Tutorial: How to paint High Elf Seaguard from “Island of Blood”

After my Skaven tutorial last week, this time I give myself over to the other half of the “Island of Blood” box. Contrary to the other tutorial, my High Elf colour scheme focuses less on speed but more on clean layering and an unique palette. Almost every colour used has at least a hint of yellow with only a few and subtle contrasts like the purple shadows of the gold.

1. After assembling and texturing the base, prime the model with “Matt White” Colour Primer from The Army Painter. Paint the sand on the base with Calthan Brown, then overbrush heavily with Dheneb Stone and apply a generous wash of Gryphonne Sepia.

2. Paint the eye sockets with Chaos Black, then apply two small white dots in each side of the eye, leaving a black pupil in the middle. Clean up with Chaos Black then basecoat the face with Tallarn Flesh while leaving a thin black line around the eyes. Layer the skin with Elf Flesh and highlight with VGC Pale Flesh and P3 Menoth White Highlight [VGC Off White]. A detailed tutorial on how I paint faces can be found here, just change the colours accordingly.

Shade the white robes with Menoth White Highlight and hit the deepest recesses with VGC Pale Yellow afterwards.

Paint the metal with P3 Radiant Platinum, shade with VGC Glorious Gold [Shining Gold] and highlight with Mithril Silver.

3. Basecoat the wooden parts on bow and shield with P3 Guncorps Brown [Graveyard Earth], then layer P3 Menoth White Base [Bleached Bone] and highlight with Menoth White Highlight.

Paint the gold areas with P3 Glorious Gold, wash the recesses with thinned Leviathan Purple and highlight with Radiant Platinum.

Basecoat the rubies with a mix of Mechrite Red and Chaos Black, then highlight with Mechrite Red, Blood Red, Blazing Orange and Fiery Orange while concentrating on the lower half of the gem. Add a small white dot for the reflection in the upper left half.

Paint the wave patterns with VGC Wolf Grey [Space Wolves Grey], shade with thinned P3 Arcane Blue and highlight with P3 Morrow White [Skull White].

4. Paint the yellow areas with multiple thin coats of VGC Gold Yellow [Golden Yellow] until you get an even coverage. This may take some coats, so take your time and let each coat fully dry before you progress. Wash Gryphonne Sepia directly into the recesses and highlight with VGC Pale Yellow and Menoth White Highlight.

Paint the leather with P3 Beast Hide, wash with Devlan Mud then highlight with Beast Hide and P3 Jack Bone.

5. Paint the hair with Tausept Ochre then layer Menoth White Base. Wash with Gryphonne Sepia and highlight with Menoth White Base again.

Wash the feathers on the arrows with thinned Devlan Mud directly over the white primer and highlight with Morrow White.

Paint the trim of the base with Guncorps Brown and add some static grass. I used dead/winter gras from Gale Force 9.

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