"The Assassin" - Dishonoured's Corvo

It’s a funny thing, ambition. 
It can take one to sublime heights 
or harrowing depths. And sometimes 
they are one and the same.

– Emily Kaldwin, Dishonored


Hello residents of Dunwall, I mean readers of The Art of Caesura!

After Scorpion last week, we're continuing with another video game-inspired mini. A few weeks ago I beat Dishonored, the video game. I know, I know, it's only been out for eight years, but anyway I only got to it now. I really really loved it. I loved the steampunk atmosphere where the world runs on whale oil and you can literally see ships bringing the poor creatures in to be processed...The art direction (stylized) means that graphically, the game has aged very well too. 

Anyway, this post isn't a review of the game, but rather about an interesting miniature that I recently bought. The main character of Dishonored is an assassin named Corvo. If Ezio (from Assassin's Creed) existed in the Bioshock universe, you would have Corvo. For those only tangentially aware of the game, he's the guy with the cool metal skull mask on the box art. When I found a miniature of Corvo at Artel W. Miniatures I jumped at the opportunity!

After Cherubael, this is my second Artel W. mini. I really love their minis and like how they design them to fit different IPs. On this one, for example, he came with some alternate parts so that you could change the bone charm on his chest for a 40k Inquisitor's Rosette and his crossbow for a holstered futuristic gun. 

Oh man, just looking at the bare model above makes me want to paint him all over again! 

I started by finding a nice illustration online for reference: 

Credit: tatianavetrova.com

Anyway, such was my enthusiasm for this model, that I just launched in without mixing up any new colours. I painted his clothes The Fang and all his leather elements Doombull Brown.

After that, his skin was Cadian Fleshtone, shirt White Scar and metal Runefang Steel and then coated the sword hilt with Contrast Snakebite Leather. The bone charms were Ushabti Bone. 

Look how dynamic this model is! He reminds me of the Malifaux Death Marshals. 

For the shades, in an attempt to desaturate the model (or, more accurately, lower its chroma), I coated the whole thing (minus his hands) with Nuln Oil, the hands received a diluted Reikland Fleshshade wash. 

I then started working on the base while waiting for the shades to dry.

As with all my bases, I didn't want this one to detract too much from the model. I kept the majority of the base a neutral grey (Abaddon Black with multple dry-brushings with more White Scar added), and made the recessed bricks...brick coloured (Mephiston Red + Steel Legion Drab) as they appear in the game. 

The clock face is the same muted gold that appears on Corvo's trim (Retributor Armour followed by a heavy wash of Nuln Oil). 

The final detail that appears on the base is my favourite: the little rat! Rats feature heavily in the game (both atmospherically and gameplay-wise). They are often obstacles to be overcome, and appear more frequently the more people you choose to kill rather than subdue by less violent means. In Dishonoured, the white rats however are your friends - you can possess them to scamper to areas you couldn't otherwise reach and even eat them for health...gulp!

So I decided to paint this little rat like one of the good'uns: White Scar fur, Cadian Fleshtone tail all coated in Nuln Oil (with the rest of the base) and then gently re-highlighted with the base colours to keep him dingy looking. 

By the time I finished the base, the shades on Corvo himself were dry so I went back to start on his highlights. 

As a general rule, from the shade layer, I typically start the first layer of highlight with a diluted (with lahmian medium) version of the original base colour. On sharper surfaces (hard leather) I dilute the paint less and on softer surfaces (cloth) I dilute the paint more - to a glaze consistency (the consistency of milk). 

Glazes are something that I am still getting better at all the time, but something that really helped was when I got the idea to start with a blob of Lahmian Medium on my palette (administered by the 'other' end of my brush) and then add a tiny amount of paint to this rather than the other way around. For some reason doing it like this really helped me get my head around the glaze consistency thing. 

As another general rule, when I'm highlighting, if I want to keep the original colour vibrant, I use a lighter version of the colour if it is in the cold spectrum, or a bit of yellow if it is in the warm spectrum. 

I'm going to interject myself here just to say that I am planning to do a few posts on art and colour theory (subjects that I really enjoy) so don't worry if some of this is a little bit dense for right now. 

Anyway, if I want to highlight a model and make it look more dingy/gritty/"realistic" (this is typically my preference) then rather than highlighting with a brighter version of the colour (or yellow), I highlight with white. This pushes the highlights more towards grey - muting the overall effect.

So, for this guy, I took the latter approach, I started by highlighting his robes with diluted The Fang and built up thin layers slowly adding slightly more white for each layer. 

I continued with this process - applying the first highlight of each colour - by simply using a diluted version of the original base colour. Because the base colours were all darkened by the Nuln Oil, this provided a sufficient first highlight. 

The gold trim was just highlighted with Retributor Armour and metal bits with Runefang Steel. 

I'll end with a few more shot of this awesome model:

Please let me know what you think of Corvo. I'm really happy with him, he came together nicely in a quick burst of enthusiasm.

I'll see you next week right here on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: Kal Jericho Omnibus - Various

Watching: Baldur's Gate III gameplay

Gaming: Pillars of Eternity

Next Week:

The changing of the guard...