Painting a Freehand Shoulder Pad
January 25, 2015 by EnteredMirror
Freehand painting can sometimes be a daunting task to even an experienced painter, but with simple foundation steps and the building up of shades, I’m going to show you here how simple it really can be. I will be using these same techniques and going into greater depth to achieve more complex designs in my freehand painting class at the
Las Vegas Open in February.
The colors I will be using here are:
- Citadel Doombull Brown
- Citadel Abaddon Black
- P3 Rucksack Tan
- P3 Heartfire
- P3 Menoth White Highlight
- Citadel Seraphim Sepia
- Citadel Casandora Yellow
- Citadel Nuln Oil
- P3 Khador Red Base
Note: All colors and mixes were thinned with water to a fine consistency.
Step 1
On a base of red, I have applied a basic outline of the design I want to paint using a mix of 75% Doombull Brown to 25% Abaddon Black. I used pictures in magazines, army books, and online for reference to get the design layout approximate.
Step 2
Once outlined, I filled in the space with a 75-25 mix of Rucksack Tan and Heartfire over several light coats.
Step 3
More Heartfire was added to the previous mix with a small blob of Menoth White Highlight. This was applied all over the design.
Step 4
Pure, extremely watered down Menoth White Highlight was applied to mark out where the raised areas would be, i.e. forehead, cheeks, jaw line, etc. This was painted as a glaze. I next outlined the facial features and hair, and strengthened the design’s overall borders with the original brown/black basecoat.
Step 5
I then re-applied the tan/yellow/white mix to tighten up and tidy the outlines just painted and to tone down some of the white areas. A pure, un-watered 60-40 mix of Seraphim Sepia and Casandora Yellow was glazed on where the shadows would fall on the face, hair and halo. This was applied in several thin, fine coats to accentuate subtle shadows. No water was added so the colors would remain strong.
Step 6
A couple drops of Nuln Oil were added to the previous glaze mixture and this was used to define the deeper shadows and to outline the hair. Abaddon Black was added to the glaze with a drop of water and painted the outline of the blood drop. The blood drop was painted with a small amount of Khador red Base, followed by a highlight with the tan/yellow/white mixture. Finally, spots of white were glazed on to accentuate the hair and halo.
And that’s it! I really hope you guys find this helpful and that freehand is a little less intimidating. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
