Doing something different / Pushing myself

This week I went ahead with a different sort of project: painting to a high standart and pushing my skills as a painter.

Pict 764: Silverhorn, Unicorn (WIP)

I picked a unicorn made by Reaper Miniatures they call Silverhorn. I decided on a unicorn early on to practice shading and highlighting on the larger areas but still paint a fantasy miniature and not just a horse. Nevertheless I spent quite some time looking at pictures of horses, especially eyes of horses... I also knew that I wanted to try and do a display base to frame the miniature and decided to go for a forested area.

Pict 765: Unicorn Display Base (WIP)

And that's how far I've gotten with the base for now. I'm pretty happy with the forest substrate - I wetblended three different browns, keeping everything darker towards what's going to be the back of the base. To pull it all back together I drybrushed some brighter colours and added spots of a green wash. The rocks look ok, but I think I will have to brighten them some more.
The trees however will have to get completely reworked. I want the rest of the base to be black which I hadn't considered when painting the trees. And now they don't stand out at all... I might just got for birch trees but I fear that this might not achive the framing effect I had in mind for the unicorn. And of course I will have to put on some greenery and model leaves!

Pict 766: Silverhorn, Unicorn (WIP)

Pict 767: Silverhorn, Unicorn (WIP)

The unicorn itself is also pretty far along. I wanted to use very limited amounts of washes since I usually depend on them rather heavily. I only used a wash on the longer hair like the mane and the tail. The main parts of the fur were done using many layers of very diluted paint. I'm pretty happy with the effect of highlights and texture I managed but I still want to deepen the shadows some more and after that I assume I will have to touch up the other blends a bit.