Round Three Report from Garness-at-Home - Part 3

Dread Pirate Garness continues:

Next was the flesh of Vidar. I began by mixing Americana Soft Black and Reaper Woodland Brown together, and began to pick out the flesh of the arms, chest, face and kneecaps. For the beard, I used a mix of Ceramcoat Autumn Brown and Slate Grey to get a deep grey-brown. I painted the entire beard with this, then added Ceramcoat Pineapple to the mix to get the highlights. I painted each strand of the beard to get a smooth color transition and get the highlights just right, rather than simply drybrush where I could.

I continued by adding GW Elf Flesh to the base skin color, and painted gradually smaller and smaller areas of the arms and face. I did not add the lightest highlight colors to the face, as the lips would naturally be darker, and most of the face was under a helmet. In places I painted thin lines for the cords of the muscle, but it is very subtle and is only hinted at instead of being too outstanding.

I followed the same procedure for the painting of his hands (before I joined them to the body).

The scale mail armor, armband, swordhilt and helmet were painted using the NMM technique. I began by using black as the base and added Americana Victorian Blue as the main color. I was going to use a snow-covered base, so I simply went lighter and lighter towards the edges, as the light reflected from the snow would hit the edges of the armor. I added white to the Victorian Blue to get the lighter colors, eventually just touching the edges with white. Near the recesses of the scales, I painted in a little Americana Prussian Blue to get a better transition. On the chainmail, I only highlighted at the lower curves of the chain. I left the sides dark so it would look like there were rows of little chain held together. I wasn't sure it would work, but I am very pleased with the result.

The teeth of the wolf were first painted with Americana Soft Black, and then picked out with Americana Raw Sienna (a light brown color).

Then - gradually working towards the tips of the teeth - Americana Khaki, Ceramcoat Antique White, and the tips were touched with white.