‘Eavy Metal Seminar – Painting the Eldar Farseer

The main thrust of the seminar was Joe demonstrating how to paint the red robes on
the new Eldar Farseer. However, he also imparted a wealth of other tips that I am sure
you will all find of interest.

Painting the red robes

Strictly speaking the basic recipe for the red robes was as follows (from shades to
highlights) :

1. Khorne Red and small amount of Abbadon Black

2. Khorne Red
3. Khorne Red and Mephiston Red
4. Mephiston Red
5. Evil Suns Scarlet
6. Wild Rider Red
7. Troll Slayer Orange
8. Fire Dragon Bright
9. Yellow
10. Yellow and white
11. Yellow glaze
12. White

However, there was a twist. The base colour was Evil Suns Scarlet.

After a nice smooth basecoat (in thin layers if necessary to build it up) over a black
undercoat, the other shades were applied in thin layers to gradually build up the
shading and highlights (think milk like consistency).

One of the key points for painting the ‘Eavy Metal style is to use nice smooth thin
layers. Do not clog up the model with overly thick paint. People may be discouraged by
thinking this will make painting a long drawn out process. However, Joe came armed
with a cheap hairdryer to speed up the drying process and was making fairly rapid
progress throughout.
After the initial base coat stage, Joe carefully shaded the recesses in the robes in a
succession of thin and increasingly selective layers/glazes down to “stage 1” above.

When painting red Joe was keen to demonstrate, by reference to a brilliant red t-shirt in
the audience, that for a realistic red or other vibrant colours (yellow being a prime
example) you need to preserve the base coat or predominant colour and should not
make the contrasts in the shading or highlighting too pronounced. Naturally, the bigger
proportion of a red area that is highlighted or shaded, the less red the area will be.
If you are going for brilliant, vibrant colours, use the more vibrant shades for both
highlights and shades. Otherwise you will create a muddy effect. For example do not
use Squig Orange as a highlight stage for a vibrant red or an olive type green when
you are seeking a vibrant green.

When mixing in a tiny spot of black to stage 1 Joe was very careful to avoid adding too
much and creating a muddy finish to the recesses. Simply adding black to colours to
darken a mix may create a horrible muddy effect and you may need to consider using
other colours to shade. For example, previous published ‘Eavy Metal Masterclasses
have used blue or green to shade red.

Similarly, using too much white in a mix to highlight can create an unwanted pastel
effect, such as creating pink when you are trying to highlight red.
Because the glaze type layers are thin you can blend to a degree if it assists to tie
together the stages, however Joe was not using “wet blending” per se. Instead Joe was
mainly blending the colours through a succession of thin layers and feathering.

So long as you keep the paint thin, the more stages used the better the finish will
generally be, as the transitions will be smoother. If you want a great finish do not be
afraid to invest a bit more time.

If you go too far with a layer you can simply tidy up again with a re-application of a
previous stage, either to tone up shading or tone down highlights. Joe was keen to
emphasise that although the ‘Eavy Metal team may broadly have a recipe in mind you
need to use your intuition as you go along. If you use a wet pallet this process is made
somewhat easier.

After building up to a very selective use of orange/yellow highlights Joe used a

selective yellow glaze to bring together the orange/yellow highlights and add to the
vibrancy. The final layer was a very selective white highlight on only the most
pronounced areas that would catch the light. This stage can use a thicker consistency
of paint as not only will that allow a greater level of control but it will also make the
finish less washed out than a more diluted final layer. This is particularly true given that
heavily thinned white can leave a cloudy/chalky finish.
Brush control

Brush control is very important if you want to achieve an ‘Eavy Metal quality finish.
Firstly, you need to ensure that you control the shape of the brush and that you
maintain a nice defined point.

Secondly, you need to ensure that you do not overload the brush, particularly when you
are using the thinned layers required for the ‘Eavy Metal finish. You don’t want to flood
the area with excess paint.

Joe has developed a technique of rolling his brush after loading up with paint that
simultaneously achieves both of these goals.

Thirdly, in terms of brush strokes themselves, less is more. You can always add more
brush strokes if necessary. For the darker shades and lighter highlights in particular
care should be taken not to overdo it. Stop to think about the application of the brush
strokes and take your time for the more decisive stages in particular. It is easier to add
more brush strokes and paint as required than it is to undo an error caused by over
eager application of paint, particularly with the later highlight stages as you may need
to re-do the entire underlying build up of shading and highlights on the area.

Although the ‘Eavy Metal team use a deliberately exaggerated style to showcase
Citadel Miniatures, they will still refer to reference material. When shading and
highlighting it never hurts to have a look round and think how shading and highlighting
occurs naturally on objects in everyday life. Squinting can make this easier to notice.

Base coat choices

For many areas, as with the Farseer’s robes, you are better off starting with a relatively
light base coat. After all it is easier to shade down an area than to convincingly build up
lighter colours over a darker base. Further, you will then need to paint fewer time
consuming layers and the end result will be at least as good, particularly since you will
have avoided accumulating a thicker layer of paint on the model.
Joe mentioned his recipe for painting Orcs (or Orks) as an example. He typically starts
from a pale green base and then glazes down in successive layers, before adding
highlights as appropriate.
Washing vs Glazing/blending

You need to use your intuition depending upon the model and its textures. The Farseer
is a good example of this . The robes are too smooth to warrant the use of washes,
which require a subtler and more controlled effect. Naturally, washes also require a
certain texture to an area or they will not pool in the recesses to create the desired
shading effect.

As a general rule it appears that the ‘Eavy Metal team will err on the side of using
glazes/controlled layer shading rather than washes, however the they will still use
washes provided that they can retain the required degree of control.

Undercoat choices

This is very much a matter of preference and a white undercoat can assist with more
vibrant colours. However, Joe confirmed that he generally uses a black undercoat and
has no problems, particularly given the increased pigmentation of the paints.

Tips from Dave Heathfield

Dave reinforced Joe’s point about brush control and maintaining the shape and point of
the brush if you want to achieve the level of control required to paint an ‘Eavy Metal
quality finish. To achieve this you also need to ensure that you do not get any paint in
the ferrule (the metal band of the brush that pins the bristles together).

Types of brush stroke

Dave reinforced Joe’s point concerning really thinking about the brush strokes used,
especially for highlights. Less is often more. However, don’t just think about the number
or positioning of stokes but the way of applying the paint. Don’t overload the brush.
Also with clever application you can make life much easier. A simple example is using
the side of the tip of the brush to apply edge highlights. Just make sure that you keep
the shape of the brush intact.

Blending/feathering rather than wet blending

Dave was using a wet pallet while I was quizzing him, however he was not using wet
blending. While that can be a fantastic approach, that is often adopted by competition
painters, it is also a really time consuming process and while ‘Eavy Metal painter may
produce a great finish they are also working to deadlines.

Careful blending is required but this is typically by way of using thin paint in layers and
also feathering the paint as necessary. I remember reading a painting guide produced
by Mike McVey back in the day and he advocated keeping a separate damp brush on
hand to aid with this feathering process.

Metallics

Considering the degree to which the ‘Eavy metal team thin down the standard acrylic
paints I was very interested to ask how they go about painting with metallics. In
particular how they go about blending or layering given the different properties of the
metallic paints.

Dave suggested that they tend to use glazes rather than layering or blending.

Essentially for a standard steel/iron type metal they might use a slightly watered down,
smooth base coat of a medium to light metallic shade such as chainmail (the new
equivalent being Ironbreaker) and then carefully shade down the area using controlled
glazes.

This gives much greater control and avoids building up thick and clumpy layers of
metallics. You can then always add discrete highlights with a brighter metallic shade as
appropriate.

Hues and shades

Conscious of previous ‘Eavy Metal guides, I was interested to know how much the
‘Eavy Metal team play around with adding hues of different colours to miniatures,
particularly for shading and adding nuance to models  i.e. using blue or green to shade
red.

Broadly speaking they don’t mess around excessively, particularly for rank and file type
models. However, they may play around a bit more with character and centrepiece
models. In particular they will use careful applications of glazes on prominent features
such as faces. Dave showed me and example of this with an Ork Boy that he was
painting where he had used some very discrete glazes of purple around the eyes for
shading.

If you are using hues of different colours to give the model greater nuance, think about
the colour wheel. Colours that are opposites on the colour wheel are particularly
appropriate and will naturally excite the eye. This is because the colours opposing each
other on the colour wheel have the most contrast, and are hence known as contrasting
colours (or complimentary colours). This is particularly useful when shading.

This is not to say that adding black or white may not be appropriate, it just creates a
different effect. By using contrasting colours you may also help to avoid creating the
muddying or pastel effects that can result from adding black or white to a mix for
shades or highlights.

If you want a more traditional effect you can use colours that are adjacent on the colour
wheel for shading and highlights, such as highlighting red with orange and then yellow.
These are known as analogous colours. In a sense they are “safer” colours, but will not
excite the eye to the same degree as contrasting colours.

A further factor to consider is the use of cool and warm colours. Colours at the
blue/purple end of the colour spectrum tend to be “cool” colours that are more serene
and calming and don’t excite the eye too much.
Colours at the red/orange end of the colour spectrum tend to be “warm” colours and
are more exciting to the eye. Cool colours are often better for shading and warm
colours can sometimes be more effective for highlighting. This is not a hard and fast
rule but can be of assistance in colour selection.

If you don’t have a copy of the colour wheel in your painting area it is well worth getting
hold of a copy, especially a more advanced one that shows the effect of adding black
and white to a colour. Once you understand the colour wheel and its significance (and
there are some great articles online) it can really inform your choice of colour schemes
and colour placement on models. Even if you don’t want to fiddle around with the use
of colour theory too much, it is of great assistance when selecting colours for a broader
army wide colour scheme.

Dave showed me a great example of colour theory and the use of different hues for
shading by reference to the new Illic Nightspear model in the ‘Eavy Metal cabinet. I
believe that this is one of the models painted by Dave and it is something of a master-
class in colour selection.
If you look at the face and mask, you will see that this is shaded using purple glazes.
The recesses on the yellow mask have been defined with a marked but not
overpowering application of purple shading. The recesses directly above the mask,
under the cheekbones, have also been shaded with a slightly darker purple. The
reason why this works so well is that yellow and purple are contrasting colours. The
darker shade above the eyes also helps to define the boundary between the mask and
face, which are otherwise similar shades/tones.

You can also see colour theory in action in Dave’s broader choice of colours on the Illic
model. The model is defined by a contrast between purple/dark blue on one side of the
colour wheel and yellow/ivory on the other. The other colours used are broadly neutral,
in the browns and greys used in the cloth and the hair. However, if you look closely you
can see that purple, blue and yellow have been carefully mixed in to the highlights and
shades on those areas also, which really ties the model together.
There is also great use of internal contrast on many of the areas to really make them
pop. For example, the metallics have been painted in golds or bronzes which are
analogous to yellow, but the inset gems have been picked out in purple to provide
contrast. Similarly, the gun, golden canisters and scenic base have been discretely
shaded with glazes that incorporate a purple hue.

Lahmian Medium

Given Games Workshop’s peculiar reluctance to explain what exactly Lahmian Medium
is or what it can be used for I was interested to ask Dave how he used it.

He let me know some interesting tips and tricks that I am interested to try out at the
earliest opportunity.
Firstly, he uses it with the new washes. I mentioned that the new washes stain the
surface areas to a greater degree than the older washes such as the much loved
Devlan Mud. This was demonstrated by a great article on Tale of Painters comparing
the old and new washes and showcasing their varying effects.

Dave adds Lahmian Medium to the new washes and apparently it helps the wash to
flow into and cling to the recesses, leaving less staining on the surface area.
Another advantage when using this approach is that the wash apparently becomes
slightly thicker allowing you to tease the wash from the recesses to create different
effects, presumably including softening the transition to the shading in the recesses.

Lahmian Medium is also a good medium for thinning the paint as the addition of
Lahmian Medium can create a smoother blend than simply adding water. You will note
that Garfy is a big advocate of this approach from his excellent stage by stage tutorials.
I have read elsewhere that acrylic paint thinners, such as for use with airbrushes, are
also understandably good for this. Try an experiment at home. If you thin down one of
the brighter new paints with water and compare to one thinned with the addition of
Lahmian Medium, you will note that the mix thinned only with water will be a little
cloudier, whereas the Lahmian mix will be smoother and there will be less separation of
the pigment and base.

A further use for Lahmian Medium is in the application of transfers, as a covering layer
to the area. This is because it is thin and won’t clog up the finish in the same way as
multiple layers of varnish, but will help to kill off the high gloss of the transfer sheet and
tie in the transfer. Dave showed me an example of this with some of the new
Wraithguard models. The symbols on the heads and loincloths have been applied
using transfers. Lahmian Medium was then applied and they have subsequently been
touched up slightly to tie them in.