experiments at 11x.
Stage 8:
The claws, teeth, muzzle and chin are painted in Unbleached Titanium.
Stage 9:
The irises of the eyes are done in Winsor & Newton Finity Cadmium Yellow Medium. That's probably a bit too bright for real eye-colour in a lion, but a more muted yellow or tan makes the eyes look undersized.
The "eyebrow" and below-eye markings are now painted in Unbleached Titanium. You could probably do a perfectly acceptable lioness without these markings, but I'm a zoologist by training so I lie awake at night worrying about such things…
While waiting for this to dry, I painted the rocks on the base (those not buried in Polyfilla) with Winsor & Newton Finity Red Iron Oxide - and as this particular paint dries in half a microsecond, then I drybrushed Golden Ochre over it.
By this time the yellow of the eyes was dry, so it was time to do the pupils in GW Chaos Black.
Stage 10:
Finishing stages… I drybrushed Naples Yellow over the rocks.
Then the teeth got a highlight of Winsor & Newton Titanium White.
The nose gets a little GW Tanned Flesh on it, but leaving a black line all the way round.
Go look at some pictures of lions' noses - they are pinkish in the middle.
And then a wash of Burnt Umber on the tuft of the tail, and then I tried to pick out the dimples on the muzzle (where the whiskers insert) with some specks of Burnt Umber.
I'm not entirely satisfied with these lionesses - I think I overdid the Burnt Umber on the first wet-blending, so their ribs show up rather prominently. A couple of hungry lionesses in need of a square meal?