Thirdfatecreations Paints Khurasan Fighting Orb

[atropos907]

I just painted a fighting orb from Khurasan.

I have a photoshopped "action shot" on my Blog.    99% airbrushed.  See the blog for other fun airbrushed models.

[stroezie]

That looks awesome, I really like your use of vibrant colours.
Looking at this gave me an idea.
Have you ever thought of painting something like you were looking at it in infra red? If anyone could pull it of it would be you I think.
Anyhoo, stunning work, keep em comeing.

[godsgopher]

I have been a painter a number of years and I'm wondering. How do you obtain such vivid colors? I think perhaps I have seen some of your other stuff on the net from time to time as you seem to have a very distinctive style. If your willing to share some pointed I would appreciate it.

[atropos907]

Vivid colors are base in black and white, or black and silver, then for the brightest parts use translucent layers rather than opaque layers. Also use different paints. I use vehicle airbrush paints for over half of the model, I only use game paints for the base coats and 1-2 layers after that for general color matching to the game community. These colors for instance are flourescent and transparent colors on top of a silver-white base. And I use a LOT of lights for painting and pictures, both yellow and blue hued white lights. Some painters use a single Ott light. I have at least 4 daytime flourescent lights pointing at it and one yellowish incandescent to get a slightly better spectrum. A picture of my painting/light box setup is on my blog a few weeks back.


Paints i use are GW (phasing these out) reaper(phasing in as I think they last longer...) liquitex, createx, autoair, valleho. I have a lot of each of these all used for their own purpose.

[godsgopher]

Thank you that was an exceptional response though I'm not 100% sure I understood everything. I'm not familiar with Vehicle Airbrush paints and when you said you base in silver do you mean a metallic undercoat over which you paint? For my part I work in Reaper having moved completely away from Games workshop with the exception of their washes which I use as liners. I paint over a white undercoat as I find this give me nice and bright colors. Black can be quite hard to build up a vibrant color over. From the base coat I will line the model, then shadow, clean up the base coat then proceed to highlighting one or two layers. This represents a typical paint just when I'm not obsessing over detail. Or getting paid for my time

I'm also a touch confused by your reference to translucent layers as opposed to opaque layers (I was under the impression that all acrylic paints were Opaque.) I'm not doubting you, as your work obviously speaks for its self!! But you do have a very unique style I have not seen duplicated by anyone else. Perhaps a step by step discussion of a simple highlight would be of help if you have the time? Thank you.

[atropos907]

autoair is a vehicle paint.  They flow easier, but are brighter in color than game paints.
Transparent/translucent paints include autoair,   inks,  washes,  and many "airbrush paints" are transparent rather than opaque.   You can achieve translucency with very thin layers of opaques, but its painful.  Just use transparents!   Anyway use a base that goes white-to-black or silver-to-black.  for highlights and shadows to push contrast.
A lot of this can be found on my airbrush tutorials.  See my blog and follow the link on the right.   Gamers use opaques because they are tougher paints in general and they photograph easier.  Transparents are harder to photograph well because you start getting refractive effects.   One of the reason my wraithlord,  shard army, and a few others look awesome in person but just ok with pictures.  But be warned, many hard core mini painters will smugly look down on you for breaking the norm unless they decide its a good way to achieve their effect.  But you want vibrant colors.  This is one of my favorite ways of doing it because it is light dependent which makes it more visually interesting in person.

[godsgopher]

Thank you again for the in-depth reply. Seems many painters like to keep their secrets burred from prying eyes. I have been painting for about seven years but have only lately really made breakthroughs towards becoming the painter I have always wanted to be. My most recently exploration, which is into Air-brushes, has only began. So far its been like learning to paint all over again! But the time it saves me on large models is priceless. I have yet to refine the control to handle detailing on 28mm let alone 15mm Gruntz (Man that's impressive!) but I hope with patience Ill get there. 

[Brummie]

I love it. I really dig this model. Khurasan should use some of your pics!