Hello all,

Started this excellent bust from YS Miniatures, 1821 Series, of Georgios Drakos a few days ago and this is where I am at the moment.

Working with oils, over acrylics and aiming to catch something of Mr.Cartacci's box art magic.
Photos are taken with mobile phone and I expect to shoot better ones in the future with a 'proper' camera...

All comments welcome, thank you

very nice face....

Agreed

The painting so far is superb.The sculpting of the figure is exceptional (like all Ys pieces).
Εξαιρετικό βάψιμο, τα συγχαρητήρια μου......
Fokionas

On track for a really nice result.

Colin

Great start.
marc

Thank you all, your support is much appreciated!

The face is magnificent

Marvelous start on this bust.I have been sitting on this particular model since I started painting a few years ago.
Wondering how you plan on doing the twists in the braids.I think painting them in is the only option.But I'm thinking of making a special tool to more or less press or melt them them in because I prefer the physical 3 dimension as opposed to trying to paint them in.
Also would you mind sharing your oil mix for highlighting and shading the face as I'm using mostly acrylics but I want and need to try oils on acrylics in particular for the face.Any help appreciated...........Looking forward to seeing progress and if it's anywhere near as good as the face is,you are going to have one great piece.......Best regards.....Wayne

Thank you all!

@Wayneb: Painted braids for me. I am going to use this: http://www.figurinitaly.com/forum/s...81989fd8cc9e3c&t=7232&highlight=letort&page=6

as a reference. It's in Italian, but Google translate will manage!
Good luck with yours, sounds really exciting to make them 3D!
As for my mixes the best I can do is to show you my palette and the colors that I used. Unfortunately I didn't keep the actual mixes, BUT I will have to keep all those dry colors until I reach the point to paint the hands, and hopefully I will manage to re-mix them...



The areas inside the different polygons are the main colors. I basically followed the general rule: White + Red + Yellow + a touch of Blue (see this: http://www.paint-sculpt.com/tutorials/skintone_pallet/skintone-pallet-page-2.html) . As you can see I have two different yellows (ochre and cadmium), two different reds (alizarin and cadmium red), one blue, white and a more brown red like Light Red. Group of colors in the yellow, green and red polygons were for base and light. Colors in blue polygon were the main shadows, based mostly on burnt umber and (if I remember correctly) Light Red. Violet was used mainly for deep shadows, and Green mixed with flesh tones (sorry but the last polygon in black - it's actually more grey-green than the photo shows) was used to touch the beard area. My purpose was to create at least 3 types of flesh. One that was based on red that would go to a more pinkish light (yellow polygon), one that would be more yellow (red polygon) and one that would be based on ochre (green polygon). http://www.wetcanvas.com/ArtSchool/Portraiture/Palette/ I try to keep in mind these basic rules for face areas. I don't know if this helps. I myself always search for mixes and asking people to share and I really should start documenting what I do, if not only for me, for people that may ask!

Also it helped me a lot to get into the idea of creating mixes like this, this guy:

And this guy convinced me to use as little main colors as possible, and that's what I tried to do (without having the ultramarine french though):


I didn't use any pure white on the face. Only the most high lights of the above colors. And to tell you the truth the bust started to look like something good only after the lights and the deep shadows were applied. Until then I thought it was a disaster! heh!

I will try and keep things more documented so stay tuned!

Thank you, good luck with yours and sure hope you found the above helpful.

Hello Arxo,
Thanks very much for spending the time to enlighten me on this subject.I have most of the colors needed based on what you've shown.Thanks also for the other sites that are helpful.
Actually,painting the twists in the braids as you directed me to looks pretty good.And if this tool I plan on making doesn't work that's where I'll have to go.I always wondered why they were not sculpted in.Oh well another challenge.
Best regards and keep up the good........Wayne

NO.MORE.GOLDEN.DOTS!!!!!!

You may well be feeling a bit but it was worth the effort, this is going to be a stunning piece when it's finished.

Roger.

Absolutely stunning, and its not finished yet.
Excellent painting

Malc

Wow Arxo.......Looks really good....May have to go that way...Also like the touch of blue in the shirt...If you could or can shoot me a closeup of those braids...........keep up the good work...........Regards....Wayne

Thank you every one!
@Wayneb: Shirt is more white than it looks, it's the light from the lamp that gives the blue tint. I will shoot some close ups soon and will post them. As for the braids I have to tell you that I didn't want to go for clean, symmetrical, almost geometrical dots or lines,but rather for something that will give the illusion of gold catching the light, like the scales on a fish. That's why I painted the braids with 3-4 different shades of non metallic gold, on top of a layer that begun with dark yellow browns on the edges and yellow white in the middle. You can see that on the top of the right shoulder, the picture was taken when I took a break before finishing the shoulder.It has no dots yet painted. Glad that you like it, thanks!

Great paint my friend!!!!!
Συνεχισε ετσι θα το σκησεις το μπουστακι!!!!!
Σου ευχομαι καλες γιορτες!!!!!

Αlex

Thank you Alex.
Φίλε μου και σε σένα και στους δικούς σου, ευχές για καλές γιορτές και για ακόμα περισσότερα βραβεία!!!

@Wayneb: Hope these help! Again, taken with my mobile phone and tweeking the white balance. I intend to do a series of photos with a proper camera, so stay tuned...dots are of various shades of yellow/brown/white...blue tint in the collar is due to the mobile camera settings...