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WIP Blackfoot Warrior

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by Mariner, Jan 8, 2013.

  1. Mariner Active Member

    Country:
    Canada
    Hello all,
    Been away from painting for awhile, hope all my PF friends are well:)
    Tackled this fine Pegaso figure. Had quite a struggle with skin tones and smooth blending, but it was a great learning experience. Need lots more practice blending highlights and shadows on bare skin.
    I think I should invest in one of those visors to help me paint intricate beadwork since I like this subject matter best!
    Comments welcome.
    Cheers, Mary blackfoot1.jpg blackfoot2.jpg blackfoot3.jpg blackfoot3.jpg
    Steve, tiberius57, Meehan34 and 5 others like this.
  2. marco55 Well-Known Member

    Country:
    United-States
    Pretty good for not painting in a while.Great job.
    Mark
  3. ChaosCossack A Fixture

    Country:
    Canada
    Haven't missed a beat, Great job. Skintones look just fine to me and the detail work is spot on.

    Welcome back!

    Colin
  4. bagelman1952 Well-Known Member

    Country:
    England
    Very nice indeed
  5. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Hi Mary,

    I can see from your pics that you continue to improve in leaps and bounds with every figure you paint, which is what we all strive for. Well done.(y)

    I can certainly recommend using an optivsior, especially for painting small, detailed parts, and also to enable you to zoom in on areas that need special attention, such as eyes and faces.:wideyed:

    One area that you can improve on is to reduce the appearance of brushstrokes on the surface of the figure. There are a couple of spots on the skin where brush strokes are visible, which I think detracts from the overall look of the figure. If you're using oil paints, then this could mean you're loading up your brush with too much paint. If acrylics, then you probably need to do some additional blending. Whatever your paint medium, brushstrokes can be avoided by not putting too much paint on the brush, and not allowing the paint to become too thickly layered. I hope this makes sense, and I hope it helps you continue to improve your painting, and get more satisfaction from your figure painting.;)

    At the risk of appearing too critical, may I also suggest you avoid using the artificial foam and lichen materials for your groundwork. They look artificial and unnatural and I think they detract from, rather than enhance, the realism of your figure. There are plenty of very realistic looking materials available from various suppliers, but some of the best materials are out in your garden and in your kitchen.:cool:

    I always use real dirt from my garden when creating a base for a figure. The uneven texture and irregular sizes of the dirt is more natural than the uniform sized products available in hobby and craft stores.

    I find that using various crushed herbs such as parsley and oregeno make excellent leaf litter, as does tea from a tea bag. I use these all the time to create a covering of leaf litter on a base. For grasses you can use sisal rope and/ or static grass (which need to be painted) or some excellent and very realistic products you can buy online that replicate small clumps of grasses/ tossocks etc. There are also excellent paper products available which allow you to create ferns and other small plants. Federicus Rex would be my recommendation.

    Groundwork is something that most modellers find challenging, and there are no right or wrong ways to do it, however just like figure painting the goal is to try to achieve realism. The more natural products you can use in your groundwork, the more real your groundwork should look. I'm sure if you want to improve your groundwork, you can find plenty of excellent SBS'd and tutorials here on pF to inspire you and teach you some of the more popular techniques.
  6. Helm A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    Really nice job Mary, unlike Tony I think the base does look realistic from the woodlands I've visited over in the US, but I did notice you left a corner of the base sticking out ;) I like the skin tones very much indeed

    Steve
  7. Mariner Active Member

    Country:
    Canada
    Thank you all for your awesome support. One reason I took a break from painting was frustration. But on this figure I decided to just go for it, do my best and learn from the mistakes. Tony is right, less paint (and perhaps new brushes) are in order.

    As for the groundwork, Tony, you are so right. I don't have much stock materials, my local shop doesn't have a very good selection so I chose what I thought might work.I have some long grass but the color is such an unnatural green I passed on it.
    I also tried coffee grounds on another figure last year, stored them in a glass jar and they went all moldy!
    Dirt from the garden would be better but it's under too much snow right now :D
  8. tiberius57 A Fixture

    Country:
    Canada
    Welcome back, Mary!
    Nice looking figurine! (y)
    Don't let frustration stay in your way. I learned not to try to paint a perfect figurine and this because I can't. I learned to try to do a better paint job then on the previous figurine. This helped me a lot to deal with the frustration. So, you are not alone. Just do it and slowly it will be better and don't forget to have fun! :)
    Cheers,
    Zeno
    ChaosCossack likes this.
  9. ChaosCossack A Fixture

    Country:
    Canada
    True words!!!
    Don't try to paint a figure better than everyone elses... just aim for better than your last one.

    Colin
  10. John Bowery A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Mary,
    He looks real fine. You are doing very well.

    I always zap my coffee grounds and tea leaves to dry them first before storing them. Also since we just had fall. Pick up some dried leaves that are different colours from your front or back yard. If you do not have a front or back yard I am sure a neighbor will be have to have you remove some of his leaves????:LOL::LOL: I try to get as many different colours as I can such as brown, both dark and light, yellow, green and red. Then in a bucket crush them up with your hand and fingers. Then collect the different size pieces in a jar. These will make real looking ground cover for a wood scene. Glue them on top of the glued tea/coffee grounds. Some times you have to place some leaves individually. For a photo of results, take a look at my "Sorcerer" figure in my VBench. After glueing you have to give them a coat of Testors dullcoat or the leaves will disintegrate over time if not sealed. The price is right and can't be beat.

    Cheers
    John
  11. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Looks excellent Mary, glad to see you back on the brushes.
    Kitty litter and dried herbs work well for groundwork, and they're inexpensive.
    Carl.(y)
  12. brian A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Seen this one late Mary,nice job.I couldn't paint without an optivisor.
    Brian
  13. HIKARU_REMOVED Guest

    Country:
    Japan
    Very well done.
    Especially groundwork is wonderful.;)

     Mitsutaka:)

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