Gavin 'AllDayClassics'

<p>Hey guys, I&#39;ve gotten a few questions in the past about how I paint the eyes on my marines. I thought I would write this up in order to give a rundown on how I accomplish this. The way that paints and glazes are explained and applied in this tutorial should be taken as general guidelines rather than strict instructions. For example, sometimes I will find myself stippling the paint in areas rather than applying it with a brushstroke. If you are unfamiliar with what a glaze is, I recommend, checking out the glazing tutorials by Kujo Painting on youtube, as he does a far better job at explaining how to achieve this consistency than I will be able to.</p>

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Space Marine Green Lenses

Colors Used: Vallejo Model Color Black, Scale 75 Black Forrest Green, GW Flash Gitz Yellow, Scale 75 Inktense Yellow, and a heavy body acrylic white (any white will do, but I prefer heavy body acrylics whites due to how long they stay wet on the brush, even when loaded in small amounts).


Vallejo Model Color Black

SC-41 Scale 75 Scalecolor Black Forest Green

Citadel Flash Gitz Yellow

Scale 75 Scalecolor Inktense Yellow SC-86

Liquitex Acryl Ink Titanium White

I first create my color mixes for the eye. To do this, I take Scale 75 Black Forrest Green and mix it with progressively more Flash Gitz Yellow. Don't worry too much about exact amounts, but just take a couple large brush loads of green, and then mix in a brush load of yellow next to it to create the first color mix. Then add another brush load of yellow to this new mix, and repeat this process a couple more times. By the end you should have a color pallet that looks similar to this. For the sake of simplicity I have broken up the color mix into 5 different parts, and throughout part 2 of this tutorial I will be referring to these different parts as G1, G2, G3, G4, and G5 (as shown).


Tools used: Magnifier headset and your sharpest sable brush.




Paint in the eye using Vallejo Model Color Black, and then base coat with Black Forrest Green.


Using G2, layer the paint on about 75% of the eye, moving your brush strokes in the direction of the highlight. You will then repeat this same process using G3, but only on roughly 50% of the eye.


Thin down G2 to a thin glaze consistency and blend the transition between G3 and G2 from step 2. Repeat this process, but instead using G1 to blend the transition between G2 and the base color.


Using black, outline the area around the eye to frame the lens. Note: I actually do this after almost every step, to clean things up if my green/yellow mix spills over into the black area.


Vallejo Black Primer

Using G3, paint a thin line on the top and bottom of the lens. The bottom line should be a bit longer the top line, for the effect we are trying to achieve. Afterwards, use G4 to paint over the bottom line, covering roughly 50-75% of the line, with the brush stroke ending at the max highlight area. Repeat this same process using G5, but covering a smaller section of the bottom line. The top line should remain the G3 color.


Thin down G2 and G1 to smooth the transition between the lines you painted and your shadow color. Start by using G2 and moving your brush from the end of the lines towards the shadow color. Then use G1 to further smooth the transition if needed. Additionally, you can thin down G3 again and stipple it in the area between the lines in order to make the transition more gradual.


Using Inktense Yellow, I will glaze a very small area of the lens at the maximum highlight. You can follow the bottom line that you painted in step 5, but only cover about 25% of it while moving your brush stroke in the direction of the highlight.


Using white, paint a small dot on the top corner of the lens, and then edge highlight the rim of the armor below the lens. With those final touches, the lens is complete!


Tutorial

Space Marine Green Lenses

Tutorial steps archived

End of tutorial