He's looking pretty nice. An airbrush helped me achieve a very even coat of orange-brown on the armor which I then went back to and shaded and highlighted. The armor was then carefully masked off and I painted the cloak with the airbrush.
Because the cloak has a flowing shape, I decided to do my shading and highlighting with the airbrush. I sprayed down my basecolor, which was a 50/50 mix of GW:Red Gore and GW: Scorched Brown. Once that was dry, I mixed some GW: Moody Blue into it (from their original line, yes, their paint pots used to be so good the paint would last 15+ years) for the shading. Adding a cool color gives it some depth and more visual interest - which black does not give you.
Once the shading was dry, I took my original mix (minus the Moody Blue) and added some GW: Bubonic Brown, which is a yellowy brown. Yellow warms it up on the highlights and again adds more visual interest. It's important to go slow with airbrush when doing highlights or else you can really screw up your shading work.
The shading and highlighting was a bit stark, and even though I love contrast and vibrancy, I had to tone it down a bit. I mixed up my original color (SB and RG), diluted it with water quite a bit, and then sprayed over the cloak. The coat was translucent enough so that I did not ruin the shading and highlighting, but added enough color so that it tied it together.
This is a process I learned from M. Fontaine in his airbrushing seminar last year at Adepticon. He does it slightly differently - using blacks and whites instead of the warm and cool colors I used - but the process is essentially the same.
In honor of Columbus Day, my buddy Lo Pan and I discovered this garage in Reston, VA. Local inhabitants were already there, but we discovered it. So we began the process of raising an army to subjugate the locals. Below you will see the results of our labors.
3 comments:
Just WOW! Superb job Tim! Are you feeling comfortable with your airbrush now, because it certainly looks like you are? Is it taking you more time to work with your airbrush, or are you used to it enough now, that it takes no more time than your bristled brushes? Also, do you clean your airbrush in between colors(or just blow it out) or only after use?
I have an old Aztek, but no compressor for it. I am considering buying one of those Krome deals from Secret Weapon. What do you think?
I really liked your subtle crack at Columbus. hehehe. Yea what he had that the Vikings, Chinese, Japanese, and possibly Egyptians and even Knights Templar did not have was an awesome Marketing agent and Publicist in the form of the Queen of Spain. I bet she knew all the angles, and even had some nice angles of her own if you get my meaning. ; )
Just how do you discover a land that already has people living on it?
Those Death Korps make me giddy. Do you have any big guns for them yet?
That's an insanely good looking infinity model: congrats!
Really like the blending with electric blues that contrast well with the orange
Which that someday I could accomplish something close to this quality of work.
Cannon, the badger deal at secret weapons looks like a good one. the krome is a great airbrush to get started on. I probably would have done that deal if I hadn't already had an airbrush.
I'm still getting used to the airbrush. There are times when I screw up, other times when it works exactly how I want it. It's an interesting tool to work with.
I clean between colors by running some of my cleaning solution through it, then unscrewing the nozzle slightly for some backwash, which then gets dumped. I do this until the backwash is clear and then I can add the next color in.
If you do get an airbrush, I highly recommend Vallejo's Air line. These paints are perfect. You can use the paint directly from the bottle, whereas with GW and PV3 paints you have to mix with water and alcohol.
@Malthus, thanks! I'm sure you'll get there someday if you keep practicing and learning from others....thats how I do it!
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