From mess to base...

Well, lots of stuff going on.  Among the many tasks under way are more of the Bark and Branch bases.

As usual, they are a mash of bark pieces, branches, oxide paste, mica flakes and gravel.

To paint all that, I brought out the more decimated craft brushes, which are like sacrificial filbert brushes!

I had some bark browns, blues and such for the initial layers...

Getting the mica flakes covered takes primer, as that surface is not very porous. 

You can see on the right what kind of colors are being used at this stage.  A mix of seafoam green and tan.

In typical shaded basecoat fashion, everything is lighter than it will eventually be.  I am trying to emphasize the cooler colors in the lights, so that I can use many layers of warm colored dark glazes.

This means I can get the two parts of the contrast triple crown... light vs dark, and warm vs cool.

I tossed out a few light colors at this stage, such as some pale yellow and pale flesh tones for the skulls and other accent points.

Coming up next, the glazing stage!!! Stay tuned.