Painting Wolf Pelts and Fur

[NovaScotius]

Hey,

 

A few months ago, I managed to post up my first Space Wolf model, and received some really nice (and very useful!) feedback. I've been unable to commit to painting anything since then, sheerly because the workload of my university course moved from 'a lot' up to 'ridiculous'.

 

One of the comments that was made about my model referred to painting the wolf pelts and fur on the models. Since then, I've had a quick look through the Space wolf FAQ post at the top of this forum, through the Librarium itself, and Google too; all of which has been to no avail. (Google gave me a lovely selection of websites about painting cats, but nothing else helpful!).

 

So I turn to you, the experts - Is there a decent guide to painting fur available online? Is my Google-Fu not strong? Is there really one in the Librarium that I've missed, and should perhaps lay off the ale for a while?

 

I'm not fussy about the colour of the wolf pelts in the tutorial (In fact, it might be useful to get one for each Brown, Black and White/Silver!)

 

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

 

:D

[Commissar Volker]

Base of Bestial brown, heavy dry brush of Snakebite leather, (you can wash with brown ink at this point if you like it dark, then re-drybrush snakebite lightly), then a final high-light drybrush of bleached bone.

 

Oh, i find looking at photo's of wolves helps with patterns of colour as some animals have dark patches running down their spine and much paler fur on their bellies (so at the edges of the pelt)

[Marshal Wilhelm]

GW has some painting guides on their site;

WARG painting

 

If you go to the main site, then Paints & Tools, then Painting and Modelling articles, then Stage by stage. There is a smorgas-board of things to look at :D .

[Ash Tekka]

I do something ver similar to what that Warg painting says even though I never read it before:P

 

I do scorched brown, bestial brown, then a I do a 50/50 mix of graveyard earth & fortress grey for the edges etc.

 

Sometimes I'll do a wash inbetween the two browns if I feel like it but haven't noticed a massively different look with or without it.

[Wispy]

I think I have this down to a science. Depending on the colour you want, you can do very different things.

 

I always start here:

1. I start my base colour with bleach bone.

2. Wash it with devlan mud.

 

From there, depending on the fur colour, my method will branch out

 

Black Fur

1. Wash it again with badab black.

2. Do bleach bone highlight and then a light white one

3. Hit it with badab black again

4. Light, fortress grey highlight.

 

White fur:

1. Drybrush bleach bone.

2. Drybrush with white

3. Add just a very, very thinned pass of devlan mud. Very thin. This is hard to eye ball.

4. A final, light drybrush white again.

 

Grey Fur:

 

1. Drybrush bleach bone.

2. Drybrush with white

3. Thin down codex grey and glaze the fur with it.

4. selectively apply badab black if the grey holds too deep in certain recesses.

5. Light white drybrush.

6. A very light drybrush of vomit brown - just to add a quick sheen across certain areas.

 

Brown Fur:

1. Drybrush vomit brown

2. Drybrush bleach bone.

3. Drybrush with white to the edges.

4. selectively add devlan mud to areas I want more brown, and vomit brown where I want that golden sheen.

 

my method of white fur is always used with every other method - because the underbelly and legs of my (fenrisian\thunder) wolves is usually white, with black\grey\brown on top.

 

A lot of it is, unfortunately, eyeballing it.

 

I will see if I can get photos of end results when I get home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, grab an issue of the Space Wolves white dwarf! the painting lessons there will help you more then mine will

[Shieldwall]

Nice tips so far.

 

My usual brown tone:

 

Base Scorched Brown.

Wetbrush carefully with Bestial Brown.

Soft wash with diluted Devlan Mud.

Soft drybrush with Vomit Brown.

Even softer drybrush with Bleached Bone.

And at last, one more drybrush (drier than dry this time) with Bleached Bone/ Skull WHite, 50:50.

 

Turns out like this:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/Ferai/P51004762.jpg

 

Or, same steps as above, but shadowing down towards the middle of the fur's surface with Devlan Mud and Badab Black glazes (still very WIP):

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/Ferai/P5100490-1.jpg

 

Maybe that helps a little.

[NovaScotius]

Fantastic responses guys - Thanks a lot!

 

I'll be testing out all of the different methods to find one that I really like.

 

Thanks again! :P