"The Colour of Darkness" - Mourngul / Hungering Darkness

The Hungering Darkness is a powerful spirit,

an ancient entity that spreads its

corrupting energies outward, 

flooding the physical world with a rush

of addictive magical energies called Brilliance.

PullMyFinger - Malifaux M2E Wiki

Happy Friday on The Art of Caesura!

Last week I talked about building Forgeworld's Mourgul as a stand-in for Malifaux's The Hungering Darkness. This week we'll look at the finished painted product! I would encourage you, if I may, for greatest viewing pleasure, please click on the photos to scroll through enlarged versions. 

I put heaps of thought into how I was going to paint this guy. I got a ton of inspiration from Mournguls that others had painted through the vastness of the interwebs. After painting my first Huggy D light larval colours that I felt worked well with his model, I knew I wanted to have one that was true to it's name: Darkness. 

I started with an all-over base coat of Steel Legion Drab and darkened it all down with multiple washes of watered down Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. Then I lightened it all back up by mixing in Ushabti Bone with good ol' painter's tears (Lahmian Medium). Because it's such a large model, I really had to take my time and use tons of thin layers. 

In art theory they talk about the importance of a spot colour in different parts of a painting / miniature that draws a viewer's gaze across the work (often in triangles). The triangle that I created here wasn't by using a colour, but rather a texture. The gloss varnish on the talons and maw of the monster draw one's 
eyes across the model in this way. 

In terms of the story behind how I painted this guy, I was originally going to have him super bloody. Blood all over his face, all over his hands up to just past the wrists (to better conceal the wrist join-lines). I actually had my pot of Blood for the Blood God open in front of me, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'd put too much care into highlighting every tendon of his hands and all that, so I'm going with the idea that this creature, The Hungering Darkness, is in a way, immaterial. His talons are magical (denoted by the gloss varnish) and able to ravish this poor horse, but he remains unaltered, maybe the blood passes right through him. Hence, forever hungering. 

Another thing I noticed while I was painting this guy is that even though he's unhinging his massive jaws as if in a terrifying shriek, If you look closely, his voice box and gullet are actually ripped out. Forever hungering silently. 

On to the horse. I don't know much about horses, but I knew I wanted to have a light coloured horse to contrast The Darkness. I looked up "Blonde Horse" and found this beaut:

I do not own this picture

Who I used as inspiration for the markings on the horse's face. With the colour of the body of the horse, I knew that if I made it too light I would run the risk of distracting the focal point away from The Hungering Darkness' mouth. So although the horse has many colours: the silver and bronze of the gattling gun, the blue of the saddle blanket, the stirrups, the red gore, I tried to do muted versions of these colours with liberal use of shades and very subtle highlights.

Thanks guys for tuning in this week and thank you for helping encourage me to paint a model a week through this blog. I feel like my painting has come on a ways even just since starting this blog. I'll leave you with a few more shots of The Hungering Darkness:

See you next week!


Listening: At Giza (2006) - Om
Watching: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) - Frank Oz
Reading: The Library of Babel (1941) - Jorge Luis Borges (A 5 page short story that'll blow your mind!)


Next Week
Consuming Columbus...