Originally posted by kittykat23uk
Hi all,

here's a little manticore that I'm currently working on while taking a break from Cang the improbable (who is very nearly finished and I need to just touch up a few areas here and there).

This little manticore turned out to be smaller than I had imagined and was a right little :horro: to put together! Lots of green stuff later and we have this. I started by working on his face, which, I realised I would need to paint in two stages, first the tongue and inside of the mouth needed to be done before I glued the lower jaw to the skull. Then I needed to fill the gaps around the head once I had attached that to the body:


P3308038 by kittykat23uk, on Flickr

I'm using some of my own photos of lions taken in Southern Africa for reference:


Lions by kittykat23uk, on Flickr

I used the following colours: Basecoat of VMC Desert Yellow (977) mixed with a bit of Khaki Grey (880). Shadows were blocked in with a bit of Burnt Unber (941).


P3308047 by kittykat23uk, on Flickr

The mane was painted using Saddle brown (940) and Orange brown (981), mixed with a bit of Desert yellow (I think, wasn't really keeping track too much) as a highlight.

Then I started to build up the fur on the body. Using the same technique as I used for fluffy wolfen, as per my tutorial here: http://www.kats-korner-uk.com/tutorial_wolfen1.html

But with lion fur being much shorter than wolf fur I tried to keep the effect more subtle by mixing in very similar shades. White was mixed in to desert yellow, Khaki grey and khaki for the underside and highlights and I added more orage as I got to the back of the lion's body.


P3308055 by kittykat23uk, on Flickr


P4028070 by kittykat23uk, on Flickr

Now I worked a bit more on the mane, going to give him a dark mane towards the base of the neck and also started working on the carapace and the leg "wings", trying to give the wings a leathery look and the carapace a shiny black appearance.


P4028076 by kittykat23uk, on Flickr

More to follow. Any thoughts, ideas comments welcome.