The elusive wash technique has never been easier than with the Lady of Corruption by Creature Caster. This technique could change your life!
Washing is a technique in which the thin paint becomes transparent over the surface applied and pools into recesses to become opaque and bring about shadows. The Lady of Corruption model from Creature Caster is perfect to show how washing and dry brushing will bring about amazing fleshy bat wings to add dynamic contrast to any model.
The Lady of Corruption was gloss varnished prior to this step. Army Painter Flesh Wash is mixed with Liquitex Acrylic Medium plus some Army Painter Strong Tone to create a very thin combination. The medium helps thin down the paint to prevent separation of the pigments. Water may cause separation of the pigments, so the medium is preferred in this particular setting. Quickly, the wash is applied all over the surface of the wing. Thick won’t be a problem since it’ll wick away from the surface as it is worked with, as long as the bubbles are worked out. The method of mixing the wash, plus the varnish, will help prevent the notorious “coffee stain” look from coming through. This wash tints the color slightly, in a very subtle fashion. On broader, flat surfaces, use the brush to work the solution to the recesses where the wash will settle. Let this step dry completely by clamping, this way the wash will completely pool in the desired direction.
Next, Army Painter Blue Tone is mixed with Army Painter Purple Tone, as well as Liquitex Acrylic Medium to make a new solution for the armor on the Lady. This wash is applied to lightly tint the color and pushed into the recesses. The gloss varnish used previously helps break up the surface tension and allows the wash to flow where we ant it to much easier. The washes used find each definition and detail, helping to give more contrast to the model itself.
After working up the skin tones (see Twitch VOD to see the workup from the live show), P3 paints Midlund Skin and Sanguine Highlight are mixed together and applied to the wings using the dry brush technique. The dry brush is applied in rapid-fire fashion and built up to get a leathery highlight on the wings. The dry brush will catch a lot of the detailed ridges on the wings, catching all the raised edges and bringing out a deeper leather feel. Sickly Skin is added to bring out more of a highlight with a medium pressure, super dry brush. If you feel there is too much buildup on the ridges, there is a solution.
Sanguine Highlight is added to the airbrush and thinned down to almost a glazing consistency. This solution is aimed to the recesses. The Sanguine Highlight brings in definition and helps thin out some of the “overbrush” from previous steps. The additional redness gives the wings a more fleshy look, since bat wings are flesh stretched over bone. Finally, Vallejo’s Blue Violet is added to the spikes on the wings as a place holder, to see how everything interacts together.
The Lady of Corruption looks more alive than ever with these fantastic techniques. Be sure to take a look at the rest of the model and tutorials on her via Twitch. To check out the entire tutorial, press play on the video below.
About the Author: Drago
