SHOWCASE: Wrath of Kings – Painting a Dancing Master
I’m getting closer to finishing my first Wrath of Kings army. Now I’ve moved on to the vampires in the Goritsi starter box.
Someday this Dancing Master will lead hordes of my Zeti Vampires into battle. But I have to paint her first.
I start with the boots for no particular reason. Here I’ve just blocked out a few very basic areas of highlight and shadow using wet blending. I begin with a basecoat of Coal Black which is highlighted with Underbelly Blue, and shaded with a warm-toned black mixed from Thamar Black and a teensy bit of Bloodstone and Red Ink mixed in. These are formula P3 colors as are all the others I’ll be using here.
The next step is to pick out the detail like the wrinkles in the leather, and the heels. The top of the boots have a jagged edge that needs to be picked out as well.
For the armor I used the same color scheme from my previous Goritsi painting article. My midtone was Great Coat Gray mixed with a healthy amount of Cygnar Blue Highlight to add some color. Umbral Umber was blended in for shading and highlighted up to a nice apex; first with Underbelly Blue, then with Menoth White Highlight used at the highest points to represent a bright reflection.
I continue around the model completing the previous step on the other armored areas. There is a lot of armor on this Dancing Master. Then comes the tedious part: adding a thing line of reflected light with underbelly blue. These lines themselves are also given a little highlight of Menoth White Highlight
After every line of highlight is in place, I add a dark line of Umbral Umber as well to further define all the individual pieces of armor.
I repeat the process until all the armor is complete. There were also some rivets that needed to be picked out. These get a dot of umbral umber, followed by a smaller dot of Underbelly.
For her shirt and pants I went with a nice vivid red. I began with a base of Sanguine Base with a little Coal Black mixed in. Highlights of Khador Red Base were then blended in to make it nice and vivid.
Then I went to work on her purple cloak. This began with a basecoat of Beaten Purple with some Exile Blue used for shading.
Next I added some highlights of Frostbite to the purple coat while continuing to add definition to all the folds of cloth with more Exile Blue shading.
Here’s a shot of the reverse. For some of the darkest areas I ended up using black mixed with just a bit of Ordic Green Ink for tone.
For the fur lining of the coat I began with Thornwood Green and stippled on some Menoth White Highlight.
Next I moved on to the detailed icon on her torso. For the gold color I started with a mix of Bloodstone and Sulfuric Yellow. Umbral Umber was used to shade this as well, and pure Sulfuric Yellow was used as a highlight.
Completing the gold was a similar process to the other metal area. A mix of Sulfuric Yellow was used to add thin lines of highlight along all the ridges, before each piece was lined with Umbral Umber.
I start off on the blade with a nice blended streak of Thornwood Green and Frostbite.
After cleaning it up a little, I move on to the sharp edge. I change up the colors a little here using pure Greatcoat Gray as the base, highlighting it up with Frostbite and then Menoth White Highlight. Then a thin line of highlight is added down the side of each blade.
For the face I decided to steer away from the traditional super pale vampire look. Instead I started with a mix of Bloodstone and Beaten Purple and highlighted it with Frostbite.
The eyese and lips were both basecoated with a red-toned black mixed from Thamar Black and Bloodstone. These were then given tiny little spot highlights of Underbelly Blue to give them a glossy appearance. For the hair a basecoat of Frostbite was used. This was highlighted with Morrow White, and shaded with Exile Blue.
Here she is after I finished basing her. I used CMON Graveyard Base Inserts since they fit the theme and are a bit more inexpensive than other base inserts.
Here she is with some of the rank and Zeti.
And here is the whole group – all 12 from the Goritsi starter plus both Dancing Masters.
~Hope you enjoyed the article!
