Tutorial: Mushrooms

Mushrooms as Base Details
[Page 3 of 4]
Step Six: Painting
The first step is a "Bone Wash formula (courtesy of Jen Haley): Three parts medium brown (EX: GW Bestial Brown), One part black, thinned to milk consistency.bone wash." After dry, a tiny highlight of GW Bleached Bone (or Vallejo Pale Sand) is applied down the stem.

The caps are then painted with Vallejo Cadmium Maroon or GW Dark Flesh.
P
erhaps the first thing I should note before proceeding is that we're now breaking out of my usual painting routine. I don't normally paint the visual elements on the base first. These are usually done dead last. However, I've skipped ahead for the purposes of this tutorial.

Mushrooms come in a variety of colours (and shapes, for that matter). The sample one here in the step-by-step is amanita muscaria and has a bone-coloured stem, a bright red cap, and whitish spots. This combination of colours proves an excellent choice as it stands out on most common bases. There's no reason you shouldn't try other colours; I'll have some samples later on in the tutorial.

I've borrowed the "Bone Wash formula (courtesy of Jen Haley): Three parts medium brown (EX: GW Bestial Brown), One part black, thinned to milk consistency.bone wash" from the renowned Jen Haley. This is three parts brown (such as GW Bestial Brown or Vallejo US Field Drab) and one part black (such as GW Chaos Black) thinned down with Future Wax to a wash consistency. It comes in extraordinarily handy, and can be used for bone, parchment, and, of course, mushroom stems.
Step One: Cutting Pins
Mushrooms at this scale are small, so there's no need for tremendous efforts in highlighting -- it won't be that noticeable. A narrow ring of GW Red Gore (or Vallejo Red), leaving the center of the mushroom cap Cadmium Maroon, is followed by an even narrower ring of GW Blood Red along the edges of the cap.
The final step -- and the only truly tricky part of this entire process -- is the task of dotting small white spots along the cap. I find that pure white is a little too harsh for this and so resort to using GW Bleached Bone. Make sure you use a brush that has a very fine tip, though you could also try using a toothpick if you are unsure of your skills.

My favorite tool for detail work on this scale is my lovely 7650 Loew Cornell 18/0 Spotter brush. Even so, only a gentle touch is needed. If you want to get into hyper details, you can go so far as to make the dots slightly larger on the side tilted upward more -- this gives the illusion of highlighting despite merely being a size difference.
Last Step: Dot the Cap
Finished spotted mushrooms.
Congratulations, you just made your first amanita muscaria mushroom. Now all your miniatures can run amok in the fields of 'shrooms, happily trampling any Smurfs found therein.

Ah, but you want more. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. Besides, a red and white mushroom will just clash with some paint schemes. Okay! I hear you:
Alternate Colour Schemes
Scientific classification information and some imagery used for comparison from the University of Hawaii Botany program.
From left to right:

Suilius salmoncolour (gold): Vallejo Japan Uniform (or GW Snakebite Leather) washed over white all over, stems washed lightly at base with GW Dark Flesh, strong highlight of GW Bleached Bone along cap edges. No spots.

Amanita marmorata (white): Vallejo Japan Uniform wash over white all over. Both stems and caps highlighted heavily with GW Bleached Bone, followed by strong highlights of white. Few rough, uneven spots with GW Scorched Brown or Vallejo Burnt Umber.

Cortinarius clelandii (brown caps, white stems): "Bone wash" on stems with GW Dark Flesh base coat on caps. Highlight caps up to GW Graveyard Earth. Many, uneven and small spots all over with Vallejo Camo Black (or mix of GW Scorched Brown and black ink). Final highlight on edges of cap with Vallejo Japan Uniform.

What? You STILL want more...? Okay, then... there's always advanced mushrooms...


 
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