It's the new year and I decided to indulge my fascination with painting flames for this post. Finding a nice model of a phoenix only encouraged me. Of course then, I was on a mission to find models that could be painted in different and what I hoped inspiring ways.
Below are descriptions and photos of the four figures I chose to paint, each illustrating a different style.
Classic:
What I am calling classic are your usual bright white, yellow, orange, red, and black flames (going from hottest to coolest). This Exalted Flamer is breathing flames painted in Pucker, Multi Pass, Redrum, and Black Ice.
Magic:
What would tabletop gaming be without the ability to show magic flames? Whether you want to believe that the blue flames in this Hill Giant Fire Pit are due to a sprinkling of the packets of chemicals that they sell online or to the magical incantations of some wizard, they were created with Bees Knees, Absinthe, and Curacao.
Volcanic:
The next case is perhaps stretching the idea of volcanic a bit as it does not represent the explosion of hot gases associated with a volcanic eruption, but is reminiscent of flowing molten lava. Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows has a skirt that is a great example of this type of "flame". I chose to do it in Redrum and Black Ice, though, now that I think of it, adding a touch of Molten Mantle for the homage if nothing else, might have been nice.
Mythical:
Last but not least the Phoenix. The flames in this model have a more or less classical look but with richer colors to honor the great mythical bird. I picked paints with more golden tones for this model, substituting Bees Knees for Pucker, Hot Commodity for Multi Pass, and Spicy Meatball for Redrum. The tips are still Black Ice. By the way, my college mascot was a maroon phoenix (an uninspired color for a phoenix). I like this one a lot better.
Conclusions:
In this blog I have tried to illustrate the use of several different Turbo Dork colors to paint fire. I used semi-random, short brushstrokes over the surface of the flames to achieve an overall look that I liked. Now it is up to you to play around and see what will make your fires burn brightly.