Dark Elf Sorceress - Part I

 

This one has a fiery temper.

 

Just for something different, the next model in my Hero Quest remake is the replacement for the Wizard. I decided to use a Dark Elf Sorceress as the main model based on a similarity of pose and because I thought it might be fun to paint. Just one of those models that's fairly simple, but somehow carries a lot of character.

The original idea was simply to copy the reference colours, but at the last moment I decided that I'd give red hair another go, which messes with the entire look of the model and forced me to reconsider basically everything.

The hair didn't quite turn out as red as I'd like. It's more ginger than red. Still, it was a fun experiment. During painting, all brush strokes were kept in the one direction. This helps keep the natural shape and flow associated with hair.

• Rhinox Hide over all of the hair.
• Skrag Brown over most of the hair, but concentrating on more raised areas with a second coat, and then a third with the lighter areas. Obviously each coat was quite thin.
  
• Deathclaw Brown over more prominently raised areas, with maybe 30% coverage.
• Cadian Fleshtone on the tips and more reflective areas.
  
• Contrast Blood Angels Red, mixed with Contrast Medium at about a 1:4 ratio. This was covered over all of the hair just to give it more of a red tone.
• Contrast Iyanden Yellow, mixed with Contrast Medium at about a 1:4 ratio. This was applied on the tips and more reflective areas.
• Reikland Fleshshade in deeper areas, or wherever I felt it was too bright.

The photo isn't quite colour accurate, but it's close enough to the end result. It could use a little more vibrance, and slightly shifted more towards red, but this is why a single model is good to experiment on: it's not like I'm committed to painting a whole army this way.

The rest of the reds are, well, reds. I didn't keep specific notes on purpose, because I wanted to play and make the model unique. One of the best ways to do that is simply just add and mix colours on a palette and see how it goes, but there are still a few points of interest:

The red leather is a brighter red, with highlights that lend towards pink. There's not a whole lot of contrast, and very few desaturated highlights in an attempt to give a gloss appearance.

The NMM red tends more towards orange. Shadowed areas are burgundy mixed with black, with brighter points pink, then glazed with Wild Rider Red (which tends towards orange). This keeps the NMM components distinct from the red leather.

The cloth I intend to keep more towards burgundy, with fairly muted highlights.

There will be some metallics on the miniature, likely the head of the staff.

Skin is primarily Rakarth Flesh at this point, with some very weak shading to give some outline to the sculpt in preparation for next steps.

-- silly painter.