video also gives me a nice tutorial for when I do the skin on my elves after the cloak as I have also been struggling with that. But one step at a time lol.

Sithious · **Posted:** Mon Sep 08, 2014 8:53 pm

Sorry for you loss and congratulations on the new family members. Definitely watch video's read articles often. I am really good at watching and not doing anything they say, but that is my own habit to break. Gandalf does know much about contrast colors and creating depth with color (warms and colds) and so looking more into it and gaining more insight can't hurt even if practice comes slower.

Re: DftE WIP: Galadhrim Cloaks 8/6/14

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