Using Broken Hues Painting Sir Kay Tutorial

USING BROKEN HUES PAINTING SIR KAY TUTORIAL

BY RUBEN MARTINEZ Direction: José Manuel Palomares.

Art direction: Pedro Núñez, José Manuel Palomares, Hugo Gómez Briones, Rubén Martínez, Alex Muñoz.

Project management and administration: Helio de Grado, Lola Ramilo.

Concept art: Pedro Núñez.

Graphic design: Manuel Domínguez, Aleksandra Bilich, Jessica Mur, Andrea Mª Villa.

Sculpting: Adrián Rio, Alejandro Muñoz, Daniel Fernández-Truchaud, Hugo Gómez, Iván Santurio, Natalia Romero.

Painting: Ruben Martinez, David Arroba, Jaime de Garnica, Andy Wardle, Marc Masclans, Arnau Lázaro, Miguel Matías, Michal Pisarski, Krzysztof Kobalczyk, Pepe Gallardo.

Resin production: Chema Ruiz, Pablo Solana, María Martínez, Saúl Palacios, David Chozas, Fernando Cazallas, Luis Llorente, Carmen Núñez, Sergio Ajenjo.

Video edition: Elena Moreno. INDEX

Sir Kay 04 Using broken hues: Tutorial by Ruben Martinez

Gallery 20

Catalogue 26 SR KAY Work: basing and painting Scale: 75mm Brand: Bigchild Creatives

It was at the Golden Demon edition in Madrid that I won my first awards as a miniature painter. I was awarded the Slayer Sword in both 2010 and 2011, and I have been working as a professional miniature painter ever since. For some years now, I have been working alongside José Manuel Palomares, Iván Santurio and Hugo Gómez at Bigchild Creatives as a partner and Painting Department’s Director.

@rma_ruben_martinez @rma.miniatures

INTRODUCTION At BigChild Creatives we have always been committed to adapting our painting style according to the project we have on the table. With painting, different emotions or sensations can be transmitted, and this is why this versatility is so important. Bright and saturated colors can transmit energy, vividness and intensity in the artwork and its message, while more muted colors are used to express melancholy, serenity or even sadness.

Although our most common record has been characterized by intense colors and strong contrasts (as can be seen in previous Black Sailors projects or even Zombicide and Marvel United), in Echoes of Camelot the trend is clearly different. Pedro Nuñez marked a style in his illustrations of the characters that was overflowing with mysticism and covered this entire universe with a nostalgic veil of a magical era long past. The palette continued having vivid colors, but the predominance of more desaturated colors made us have to adapt when painting these miniatures.

In the following pages I will show you how I approached the painting on Sir Kay, based on concept art, and how to play with those more desaturated tones without the final result being gray and lifeless, since in broken hues you can also find vibrating colors.

WHAT ARE BROKEN HUES?

We all know the primary and secondary colors. These colors are represented in the well-known chromatic circle. The six-part circle is a simplified way of looking at it, but I think it is good to explain it in a very basic way to understand it better.

The primary colors (yellow, red and blue) are the purest that we can find and therefore they are the most saturated colors that exist. The secondary ones are obtained by mixing the primary ones together two by two. For example mixing yellow and red, we will obtain orange. As they are formed by mixing very saturated colors with each other, we will have that secondary colors can also be considered very saturated colors.

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Well, broken hues are the opposite. They are the desaturated colors, or what is the same, those that are not the primary or secondary colors that we can observe in the previous chromatic circle. For example, browns, grays, pinks, khaki green, ochre, skin tones, etc. we could classify them as broken hues. Look at the amount of things we paint with these colors!

From this we deduce how to obtain the broken hues. The easy option (or also for experienced painters) is to go to the store and buy us some pots of those colors, however it is the least recommended option because your mixtures will be taken from pots that cannot have a correct color ratio. For example if I want to shade something green and I have bought a dark green for it. The interesting thing would be that if the lights are warm (a green with some yellow for example) we paint some dark green shadows but with a colder temperature, that is to say a dark green with some blue, which could be a dark turquoise. This temperature contrast will make the color vibrate and create much more interesting contrasts. The problem with using the colors from the can is that I may be shading that green with a dark khaki green because it is the one closest to my table, but that color is of a warmer trend than would be desirable to create that contrast by temperature. Keep reading because when you finish this tutorial you will see that it is not that complicated!

OBTAINING THE BROKEN HUES It is better to get used to and understand where these broken hues come from. Broken colors are obtained by desaturating the colors on the color wheel.

The browns are obtained by desaturating the orange or red. Ochres are obtained by desaturating yellow and cool grays are obtained by desaturating blues and greens.

The logical question that you will be asking yourself now is: how do I desaturate a color? The answer is very simple. A color is desaturated by mixing it with A LITTLE of its complementary, the complementary colors being those that are opposite in the chromatic circle. For example, if I want to desaturate an orange hue, I just have to add a little blue that is opposite the orange in the color wheel. This way we will obtain a brown, and if you test it on your palette you will see that it is true.

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WORKING WITH THE BROKEN HUES So far the theoretical part, which although it may be dense I think is essential to understand the process shown below.

Just remember a couple of details that I always keep in mind while painting. One of them is the temperature contrast that I mentioned earlier, in which the “pictorial rule” says that if the lights are warm, the shadows must be cold, and vice versa.

Another more particular thing about broken hues is that they are lightened with white and darkened with their complementary. In the case of white, it is often corrected with a little yellow if we want to make the lights warm, or a little blue if we want to cool the lights. But to darken them you should NOT use black, being better to add the complementary hue to the mixtures.

I emphasize not using black, because this pigment will take away all the chromatic information and we will lose that vibration of color so sought after among painters. In the same way, I want to emphasize that grays are NOT made by mixing black and white for the same reason.

FIRST STEPS ON SIR KAY

Before starting to paint it is important to define a few aspects such as the color scheme. In this case it is an issue that is resolved only because I will stick to the illustration of the character.

Another thing to decide is the light main direction. Because of how the character is posed, I decided that the lighting that I liked the most was with the light shining from above and tilted somewhat to the right. Using the double primer method I set this from the beginning, so that first I paint the entire figure with black spray and then I apply a few bursts with white spray from that same direction so that it naturally marks where the light planes of the entire sculpture are, this being my main reference throughout the painting process.

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As an additional trick, I will tell you that the head is fixed with a little blue tack so that it can be painted separately more comfortably. STARTING TO APPLY THE COLOR It is time to put into practice everything seen in the theoretical part, so I trust that now all the doubts you may have will be dispelled, since you can see that it is not as complex as it seemed.

I start with the doublet by applying a base color for the light and for the shadows. For the lights I mixed a medium ochre cream color by desaturating a yellow. Mixing yellow with a little purple we will see with we obtain an ochre color. I also added white to lighten it and a touch of blue to cool it down, since I want the temperature of the lights to be cold in general to obtain a very specific atmosphere like the one you will see in the final photos. You can see the exact color in the photos and I applied it in the areas that the double primer made clearer.

I painted the shadows in a similar way but where the black primer was more evident. For these shadows I darkened the color of the lights with their complementary. To do this, we must NOT look for the complementary of ochre since we will not find it in the chromatic circle, if we do not take into account the main color to which the color we want to desaturate or break belongs, that is, yellow (I obtained ochre by desaturating the yellow).

That is why I added a little more purple to the mix of the lights to darken it and get a color for the shadows consistent with my palette. We could use a muted dark brown color that we have in a can on our table, but I think that in addition to being more fun, mixing the color with logic will obtain better results.

Here is a detail that I would like to point out about the pigments that we use. We have to bear in mind that for this color theory to work correctly we will have to handle very intense primary and secondary colors with good pigment.

According to the different manufacturers we can find many colors that although they call them primary red or names like that, they may have a certain amount of white or some yellow to make them more luminous, but this will make them not behave well when breaking or mixing them with other colors. I usually work with colors from the Kimera brand, and I mix them with colors from other brands for different purposes.

For the leather of the straps I will use a rather dark brown. As they are very small elements, I cover them entirely with this color and then define the texture through the lights. I have mentioned it before so you will know how to get this brown, but just in case I will mention it again. By breaking a red I will get this warm brown.

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For this, it is enough to mix red with a little of its complementary that is green and a little white so that it is not excessively dark.In the next step I will cover the largest part of the figure and achieve something very important, which is to remove almost all the color of the primer so that it does not mislead the eye in the subsequent steps.

Actually, both the armor and the fur have really similar base colors, although the armor has a more bluish tendency and the fur is more greenish. This step is done all at once using the wet blending technique that allows me to make the transitions between colors by applying them to the surface while the adjacent ones are still fresh. Therefore it is important to work fast here.

Do not forget the importance of diluting the paint in the right amount and especially in techniques like this one of wet melting. It will make the paint flow properly and the colors blend together better. With the right point of dilution with one or two coats it will be more than enough to obtain

the result you see in the photo.In order to work quickly it is important to have the mixes already prepared and with a good dilution on the palette. As I mentioned, for the armor I have broken a dark blue with a little orange and for the fur I have used the same mixture but I have added a little yellow to make it warmer, and even a little white in a mixture additional to have a lighter tone that allows me to mark some highlights on both the fur and the armor. The wet fading process is somewhat chaotic but the important thing is to let yourself go and jump without fear. It’s a lot of fun and think we’re at an early point where cleanliness and definition are not important.

BROKEN HUES AND SKIN If at this point you are thinking that broken hues abound in human skins, it means that you are understanding what I am explaining. Human skins are just broken oranges, reds and / or yellows, that obtain a great variety of browns, ochre, pinks or sallow tones and each one can be lighter or darker. This without taking into account the ambient

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lighting that modifies the color of everything that it 1 bathes, so we could say that the skins can be of any color, but they will almost always be broken hues.

1.For Sir Kay I chose to break an orange that will give him a somewhat tanned and weathered look just as the character represents. Mixing orange with a little blue we will get a brown tone to which a little white is added to lighten it slightly. Even if we see that it remains a very dead color, we can add some red that will give it some life, although this will be resolved later when we apply the carnations.

For the lights I have lightened the base color of the skin with white and some yellow so that it does not lose all the saturation of the light. I have also added a little blue so that they are not too warm lights that break the general scheme a lot. 2 There is also an interesting detail in the beard area. I have further broken up the base color with more blue to apply the resulting greenish-gray in the form of glazes. This simulates the three-day beard effect and gives our character a more natural look.

Lastly I painted the mustache and beard with a very dark brown.

2. Following the premises described above for the red cape I did not use the reddest color I have available as it would kill the overall scheme. For the highlights I mixed red with a little blue to get a slightly purplish hue. I lightened this tone with white and a little yellow that makes it turn off the lights a little bit due to the violet / purple trend of the base color of the layer. The 3 shadows are made with the previous mixture of red and blue but instead of adding colors that lighten like white, I add yellow to break it up and darken it more, because another consequence of breaking the colors is that they darken which is ideal to add shades.

The way to apply these lights and shadows, again, is through the wet blending technique that allows us to define the volumetry of the wrinkles quickly and with smooth color transitions.

3.For the base of the stone, I chose the exact same colors as for the coat fur. During the wet blending process in this area, I also included some random touches of an orange color that simulates a bit of dust and dirt, as well

9 SR KAY as adding color strokes that differ from other areas of similar tonalities. Included some random touches of an orange color that simulates a bit of dust and dirt, as well as adding color strokes that differ from other areas of similar tonalities. So we already have our miniature covered with the initial color sketch, all with some lights and shadows and with harmonious colors with each other. Reasoning in the way that I have explained to you, it will not be difficult for you to do it in your own figures, and if the initial sketch is solid, the final result will also be. DEFINING AND ILLUMINATING THE ARMOR IN NMM

The so-called non-metallic metal is nothing more than the technique by which painters and illustrators have always represented, with non-metallic pigments, metal elements in their compositions. Of course, it is also very interesting to paint these elements with the metallic pigments that are on the market today, but that would be the subject of another tutorial.

The main difference between a metallic object and another that is not, is the way in which they reflect light. We will thus see that metals have areas with strong, almost white-colored shines at the most prom- inent points where the light falls. So the premise when painting NMM is the high contrast between light and shadow. We can find very dark areas next to extremely light areas and they will also be drawn in an apparently random way. Take a spoon, which is made of highly polished metal, and you will be able to observe how it reflects light sources and even objects that are around it are drawn on its surface.

Well, in the painting we will try to simulate that by deceiving the eye and making it believe that what it sees is metallic.

We have a dark base that will be the shadows for the armor, so drawing much lighter lights will achieve the necessary contrast to simulate this material. For the color of these lights, it is enough to lighten the previous base color by gradually adding white. Working with glazes you will be able to sketch those lights in a not very aggressive way and will allow you to correct when you do not like how a brushstroke is.

It is important to loosen up with the drawing of these highlights, especially in the broader areas of the armor plates, to achieve those irregular lines that will form the secondary highlights of the armor. I call them secondary highlights because they are drawn with a more or less light color, and correspond to reflections of the objects that our character might have around us (even if they are not seen in the scene). It is very important to also outline with this color all the edges of the plates to define them well, as can be seen in Sir Kay’s feet.

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Finally, I add the main brightness, already with an almost white color (but without ever using pure white because of the unrealistic result), and it will always be located in a single point of the element that we are painting (unless our character is on a planet with two suns!). For example, note that on the shoulder pad and the armband there is a point of light that is clearer than the rest of the reflections drawn on these surfaces. In this way we simulate the point at which the sunlight falls on each part of the armor. DEFINING THE FUR Again I used what was commented in the theoretical part of this tutorial: broken hues are lightened with white, and in this case correcting with a little yellow so as not to lose all the color in these lights. Except for that, this part has no more mystery than to draw with brush strokes the strands that make up the fur. It is not necessary to do it hair by hair and with a very fine brush, so don’t worry! In addition, the sculpture helps us when defining these strands, since in some areas it is enough to pass the brush on the side to highlight the most outstanding volumes of these areas of fur.

TRANSFORMING STEEL INTO GOLD t is not pictorial alchemy, but it is the way I understand the golden NMM, that is, the premises are the same as explained in the section on steel armor, only that I will change the color of the metal. Since we’re at it, I am telling you how to approach other types of metals such as for example copper.

The premise of high contrast and secondary brightness culminating in a main brightness is thus maintained, and what changes is that the gold NMM is based on yellow / orange yellow / ochre instead of gray.

This is why I will start from a base of a broken orange with a little blue (or what is the same, a brown).

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From there I outline and define with a yellowish Finally, I apply the main light points, with a new ochre that I get by breaking a mixture of yellow mixture of yellow and white for the reasons already and orange with a hint of blue and / or purple. I mentioned. I applied these points in specific areas could indeed add yellow to the base color at the without abusing the effect of the hit of light so that beginning, but I would have to add a lot to get a everything is not treated equally, or it’d make it a bright color, so that’s why I did a mix pagain. predictable and boring effect.

By the way, again very important, outline the edges of the golden elements with this color to define everything well.

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ANOTHER TYPE OF TEXTURE: THE LEATHER By now my methodology will be familiar to you, so let’s find a color to light up those brown straps!

Again being a broken hue, brown can be brightened with white, although this is a special case where adding yellow looks great on it. I didn’t add much since I do not want to warm the lights too much and break the cold environment that I am trying to impregnate the piece with.

About the way to move the brush, in this case I will create small pecks with the tip of the brush, to create an effect of aged leather and tanned by the passage of time. In addition, the drawing of fine lines that simulate scratches will enhance the effect.

To finish, I add a few washes with slightly diluted brown ink so that it gets into all the nooks and crannies and further enhances the texture I’m representing.

Painting the gold rivets gives more definition to the figure since now there are almost no unpainted elements, which blur the result.

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TOPPING THE DOUBLET Of the main elements that remained to be illuminated, he had to illuminate the doublet. You can see in the photo the effect of illuminating a central part of the surface as extensive as the doublet.

As in the rest of the broken hues, I brightened it up by adding white to the base color, and in this case I added a little blue to cool it down and create that cool trend in the lights that I am trying to maintain.

We are one step away from seeing the final result, since everything is painted with its lights and shadows!

MAGICAL EFFECTS In reality, more than magic, it is about pictorial resources which give the piece another dimension. I’ll explain why I included this light cyan rim in the piece.

First, to define and trim the left part of the figure, which is where all the shadow is concentrated. The rim light is a light that comes from the bottom right and draws those volumes so obscured by the shadow.

Second, I always like to include colored swipes in the figures. In this case, having been working with broken hues, I knew that including a swipe with a more saturated color would work even better than in other pieces where all colors are more saturated, since I am creating a saturation contrast.

Third, I add a cool color like cyan, which enhances my intention to create a cool environment.

Fourth, I think it gives it a fantastic air within the medieval-realistic of the figure, so I create another contrast that I always love between fantasy-reality.

The way to apply it is really simple, as you may have seen in the videos on the BigChild Creatives YouTube channel, where I show this type of tricks. For those of you who have not seen it, I recommend you take a look, but while I can give you a summary in these lines.

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Again I start from a loose sketch drawing lines and strokes, with the cyan color that you can see in the photo, and covering surfaces where the light, coming from the bottom left, should fall. After this sketch, always clean with the airbrush to achieve a diffuse effect and imitate the effect that light produces on surfaces. I like to call this technique “air blending” since with a medium blue airbrushed over the previous sketch we will achieve the desired smoothing effect.

It is important to dilute the paint when air blending, since what I want is to apply color filters on the existing sketch. These filters will melt the color transitions but they will not completely blur the sketch, since the dilution of the paint applied in this way ensures a certain transparency. Be careful because if we insist a lot, in the end I will end up covering everything in a too uniform and unreal blue.

FINAL BRUSHSTROKES I save the best for last, and I really enjoy painting the faces of the characters. It is not advisable to leave it for the end, since the impact and personality that the painted face of a figure provides is important to see as soon as possible in the painting process.

I remind you again of the trick that I mentioned at the beginning, and that is that the head is not attached to the body. This allows me to paint it separately with more precision and then finally glue it in its final position. It is not necessary, but on occasion this technique of painting things separately can be useful.

In these pieces that are painted separately, what is important is to always take into account the relationship of colors and lighting with respect to the rest of the miniature. Take it into account!

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I apply some reflections on the hair, and as in the case of metals, I take into account that the hair is a slightly shiny material. And that’s why I treat it like it’s some kind of metal, but not as reflective as armor. Again, I apply secondary reflections making a light texture based on lines that simulate hair, but as in the coat fur, it is not necessary to draw the hairs individually. Remember that when we paint we do not try to paint reality as it is, but rather we try to simulate and deceive the eye just as it happened with the NMM reflections.

Finally, I apply with a lighter color the main highlights located in the two upper volumes on each side of the hair part and in the open lock that accompanies the character’s gaze.

Of course, I also follow the same steps to paint the mustache. Instead, for the eyebrows, I just redraw them with a medium / dark brown that hints at them a bit.

On how to lighten the brown color of the hair to obtain these highlights, you can already imagine that I progressively added white and yellow to the base mixture, as I did with other browns, such as those of the leather straps. You see how it is not so difficult to work with broken hues!

The gaze is the mirror of the soul, and in the case of figures it is also what brings more personality and soul to our work. Note how the figure changes once the eyes are painted!

It is very difficult to document this step because of the small size of the eye and the complexity involved in photographing it at this scale. I will describe it to you in the following steps:

1st Give a layer of a dark brown all over the eyeball shown in the sculpture.

2nd Paint the “white of the eye”. This name leads to confusion because we should NOT paint it with white. You have to think that the eyeball is inside the eye socket and is a part that remains in shadow protected by the eyebrows and the forehead. This shade will make that white look naturally creamy, darker than pure white. So, again, with a light cream broken color, I will draw the eyeball with great care not to come out and blur the dark outline that should remain from the layer applied in step 1. Do not worry, because if that happens, you can always redraw a fine dark line and recover that dark outline that simulate eyelashes.

3rd Finally, I simply paint the iris with a dark dot. Notice that in addition, I have placed it a bit tilted

16 USING BROKEN HUES to the right so that it seems that Sir Kay is looking in that direction, which gives it a more natural air than if I draw them centered.

Finally, I only have to make a few color adjustments through the carnations. With reddish glazes I apply thin layers on the nose, lips and cheekbones in such a way as to suggest a greater blood supply due to the cold in these areas.As an almost final touch, I make some reflections with the cyan color of the rim light in the left shadow area, following the same principles that we saw in the corresponding section. Obviously now I do it only with the brush, again based on glazes, since applying air blending in that area can be complicated.

For the detail of the freehand of the doublet, I have little to explain, because it is based on my pulse and a sharp brush. Drawing these motifs give our figures extra detail, but you have to dedicate time and patience to them. My advice, I can tell you that to draw more fluidly, it is preferable to dilute the paint a little more, since although we may need several passes, it works better this way. Do not try to draw these motifs in a single stroke as it is much easier to make mistakes. Do not forget that it can also always be corrected, painting with the light cream color of the doublet to rectify unwanted lines.

The last brushstroke I gave was a correction of the temperature of the lights on the face and the doublet. After observing that I needed more light and that said light needed to be colder, I made lighter and colder versions (with more white and a little more blue) for each of these parts and applied it by means of glazes, so that these last brushstrokes did not were obvious.

After these corrections I was satisfied with the result, so I recommend that you do this in your process and that you do not finish anything until all the parts of your figure are in an almost final state. Sometimes these little touches here and there make the difference between a finished piece and a greatly finished figure.

Without further ado, I leave you here the final photos so that you can see all these details, and so you can judge for yourself the power of broken hues and the richness they can have, even when they may be considered dull or gray. I hope you have enjoyed this journey through the exciting world of intermediate tones since you can also find balance without resorting to the showiness that saturated colors usually offer us.

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19 ALL FIGURES OF Be one of the knights of the round table Defend Camelot with its guardians

22 Defend Camelot with its guardians

23 24 *Items available only on Bigchild Creatives’ Kickstarters campaigns.

25 PAPA JAMBO

26 WHERE HISTORY BECOMES EPIC

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