Empress' Dragoons Officer Part 1

A month ago I posted a sneak peak of this figure.  This past weekend I finally got around to painting him.  This is a 54mm figure from Pegaso, an officer of the Empress' Dragoons.  I'd done a French dragoon once before (about 2 years ago) so this will be similar in many ways.  However, this is an officer in his dress uniform while the previous one was a trooper in campaign gear, so this version will be much more clean and spiffy looking.

I started with the face using my usual process.  A few details have been painted on.  I added the cleft in the chin just with paint (he's got a big chin, so it was nice to add a little something there).  I also did a big of highlighting on the side of the jaw to make it look like his face was being pushed/scrunched up by the chin strap.

From there I started working on the coat.  It's still very much a work in progress, I haven't started on the sleeves or front yet, but I've put in some time on the collar and back.  The color should be a dark green.  Dark colors like this (green, blue, etc) can be tricky to paint.  As you highlight them, they can easily start to look like a medium or even a light green.  To counteract this, I use grey to highlight rather than a lighter shade of green.  This desaturates as it lightens, which helps keep the overall look a dark one while still giving me a decent amount of contrast.  For the shadows I mixed in Reaper's Burgundy Wine.  The dark purple is a nice contrast to the green and provides additional depth/interest to the shadows without actually looking like purple.

Here's a comparison of the new figure with my previously painted Dragoon.  The new figure is a bit smaller (despite being the same scale).  You can see some of the differences in their uniforms.  The general approach to the green coat is the same, though on this new one I've tightened up the transitions from dark to light.  It gives the newer version an even darker look and also makes it appear a bit shinier... which fits, a clean officer's dress uniform should look nicer than a trooper's worn campaign coat.