Step by Step Tutorial - Eldar

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Finally,

a moment of concentration, some strong will and a hard morning coffee with the thickness of yoghurt bring me back to the Eldar, which i will write the Article for now. I hope it won't be to chaotic and i am sorry for my english and some maybe not very good photos - i'll try my best to fix it somehow... I have done some better Step by Steps in the past and will do in the future - this is just an impression on how i work, what i think, what i do and not a totally fixed Step by Step Tutorial like you find somewhere else. My main problem is that i am painting a lot from the heart, from my emotions, music and feelings bring to me so it ain't easy to describe that in complete.

The Eldar here is done from GW's parts i have found in a friend's box of parts and he was so nice to give them to me. I think - i am not sure - the legs are from an normal gardist because i had to cut off the torso and added the single torso i have found in the box, i guess Asuryans Hunters chief or so - still not sure as you can read. So everything i had found was glued together. Then i had a not so nice area where i had cut of the torso from the legs. I have used Green Stuff belts, which had been prepared before (other story, but BIG thanks to Picster for his support at this), to set some more dynamic influance on the model itself and also hiding the not so nice area :) - i am always painting my model on a cork or something from wood to have a better grip while painting, there will be also a tutorial someday about the basics thoughts and things i have seen, tried and allowed them to influance my "style" in the end... sure to come, urgs, back to the Eldar... (i did score out thoughts of mine in here which aren't really necessary for the Tutorial - weirdo style again)

1. Undercoating
Has been done with black primer, after dried, followed by white primer carefully from above to set the light overview for the following painting (i have used  here both from GW).

2. Basecoating
Painting so far has been mostly made on the armour. I have started here:


Basecolour on armour/trousers:
Hawk Tourquise + Bronzed Flesh + Bleached Bone

First Shadows (glazed twice):
Hawk Tourquis

Also i have started to paint some parts in total black again - will do this later one a bit more... weirdo working style as i told you:

3. Painting


Second Shadow on the armour (glazed twice):
Hawk Tourquise + Regal Blue

Third Shadow (glazed twice):
Hawk Tourquise + Regal Blue + Tip of Chaos Black

The browns are so far done by a wet in wet mix of Schorched Brown, Hawk Tourquise, Bestial Brown, Snakebite Leather... please excuse me and my camera here, the strong white parts come from the lightning and the non patience i have used while taking the photo...

 You see i am always working really dirty - some might say wild - in the beginning of a paintjob. I really like to let the colours choose their way so i am often without a direct plan to the end. I let the colour chose her way through the moments that happen. Further i went this way:

Fourth Shadow  (glaced twice):

Hawk Tourquise + Regal Blue + more than a tip of Chaos Black

First light (glaced twice):
Hawk Tourquise + a tip of Andrea's 2nd Light from the Skintone-set

Second light (glaced twice):
Hawk Tourquise + a tip of Andrea's 2nd Light + a tip of 1nd Light's skintone
Also i have began to make the base more rusty with pigments. I have used Sepia and Ironoxid pigments for that. Also i put some tiny places of tourquise pigments i got from pastellic chalk on it to repeat the colours of the Eldar in the end and bring base and miniature together.

Additonal to that i have startet to paint parts i want to be metallics in the end and started also the gems with chaos black. I take care to - better i try - to be patient here and try to make this step clean, instead i would have to correct later on. You see metallics have been planned but not done in the final model, haha. Weirdo!

More intense light:

Hawk Tourquise + a tip of Andrea's 2nd Light + a tip of 1nd Light's skintone (more of it)

Little white dots on the armour, don't know why the hell i did that, i work on them later on.

More intense final shadow (glaced twice):

Regal Blue + Chaos Black

Intensed light on the edges with pure white with a really small tip of hawk tourquise.
Started the OSL from the weapons with the airbrush (Bilious green).

Browns, did get more highlighting by:
using 2nd and 1st Light from Andrea's Skintone in the basic mix from above

Face mask:
basecolour with pure white with a really small tip of hawk tourquise, left eyes black, painted eyes basecolour white for orange glowing eyes in the end.

 

At this point everything still looks dirty, untidied and weirdo. I know put my patience on the detail work like bringing out soft highlights, fade to strong ones, gems, a bit of dirt and scratches, eyes and so on... so everywhere detail work began:

4. Detailwork

As i am not working with a full plan the end is most hard to describe for me, as mostly i am sitting with good music the last final hours on a model and forget all my world around - pure happy painting, i guess, but wihtout thinking at the Tutorial, damm, haha. I'll try to explain the steps i have gone through, please never hesitate to ask a question...

Painting all gems black, carefully to not damage the armour colour.

Using Regal blue + black for the lowest part  of the gems.

Brought in a bit ice blue in that mix to lighten it up in the middle area of the gem.

Set a strong white point at the place where the light source hits the gem (above mostly).

Then i have put the Gloss Varnish from Model Colour 510 on the gems (2x times, let them dry) 

I have soften the colour transitions in the armour by looking at it carefully where i find a place where to tones (bright and dark) are going to quick into eachother. That often makes not so nice areas. Sure my blendings are not perfect or godlike or something else a lot of great other painters around the world do, but i have taken my time here and did realize that time is needed... but time without passion is ... nah, no Hobby Talk here, haha.

I have went in the middle tone between those too hard transitions with trying to mix the tone in between, then put it there carefully without destroying the areas below. I will write an article sooner or later on how i work with colours and how i apply them for different use.

I brought the lights on the armour next to clear white by mixing in a tip of ice blue and skull white in the last mix of the armour. Always went back to get the thing done with the middle tones. As i can remember this took me most of the time on the model, puh!  I have also intensed the shadow parts with a mix of regal blue and chaos black. Same procedure with the middle tones.

The blade has been made with tiny white dots from the lower part and has been glazed with orange there afterwards, while the glazing in the upper part went with purple.

The black parts which have been supposed to be real metallics in the beginning of the paintjob have been made with chaos black and a tip of ice blue, slowly highlighted with bringing in more ice blue and a small tip of white in the end.

The eyes have been glazed with fiery orange, glazed, painted back white, glazed, painted back white, glazed... 

Here you can see the final model in different angles - click!

I am real sorry about my weird explanations of my detail work in the end. I know myself about that and i think the only thing which helps here will be some detailed tutorials on really small things. So please be patient with me and my ideas for MASSIVE VOODOO...

Hope this view on my thoughts through a full miniature helps or can maybe inspire - i am looking forward to feed this blog more with tutorials like this... maybe a bit more detailed :)


So far, keep on happy painting!
Regards
Roman