9 replies to this topic

[Schmapdi]

Hi - this is probably a little bit of an unusual request compared to the norm but I'm really having problems and could use some help.

I bought a little plastic dog (just a cheap job, from Michaels, though the details aren't too bad). It's a golden retriever - I want to paint it up as a present for a friend and paint it to match my friend's retriever.

The problem is - I've been mixing and mixing and I can't even come close to the fur color of this dog. (See attached)

This dog has 4 shades of fur really.
Darkest is an orangeish brown color.
Next is a lighter shade of that
Then there is a light blonde color (makes up the majority - and is the color I've come least closest to)
Finally a white/khaki color (this I can actually match pretty closely).

The Reaper power pallete gives me things like "tanned highlight, and rosy skin" for the blonde color - which I have, and they aren't even close :/

Everything I've tried on my own comes out too yellow, or too brown, or too plain (i.e. not "golden" enough). I mostly have GW paints (the old kind, before they redid them recently) but I have pretty much all of them, in addition to ~2 dozen Reaper (those are almost entirely skin tones though).

I've been trying by mixing mostly light browns with yellows, or browns +oranges for the darker colors.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not averse to picking up paints if needed but be aware that my FLGS (where I bought at least a half-dozen triads) no longer carries Reaper paints :/

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Caffiene]

Im by no means an expert on paint mixing, but my day job has taught me to be ok at eyeballing colours... Id suggest trying colours/mixs with a bit more green in them. The lighter colourings, especially the shadows in the undercoat where you can see through to the skin more, have a greenish tinge. An olive-green shade, in particular.

Playing around with the photoshop multi-sample eyedropper tool and putting it back into the Power Palette gives me Oiled Leather, Fair Skin, Polished Bone, Bloodless Skin, Terran Khaki

Like so:

Although the Terran Khaki in practice is probably overpoweringly dark unless you only use it barely visibly as subtle shadow on the pale parts.

[Schmapdi]

Hmm, I would have never thought to add green to the mix... I'll give it a try and report back. Thanks!

[Lastman]

That's sound advice based on my experience in a hair painting class, where olive is used to shade blonde hair.

[Schmapdi]

Well - mixing up some the paints Caffiene provied gave me a great Khaki color that's a nice match to the lightest fur.

And some experimentation using that Khaki as a base gave me what I think is a passable light blonde fur (see attached pics). Made by mixing in a very tiny amount of Vomit Brown (aka a creamy orange) to the base.

But I still need to come up with the darkest orange fur, and a way to blend the that with the blonde fur.

Obviously the pic of the face was a quicky job. And I'll shade/highlight each color - but just as a quick way to see how the colors work together - what do you guys think?

The second pic - of the back legs - you can see the khaki base made from the intricate mixing. (And that back paw, made from that base + some golden yellow - which is a not bad blonde fur color too, I think). You can also see the amount of experimentation the poor doggy has had done on him as I was testing various colors/mixes.

Thanks!

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[Schmapdi]

Just in case anyone remembers this thread, from two months ago. I finished the dog (and found a much better dog too). If it weren't for the invaluable help of my the worlds best painter, he wouldn't have turned out nearly as (imo) awesome.

As you can see - he's leaps and bounds better than my poor test puppy. (Way to take one for the team though, test puppy). Thefirst pic includes some of his toys I sculpted. (Sadly, the dog turned out so good that the toys look especially sucky in comparison - and they didn't need help for that, I suck at sculpting).

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[SamuraiJack]

Test puppy can always be stripped and re-painted.. great job though..

[klyons99]

Eh, I think the toys look about like my two pup's toys, post play.
Your friend ought to love this one!

[Argentee]

I think the toys look great. I love the chew rope. :)

[Schmapdi]

Thanks guys.

Yes, I probably will strip/repaint the test puppy at some point. He's not nearly as nice a sculpt as the second dog though. (Second dog was made by a company called "Schleich" btw - they make a ton of different animals, though they're much too big for any sort of tabletop gaming purposes.)

They toys have their charm - but you can tell they are pretty lumpy. Also - I started making the toys long ago - pre-second dog. So they are all a bit too small now for the full-grown retriever.

Overall I'm pretty darn happy with it still, and look forward to (and slightly dread) giving it away.