Savage Midnight: Armored Up an Rolling Heavy for ETL-Pg.109

[Kol Saresk]

That was quick! It's probably not always cold, but the sun of fenris is described as pale, there's snow and they're pretty much vikings, so I'd imagine a paler skin tone to fit in with all of that.

It is entirely possible that the Wolf has been, or is, somewhere that is causing his skin to tan.

IMHO.

Yes and no. The wolves have genetically adapted to an ice planet, and they have the whole canis helix thing and have been adapting drastically. It stands to reason they'd be losing pigmentation for generations, much like northern europeans or the inuit, hence they're unlikely to tan. Nothing but logic to that

But as Astartes, they have the Melachromic Organ which does still control pigmentation and so far, the only Legions that have been said to have problems with it are the Night Lords, Raven Guard and Salamanders, with the former two suffering from albinism, regardless of homeworld, and the latter suffering from permanent darkening after exposure to severe radiation.

So, as I said, if the Wolf has been recently or is somewhere with either high levels of radiation or UV, he would have darkened.

In my opinion as to why the skin color might not be non-pigmented.

[ephrael]

You can argue back and forth about fluff reasons for that head looking unfinished all day, why not post something actually on topic instead?

 

Flint, the head on the SW looks unfinished. You should add some highlights to prominent areas if the face including the ears, nose, cheeks etc. The inside of the mouth looks unfinished and needs to be painted a reddish color and the teeth picked out in white. The hair could probably do with a little contrast as well.

[Honda]

I think he's got a good pose and turned out pretty good. The face is very expressive.

 

I'm not sold on the hair and that's not because I don't have any on my head, but my general impression of soldiers/warriors is that they are somewhat practical, especially in the field. That didn't look very practical to me. ;)

 

As far as the painting goes, I think your highlights continue to improve. I think if I were going to do a figure like this, I would have painted him in a grey, then made it look like he painted over the grey with the dark blue, so a bit sloppy and splotchy. Then he would have looked like he was denying his chapter. I did something similar with the Alpha Legion, painted as Ultramarines on my very first army.

 

Play on!

[Kol Saresk]

You can argue back and forth about fluff reasons

Ah, apologies. I thought that since there were snippets of fluff on more than a few posts that fluff was as much a concern as whether or not we thought the face was or was not finished. If that is not the case, then please accept my apologies Flint for derailing your topic.

[Forté]

Flint, the head on the SW looks unfinished. You should add some highlights to prominent areas if the face including the ears, nose, cheeks etc. The inside of the mouth looks unfinished and needs to be painted a reddish color and the teeth picked out in white. The hair could probably do with a little contrast as well.

Wouldn't use white on the teeth or you run the risk of looking fake and heavily whitened. A light grey or bone colour would be better. Not too sure about a redish colour in the mouth either. Nearly impossible to make that look right at this scale. Other bits I agree on but in moderation for definition purpose so it doesn't look as flat from a distance.

 

With the skin highlights, try and see where the light naturally falls from above and use that as a guide for where to paint. And try to use small steps between shades so it looks more natural. You don't want the extreme edging you have on the armour.

[Flint13]

Evening guys! Wow, I didn't think one goofy space wolf would garner so much interesting feedback. I kinda knocked him out in a couple of hours. Glad to see everyone with something interesting to say though!

@ DSS7 - Hah, tell me about it

@ Knight of the Raven - Ah well, I suppose you'll just have to wait for my World Eaters

As for the markings, I'm starting to think you're right.

@ Wicced - Which parts would you desecrate? I thought I was pretty thorough

@ Ch@oz - You're screenname is interesting to type, haha. Truth be told, the only unhelmed marines I have every painted have been Salamanders back when they had initiative 3, no land speeders and were african instead of daemonic. I'm *terrible* at Caucasian skin tones.

Plus the thought of a ginger African space viking amuses me to no end.

@ Kol - Exactly! Don't marines have an organ that tans their skin super fast?

@ Recon - Nope. Will not And thanks

@ Augustus - Hah! I should totally paint a recon marine with super goggle tan.

@ Kol (2) - Yup, that's the one!

@ Mikhail - Makes sense. I think I can get the mouth and teeth down. How would you go about highlighting that chocolate brown color on his cheeks, eyebrows, etc? I think it's Baneblade brown.

@ Honda - I picked out the most ridiculous head I could find on the space wolf pack sprue. What about an uneven ginger mohawk says "I'm trying to have a combat practical hairstyle?"

@ Kol (3) - Fluff is *definitely* a huge part of my WiP, not derailing at all.

@ Forte - His teeth are bleached bone darkened with sepia wash right now. What would you recommend for highlighting his prominent face bits?

[Montuhotep]

Evening guys! Wow, I didn't think one goofy space wolf would garner so much interesting feedback. I kinda knocked him out in a couple of hours. Glad to see everyone with something interesting to say though!

@ Knight of the Raven - Ah well, I suppose you'll just have to wait for my World Eaters

Oh please, oh please.......

[Flint13]

Sshhhhhh.... people don't know that I'm starting a small WE force. Or that it's taking me awhile to figure out how to paint destroyer's black

[Larkyn]

Mixing Space Wolves with Night Lords? Almost like you've been inspired by someone.

I like it, although I'll third (or fourth?) the skin being too dark.

Really looking forward to seeing the World Eaters.

[ephrael]

I wouldn't have the slightest idea what color to highlight the brown color you have chosen to paint the skin.  I only use Vallejo paints and I usually only paint skin in caucasian tones.  I wouldn't have painted a Space Wolf in anything other than a Scandinavian looking skin tone to begin with.  Just because you say that you are "terrible" at caucasian skin tones you chose a short cut and painted this head differently.  You'll never get better at paler skin if you don't try it.  How do you expect to paint Curze when FW release him?

[Kol Saresk]

I feel the need to point that "Caucasian" is a rather broad racial archetype. So as a point of constructive criticism towards painting it, it includes the peoples of of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. Just to throw some examples out there,

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/MPP-Medir.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/MPP-Arm1.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/MPP-Ary2.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/MPP-Hm3.jpg

 

So one could very easily argue that she has indeed painted a darker Caucasian. As for Scandinavian, well no. Definitely not Scandinavian. However, IIRC the Wolves did also recruit from Terra, did they not? Flint, do you have any background information for this guy so we can see if he matches your image of what he should be before we start telling you to match him to our images and our standards?

[Forté]

With a very pale skin and deep shadows. Almost monochrome.

 

As for highlight colour Flint. Whatever your last shade was and a tip of bleached bone (or whatever bone colour you have now that GW give everything dumb :cuss: names for legal purposes). Keep adding a little more with each highlight and make each area smaller till it's literally the bridge of the nose and eyebrow area. Top of the cheeks, lips and chin.

 

http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2012/05/tutorial-prominent-highlights-while.html?m=1

 

Some good images in there too.

 

And the current Space Wolf description involves hair that becomes more grey and skin that becomes more tanned and leathery.

[Brother Ambroz]

Maybe he replaced his own skin with the flesh of one of his victims to set him apart from his Nostroman "brothers"? Just thinking out loud.... :P

[ephrael]

Kol, you constantly feel the need to point out things that have very little to do with painting and modeling in this topic don't you?  

[Larkyn]

Kol, you constantly feel the need to point out things that have very little to do with painting and modeling in this topic don't you?  

 

You would hate my thread, then. Now I think you're just being ornery just to be ornery. You continue to "clog" this thread with your input, but don't allow others to post things that are probably helpful to Flint, just not in your opinion.

 

Kol very pointedly had fluff reasonings. Assuming Flint continues to post up fluff along with her models, its perfectly valid. Models without fluff and history are very boring indeed. If there was no fluff involved in this game, we may as well just all play Ultramarines 2nd Company.

[ephrael]

 

Kol, you constantly feel the need to point out things that have very little to do with painting and modeling in this topic don't you?  

 

You would hate my thread, then. Now I think you're just being ornery just to be ornery. You continue to "clog" this thread with your input, but don't allow others to post things that are probably helpful to Flint, just not in your opinion.

 

Kol very pointedly had fluff reasonings. Assuming Flint continues to post up fluff along with her models, its perfectly valid. Models without fluff and history are very boring indeed. If there was no fluff involved in this game, we may as well just all play Ultramarines 2nd Company.

How are black and white photos helpful to judge skin tone.

 

What exactly does your thread have to do at all with this one?

 

Where exactly is your input on the topic at hand?  

[Kol Saresk]

Could you perhaps explain what is "on topic" and what I suggesting are suitable "Caucasian skin tones" for a "Caucasian colored Astartes" is off-topic? Every picture I posted, is of a Caucasian skin tone.

[KrautScientist]

Sshhhhhh.... people don't know that I'm starting a small WE force. Or that it's taking me awhile to figure out how to paint destroyer's black

Hm, you had my interest before, Flint, but now you have my attention ;) Would love to see you tackle some World Eaters in a similar (narrative driven) style!

Regarding the skin colour, there's a couple of easy ways to paint skin that's "white", for lack of a better word, allowing for the fact that we're talking about Chaos Space Marines here, so they don't need to look exactly healthy. My two favourite - really easy - recipes are:

1. Basecoat GW Rakarth Flesh

2. Wash liberally with Badab Black (or Nuln Oil)

3. Go back and do some highlights with the original Rakarth Flesh

to achieve a look of pale, dead skin.

Or, for a slightly healthier look, simply replace the black wash with a flesh shade (like the old Ogryn Flesh). In this case, you can even use smaller, controlled passes with purple and/or red washes to create distressed flesh, bruising, etc. Check out my thread to see some of the results, in case you're interested.

Hope this helps! Keep up the great work! :)

[Athrawes]

It's long overdue that I chime in on this thread. You have put in a breathtaking amount of work on your Nightlords and the army really shows it. Keep up they impressive pace and standards and you will (if you don't already) have one of the best Nightlords armies out there.

 

I'll be following this project and I have to say, my personal favorite is your Techmarine. 

[ephrael]

Could you perhaps explain what is "on topic" and what I suggesting are suitable "Caucasian skin tones" for a "Caucasian colored Astartes" is off-topic? Every picture I posted, is of a Caucasian skin tone.

Every picture you posted is in black and white, how is that supposed to be helpful?  I specifically mentioned Scandinavian in my post, trying to point Flint towards a more pale skin tone.  That might be a useful thing to learn for someone painting NL don't you think? 

 

If you want an example of keeping "on topic" you could suggest how to improve the skin she painted already or comment on the model, not my post.  I'm fairly certain that's what Captain Semper meant about staying on topic and limiting personal exchanges in this thread.

[Conn Eremon]

Flint, seeing a Space Wolf head, in all its terrible hairyness, in Night Lord colors just seems . . . wrong. So very wrong.

 

 

On the side, to everyone else and to be quite frank, arguing about whether or not someone is being off-topic or not is in itself off-topic. If you are pointing out someone being off-topic, you are off-topic. If you are defending yourself for being on-topic, you are off-topic. I am being off-topic right now, which is why I will not continue in this aspect of the conversation anymore.

 

If you care about keeping this thread on topic, then drop the discussion about being on topic or off. Any discussion on the nature of on-topicness at all is off-topic.

[depthcharge12]

Caucasian also applies to some people of North Africa as well. Would people of Hebrew descent be considered Caucasian? What about Arabic?

 

 

Hmm Arabic marines sound fun ;) rich culture and all. Keep those Night Lords pumping out?

 

 

Flint have you thought about doing some termies? I forgot if you have or not

[Forté]

Calm down everyone please. So far everything everyone has said has been relevant.

 

The black and white pictures personally are quite helpful as they also show where light and shade falls on a face and that skin tones are not set in stone.

 

I'm sure Flint will decide what she wants to try and what either doesn't make sense or seems too complex and a bit daunting. So is there any point in getting heated about it. Not really. So please. Take a deep breath. Choose words carefully and be considerate. Not only to each other but also to Flint who has already had her thread locked once due to no fault of her own.

 

I'll shut up now. Oh, and KrautScientist. Good catch there. I totally missed her WE comment(Flint...you traitor).

[The Angelus Sanctus]

To reiterate what fellow frater have stated, lets keep the commentary civil and relevant to the discussion and purpose of the thread. 

 

There has been much content and development in this thread to inspire all of us, for both everyone who has been actively looking through this thread as well as those who have yet to stumble upon its contents. 

[Wicced]

since you asked ;) i'd desecrate the back of his claw, the symbol on his backpack and maybe the kneepad.