In the last post this piece was getting very close to being finished. I'd say the last major detail was the orc's axe. Given the style of the sculpt, I painted it as a stone axe rather than a metallic one. The approach is like a subdued NMM. I'm still hitting the edges and working on contrast, but not as extreme as a true NMM. Another important part of the illusion is painting in cracks. Now, a number of these were already sculpted into the axe head. But other areas I just adding them in freehand. It's simple enough, just paint a thin dark line and then right below it, paint a thin line of highlight. That's all it takes to create a 3-D crack effect.
Aside from that, I took care of the remaining details on the orcs clothing, painted the ground, and added a bit of dried grass and dead leaves. I'm picking a pretty arid environment, the tree is long dead and the water has all dried up, so the base is not going to be lush and green. But just a few remnants of what used to be.
And that was all it took! I'm calling this one officially finished and just in time for a couple competitions. I'm entering him in the 'Eadbanger Competition over the 'Eavier Metal facebook page (deadline Aug 31). I'll also be bringing him with me to NOVA Open next week to enter into their Capital Palette competition. Hopefully he'll do well in those, but honestly I had a lot of fun painting this project so that's all that really matters. Oh, and if you were one of the backers in the Ouroboros Tales kickstarter, keep an eye out for the painting journal describing in much more detail how this figure was done. I've shared some of the process here, but the rest had to be saved for the journal since it's a kickstarter exclusive.
