It´s a continuation of the article done for the incredible web figure mentors. Thanks Jason!
This article tells how to paint with a chaotic technique the figure of the Gatekeeper of nocturna models. Really the best figure i´ve ever painted on terms of sculpture. Pedro Fernandez rocks!
Here we go!
I begin priming on black. Why not with grey and white to pup up lights and shadows? this figure (like infinity ones) has a lot of details. When i say a lot i mean a LOT. Tiny belts, trimmings, etc. It´s easier to work this details with a black background that facilitates a shadow edge painting.
I decided to go for a desaturated skin with not much color on it. But things changes while imagination is working. All painted with a W&N nº2 and vallejo colors.
I work giving strong strokes at the beginning. With the paint not to much diluted. This type of painting is very dirty but i will clean it up in several stages. I place first shadows adding black to the base and move on.
My mind blows up searching for inspiration when i see a Conan pic of the old comics. That saturation and darkness is awesome. I wanted to paint something like that so i began to copy it on the figure. First, change the approach for a more saturated palette with orange and brown. I give it on a very diluted tone letting the shadows show up. As you can see, the skin is cleaner now. The technique is quite simple: Be aggressive with not much diluted strokes and clean it up with very diluted washes. Much faster than giving only glazes.
Again i repeat the process this time focusing on darker areas and wrinkles. Strong strokes with black. This time black si very diluted cause dark colors stains a lot.
Time to clean the area. Remember, very diluted paint. First time will not cover all the area. third or fourth time yes. I decide to give the shadows a greenish tone to pup up the figure richness.
Here we go with the lights. My favorite part! studying the anatomy and having my own interpretation, i place the lights strongly.
Washing machine! Here you can see the effectiveness of the technique. In a few stages we have the area like we had given a lot of thin glazes.
Now we go with second lights. This time in a smaller area than before and using more bone on the mix. Talking about colors. I think the receipt of the colors we use is not an important matter but the correct place for the illumination yes. If this fails, colors will suck.
I clean the area and point out which parts i want to show up giving strong “highlight points”. We will see it later.
Focusing on the face. This is the most important part of the figure. I try to give very very thin strokes to represent wrinkles and natural shapes. This is necessary to achieve a real face looking.
Always try to copy reality. I give strokes with pure bone.
Clean up baby!
Attention here. I decide which parts i want to pup up. Upper part of the forehead , some wrinkles, nose, etc. Red tones are also given to achieve a real looking. Nipples are very important here (don´t think dirty..). If we paint red parts on the face we need another point of red on the skin to fit all the interpretation. The spectator sees more natural points to drop the view. It creates a connexion between this points. I try to follow this line in all the figure to achieve this not aggressive and smooth looking between painted parts.
I washed the area previously and decided to give another Bang! to the highlights. Thinner than ever.
Washing machine go go! This integrates the skin till i´m totally satisfied.
Well, here i got crazy and decided to give the face another source of light, probably from the shinny armor or something else. Like in real faces, sometimes we have a warm source on one side and a neutral cold source on the other.
For the eyes, sure you all know how to do it so i´ll be short. Bone with grey. Never white. this is unreal.
Very diluted red for the edges. Remember we are going for a realistic face. ( i don´t know why this got lost on the final stages, maybe i painted above and forgot to paint it again)
Now with pure white i paint a tiny tiny dot representing the reflection. Other important thing is the borders of the eye. Upper one has to be dark, this time black. Below one has a very dark red tone, never black or it will seem to have eyeliner.
Side view
For the hair i decided to go for an old man looking. not to much to explain here. Very thin strokes respecting natural reflects. Like manga hair.
I have to say something before i explain this part. If you want to see the BEST nonmetallic metal go and see Ben Komets knight one. It´s truly amazing. This man is from other world.
I wanted to copy Ben. So i began testing. Same technique as the skin. Strong strokes and clean up with washes.
I gave a bidirectional source of light to the amor. With this in mind, lets work!.
Only left arm began. I have to respect the two light sources so i take a lot of pics to place them well. Again cleaning up the area and preparing the next stroke push.
Here i go further with lights using pure bone. Edge painting, etc. I enjoyed so much painting this …
Here you have a good example of unfinished areas. Strokes everywhere.
It´s hard to clean all day… ?
This is the most enjoyable part of the armor. Painting reflections. Shadows has a bit of purple (complementary of yellow skin). Turquoise and blue are here and there representing the sky. On lights i give washes of the skin tone to match all the figure together and build up those points of view we talked before. Bone for the edges and pure white for the most exposed parts.
Now the most difficult part of the figure. Matching areas that are unpainted with the rest. Best thing is to think a lot and imagine possibilities. For these situations i use the color theory. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Best thing is to paint it and make a real decision. This is too ugly¡ buagh…
Much better! thanks to my pillow!
Thats it by now folks¡ The idea for this article was to show you how to paint aggressively, without fears, giving strong strokes and then clean it up with washes. I think you can speed up your time using it.
I hope you enjoyed the reading and learned some new things. It´s a pleasure for me to collaborate with the community and leave the little knowledge i have to you.
Cheers!
Aythami Alonso
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