Saint Celestine

Sisters of Battle special character

Ah, I've been wanting this model since the greens came out and she was named Candida... Which I hope was just a big joke rather than a daft mistake. I think she's the 40K version of Tyrion, in that she's a spectacular model that really has everything going for her and is just fabulous to look at. I kept the pallette fairly minimal, and left the cloak plain and the cherubs muted so that Celestine herself would be very much the focal point, a golden glow framed by red. I was considering giving the cloak some patterning on the back, but the red blend just looked so damned good.

And, joy of joys, I found a situation that would let me photograph red without the colours going all cruddy - perched on the stairwell under the skylight next to a white wall on a cloudy day with no other lighting whatsoever in the middle of the afternoon when the light is brightest. So, nothing too complicated then... I've found most artificial lighting I have does hideous things to red that I just can't correct because the contrast isn't there - it all looks much the same shade. It's still not perfect, but it's the best thing I've found so far. Which is good, because red is one of my favourite colours to paint (in it's various incarnations) so not being able to photograph it properly was quite vexing.

The red, the hair and the skin all have a large quantity of German Grey in the base - the skin is about half German Grey and Cork, highlighted with white. Makes for quite a good skintone without looking too necrotic. Eyelids and lips are the same shade at different strengths - the eyes much more diluted.

The base was my first use of cork-sheet - there are a few different thicknesses of it at one of the local art stores, one twice as thick and one half as thick as the one I used here. I quite like the way it paints up, although it looks a bit dodgy prior to painting. The gravel/sand on top makes it look a bit more integrated.