Mermaid of Warsaw - Part III

 

Something fishy going on here.

The background project of the Mermaid of Warsaw received a little attention recently, which was mostly a combination of oils again, and then starting on acrylics over the top.

Originally I was trying to replicate some of the skin tones with oils, but it wasn't working. I didn't get the mix right, and I was necessarily short on time. While that was curing though I took at look at the spine and for no particular reason decided to mix up some reds and blues to pick out what is now seen. By all accounts it shouldn't fit, and yet somehow I like it. Some blending with the skin could still be done, but I'm not entirely sure I'll ever get that far.

The hair from the rear view I've not shown before, but again it's something that I think just sort of works. The blue/green shadows give it a seaweed appearance that I'd never have thought of with simple direct acrylic painting, and yet it really fits the overall theme of a mermaid. It's not complete by any means, but I think there's enough to work with going forwards.

The skin tones I have ultimately used Rakarth Flesh, Dark Reaper, and Ungor Flesh to fix up, once the oils could be painted over. Rakarth Flesh is a rather unhealthy tone, but fits in the shadowed areas, with Ungor Flesh bring some warmth in the areas I want to try attention to (the face and shoulders predominantly). There is still a good deal of work to be done on the skin tones, and a lot of glazing to fix up where it didn't quite work properly before. It will take some time.

Not much else to say right now really. Holidays and health problems, coupled with various other responsibilities, have painting a scare hobby right now. I'm still trying to finish off tiny tanks, which are both close to being done, and yet always seemingly far away from it too.

-- silly painter.

Mermaid of Warsaw - Part II

 

Wow! Look at that rock!

There's not a whole lot of difference yet on the model, however I was recently playing around with oil paints again, specifically with the Zorn Palette (or close to it, as I don't have the official paints). I have a particular interest in that palette because of the skin tones that are seemingly trivial to make using it. Red, yellow, black, and white. Mixed in whatever ratios work.

One of the tricks behind skin tones is that skin is generally based on orange. Not like an orangutan, but the particular palette here can create nearly all the basics. There might be some shifts into green or blue depending on environmental factors (shading, lights, etc), but that should be simple enough with just adding those as necessary.

Working with oils is quite the joy on larger models where smooth blending is important. The long working time and ease of smoothing out colours just makes everything so much more pleasant. Notably some of the skin highlights here, and obviously yellow for the hair, but I also worked on the rock. Black was thinned slightly and dabbed around some areas, and then a grey was mixed up and kind of drybrushed (referring to the brush motion, not the paint consistency) across to build up some highlights. This workes surprisingly well. Oils have a natural translucency that also let some of the airbrushed colours show through, and I used that to act as secondary reflections from the body of the mermaid.

The hair is mostly playing with the yellow paint. No pattern or thought, I was just playing with the idea of drybrushing using oils. The desaturated yellow hair on the models's left doesn't fit with the lighting angle and I'll need to go back in and fix that next time, but I kind of like the drybrushing idea. The hair does need more depth though, and I probably should fade out some of the blues, otherwise it looks too much like coloured stone instead of hair flowing in the wind. I have some ideas on that.

I'll likely continue to play with the oils before I switch back to acrylics for finer detail work, but I definitely need to sort out some better brushes. Oils need smoothing out, and short, stiff bristles work better for that kind of thing. I have some older brushes that aren't any good (Army Painter ones that never worked as they were supposed to) so I might trim the ends down and see how that goes.

The skin tones need some blending out in places more (the abdomen for example), or building up entirely (the back). I'm also considering using some of the mineral spirits to make a wash for the hair and scales. The rock could use browns and perhaps some greens closer to the waterline as well. Still, the main colours are blocked in and I'm getting an idea at least of where the model will go. Just hope I'll be able to keep up some kind of painting routine to actually get it done.

-- silly painter

Mermaid of Warsaw - Part I

 

Strictly speaking a siren, not a mermaid.

This particular model hails from the Kontrast Festival, and it's taken me a year to start to figure out how I want to paint it. I was held back for a long time deciding the basic colours, and also looking for an appropriate plinth on which to mount it. Ideally I want a square plinth, and I'd like a backing plane to paint something else on - or I could simply use the excuse of oils on canvas at some point.

The brief overview of colours is for blues on the tail, golden hair, and tanned skin. Although it might appear to be oceanic to most, this should really be a river mermaid (syrenka) and I figure more sunbathing or time spent near the surface would apply. Colours are not everything for miniature painting of course, but more on that in a moment.

The model as seen is just a very quick impression to guide through later steps. There's every chance of the tones currently visible being completely masked by later steps, but it nevertheless serves to set the foundations of those steps. Everything so far is with an airbrush: priming, zenithal, tints. The zenithal was white ink heavily thinned - and the result was incredibly smooth. Multiple passes as necessary, and very little speckling as can sometimes happen with white. Always thin your paints. The zenithal set the volumes up with Dark Oath Contrast on the flesh, Aethermatic Blue on the tail highlights, and Talassar Blue in the darker areas. Those two "blue" paints from the Contrast range are seemingly very diverse for my uses, and work well with the scales: blue reflection from the water, yellow from the sun, and I hopefully setting up shimmering scales to work on later.

Golden or blonde hair I've attempted a few times on much smaller scales, and what I've learned is that yellow is probably not the best colour to be using. Ochre, browns, with very small hints of green (actually done by mixing in blue) and red are what I'll be looking at instead.

As mentioned before, this miniature isn't just about picking colours that look nice. It should mean something, it should try to evoke some particular feeling. Rivers aren't a deep blue like the ocean, but can reflect greens from surrounding trees, grasses, etc. The rock, well it doesn't particularly fit a river theme, but water flowing around it won't be foaming. Warszawska Syrenka is the symbol of Warsaw, and an important cultural icon. The expression on the face of the model is almost one of sadness, and coupled with the sword and shield could perhaps focus not on glorifying the symbol of protection of the city, but on the continuing strife that means protection is needed, and memories of a more peaceful time. A reflection on that theme however is that I'd like to portray the mermaid in a ray of light, surrounding by otherwise bleak weather; memories of a better time, but hope that weathering the storm will bring peace once more, and that future generations might not live under such dark clouds.

This theme will inform how I approach highlights, where I draw attention, how saturated colours will be in various locations, and even what kind of mood I'll need to be in when painting the model. This is not a tabletop game miniature, it's a display piece, and while I may not achieve the desired effect (from lack of experience if nothing else), it doesn't mean I won't give it my all to do the model justice.

-- silly painter.