Dark Elf Assassin Part 4

I've begun construction on the base for the dark elf.  The scene I have in my head is a building interior, second floor.  The figure is creeping up on some unseen target.  I began by looking up some reference photos and brainstorming some ideas for the scene.  I sketched a couple out on paper until I got something I liked.  From there I drew out the floor design on plasticard and cut it out.  I placed it and the figure on the wood base to see how the size looked.

It's a wood floor, so I pulled out my bag of assorted balsa wood pieces and cut the boards for the floor.  I used the plasticard as a template and glued the boards in place.

Then I started to build up.  I cut the main supporting beams and put in the cross beams.

I continue with more of the details.  I'm putting in the walls on one side of the base, but not the others.  I put in a railing along his right.

The main structure is there but still plenty of detail work left.

This is one of my largest bases and definitely the largest structure I've attempted to create.  I'm enjoying the build and it's a good learning experience.  However, I'm not sure if it's the best base for this figure.  The paint job on this figure is very simple, so is the base too complex?  On the other hand, a complex base helps create more of a story for the scene.  I plan on continuing to build this scene... but I may come up with an alternative as well and see which I like best.

Dark Elf Assassin Part 3

Thanks for the feedback, Shades and Mally.  I decided to go with your advice and skip the additional design work on the pants.  I took care of the legs and remaining details around his waist.  The figure is just about finished.  Now it's time to turn my attention to the base.  I've built a couple structures for figure bases, but nothing for a figure this large (75mm).  I have an idea of what I want to do, but I need to flush it out a bit first.  Time to do some reference research and perhaps get a little more inspiration.

Dark Elf Assassin Part 2

I'm continuing with the monochromatic color scheme.  The clothing is all variations of Pure Black, Dusky Skin Shadow, Dusky Skin, Dusky Skin Highlight, Weathered Stone, and Leather White.  Without a lot of color variation I'm trying to add some freehand details to his clothing for some additional visual interest.  I'd like to continue that when I do the pants... but I'm not quite sure what to do.  I did a quick test with a checkerboard pattern and another with vertical stripes... but it seemed a bit too busy/loud.  He's a sneaky assassin so he shouldn't have on anything too flashy.  I could maybe live with some thin stripes.  At this point I'm leaning towards a stripe detail down the side of each leg.  Something similar to the design on the hood (2 stripes with some design in the middle).  Or I could try something more graphic instead of an abstract pattern.

 

Here's an even bigger close up of the face.  I think it's easier to see the color in the cheeks and some blue in the lips.

Dark Elf Assassin Part 1

I've hit a bit of a wall on my other projects.  I'll see if I can make a breakthrough on some of them this weekend.  But during the week, when I only have a little time after work to paint, I'd rather do something I know I can make progress on.  So I decided to start on this Dark Elf from Scale75.  I had already prepped the figure while I was waiting for the aide-de-camp to arrive.

I went with a very pale skin, something I've been wanting to experiment with.  The skin is Dusky Skin, Dusky Skin Highlight, and Vampiric Skin.  I then applied some glazes, but I switched these up a bit.  Normally I'd use red in the cheeks and nose, blue on the jaw for stubble, and purple to deepen the shadows.  I skipped the stubble, that didn't seem to fit with an elf.  The other glazes I shifted more towards blue, so red became a reddish purple (2 parts red, 1 part blue) and the purple became a blueish purple (1 part red, 2 parts blue).  The red-purple glaze went on the cheeks, nose, knuckles, elbows.  The blue-purple went in the shadows on the face and shadows on the arms and hands.  I also used a bit of blue above the eyes and in a couple shadows for a little more variation.

For the clothing I thought an overall dark look would fit an assassin character.  The hood is Pure Black, Dusky Skin Shadow, and Dusky Skin.  I'm trying to decide if I want to keep the entire figure in that black-grey-white color scheme and just use hints of color through glazing.  Otherwise I'll just stick to dark colors (dark brown, dark purple, etc).

For the armor I'm taking a slightly different approach.  This time around I'm using inks to build up the shadows and some hints of color.  It's definitely a learning process.

 

Here's a closer look at the face and upper body.  It's a little easier to see the color variation from the glazes.  I tried to keep them subtle, as it's easy to overpower that light light skin.  The colors are a bit more noticeable in person.