In my opinion, to create a great fantasy figure, it is crucial to emphasise the overall 'concept' past the point of realism, and into the realm of hyper-reality. This is an important part of the way I think about painting, so I would like to take a few moments to explain it a little.

       In order to take the step up into real fantasy-style painting, I think one needs to let go of the intuition that a miniature should look 'realistic', and instead try to think along more 'artistic' lines: what mood or atmosphere am I trying to evoke with the figure, and how can I transmit this feeling to the viewer? This is where colour choice and balance, contrast and lighting, and groundwork (basing) start to play a more important role. If you can break the boundaries of what is possible in the real world and try to create something that goes further than reality – whether it be colouring, lighting or whatever – then I feel you can obtain a stronger, more focussed result, that creates a much clearer mood in the mind of the viewer. There is a place for realism, of course, and many people enjoy painting realistic pieces; I am just saying that for me personally, and the way I like to paint, a conceptual portrayal of a figure is much more important than a realistic portrayal.

       Let us take a quick look at the palette of colours I have chosen for Urmuth. My personal taste in colour means that I usually prefer a very balanced scheme of warm and cool colours on a miniature. Because of this, most of my colour schemes could be characterised as either triadic (using three colours equally spaced around the colour wheel), or split complementary (a set of analogous colours, 'split' from a basic key colour, counter-balanced by this key colour's complementary). Urmuth's scheme is an example of a split complementary scheme. See the picture below:

       You can see that the dominant warm colour I have chosen is a sort of golden yellow colour – you would probably describe this hue as yellow-orange. I knew from the start that I wanted to use this hue for the flesh areas of the figure, so I used this fact to help me make the rest of the colour choices. The yellow-orange has been balanced by its complementary hue, the purple-blue, and then by two other hues lying on either side – the red-purple and green-blue hues – creating a sort of 'peace sign' spread on the colour wheel...peace man, peace! So this spread between green-blue and red-purple makes up all of the cold portion of the colour scheme, and the yellow-orange provides a dramatic warm counter-balance.

       I also put thought into the distribution of cold and warm colours over a figure. I think it is nice to use the dichotomy between cold and warm to one's advantage, in order to break up different areas of a miniature by creating colour contrasts. I also think it is important to balance the opposing forces of warm and cold, so that the end result still presents a visually satisfying experience...I think this sort of effect is often subconscious in the viewer, but I have noticed that a visually balanced and well composed figure tends to be more successful and 'popular', even if the viewer cannot put their finger on the exact reasons.

       To illustrate this balance between cold and warm colours, I have made up a little comparison photo below. On the left, I have removed all of the warm colours, leaving only the cold; on the right, the opposite, only warm colours remain. This should make the spread and placement of the cold and warm colours more clear.

       In these photos, you can see the way in which the cold and warm colours are spread quite evenly, in a balanced way, over the figure. The lower section, from the straps around his stomach to the top of the boots, is predominantly cold, and this is why I have introduced elements such as the belt, staff of the axe, metal pendant etc. in warm colours, to 'break' the coldness and prevent it from becoming too dominant or overwhelming. Similarly, in the upper half of the figure, the cold elements are designed to break up the dominant warm colouring.

       It is also worth mentioning the special colour attention given to the main 'focus area' of the figure: the upper shoulders and head. In addition to using the cold versus warm principle, I have also intentionally increased the saturation of the colours here, to create a more violent contrast of colours. The extra brightness of the green-blue on the horns and necklace charm, the red-orange hair, the red-purple straps on the horns, red and yellow tints on the helmet, the dark colour of the chest strap against the light flesh of the shoulders, and extra colours nuances in the face, are designed to ensure that this area of the figure becomes the focus of attention. It is natural for the eye to be drawn to areas of greater contrast, so by employing colour in this way, we can direct the viewer's attention to the places we feel are most important.

       These are the sorts of issues I think about when designing a colour scheme, and making my colour choices when painting. Using colour contrast in these sorts of ways can help to make the detail of a figure more clear and 'readable' for the viewer, present areas of focus on the model in order to control the movement of the eye, and help to create a more pleasing result.