Painting the Bloodrage Urkin: Part 2


 

Hi everyone, Sebastian here again! This is the second in a series of painting articles I'm going to write for Twisted, showing some of the methods I use for painting as well as revealing a few tips and tricks.

Don't forget to enter the Twisted Painting Competition by Feb 4 to get your 10% discount or win some cool prizes!

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PART 2: Creating Texture

In this article we are going to look at some ways you can use painting tricks to bring texture into an otherwise flat surface. This is really useful to achieve a weathered, threadbare feeling for clothing and to create a nice contrast against other smoothly-painted areas.

I wanted to create an eye-catching colour scheme for the Bloodrage Urkin, and a bright orange textured hat seemed like a perfect way to create a focal point on his head!

In Part 1 I look at basic highlighting/shading techniques when painting the flesh:

Go to Part 1

 

A) Applying the Basecoat:

The first step was painting a simple base coat in the bright orange colour I had chosen (I'm going to discuss colour choices in one of the upcoming articles). The orange colour was old GW Blazing Orange (Trollslayer Orange) mixed with P3 Khador Red Highlight.

Importantly, I wanted to start with a very saturated (intense/Bright) orange colour for the basecoat, because I knew it would lose some of its vibrancy as I added the texturing effects.

As usual, the paint was thinned 1:1 with water and applied in 2-3 thin layers, waiting for the surface to dry between each layer.

 

 

 

B) Some Basic Shading 

Before starting the texture work, I wanted to roughly establish the shadows. I applied some basic shading to the hat using dark purple-red colours. You can see the colours I mixed on my palette in the palette photo below.

I only applied shadows – not highlights – because the upcoming 'texturing' stages will be applied in a light colour and will take the place of highlights. At this stage, I wanted to keep the overall colour dark enough so that the lighter texture colours would shop up with enough contrast later on.

The photo below labelled Step 2 shows the first 'round' of shading applied, to gently start establishing the shadowed areas.

The photo labelled Step 3 shows a second darker, more intense step of shading where I concentrated on the cracks and crevasses around all the details, going really dark to create some good definition.

 

 

 

C) 'Mottling' the Surface

Now the fun starts as we begin applying the texture!

Foam Stippling: I have a little trick using a piece of foam to create a random 'mottled' texture effect. Any foam will do – the foam you get inside a miniature blister pack is perfect. In the photo below you can see a corner of foam I have ripped off. Keep the tip blunt - you want it to be imprecise and only touch the 'sticking out' areas that would naturally attract wear-and-tear.

 

Method:

To apply the mottled texture, I dipped the tip of the foam into light bone-coloured paint (representing the worn fabric underneath). I then dabbed the foam a few times on a paper towel to remove any excess paint, then carefully touched it to the orange hat with a series of quick pats. Do not 'wipe' the foam across the surface: instead, 'tap' the surface a couple of times with a stippling, up-and-down motion. The texture in the foam will catch the raised or exposed areas and create a random mottled effect.

The Step 4 photo below shows the first round of 'foam stippling' applied using a bone colour.

Step 5 shows a second round of foam stippling using a lighter cream colour. For this step I used a lighter touch and trying to catch just the raised edges.

 

D) Adding Texture Lines

After the mottling, I decided to add further texture by overlaying some fine texture lines. This gives a sense of the surface being created out of a course, threadbare material.

You don't need to do both the 'foam mottling' and the 'texture lines': normally one or the other is enough. But sometimes if you want an extra-textured surface, or if you're working on a large blank surface that needs a lift, I think it can be nice to add 2 different styles of texture to give variety.

Method:

In Step 6 (apologies for the blurry photo) you can see I have painted a series of cross-hatched fine lines over the surface using a brush. The lines were painted in a light cream colour, and I tried to keep the placement a bit random – not too careful. Randomness is good and adds to the effect.

In Step 7 I have switched to a dark brown-purple colour and added dark texture lines. The idea is to reinforce the light-coloured lines from Step 6, by creating a sense of 'depth' to the lines. You can create the illusion of a 'crack' in the surface by placing a light line directly against the underside of a black line. This 'false highlight' gives the illusion of depth.

In Step 8 I have used a very light off-white colour as a 'final highlight' to emphasise the depth of the texture even more, and to pick out the edges with small extra highlights. You'll also notice that I have painted the other details on the hat at this stage.

 

 

E) Bringing Back Colour Intensity

Adding all these overlaid textures using the light bone/cream colours means that some of the intense orange colour of the hat has been lost. But I want the Bloodrage Urkin's hat to be vibrant and eye catching! So as a final step, I wanted to bring back some of the orange colour intensity (saturation).

 

Method:

Bright orange (GW Blazing Orange/Trollslayer Orange - seen above in the centre of the palette) was applied in a series of dilute glaze layers to 'tint' the surface of the hat. This had the twofold affect of both pumping up the orange to make the colour more 'intense' (strong), and also helped by smoothing out some of the chalkiness of the texture layers underneath.

(For more information about the glazing technique, see 'Painting the Bloodrage Urkin – Part 1: Step 4 and 5)

 

 

 

Final Result

Here are some final photos of the textured hat. I hope you found this article interesting – adding texture is a lot of fun, and it is a great way to create a contrast against other smoothly-painted areas of a miniature, or to turn a flat, featureless area into something really exciting!

In the next articles I'll be looking at painting freehand checks, choosing the colour scheme and creating a display base!

Buy the Bloodrage Urkin (and his smaller alter ego the Urkin Alchemancer) here:    Online Store

 

 

If you have any questions about this article or want to discuss it, I have created a dedicated topic on the Twisted Official Forum. I'm very happy to answer questions or discuss any aspect of these articles:

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