On The Desk - The Nurse Part 3

As we continue towards Halloween it's time to continue with The Nurse! This week's target was the leather, there is a lot of it on the model, straps on the coat, strapping around the neck and foot and various cases around her waist.

As always I started with reference pics, there are a lot of different types of leather. I wanted it to look worn because she hardly looks like the type of person who'd be concerned about the state of her clothes! I base coated the leather with VMC Leather Brown. I didn't want all the leather to look the same though, so I mixed in different colours to different areas to add some variation. A little black to a few areas, some cream into some, red into others.

Next step I started glazing. I used Inktense Chestnut from Scale 75 (heavily watered down, it's very concentrated) I've not really played with this set yet, they're very strong inks that leave an area very glossy. I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. I also used VMC Smoke, this is a really interesting colour, it's almost ink like and works wonders on leather. Again I watered it down because it's quite strong, it's good at adding stains to areas.

Next it was time to start weathering the leather, I grabbed my stippling brush (just a worn out old brush cut down to short bristles) and started stippling lighter shades of brown onto areas that might get worn, mostly edges and other protruding areas. I took this all the way up to a light sandy colour.

I then went back over the areas with light glazes of VMC Smoke again to tie it together. I did some more careful stippling (this time with the tip of a fine brush) and then more glazes. This is really just a matter of trial and error until you get an effect you like. I'm mostly happy with the leather but there is not as much variation in the different areas that I'd hoped for at the start. I might go back in with some coloured glazes to try and change that at some point.

During the leather painting you can see I started putting some other details, particularly on the toys at the front. I painted the bear in one of the leather mixes I was stippling with, it was a nice natural colour and it's good to reuse colours on a miniature to add harmony. I then shaded the recesses with VMC Smoke. I also put some pale skin tones on the doll, more to do though.

Next week I'll be starting on the metals and continuing with other details.