Jungle Queen - full color

I'm getting closer. I touched up the eyes some more and then threw down a base coat on the clothes, jewelery and hair. The next step in the process is to begin highlighting everything. I'll probably start with the skin first. I plan to use the overhead lighting technique where you provide highlights that would exist if the light source were coming from straight overhead.

All the paint currently on the figure is the darkest shade of each color. During the highlighting process I'll be adding a medium shade for slightly brighter areas and a bright shade for the most lit areas.

Here's what she looks like as of today:




The black hair is totally lost in the black background. Highlighting the hair should help that out a lot. Of course, a lighter background or something of a different color wouldn't hurt either. One of these days I'll construct myself some decent photo space. Right now I just take pictures on our dining room table and I don't bother with a background at all. But, it turns out that focusing on the figure turns the surface of the table pitch black, so it works out for my rudimentary purposes.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 4 - Eyes

Here's the latest. I worked on the eyes today. I'm not very happy with them, though. They just seem sloppy. I've been getting better at many parts of mini painting, but the fine details still escape me. I'm going to leave the eyes alone for now, though, and come back to them near the end of the process and try again. Gotta even out those eyebrows, too.


EDIT: Ok, I lied. I worked on the eyes one more time.

They are a little darker this time, but you can tell that one pupil is a bit larger than the other. It's more obvious in the picture than in real life. I'll have to think about whether or not I can tolerate it. It is better than before, though.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 3

Last night I put the first layer of skin on the Jungle Queen. Here are current front and back shots.



I'm painting the skin a bit differently than I have in the past. Previously I would start with a medium coat and then give a dark wash followed by medium highlights and then light highlights. The other day I read this tutorial and decided to follow its advice. So, I started with as smooth a coat of dark skin (RMS Golden Shadow). That's all that is on there right now. A coat of Golden Shadow plus a wash of Golden Shadow to smooth things out. I see from the picture I missed a couple spots, like on the underside of the right wrist. (also, the eyes aren't yet painted because that's a bit of a separate process.)

Next I'll try to follow the tutorial's advice and apply layers of gradual highlights using RMS Golden Skin and RMS Golden Highlight. I left these pictures large and in a fairly high resolution so that I can see the way that the light falls on the muscles and highlight appropriately.

So far I'm pleased with it. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy painting while we sit around and watch TV. Very relaxing.

Queen of the Jungle - Part 2

I did some more highlighting and a bit of drybrushing on the log to finish the wood and moss. Here are the latest:



Next I can get started painting the skin.

Queen of the Jungle - Work in progress

My new mini, the Queen of the Jungle arrived in the mail last week (Reaper model #30001). I thought I'd post pictures of it as I work on it.

It came in several pieces, which I had to super-glue together. I didn't take any pictures until after I assembled and primed it. Here's my first picture of the freshly primed figure.


After priming it I wanted to bring out some of the details so I gave it a dark ink wash.

This was a little effective, but I'm not sure it was worth doing on future minis.

After that I decided to start working on the log she's standing on. Here's what it looks like currently.



First I panted the wood of the log. I gave it a medium brown base coat and then a dark brown wash. Following that I gave it a straight black wash. Then I did the same with green. A base coat of mossy green and two washes, first of a dark green and then black.

What I should do next is some highlighting with lighter brown and green, respectively. Highlighting is not a skill I'm very good at yet. I may decide to call the log finished and proceed to the figure herself, but I haven't decided yet. I may just drybrush some lighter tones, but that feels like cheating for some reason.