Thursdays Create Sea Monsters That Go "Moo!"

Do you remember this box of black, almost unidentifiable stuff?  Well, I plowed through much of it this afternoon. 

Today was a mopy kinda day.  The kind of day when you don't want to get out of bed, don't want to brush your teeth, don't want to get dressed...<<sigh>>.  My sea monsters did brighten my mood a bit.  Nothing like sea monsters to lift one's spirits.  As I said to my husband, Bob, early in the day, "The sea monster says "Moo".  He just gave me a strange look and shook his head.  Yep, day three and I'm certifiable.  Usually it takes a few weeks for me to start making the models talk.  I don't do well at home.

So, here's the beginnings of the sea monsters:

Sea Monster #1 

Deep Ocean

Base-coated with Dark Sea Green.  It's shiny cuz' it's wet.

Use the Green and Dark Sea at a 50/50 mix and dry-brush all over the model to help pick out the scales.

Then, I took Cel-Vinyl Green and mixed it 50/50 with the Dark Sea Green to make the stripes.  I diluted it a little with water just to make it flow better.  I also painted the belly.

Next, I highlighted the stripes with plain Cel-Vinyl Green.  I was pretty heavy handed with it.

 Between the last photo and this one below, I lost it.  This is about where the sea monster says "moo".  There are no photos of the steps.  To tell the truth there were no steps beyond this.  I kinda went bonkers and couldn't make up my mind and started mixing colors together.  Lets just say that the spaces between the green stripes are blue tinted and then the fins are the color of the sea and the spines are like bone.  I'll tell you the colors but I honestly can't say how I really got to where I got.  I was just fiddling.

These are all the colors that I used to create the effect on this model.  Seriously, all of them.  I mixed, I blended, I was a mad scientist.  The sea monster says "moo".

Okay.  So anyways, insanity aside.  Here's kinda what I did:
Green Stripes:

• Dark Sea Green - basecoat
• Dark Sea Green + Green 50/50 - dry brush all over.  Then dilute and make stripes.
• Green - highlight the stripes.
• Yellow Green - highlight the stripes again.
• Lemon Yellow - highlight the stripes yet again.  Do so very, very lightly.  You will eventually highlight over the blue with this also.

Blue Stripes (between):

• Dark Sea + Blue - highlight the Dark Sea basecoat.
• Blue - highlight, very lightly, over the above.
• Lemon Yellow - yes, very, very lightly dry-brush over.

Fins:

•  Dark Sea + White - dilute with water and drag from tip of fin to base but do not go to the scales.
• Dark Sea + White - increase the white, dry brush over the top of the fins.
• Dark Sea + White - increase again until almost white.  Dry brush the very tippy tops of the fins.

Eyes:

• Brass w/ Black dot.

Spines:

• Creamy Ivory - Use a small brush and from the top of the spine drag down toward the body.  Do not go onto the body, kinda make a jagged edge to the bottom where it would meet the body.  It gives an illusion that the horn is rounded.
• White - Starting at the top bring the color down, but do not meet the edge of the creamy ivory, leave some showing.  It makes the spine look like the top is all polished and nice but the base is fleshy and attached to the skin.  It also gives depth from a distance.

Water:

•  Dark Sea - basecoat.  For the highlights to the water, just keep adding white until the very top of the foam and around the body of the monster is white.

I based this sea monster after the typical Loch Ness, murky greens and blues for the deep ocean.  I don't usually do bright blue dragons or sea monsters because I find them unrealistic; yes, I feel the need to base my fantasy in reality.

Sea Monster #2

The Chinese Water Dragon or Koi  (you choose)  :-)

This is what I based my Sea Dragon / Sea Monster after.  I think he's a cute little guy.

Basecoat of Grayed Orange Yellow 12.

Then a highlight of White + Grayed Orange Yellow 12.  Do this heavy handed.

 Obviously there are some steps in between.  So, here it is:

Skin/Scales:

• Creamy Ivory - Atop the last highlight from the pic above, dry brush lightly.
• White -Final dry-brush, do so very lightly just to capture the tops of the scales.

Black Scales:

• Black - paint on (add water if you need better flow to make clean strokes) the black in arcs.
• Gray 25 - highlight the black, be a little heavy with the dry-brush.
• Gray 15 -very, very lightly dry-brush to capture the tops of the scales and make it look like it is glistening.

Belly:

• Wash with Ogryn Flesh, then wash the center with Devlan Mud.  Push the Ogryn Flesh up a little into the scales then, when it dries, go over those scales again with Creamy Ivory to catch the tops again. 

Eyes:

• Brass w/ black dot.

Water:

• Turquoise - basecoat.
• Turquoise + White - heavy highlight the waves.
• Light Turquoise (Model Color) - lightly highlight the waves.
• Light Turquoise + White - do so very lightly to catch the tops of the waves and stay close to the body of the sea monster where the water is most disturbed.  Finally, use straight white to dry-brush, very lightly the tippy tops of the waves and right up against the body.

I'm not usually fond of bright blue water.  However, I wanted the water to look exotic like a tropical island.  I felt that this sea monster looked as if he belonged in shallow water circling islands in the tropics.  He reminds me of a Koi fish and he looks like sand; the bright water accentuates him.

I was actually more productive than just these two monsters.  I also did a Nano-T-Rex and some other odd dinosaur.  I'll post those tomorrow.