How can I make my base more grim dark?

[swift obsidian]

First time painting, I like the contrast of green and grimey armour but I think the grass looks a little out of place. I would appreciate and tips and suggestions on paint tricks I can use or decoration ideas

[jovial umbra]

I think your mini looks great. I understand why you think the base doesn’t look grimdark and I see why the contrast looks so helpful. Right now you are running grey-blues, green-tinted yellow in the grass, and a a splash of reds in the eyes, combat weapon, and to some extent the brown of the belt. I think of this as a really well established tri-chromatic scheme like space marines usually have (red/blue/yellow). only urs is grim dark on 2 colours but not the base.

I generally think grim dark bases have very little life either because the land is molten, desiccated, muddy or urban. In your case, I would try going to a Martian scheme with some rusty ruins from the Adeptus Mechanicus. I’d use pigments and a fixer to get Martian dust on your boots and to make the ground look pretty matte. https://youtu.be/O8hFQjwiUmQ?si=f6D67J_NGf6L-ecX

I think to keep to your current scheme, introducing a rockier dominant layer and using grass sparingly would help a lot. To do that I would take a hobby knife and just glide it under all that grass and then follow some guide on YouTube for something simple. Overcomplicating bases is never worth it at army scale I find.