I got a commission to do Terminus for a buddy. Having done him once already, I remember setting aside several days to get his basecoat done properly. I was hoping to have him done by Saturday, but I had quite a bit to get done around the house before I start working on my charity army, so I told him I may not have it done in time.
I had a hard time picking up the wings' colors with the camera, but I started with black-brown edges and then lightened them as they got closer to the body, ending in a lighter brown. The first Terminus I did took me a whole night to get his wings to an acceptable point; with my airbrush, it took me about 20 minutes. Then his armor was a breeze - I just grabbed a 3x5 card to protect the wings from overspray and got a perfectly smooth color in 5 minutes. The same thing was done with the purple cloak behind him. As always, the only time-consuming part of this was thoroughly cleaning the aibrush after.
It's amazing how one investment has completely changed the way I paint. Now all I have to do is work on fine details, which is undoubtedly my favorite part. What I'm also finding is that I'm not nearly as mentally exhausted by the time the basecoat is done, so I'm much more patient and willing to study and try new techniques. I've been doing a lot with matte medium to give me smooth, subtle color transitions when highlighting and shading, as well as fine-tuning other techniques I haven't dedicated enough time to.
With Terminus I took a cue from Privateer Press's studio image and did some object source lighting (OSL) with the necrotic glow. I'd been dabbling in OSL with the runeplates on my wolds, but I'd never tried using the glow as a 3 dimensional entity. It was a very different experience for me, because I'm so used to colors being blocked off from one another. But I love how it turned out, and I think it gives a bit more life to the this undead model.
It's weird, but once I did away with basecoating I felt like a lot of things I'd been struggling to understand finally "clicked." I never fell out of love with painting, but there's something to be said about only using my brush to do the stuff I like. I'll probably be back in a month or two when I upgrade my airbrush and start gushing about some new technique I've finally figured out, so brace yourself for that.
Don't forget about my giveaway Saturday! I'm trying to write a good review of Playing to Win, but if I don't make it in time just trust me about wanting to read it. I'd love to get a few more entrants so that I don't have to flip a coin to decide the winner, so comment on the video and then like my page over on Facebook!
See you tomorrow!
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