Thursday 2 July 2015

Nocturna Models Enchantment [WIP - Skin tone]

Slowly but surely, solid progress is being made on my Daenerys Targaryen proxy or the Nocturna Models Akelarre Enchantment 70-mm figure. When I first started working on her I had my doubts seeing that the light pastel dress colours looked a tad off in isolation. But as first the dragon then her skin tone was more clearly defined, it looks like the overall colour scheme I envisioned is starting to take shape. Planning colours in advance and in detail is a good habit I'm happy to have acquired.

Nocturna Models Akelarre Enchantment, work-in-progress (WIP) on skin tone
She is currently my proxy for Daenerys of House Targaryen
Light skin tone selected to complement the pastel hues of her dress

A light skin tone was the obvious choice with the Akelarre Enchantment figure being a proxy for the Mother of Dragons. Her skin may require a few more thin layers of blending to further smooth out the transitions but for now they allow me to see an overall picture of how the colours are 'reacting' to each other. And as is the case when an idea anyone has slowly comes to fruition, I'm loving it so far.

A full-on view of the WIP Nocturna Models Akelarre Enchantment
Face only has skin tones defined; her eyes, eyebrows and lips have yet to be painted
Side view (left) of the Nocturna Models Akelarre Enchantment WIP figure
Subtle contrasts on her pink pants and light turquoise dress are holding up so far against the dragon and skin

Even as I paint her skin tone, I am noticing stuff that a short lay off has made obvious. For one, the contrast in her headgear is woefully inadequate. This is shown up even more as other colours around it are painted in namely the greens of the dragon and the light hues of her skin tone. So that is one thing I will have to rectify in the days to come. Each part of a miniature is never truly done at any one stage because the next colour you put on is going to move the goal posts. However, if you have carefully planned out the colour scheme, any corrections you would have to do should be minimal.   

Back view of the Nocturna Models Akelarre Enchantment WIP figure
This angle shows up the lack of contrast in her headgear which will have to be rectified
Side view (right) shows the main colours all lined up in a row
Many little clothing accessories/adornments have yet to be fleshed out through paint

Because the many little details on her clothing accessories/adornments have yet to be painted, there is a certain emptiness to her clothes. There is so much detail (and in such small sizes too) that I will have to take the time to analyze how I plan to go about painting them. Initial observations point to a lot of careful, time consuming lining work. Not something I am particularly looking forward to; moreover it's something I should have done before painting her clothing. Duh ... face palm.    

A angled top down view ... eyes up top sailor

Yet another milestone was reached during work on the Nocturna Models Akelarre Enchantment's skin tone namely my first use of a Raphael 3/0 Kolinsky Sable brush. My previous experience with Raphael was with its 6/0 brushes which I used on eyes. I used the 6/0 together with a normal Nylon brush to paint the skin on my proxy for Daenerys Targaryen. I find that the Kolinsky Sable brush's sharp point allowed me to easily paint the highlights and in some cases the shadows. For the most part, blending transitions between the shadows/midtones/highlights is still easier with a Nylon brush.

http://shireworks.blogspot.com/p/nocturna.html

A recent bout of flu closely followed by a mild case of viral fever - the period of recovery in between allowed me to work on the skin tone - has forced me to slow down my more artistic pursuits of drawing and painting. But I did catch up on my reading again. On this front, I have rather ambitiously set forth on The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter Hamilton. Just four chapters in, I'm enjoying the fact that this book isn't dumbed-down. It's a hardcore Science Fiction novel and unabashedly so. And now, I have three huge tomes to plough through in between grappling with pencils and brushes.


P.S. I have taken some shots of another Nocturna Models figure i.e. the Battle Chick. She has been assembled but have yet to receive any primer coating let alone acrylic paint layers. If you want check out the latest photographs of her, please click on the following link => http://bit.ly/1CLos9z    

24 comments:

  1. I really like that dusky skin tone. It must have been hard to find a balance with those colors of the clothes :)

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    1. Thanks Zab. The duskiness of her skin tone is a result of the contrasting lightness of her clothes. It's something I plan to blog about in the near future.

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  2. Fantastic job so far. I really love the skin !
    Greetings

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    1. Thank you Mario. Her skin still needs some smoothing out but overall I'm happy with the progress I've made on the skin tones.

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  3. Splendid, these colors are outstanding...well done the Artist!

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    1. You are very kind Phil ... thank you. I too am happy with the colours so far.

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  4. Great work as always , very detailed . I like this turquoise color
    I think use this color on next work , with metallic effect ;)
    Cheers .

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    1. Now I'm curious as to what your next project is. :)

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  5. Great progress, she's coming to life!

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    1. Grazie luca. There's a lot more work to do but she is indeed slowly coming to life.

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  6. She's looking amazing so far, great work. Top class ass highlights too dude!

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    1. Ha ha ... thanks Bob. I know this sounds weird but getting highlights on a light pink base was extremely difficult.

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  7. Really nice looking so far. I like the colours you've gone for the compliment each other nicely.

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    1. Thank you very much Simon. Now let's hope I don't mess it up later.

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  8. Amazing, your progress on this one is sweet. I believe you're right about the lining on the clothes, that would be awesome, but I'm not sure it is worth of the effort at this stage. Keep on the track, most beautiful adaptation of the character I've seen so far!!

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    1. Thank you so much Suber. You kind words are very encouraging to me. Hmmmm ... you have a good point. I will have to see if lining on the clothes will be worth all the effort. Thanks for making me aware of that point.

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  9. Outstanding painting work Sir! You're a real master with the brushes.

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    1. Thank you very much Moiterei. Sadly I'm more apprentice than master.

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  10. The skin looks great, Kuan. Overall, the colors work with each other very well.

    Kolinsky Sables are the way to go for detail work.

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    1. Thanks Finch. I'm so happy at their ability to keep a fine point. The cheap nylon brushes I use always lose their ability to keep a sharp point very quickly.

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  11. I'll tell and tell it again, but the colours you choose are always gorgeous! The skin looks great and I do love the little dragon on her arm!

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    1. Her dragon is my favourite so far. ^_^ And thank you Fed for your encouraging words.

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  12. Great work so far, I like the color choices a lot!

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    1. Thank you Adam. I'm relieved the colour scheme is working so far.

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