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.

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