Round Three Report from Garness-at-Home - Part 2

Dread Pirate Garness continues:

Next I painted the wolfpelt, claws, fur of the boots, and flesh in Reaper Woodland Brown. I wanted the figure to look like a seasoned veteran, and I felt a darker skin tone would do that better than a more Caucasian skin tone. On the wolfpelt, I painted black on the top of the head and on what would be the spine of the wolf. I painted in-between the black and Woodland Brown with Americana Traditional Burnt Umber in a random pattern. Along the edges of the pelt I painted Americana Khaki. What I have now - from Spine to legs - is black, Burnt Umber, Woodland Brown, and Khaki. This will be the undercoat before I go in and drybrush the whole pelt.

I then painted the boots with Andrea Red Leather, and then ran a GW Brown Ink wash over all the brown parts and the wolfpelt where the black paint was. I left the edges of the pelt unwashed, because I was going to go from a dark upper body to a white lower pelt, and the ink would darken it too much. I also painted the armor scales black on the front and back.

The wolf pelt is looking pretty rough right about now...

...but with a little drybrushing it will look great (after a few colors). I don't normally recommend drybrushing, but in the case of fur - especially well-defined fur - it is a great method to get a good transition from dark to light.

Drybrushing is a technique where a brush is used to apply a lighter color (generally) to an area to be highlighted. It is called drybrushing because the brush is dipped into the paint, and then on a paper towel most of the paint is brushed off, leaving a very tiny amount on the brush. The brush is then used to brush on the remaining paint on a raised surface, such as the edges of the fur. The more paint left on the brush, the more paint that will get onto the figure.

Problem is, drybrushing is very rough on a brush and tends to destroy it rather quickly. However, I have found that Testors Synthetic brushes are excellent brushes to use. Be sure to get the ones with the white bristles (the black ones are simply too large for good use). I have had one for about 2 years and it is still going. It looks like heck, but it works great after all this time.

Beginning with the black regions, I mixed up a little Americana Soft Black and Ceramcoat Autumn Brown to get a deep brown - but not too dark - and then I slowly and gently drybrushed the brush over the black regions of the pelt.

I then added Ceramcoat Pigskin followed by Americana Khaki, and drybrushed the edges of the darker regions and the lighter areas as well. I overlapped the colors so the transition from light to dark is much more natural-looking, and real fur doesn't necessarily go in nice, neat, orderly colors - unless you are painting a zebra. I then used Ceramcoat Antique White and hit the edges again, and then used pure white for the very tips and edges.

I painted the head of the wolf using the same colors, except that I blended the colors instead of drybrushing (since the head was smooth and had little sculpted detail to drybrush). I touched the tops of the wolf's head above the eye sockets with Khaki, and painted Soft Black under the eyes to give the wolf a wolfish "mask."