Jawaballs paints a full sized Blood Angels Chapter Banner for warhammer 40k

Hey guys, I thought I would share my newest project. I am painting a full sized chapter banner! I started by buying up a lot of red fabric, and drew up a pattern. Then I handed it off to my spinster colleague who cut and sewed it up for me. Now that is a handy skill, and one that I will have to have her teach me. I would like to make these banners as commissions, but paying some one to sew them for me takes a huge chunk of my profit.

On with the banner. So, with fabric in the process of being made, I started work on the image. The banner itself is about 7 feet long. I cut out the image size from a piece of artist canvas that has already been gessoed with acrylic base. This is the perfect medium to paint on because it is flexible and holds the paint well. Plus it requires a lot less work because the fabric does not absorb the paint. Previously I had to paint about 8 layers of yellow to get it right.

Then I laid out the image lines on the canvas after painting it black. There are several ways to do this. The easiest way is to get a piece of overhead transfer plastic and trace the image with a sharpie. Then using an overhead, pin the banner up to a wall, and project the image to the size you desire. This is a great but time consuming way for most of you to do it. I just freehanded it for speed sake.

Then it was time to start painting! I laid down base colors first, starting with the darkest versions of each color. For white I started with dark grey, for red I started with deep crimson mixed with brown. For the skulls I started with Burnt Umber. The rest of the steps are a process of using lighter and lighter layers over the darker ones. The idea is that the deep colors of the under coat will show through the lighter colors of the later layers, creating a nicer finished piece.

Once I am finished the painting part, I will have it sewn onto the banner and I will start the finishing touches at the bottom. Here is some video!

And since so many have asked, yes I will take commissions on these. I will do any codex banner, just find me a good picture of one. Here is a price breakdown if you are interested.

Materials (Paint and fabric) 50.00
Banner sewing labor (I have to pay some one to sew it) 50.00
Painting time- 20.00 an hour. Based on the complexity of the banner, I will estimate a quote in hours. This chapter banner has about eight hours of work into it so far, and will end up with about 12 total.

This banner would cost roughly 350 to 400 dollars with 100 bucks of that as part of my cost to make it. That is about the lowest I can go for price! But seriously, that is what you would pay for a full size printed version from GW... minimal. I like to think that my banner looks nicer. :)

More to come...

Jawaballs