Dwarf Slayer - May 2007

I recieved a question regarding how I painted the hair and gold on this mini, I am copying it here and adding a bit to it, as it seems relevant to mention the process of painting this piece.

"I will do my best to try and describe the colours. I tend to mix colours freely on my palette, so I cant quite quote direct colours used. So the following is rough estimates..

I have mainly used P3 paints for this mini.

The beard is a base mix of skorne red with some browns in it and a little ochre yellow, highlighted with adding more ochre gradually. Some shadows were worked in with a dark blue and some purple.

The gold was based on brass balls, washed with vallejo flat brown for a matte shading. The highlights are BB with silver added, up to pure silver. The gold is glazed and shaded and rehighlighted back and forth with flat brown and some reds and blues I had on my palette.

Basically the trick is using flat brown for metallics because the matte shading works as a contrast and makes the edge highlights look brighter."

On this miniature I specifically used two colours throughout, a dark blue and a deep red. A cold and a warm colour. I am using the cold tone to deepen the recesses and areas I want to not draw attention (look at the whole back area and underside of his arms as a good example). The warm tone, on the other hand, is used to paint the focus points, espesially on the skin and face. Using the same colours like this repeatedly on a miniature help bring the colourscheme together and make a strongly defined "look". It is much the same as using a limited palette like is always preached in WD articles about painting armies and units, but in a more subtle form.

I am using this cold/warm shading technique more and more at the present time. For another good example, check out the ghoul king, which uses much the same approach and colours.

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