How to Paint Emerald Fabric

Hello hobby friends!

Welcome to another step-by-step painting tutorial from Ulverbite Miniatures. In this guide, I’ll show you how I painted the rich emerald fabric on my Sorcerer Kings Rajakur from Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings.

This approach uses warm reddish shadows to create contrast against the emerald green, followed by pastel highlights and a turquoise glaze to bring back some of the saturation. The result is a vibrant green fabric with deep shadows and bright, defined highlights.

Paints Needed:

• Primer: Citadel Zandri Dust + Grey Seer

• Base: AK Interactive Emerald

• Shadows: AK Interactive Emerald + Dirty Red

• Highlights: AK Interactive Pastel Green

• Saturation Glaze: Citadel Contrast Terradon Turquoise

• Final Highlights: AK Interactive Pastel Green + White

Step-by-Step Process:

1. Zenithal Prime: Start with Zandri Dust, followed by Grey Seer sprayed from approximately a 45-degree angle. This creates a lighter upper surface while leaving the warmer Zandri Dust visible in the areas facing away from the light.

2. Basecoat: Apply AK Interactive Emerald across the entire fabric area. Build the colour in thin, even layers until you have a smooth and solid base.

3. Build the Shadows: Mix Emerald and Dirty Red in approximately a 4:1 ratio and apply the mixture to the shadow areas and deeper folds of the fabric. The Dirty Red darkens the green while also introducing a subtle warm tone to the shadows.

4. Build the Highlights: Gradually add AK Interactive Pastel Green to Emerald and begin working up the raised folds and areas most exposed to light. Keep the layers thin and reduce the highlighted area as you move toward the brightest parts of the fabric.

5. Restore the Saturation: Some of the vibrancy can be lost as Pastel Green is introduced into the highlights. Apply a thin glaze of Citadel Contrast Terradon Turquoise to bring some of that saturation back and tie the different green tones together.

6. Deepen the Shadows: Return to the shadows with a slightly stronger mixture of Emerald and Dirty Red at approximately 3:1. Focus this darker tone on the deepest folds and recesses to strengthen the contrast.

7. Rebuild the Highlights: Reapply AK Interactive Pastel Green to the raised areas, restoring the brighter highlights after the turquoise glaze and reinforcing the shape of the fabric.

8. Final Highlights: Mix Pastel Green and White in a 1:1 ratio and lightly stipple the extreme highlights. Keep these final touches focused on the sharpest and most exposed folds to add texture and definition without overpowering the emerald colour.

Conclusion:

And that’s it - your emerald fabric is done!

Using Dirty Red in the shadows creates a richer contrast than simply darkening the green with black, while the Terradon Turquoise glaze helps bring the colour back to life after building up the pastel highlights. A little stippling at the end also adds some subtle texture to the fabric and keeps the brightest areas from looking too smooth.

If you try this technique, share your results with me on my Instagram page. I’d love to see how it works on your miniatures!

Grab this Conquest model from the Para Bellum eShop and use code ULVERBITE10 for 10% off. Using the code also helps support my work at no extra cost to you.

If you found this tutorial helpful, you might consider buying me a coffee via Ko-fi. Your support helps me create more content like this. Thank you!