A Song of ice and fire: large nightswatch commission

I've been working on this commission slowly and intermittently since last winter as i have had a big house move and some other bits to sort out in life. The commission is large and exciting and i have really enjoyed painting a unified and individual force. As with anything uniform (in this case rather asymetrically, being that not *everyone* is wearing a greay cloak) i had a good time working out the color scheme and the unifying elements. 

I had the most fun working on the deer rider, on this model i took my time to work some soft and gentle blends of brown to light brown/grey and i love the final effect, it's very naturalistic. 

Some of the troop choices featured a fair amount of colour variation, so i went with a "three-four colours rotation" and the final look is fantastic but most of the troops feature a grey and black pallete. There where so many troops i had the chance to experiment with different types of black, different ways of painting it and different ways of finishing it. As a final choice, once basing was complete i went through the whole collection and added a tiny bit of mud and dust kick up on every single cloak (and many of the shoes). This really ties them to the winter look and every one of the my housemates that i've shown have specifically noted "they love the snow on the capes". 

The heroes took a little longer and i really took my time to make sure each one stands out from the other. I also added a little more detailing on their bases so that they pop on the battlefield for the player. During the end of this commission i feel like i really mastered the snow effect of the bases that i've been devloping since the first valhallan order a few years ago. These days i've got the "mottled/ stepped in" snow down to a T. 

I will be posting high res images later today. I hope everyone enjoys them. 

​Arthur