And the biggest problem that I'm having is that I'm seeing this giant piece that is going to bring a LOT of attention to it, and I'm trying to make sure that I don't do some easy paint job. I want it to look detailed, and given the attention it deserves because there are far too many paint jobs out there that I look at and see people covering entire areas with airbrush and only doing minor detail work over the airbrushing. It's not to say that they're 'bad' paint jobs, they're at a level that I can't do right now, but for me, they're just not what I've been wanting to do.
Today on the train I finally figured out what I want to do with everything (or at least his mount which is the biggest chunk of the entire thing). It runs the very real risk of looking REALLY bad, but I'm going to enjoy it.
Unlike some people's paint jobs, I'm not going to do his mount as a skeleton. It's a good look, just not something that I want. I like his point looking armored or different colored, and all of the paint jobs that I've seen that don't use the bone structure for his mount are MUCH more up my ally of what I want to see on my own table.
But at the same point I really like the idea of the spirits being summoned with it and the color palate blend that is required to create the look that they're being summoned. That means that I'm going to do something that is most likely a bit more than what I can, but at least I have a plan.
The plan is looking a bit something like this (transcribed from my journal where I write everything down so I don't forget). I like blue so it's a little blue on blue with more blue heavy, but hey, it's what I've got.
Spirit Hosts -
White base with a light blue wash and highlights. Working from the summoning point up from a light blue to a darker blue wash in the face.
Daggers - I will try to make them look glowing with reverse highlighting, making the body of it dark and highlighting out to the edges to where it's white. Again another attempt to blend, but in a SUPER small area that might just get washed over with silver so that I don't have to worry about the stupidity of trying that blend in that area. The main reason I want to give it a shot is for his weapon, practice on them so I can pull it off on the rider.
Mount -
Skulls in the mount - dirty skulls with an orange/yellow wash making the cracks and pits try to look like they're glowing. I'm going to make them dirty first, and then try to add in the color, but depending on how that color turns out first, I might just scrap the entire glow project and be happy with a pack of dirty, nasty, worn skulls. Either way, I know that I'm not going for the clean skulls that some people use, I want them to be worn, dirty, and a bit on the ugly side.
Skeleton of mount - tip of tail is pure white working up to head which is armor black. Transitioning between the two up the body in gradients where at around the point where the rider sits, being somewhere around blue to dark blue. This way the mount will (hopefully) look like it's being summoned with the tail still being brought into existence while the head and torso is more stable and real.
Claws and legs - Follow same structure as skeleton, blend white to whatever gradient the body is up to at that point. For the back legs that will mean a white to a blue or even a lighter blue body, where the front legs will travel a further distance up the scale and do a full white to dark blue/black color change.
Cages, ribcage, or anything else that's not skeleton - Whatever color the spine is is what color they are. That means that in the body of the rider it's going to be coming into existence which means that the tail end of the rib cage will be a blue and the head end of the rib cage will almost be black, then as you travel up the neck that cage that is full of skulls will almost be entirely black.
Of course, highlights, washes, and all of that stuff will be used to layer this thing to hell, but that's the general idea. Now I just have to figure out how long I want to stretch out that blend, or if it's just going to be on the tail and assume that the body is all in existance. I'm more in favor for a long blend, but we'll see what happens.
Either way, I finally figured it out, which makes me really want to finish up the last touches of assembly and prime it so I can put on the first layer of paint tonight.
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