Painting Blood

[Emerald Rose Widow]

So I am almost done painting My trygon, but its missing something major. I need its scything talons and various other spikey bits to be bloody and messy. I have no idea how to do this though, and I don't wanna try just to have to repaint the scything talons. I want Trygey to look good.

[isotope99]

These aren't the best photos but the way I do it is to build up layers from:

Dark red + Dark brown + blood red
Medium red + lighter brown + blood red
Highlights of blood red
Shaded down with brown+red wash
optional gloss varnish if you want it to look wet

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/572/DSC030701.JPG

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/photopost/data/572/DSC03095.JPG

[Emerald Rose Widow]

Thank you very much

[fuzzbuket]

i found some bright glossy red by revel that works fantastically! also a dryed up brush can make nice streaky gore marks!

[Emerald Rose Widow]

i found some bright glossy red by revel that works fantastically! also a dryed up brush can make nice streaky gore marks!

At this point I am just looking to make the scything talons on my trygey to be all bloody, to add that finishing touch that seems to be missing. I like the suggestions above and I will be trying them out shortly.

[Tynskel]

I use 'scab red' or an appropriately dark red.
Wash in 'blood red', or a brightly colored red.
Then wash in black.

You end up with a scabby, crusty, dried blood appearance.

[inquisitorsog]

For more venous blood, I like to add one small drop of dark green to about 20 of whatever red I use.

For drying/dried blood I lately go about 1/2 red gore, 1/2 brown ink of whatever sort is handiest and a drop of green ink. I usually alter the ratios slightly from model to model b/c the blood shouldn't look uniform IMO.

[DrLove42]

Important thing to remember....Blood is NEVER bright red. Not really.

Even when fresh its quite a dark red

Within an short period of time it becomes a brown/red

[greenstuff777]

Tamiya Red with a little black ink from reaper i found is the best way to get uber realistic blood. I am currently painting lots of intestines and that look very good

[ElectricPaladin]

What I'm going for is bloodstains from past battles, with a little fresh blood from this battle on top of that. I'm also going for a slightly cartoonish "this thing is 'heroic scale' so let's paint it that way" feel - not over the top, but also not entirely realistic. Here's what I do.

For me, the bloodstain process begins at the end of the highlighting process. I start with a roughly equal mix of brown and bright red and splatter it across the effected parts of the minis. The best way I've found to get a good, gory splatter effect is to hold the mini about an inch away from a brush that's completely loaded with red-and-brown paint, then blow sharp, hard puffs of air at the brush. The paint goes flying. It looks quite realistic. This paint dries to an uneven red-brown scabby look. It's important to note that you actually don't want to get a perfectly even mix of red and brown each time. You want some stains to be more brown, others to be more red.

Then, after I've finished the mini, I add a little Tamiya Clear Red (basically a high-gloss translucent red) on top of the red-brown splatters, representing those areas that were bloody in some previous battle and just got bloody again. Since I finish my minis matte (thank you Testor's Dullcote!), the shiny red really pops.

As I wrote, the overall effect is of a creature who is covered in the stains of past conflicts, as well as a few fresh bloodstains. I'll post some pictures later, but fair warning - they're actually Hordes beasties.

My only foundational advice when it comes to bloodstains is that you should consider bloodstains a part of your color scheme. Oh, sure, there's no reason that creatures of any color couldn't get covered in blood, but honestly, your army will look better if you work the bloodstains in from the beginning. Red, brown, or other earth-tone Tyranids with bloodstains will not pop. Blue Tyranids with bloodstains could be striking, but getting the stains to show up will be a pain in the butt. If the basic 'nid has too many colors, the stains will just make the models look busy. My Everblight have Fortress Gray skin, Bleached Bone chitin (washed with Devlan Mud to bring out the texture) and bloodstains, and it seems to work... but as I wrote earlier, I'll post some pics when I get home and you can be the judge.

EDIT: Wait, actually...

This guy hasn't received the Tamiya Clear Red layer yet, but it should still give you a good idea of what I'm going for:

http://losthemisphere.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/mark.jpg

[Emerald Rose Widow]

Yeah, I really fear that my trygon will just blend with all the other reds if I bloody its teeth and claws and such. As it is though my miniature seems to be missing something, its just too clean for me and I do not know what to do to rectify it. I will post my trygon pic as example so you guys can see what I mean. Look at all the off white aged bone talons, and while I like that additional pop of colour, it still seems to be missing something, its too clean.

[ElectricPaladin]

Yeah, I really fear that my trygon will just blend with all the other reds...

Yeah... with the colors you've got going on, I'd resist the urge to go heavy with bloodstains. I'd just add a little splattering to your bony bits (teeth, claws, scythes) and a few dabs of clear red on top of them. It will make for a very red Tyranid army, if you're careful not to overdo it, it should still look cool.

[Emerald Rose Widow]

Yeah... with the colors you've got going on, I'd resist the urge to go heavy with bloodstains. I'd just add a little splattering to your bony bits (teeth, claws, scythes) and a few dabs of clear red on top of them. It will make for a very red Tyranid army, if you're careful not to overdo it, it should still look cool.

Thats what I was thinking, just hit the talons and bony bits to make it look like fresh blood from battle, and then go from there. Considering that tyranids get absorbed back into the hive after a planet is cleared, it wouldn't make sense to have dried crusty old blood, likely those organisms wouldn't live that long.