![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/6/11261556/1374361492.jpg)
For weeks I would dabble at this figure, painting some detail or another but not going anywhere with it. One weekend I used silver grey for the back of his cloak, which is made of some subterranean lizard's skin. Another weekend, I used purple for his ... skirt?... but then didn't know what to do next. I wanted a color scheme of purple and black, but what else to show the different layers? I thought of blue and yellow, so I mixed blue and black for a dark blue and inspiration struck. I decided that the overlapping plates are cobalt, the etymology of which traces back to kobold, a subterranean goblin... see what I did there? I used dark flesh for leather belts, which appear somewhat yellowish in this color scheme. I think it all holds together very well. I don't have any in-between pictures; when inspiration hit, I painted the figure in one sitting.
A final note - I've had a lot of trouble with painting eyes. The features are too small, even for my smallest brush and magnifying glass. I had some success doing the eyes on Kat, from my D&D heroes series, just by repainting around the edges of the pupils after I made a mess. The Archmage was almost done when I thought of eyes, so I didn't wish to redo the face. Notice that he has realistic-looking eyes, not smeared everywhere (well, realistic for a fantasy race whose eyes glow red due to use of infravision). I used a pushpin to put a single speck of red on... and the push pin shaft was still bigger than this feature. I'm glad it turned out because I had to guess that I was hitting the right spot.
The Archmage of the Underdark is part of a 2-piece set I'm doing, along with the Mistress of the Underdark which I am about to start. I cannot yet reveal what is special about them though...