One of the most fun schemes I have ever had the insanity to attempt (thanks a bunch Richard) is a very Japanese inspired theme on my Immortals from my brief stint with Skorne in 2019.
When I was offered the chance to write an insider about painting the Void Archon, I knew that I would want to paint it in a similar way to these guys, since the Void Archon is available in the Exalted theme force.
If you want to paint Cherry Blossoms like this, you will need:
A size 1 round brush (I recommend something with Kolinsky Sable hairs)
P3 Thornwood Green
P3 Murderous Magenta
P3 Menoth White Highlight
A model that you want to paint on
Step 1: Finish the Model
You should be applying freehand things like this at the very very end of your painting process. Get your highlighting, shading, and darklining/washing out of the way before you do the freehanding since it is almost impossible to go back and do those after applying the freehand.
Step 2: Tree Branches
When you paint, you usually want to start with the thing in the background and work forward so that you do not have to go back into the little spaces and correct stuff. In this case, we are going to use some thinned P3 Thornwood Green to create the wiggly uneven shapes of the cherry branches.
I try to make three distinct angles when I’m doing these with two peaks. Starting at the base, I tend to go upwards gently for a moment and then arc downwards before going back up again with the brush, using less pressure as you extend towards the tip. This makes the “trunk” of the tree.
Next, start a branch (or two) where the bends in the “trunk” are. This makes a nice realistic set of branches, and again, I like to use three different directions, lessening the pressure as I move towards the tip.
Step 3: Base Coat Flowers
We don’t really need to add any highlights or shading to the tree (unless you’re doing this on a much larger scale than this) because we are about to cover it up with a whole bunch of flowers. Using P3 Murderous Magenta, make clusters of 3 or 4 blotches in various places on the branches. Make sure some extend above the line of the branch, some below, and some that cover the branch itself.
Step 4: First Highlight
Mix a 50/50 batch of Murderous Magenta and Menoth White Highlight together and then make smaller blotches inside the original ones. Make sure you wait for the previous step to dry completely or else the two colors will sort of smear together. Note – this will be a lot more dramatic on a model than it is on the paper example since the paper is both more absorbent and close to the Menoth White Highlight color wise.
Step 5: Final Highlights
The last thing you want to do is mix about 80% Menoth White Highlight with 20% Murderous Magenta and do one last set of very small blotches on about half of the petals to give them some more extreme highlights. This gives the illusion of depth at a more tabletop distance. Same caveat about showing up better on a model than on paper!
Conclusion:
I hope this was a useful tutorial! I have really enjoyed using these little cherry branches on a number of different models at this point and it is always fun to play with them on the table and see the little army of tree branches waving at me.
Please let me know if the format could be improved or if there are any other things you would like to see in future articles. Thanks for reading!
