From ByronM: Snow Lord's Peak Challenge: Kingdom Death Sunstalker (50 Points)

Well, the challenge was set by the Snowlord himself, to paint a Kingdom Death (KD) monster as a tribute submission.  I needed to get one ready for a pending game of KD anyway as we are nearing the end of a "People of the Sun" campaign and the fight with the Sunstalker is looming near!

I was also looking for an excuse to work with some new toys I got for the challenge and that I had not broken out yet, as everything I have been painting was for tabletop quality, not character or show quality.  So, overall a great challenge event as it filled two things I wanted to do anyway.

The official artwork and colours for the Sunstalker

First up the Sunstalker, in all his disgusting kingdom death obscenity and strangeness.  I really wanted to keep him similar to the official artwork as I have pretty much done my own thing with most of the monsters, so trying to match an existing scheme would be a different king of challenge, and one I think I came pretty close on.

My interpretation in paint of the artwork, I think it's pretty close.

"Once sky had no day. There was a Shadow that was sad, it could only play in the small light of a lantern. The Shadow found a hole in the sky and decided to steal enough lanterns to fill it. It took many generations, and when it was done the shadow slept under its big light, dreaming dreams about how it would play. When it awoke, all of the light was gone! At the center of the hole in the sky, was a tiny shining entity, with a great big mouth. The shadow named the tiny thing the sun and they played forever."

To paint the Sunstalker I started with the airbrush and put on the basic colours starting with the green, light tan, then brown.  I then went back and laid in some highlights and shadows, again with the airbrush to keep things smooth.

Once all the airbrushing was done,  I went in and stippled the skin all over using slightly different tones of each colour, partially to try my new brushes described below, and partially to break up the colours a little.   

Then to get some contrast added in, and to not ruin the smooth airbrush / stippling effect with a wash over the whole thing, I used washes to actually paint in all the crevasses, instead of as a wash. After that I went over each fold and crack and applied a few thin layers of highlights so that they are visible and add depth to the model.

I kept the rest fairly simple, with a little bit of highlights via dry brushing on the hands / hair.  Then the mouth and teeth and eye stalks.  All kept very simple at a technical level, but trying to do it very cleanly.  Oh, and of course his "tentacle" needed some pinky flesh tone.

The Sunstalker with some survivors for scale.

So, back to the new toys I bought that I wanted to play with.  At the start of every challenge I generally order a new set of brushes or two, as I tend to burn through a set over the challenge or over the year leading up to it.  Normally I buy Windsor & Newton series 7's (and I strongly suggest them as they seem to last forever compared to cheaper brushes.  Sure they are expensive, but they last 4-5 times longer for me than brushes that cost 1/2 as much, therefore they are definitely worth it to me) but I have been hearing about some other brushes that are supposed to be really good, so I decided to give them a shot.

They are from Artis Opus and come in some snazzy wooden boxes and are apparently equivalent to W&N 7's but cheaper.  I picked up a standard set of 000-2 and a set of dry brushing brushes to try out.  I have to say so far they are living up to the hype and are very nice to work with, especially the dry brushes which are a dream and don't leave a chalky finish due to how soft they are.

I can not say for sure how well they will hold up, as I just broke them out of the case and am just starting to break them in so they have seen very little use, but so far they function and flow paint almost exactly like W&N and are in fact cheaper.  I will let you guys know at the end of the challenge how they have held up, as that will be the real test!

I am completely out to lunch on what he should be scored for points wise, I am just happy to have him done.  He is fairly large at a little over 130mm tall and his identical hang over all sides of a 135mm round base, but then again he painted up super fast and easy due to most of the work being done with the airbrush.

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Wow. Putting aside the more than somewhat disturbing subject matter (this guys pretty much breaks the 'Creep-o-Meter'), one can't deny that your paintjob is absolutely stunning Byron. I'm really impressed with the fades and smooth transitions you achieved with your airbrushing, and the subsequent detail work with your new brushes is superb as well. What an amazing piece.

Due to the size of this model, I'm going to score it as the equivalent of a 28mm vehicle. 

Your prize for completing the challenge of Snow Lord's Peak is Greg's brilliant warp navigator, Espern Locarno.

Congratulations Byron, and well done!

-Curt