Dragon of Melnibone - The Wings

Head here to explore my other Green Dragon of Melnibone posts:
Green Dragon Part 1 - Green Scales

The Wings Part 5

In the Elric stories, the dragons have leathery wings. So, in a nod in that direction I want the wings to have an accent of golden leather.

The aim is to progressively lighten the central part of each wing section while increasingly changing the tone to a golden leather. The colour mixes are in the captions.

10/90 Matisse Permanent Green Light / Vallejo Khaki

20/80 Vallejo Khaki / GW Ogryn Camo

50/50 GW Ogryn Camo / Vallejo Buff

Not there yet, but it's a good start.

The Wings Part 4

The photographs in this next section show the progression of the highlights of the raised areas of the wings. For each of these stages I started with the same 60/40 Matisse Permanent Green Light / Matisse Alpine Green mix from last photo to which I added progressively more GW Ogryn Camo.

Light / Mid green / Ogryn Camo highlight

A tad more Ogryn Camo

Ogryn Camo
Above: In fact in this photo, I used almost pure Ogryn Camo. To be honest, this was a step too far, the effect looks too patchy. So...
Tamiya Clear green
Above: Time to blend the highlighted areas back a bit. Here I used a wash of Tamiya X-25 Clear Green.

Sap Green Ink Wash
Above: I thought the wings needed to be a bit darker, so I washed them with a 25% solution of Liquitex Sap Green Permanent ink. You can also see on the centre section of the right wing where I trialed the next step.

The Wings Part 3

In these steps I'm aiming to match the green of the wings with the green of the body scales.
Mid-dark green glaze
Above: Mid-dark green glaze with Matisse Background - Forest Green

Mid green glaze

Above: Mid green glaze with Matisse Alpine Green

Light green glaze

Above: Light green glaze with Matisse Permanent Green Light

60/40 Mid / Light green glaz

Above: I’m happy that the wings now match the body in tone, so now I want to add highlights to the distinctive raised areas of the wings. I used a 60/40 Matisse Permanent Green Light / Matisse Alpine Green.

If you like these posts, why not hit the follow button at the top of the page.

The Wings Part 2

This is simply painting the base coat of dark green (GW Caliban Green) followed by a wash of Nuln Oil to darken everything.

Caliban Green basecoat

I particularly want to make a shadow in the borders between the wings and the ‘fingers’. Hopefully this step will cover up any little mistakes in these areas.

Nuln Oil wash

The Wings Part 1

The original blue wings

The original blue wings certainly made for a striking contrast with the green body scales but they just didn’t tie it all together for me. So, it’s onto the last major painting step: green wings. I want the wings to have a base tone that matches the green scales but to then make the wings look a little more leathery.