Step by Step: Narok

Good Morning Jungle,

today Roman is up for another article of one of his recently finished models.
Let's see what he has to tell ... enjoy!

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Well,

and well.

FOREWORD
Narok by Origen Art is a truely disturbing sculpt. My friend Pedro Fernandez Ramos, the sculptor of this and many other ingenious sculpts handed me her over at the Monte San Savino Show 2014 with the words: "Roman, I am sure you will like this one, this is absolutely your taste and style!"

She is ... and she is not. I love the strange look, I personally miss her full face. I miss her character in that full face and I had my problems finishing her up, she was standing without work for quite a decent time. Recently due some changes inside myself and decisions I took she did become a meaningful paintjob to me personally and it was easy to finish her, but let me tell the story from the beginning.

Narok on the base that is with the miniature when you buy her, 

added some soil and some roots.

PAINTING
I decided to prime her with the airbrush this time and also give her some basic colors with the airbrush. I had no real clue in which direction she might go. I thought of something blueish and purple. When I am not sure which color direction I go I decide to work rather desaturated. It is easy to bring in saturation of colors later on, but not the other way around.

I also applied some gentle glazes here and there, just to get myself into it. Didn't work.

Well, searching the vision. More whites into the highlights via glazing, more purple to the skin via glazing, more basic colours for hair, sword, cloth parts. Trying to get myself into it to find the vision, didn't work somehow.

Ok, nevermind. If I do not see the vision I have to paint on. I didn't like the warmth of the base so I decided to go cold and blueish there too. Worked more on her skin, was happier - but not convinced yet.

Well, the road is long if you do not know where you are going. 

I pushed on painting in this colour scheme. Painted mainly at the skin, highlights, shadows, added blues into like everything... but still something was bothering me and I just didn't feel what it was.

I sat down in a moment of self reflection and realized I miss her face. I miss her character behind that piece of cloth. I had this once during my work on the Arkvenger from Pegaso Models. You can read the step by step here.

I took away the blues again by painting over them and I started to see me problem. I just did not want to paint her in cold colors. Ok, that is somehow helpful. Maybe I should follow this idea.

It was easy to do. I took the airbrush and sprayed several thin layers of what? ... yes pure and strong orange to her skin, the base and everything. With several thin layers I mean I used glazes in the airbrush to tint the unsaturated colors below. Like a filter you put on top of something.

I liked her much more and it was easy to grab the brush to rework highlights and dig into details. Happy side effect was I had a lot of different color tones going on now. Just by accident... or even on purpose, who knows what it is if a project changes during working on it like this.

While I finished her up with painting I went for the base with leaves to write the article "Visualize Autumn". This helped me to bring base and miniature together, colorwise. The orange was the key, for me.

I finished her up with painting more and more on her skin, honestly I did not focus too much on the blade - I just wasn't in the mood for it. The skin was more important for me and after she is missing one breast I decided to sculpt a small blob of meat and call it a heart, that she ripped out of her chest and left it on the road.

You can see more photos of this disturbing beauty on Putty&Paint or CMON.

AFTERMATH 
Well, I often do follow my visions of a model to find the right color scheme for me. Sometimes it does work, sometimes not. Sometimes, something just doesn't feel right. Again, I learned to change plans and switch to a better feeling in the middle of the progress.

Keep on happy painting!
Best Wishes,
Roman