Two-toned skin help

Hey guys, I'm finally attempting to paint my saurus'. I want to do something similar to the one on p77 of the new book-the one with the dark blue skin with a white belly. I've painted my way through BoSP & Dark Elves but the lizardmen are really giving me trouble in the style I want to do them in. I'd rather have a gentle difference btwn the large scales & skin (I dont like the dramatic difference GW uses).

Anyone have an idea the steps to do this guy? Specifically getting the color of the belly. I've hunted through the forum, image searches on yahoo & google but haven't anything like this model. thanks.

 

Well I dont have my book to look at right now but i think i can picture what your trying to go for.
My suggestion is blending blending blending blending blending. That is really the only option you have if you want to have a gentle change from two drastic colors.

 

Wow I think achieving the effect so seemlessly would be a bit beyond me. Making it look naturaly rather than a forced change in colour is the hard part, there is a very small line of blending between the dark blue and the white.

For what its worth, here is what I think they've done. The whole model is painted in the dark blue scheme. Then the areas they want white are painted up to light blue. You can see right at the edges of the white and some of the spots in it are light blue. Then they go on to the white colours, probably with a few layers to mostly mute the blue. You could try just sticking to one layer right next to the blue, then a thin gap before two layers and so on. This should leave progressively less of the blue showing through. Good luck with it.

 

Thanks for the input. I can tell they did a dark blue base, then certain areas (chest, near armpits, parts of face & feet) they did a blue blend, then a blend up to white. I'm thinking I'm likely getting too ambitious for painting as I usually do (no one should have spent as much time on goblin archers from BoSP as I did).

I guess my main problem is figuring out how to do white skin. Just blend up from blue? A few test models I've done without blending made the white look terrible.

For time's sake I may do something similar to the black & white Chakax picture: white-ish skin & dark scales. I'm trying to give a nod to indian art, but I haven't found enough good images of Aztec & mayan colors so I'm looking more at the South West Indians (specifically Kachina dolls). That dove tails with the idea I want my lizardmen to have a stand-out pattern displaying clear "intentional design" from the Old Ones so maybe some sort of Rorshach pattern as well on the heads or back.

any input would be appreciated.