• The forum software have been upgraded to the latest version.

    If you notice anything that looks off, or does not work, please let us know.

    For more information, click here.

Help with feathers

Lord Skal'terakk
Chameleon Skink

Lord Skal'terakk

Well-Known Member
Messages
160
Likes Received
530
Trophy Points
93
Hello everyone! Long time no post, I've been silently stalking the forum the last few months. I am stuck while painting my fanath blood bowl kroxigor, and I wanted to ask for painting advice for anyone who can share their wisdom with me. I suck at feathers. Last I did were okay I guess but I fear my sucking will ruin this otherwise nice miniature. How do you guys do it? I don't even know what colors to use, I want him to stay ferocious so not too bright or gay (original use of the word), here's a picture of it to have an idea:

epuaJtY.jpg


Please, Lustrian gods, hear my plead! I beg thy for guidance, give me the vision that I need!
 
What about classical lizardmen Jamaican-style red-yellow-green layered feathers? I think they add a nice color variation to our blue-bodied lizards :)
 
What I usually do with feathers:
- paint all white first. That makes the colors shine.
- paint all yellow
- paint a third green, and a third orange.
- drybrush the transition between the yellow part and the others.
 
Aginor said:
What I usually do with feathers:
- paint all white first. That makes the colors shine.
- paint all yellow
- paint a third green, and a third orange.
- drybrush the transition between the yellow part and the others.
Click to expand...
Great advice aginor,
If you're going for a super detailed model you might want to smooth out the transition more, if so you could also use a bit of glaze, such as way watchers green or lamenters yellow and put a small amount where the colours start to mix.
 
Nazqua said:
Great advice aginor,
If you're going for a super detailed model you might want to smooth out the transition more, if so you could also use a bit of glaze, such as way watchers green or lamenters yellow and put a small amount where the colours start to mix.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I admit that I usually just drybrush transitions because I lack the skill/patience to do transitions using shades or glazes. :D
 
Aginor said:
What I usually do with feathers:
- paint all white first. That makes the colors shine.
- paint all yellow
- paint a third green, and a third orange.
- drybrush the transition between the yellow part and the others.
Click to expand...
That's what we call dithering in computer graphics!

I think you can also just mix colors in the palette and apply until the transitions becomes smooth enough when looking from afar, for example:

Start with red, orange, green (warning: green must be a warm color green, even yellow green). Then you paint the mix of red and orange in the middle of where red and orange meet, by covering the more of the red area than the orange area (you will overpaint orange from the side that meets the green). Do the same using the mix of orange and the green (here if you do not use the warm green you will get a grayed or rotten green which we don't want) when the orange meets green.
This will give you a six color feather, which in my opinion totally should look fine when looking from afar (table top).
 
bOdziO Wolf said:
That's what we call dithering in computer graphics!

I think you can also just mix colors in the palette and apply until the transitions becomes smooth enough when looking from afar, for example:

Start with red, orange, green (warning: green must be a warm color green, even yellow green). Then you paint the mix of red and orange in the middle of where red and orange meet, by covering the more of the red area than the orange area (you will overpaint orange from the side that meets the green). Do the same using the mix of orange and the green (here if you do not use the warm green you will get a grayed or rotten green which we don't want) when the orange meets green.
This will give you a six color feather, which in my opinion totally should look fine when looking from afar (table top).
Click to expand...

Hehehe, yeah, that's really dithering!
I do 3-4 color dithering with my drybrushing technique, and I'd say even that is enough for the tabletop.

This is one of my first ever miniatures (meanwhile I can paint a bit better), and it uses the technique I described earlier for the feathers on the weapon.

20170225_135142.jpg 20170225_135201.jpg
 
Nice work. If I could say one thing is that I think they would look even better if you pushed the contrast inbetween the individual feathers. You could add an almost black ink/wash on the boarders and bases of the feathers that way they are broken up more. At first glance it's hard to tell where one feather ends and the other begins.

But overall great work!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top