Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus - Part 2

Darl Elves sorceress riding Dark Pegasus

A further victim of a busy year. I had hoped to finish the final article about painting my Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus earlier. But as mentioned before, my real life required to reduce my spare time in 2021 and my hobby activities and this blog was the first thing I had to silence down. Consequently, I was not able to finish many articles in the last six months. However, things have become better and since a couple of weeks I am back. Time to finish some negelted articles and update some series. The first will be creating my banner for my Dark Elves Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus which I did around one year ago. If you missed the first part of this article, please check this Link here.

The Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus was already painted in January/February 2020. The only parts missing were her banner pole and the banner itself. I took a smal break from the miniature and finished my Dark Elves Warrior Command Crew. With its Standard Bearer I get some additional experience creating the paper banner and thought I was ready for the one of the sorceress. I started designing and painting her banner in the end of March 2020. But my firsdt approach failed and lost the motivation. I concentrated on my unreleased Dar Elves sorceress and Dark Elves Dark Riders instead. With finishing the Dark riders banner I got new motivation and returned to the Sorceress banner end of October 2020. After revision and optimaization of the sketch I painted and finished the Banner. The result was already visible in the picture of my Army Shot in the beginning of 2021. Read here now the detailed story of designing and creating the Banner and see the final pictures of the Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus.

Preliminary Considerations  

From White Dwarf #190

The original Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus came in a box released in White Dwarf #190 in September 1995. Beside the miniature the box also contained a self-adhesive banner which was probably designed by Alan Merrett and painted by Neil Hodgson as most of the Dark Elves shield and banner icons. While I like the majority of these banners a lot, the one from this Sorceress is the weakest in my opinion. I assume the old looking hairy skull should show a stylised hag before blood night. However, I think the icon did not fit for a sorceress and hair and stylised snake ending horns somehow look weird. On the other side the general idea of the skull looking at the brogen heart is nice. But, the banner miss the clarity of the rest of the banner range. Having in mind the parts I like on them I decided to adapt the parts I disliked and design a new version of it, fitting to the banner range. 

Dark Elves Battle Standard

For that I used the Medusa showing Battle Standard. This design became the banner of Ghrond and therefore the banner of the home of the Dark Elves Sorceresses later in Games Workshops Dark Elves history. This made it the perfect icon for a Sorceress. I took the idea of the skulled Medusa head and the original banner design from the Sorceress riding Dark Pegasus and sketched a new banner icon containing the ideas and designs I liked. I started with some simple pen sketches I did during my lunch breaks. After I got a feeling for the otiginal skull design from the Sorceress banner I added the snake hair and the horns from the medusa design. After I had a rough idea of the arrangement I painted one version into the original banner frame.

       

First sketches of the banner design ideas

 

I scanned that version and used photoshop to mirror the icon into the other side of the banner frame.

 

Using of Photoshop to mirror the design

 

This version was printed in a very light grey tones.

Very light print of the banner and its design used for painting

I cut out the banner design carefully and used it for a first try to paint it.

Banner ready for painting

 

 

First Approach

For the painting I cut out the banner as I did with my latest one for the Dark Elves Warriors and started adding colour. Unfortunately, I quickly ran into problems. The paper starts twisting and the colour application became very speckled. What was wrong? It was a different kind of paper I used here. In my previous version I used thicker very qualitative paper with a weight of 100 g because the banner was a one sided hanging banner with straps. The banner here was a double sided one. For that I used thinner standard paper as the banner will get thicker when glueing both sides together. That was the reason it was less stable against twisting. In addition the surface quickly absorbed the water from the colour leading to speckles.

First try and first fail to paint this version of the banner

Probably, with some patience I would be able to save the banner as adding more an more colour would seal the surface and stop further twisting. Moistering the backside and puting it between a thick book for a couple of days would bend it even. But when posting the work in progress banner into my painting group I got some serious critic for the design itself which makes me start thinking to start from scratch. This critic said the snakes of the Medusa head should look into the direction of the heart. It was quickly clear that this would change the whole quality of the banner, as this would increase the interaction between the elements and tell a more comprehensive story.
 

Revision of the Sketch and Final Version

After a couple of days thinking about the needed modifications I gave them a try and used photoshop to rearrange the head position. The new view direction worked fine but the empty space between head and fram further increased. Further modifications were necesarry to make this look good. Therefore, I filled the space with more snake hair and covered that neck part.  

Revised banner design with rearranged head and additional snake hair

 The final design worked well. However, the latest bad experience in banner painting were still in my head. Therefore, I lost my motivation to continue working on this version and put it asaide. It needed a couple of months and some more experience on creating and painting banners to start from scratch. That point was reached after I sucessfully painted my Dark Elves Black Riders Banner. Highly motivated and armed with some new techniques I started that banner anew. 

The Banner was a joy to paint and I had a very fast progress on it. In just one Session I painted a first rough version of the right side. The result looked good but it became clear that the empty space where the shoulder and neck would be situated still looked confusing. Again I used the Battle Standard as reference an added the red shoulder armour from the original design.

The additional element worked fine and served its purpose. However, because the black backgound was already painted on the right side, it became slightly darker on this side of the banner. Having everything together and working now I finsihed the whole banner by doing a lot of detail work in the final steps.

Finally, I compared my final version with my first try and was very happy how my skills developed during that year. That Banner was really a great design and I can´t wait to add it to the Sorceress banner pole.

Comparison of my final banner with the first approach

Final Pictures

As always I cut ou the banner and used PVA glue to add it to the banner pole. Still wet from the glue I bent it in waves to add some dynamic. After the banner had dryed for a day I added the golden edge and some additonal shading to the banner to adapt it to the light situation. Finally, I added some damage in the rear lower corner to give it a bit used look.

Then it was time to add the banner pole to the Sorceress. Carefully, I glued the pole to the backrest. For that I did not used the original knob because this does not fit without bending the banner pole. Instead I glued it on top allowing me to put the banner straight on the backrest without damaging the pole. After everything was done I sat a long time in front of this iconic miniature and starred at what I had created. The result impressed me very much and the miniature was the centerpoint of my Dark Elves Army. She look like a true Herohammer representative of her age, but judge yourself.  

 

This miniature really had a long journey. I still remember that the first one I painted back in 1998 became a victim of black undercoat instead of vanish. A fatal failure and thorn in my side leading to a bath of aceton a couple of years later. But instead of a new painting she was abandoned in a black box of 5th Edition miniatures. The try to make her a center piece of my 6th Edition army failed and she never was finished. I am more than happy that this shame is deleted in my long list of fails. Now she is having her deserved place in my cabinet leading an army of respectable Dark Elves.

I hope you like the final result as well. As always let me know what you think in the comments.

All the Best,
GeOrc