The first area I did was finalise the green tone. I wanted to do was make sure that the green was more desaturated than the green on the crystals, it needed to look harmonious but not take all the focus away from the rocks. I shaded it down with more red and dark blue colours, to deepen it and smooth it out. I then started on the bone coloured sections, I've often gone overboard with that colour because I think it looks so good when well painted, but this model it really worked with the other colours.
From there I kept building on the colours, adding a slight green glow to the eyepatch and adding blue wrapping to the staff.
At this point I shifted tack. I wanted to paint the base and see how that would pan out, as it is important that a base works with the model, setting it off but at the same time not taking too much focus.
I airbrushed a few different browns, starting with the same colour that I had used on the hair and the skin tone and the leathers of Bastian to tie it all together. The rocks I then painted in green, and edge highlighted the rocks. It looked pretty good already, one of the advantages of the presculpted bases.
I wanted to soften the look of rocks and add just a tiny bit of texture, so I plastered them with pigments, and then painted the rocks. I kept the highest highlight on the rocks much lower value than the model itself, I want the rocks to look the same, but not have the same impact. I put more shading and used a bit more of the reddy brown to shade with.
Final step was adding some grass, putting a few more little touches of highlight and smoothing everything out. I may add a few little leaves scattered over the base later on as well. but I will wait to see the model on there before deciding. I added some subtle glow from the rocks, and the base was pretty much done!
Back into Bastian:
Often its little things that make a difference, and painting the staff wrapping and letters on his cloak made a huge difference to making the model look more finished. I smoothed out the transition between the letters and the cloth, and I actually darkened the overall value of the bone areas, because they were too similar in tone to the blue.
The leather areas I started finalising, and the staff got fixed up. You can start to see the model coming to life now.
I wanted an aged red leather look to the book, a fantastic suggestion from one of my twitter followers.
I began working back on the blue areas, adding highlights, smoothing transitions, deepening shadows, and making sure it all popped. I then painted the scrolls at his sides, and made sure all the areas I would be painting in metallics were black. Finally I wrote some stuff in the book, fixed up all the little things, and glued the model to his base.
Really happy with how he is coming together. You can see how the base ties in with the model, the green rocks more subtle on the base but still the same colours, the browns the same tone as the leather strapping and skin tones, all of it working together. I am happy with how ti all looks. I have a few little things to finish up, tweaks and subtle changes to make, and the metallics left to paint.
Here is a list of things I want to do:
- Freehand on the eyepatch
- Adding some dirt on the ends of the cloak, and working a little more on the fabric textures
- Leaves on the base
- Glow emanating from the stones on his body
Once they are finished, and the metallics are painted, we will have a finished Bastian!
Cheers
Trent
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