harlequins help plz

[mark.k]

ive just got a set of harleguins all undercoated how do ppl map out the diamonds on the legs and arms i got myself a 0000cotman 3 brush to try and map then out and was going to use ink to do the fine lines
and are there any other patterns which are easyer to do

 

[OrkyDave]

Darren Latham from \'eavy metal (he\'s on here registered as Razza) gave us a great tip on the diamond patterns when he painted his.

Start with a central area on the bit you want to paint the diamonds on and paint your first diamond by itself. Then do the one above it, then the one below, and keep going till you have a line of diamonds.

When this is done, using the same colour paint another line of diamonds next to the one just done. This will leave a gap between your two diamond lines which will be the bit you fill in with another colour to make the checkered diamond pattern.

I didn\'t use this method when I painted my death jester, I painted a grid first and ti was really difficult to do!

 

[darklord]

i tried the individual diamond way first but ended up doing a grid as well. the tricky bit is round folds on arms etc getting it to match all way round. just have patience, you can always adjust them when you have the inital settting out done

 

[DaN]

The thing with harlequins is that the patterns aren\'t necessarily over the whole figure (Thank God!)

So try it out on some small areas before you try it somewhere else.

Also - keep to easy areas too, without having to worry about following cloth folds etc

 

[Thunderhawker]

The thing to remember with harlies is that you aren\'t limited to only diamond patterns. The thing is their attire constantly shifts and changes, so you could do some fairly elaborate freehand as well, or even simple activities like stripes or even (gasp) polka dots, though i would personally not use them. Something about Dusty Rhodes in the late 80s ruined them for me.

 

[mark.k]

thank you all for the tips

 

[uglyamericanV1.5]

idea

i thought about...instead of diamonds, have \"swirls\". like on the legs have a light color on one leg with a random pattern of swirls using a light color....then on the other leg, flip the color scheme....with more swirls...like old gothic wood cuttings, or just very elagent patterns.....

then you cant \"mess it up\" because you are just making a free pattern...

dunno, but that is what im going to do (besides i dont want to just do the same thing everyone else has done).

 

[Pishkin]

When I painted my harlys I used the individual diamond technique, I actually found that it fits into folds in cloth and around arms much easier because you can fudge it a bit. Having also used the grid technique extensively (on parts of a Bretonnian army... still haven\'t finished the other parts yet... ) I find it easier to control the individual diamonds than the lines. I had trouble getting a consistent line width, as the amount of paint on my brush varied. When I went to paint alternate colours in the grid the darker colour (which I had used to make the grid) inevitably took over. Because I was doing my harlys in (shades of) black and white, with the black being consistent and the white having diamonds on it I wanted the white diamonds to be stronger than the black diamonds. With this in mind I painted black diamonds onto a white ground. If I blobbed a diamond I was able to go over it with white to sharpen the corners.