Painting Wood Grain, Hussar style

~Painting Wood Grain~

Hussar style.

Well, hello everyone ^^

And welcome to a new, short guide of mine. I've recently discovered a way to paint some quite nice looking wood and thought i'd it with you. I've had troubles painting wood grain for about 2 years now, checking guide from guide, but never really getting it. The thing that was the most trouble for me was the ACTUAL painting of the grains. I mean, how do wood look? Well, let's put it like this, looking at pictures of it didn't help me at all. I say this: Throw reality out the window and just paint something that looks like wood, for starters, at least.

But how do we get going then?
Let me show you.


Materials needed:

GW Dark Flesh
GW Scorched Brown
GW Bleached Bone
GW Gryphone Sepia Wash
GW Ogryn Flesh Wash
GW Fine Detail brush
GW Standard brush
Water
Some kind of varnish (I use Satin on it and then gloss the wood up with Gloss Varnish)

Painting:

Well, the basis is quite simple. Start of with simply basecoating the area of wood in Dark Flesh. I apply about 2 layers of it thinned down in a 2:1 Colour:Water ratio to get a smooth cover. Then, take your Scorched Brown, water it down to the same ratio as the Dark Flesh and start painting the grains. If you look at the picture you'll see there are two examples. First one with some more bent lines, while the other has more straight ones. Now, which one do you prefer? I myself find the one with bent lines looks the most natural. I find a good way to start getting a through for how it whould look is to imagine yourself a big series of rings, that only overlap your model. In this way, we pick a part of it, usually around where the lines are somewhat straight and then just start painting that in. Add some twig parts in a way you fancy, but try to keep them a bit spread :)

Now it's time to start getting some highlights in! Grab yourself a mix of Dark Flesh + Bleached Bone + Water, 2:1:1.And start highlighting it somewhat incoherently. This is hard to show in paint photos, but if you look at the example at the top, you'll see where i'm going. Once this is done, mix in some more Bleached Bone so you're around 1:1:1 ratio, and then highlight again at a 1:2:2 ratio. Now, once this is done, you might see that you've meseed up the original grains a bit. Don't worry, grab your Scorched Brown, mix it in a 2:1 Paint:Water ratio and have a go at re-defining thoose lines again! Once that's done, take some Chaos Black and mix it in so you have a 1:1:2 of Chaos Black:Scorched Brown:Water mix. Use this to add in twig holes, and at a few places in the grains, just a bit incoherently. Here's a place where you can make colours pop. The fact that the grain gets darker at a place makes the base-colour look more interesting at that place. Quick rundown of how it can look:

Now we've come to the final part. Once it's all dry, grab your Gryphone Sepia and wash it. Put on a nice layer so it's all good and covered. Then, take your Ogryn Flesh and ad dabs of it into the STILL WET Gryphone Sepia. Theese will add areas to the wood that gives it a bit of a colour change and makes it look more alive.Also, thoose highlights that looked just a bit to bright? Well, now they're not. Once this is dry, you're kinda done! For me, that uses laquered wood on my tanks, the nest step is to simply Gloss Varnish it. Gives it a nice luxurious finish if you ask me

Here's the short rundown of the painting process:
Dark Flesh + Water, 2:1. Basecoat.
Scorched Brown + Water, 2:1. Paint grains.
Dark Flesh + Bleached Bone + Water, 2:1:1. Highlight base colour "incoherently".
Dark Flesh + Bleached Bone + Water, 1:1:1. Repeat.
Dark Flesh + Bleached Bone + Water, 1:2:2. Repeat.
Scorched Brown + Water, 2:1. Re-define grains.
Scorched Brown + Chaos Black + Water, 1:1:1. Paint in twig-holes and "randomly" in grains.
Gryphone Sepia. Wash whole.
AND
Ogryn Flesh. Apply droplets directly while still wet.

So, what are you waiting for? Get to it! ^^

Lux et Veritas, the Firstborn shall Deliver.