Painting Shadowfey: The Titan Skull

The Titan Skull Cave is an impressive terrain piece of terrain; with a large, smooth surface like this, drybrushing isn’t always the best technique. In this example, we’ll be using stippling! It’s a great way to easily blend colors together and achieve a natural look without the streaking that can sometimes occur with drybrushing.

To stipple, it is best to use a brush with a rough tip like a dry brush or an old, wrecked paintbrush (we all have them!). With paint on your brush, you want to dab off some of the paint on a piece of paper towel until you are happy with the dappled effect. Then just simply dab away at your miniature for the desired effect. The more paint on your brush the more color will go onto the model but also the effect will be less dappled.

So onto our Titan Skull!

Step 1) We began with an undercoat spray of Leather Brown, the wash in the crevasses with Agrax Earthshade.

Step 3) Now the stippling begins!

Get out some Khaki Brown and stipple over the majority of the skull. You’ll notice it doesnt give a clean coverage of color which is want we want! Leave the Leather Brown and Agrax Earthshade in the recesses. On the more raised areas of the skull stipple a bit heavier. Either with more paint on your brush or by dabbing at it more (or both!).

Once you’ve got the hang of it move up a tone to Morghast Bone and concentrate on the more raised areas of the skull. Continue this process with Ushabti Bone the finally Mummy Robes just on the very tops of the highest parts of the bones.

Step 3) With the main part of the skull done, apply some Cygor Brown to the eye sockets and nostrils to darken them. Next for the teeth start with a basecoat of Rhinox Hide. For each successive layer of the teeth paint the top 2/3 of that color over the previous one, working towards the base of the tooth. So we start with Doombull Brown, Scrag Brown, Deathclaw Brown then finally some small spots of Ushabti Bone.

With that, the mighty Titan Skull is complete!

Stippling is a bit more time-consuming than Drybrushing but we think it’s worth it! If you need to tidy up any of your stippling we recommend going back with Khaki Brown to touch it up. Going back with a mid-tone is a quick and easy way to fix up mistakes.

If you have any questions about this guide or want to share your work then please get in touch!

Paints Used:

Army Painter Leather Brown Spray

Citadel Agrax Earthshade

Vallejo Khaki Brown

Citadel Ushabti Bone

Army Painter Mummy Robes

Citadel Crygor Brown

Citadel Rhinox Hide

Citadel Doombull Brown

Citadel Scrag Brown

Citadel Deathclaw Brown