Hey Quang,

Like I said before, I really like this one. I like the whole feel for the figure and his companion. I think one of the best from you.

All the best,

Joe

Quang, the figure is masterfully sculpted, the dog adds a nice touch.


Cheers

Roc.

Thank you, friends, for your kind words.

The painting took more time than usual but there were a few 'firsts' (to me any way) on this particular figure.

1. The groundwork. For once I decided to make a more elaborate groundwork. Guy Bibeyran's splendid article in the new Figurines was timely and very welcome of course. Guy Bibeyran also sent me the flowers (real miniature dried heather, just waiting to be painted). Calvin Tan supplied the rest of the vegetation. Thanks, Calvin!

2. The skin tones. Apart from a few exceptions, I've always used warm skin tones on my other figures. On this one, I decided on using cold tones overall to convey the moist and icy atmosphere. My mentor NC Wyeth came to the rescue with several of his paintings (notably 'Billy Bones'). The result is that the colour mixes for the skin on this figure were drastically different from what I was used to, mainly grey, violet and sepia. Plus some viridian to spice up the greys.

3. The tartan. This is my first tartan. Hopefully there was no definite sett in the period of the figure (early 1700). So I created a simple, rudimentary design that looked pleasing to me and started to paint. It's NOT all that difficult. The trick is to break the 'complex' multi-coloured design in several simple single colour ones. I've taken in-progress pictures for a quick s-b-s in case you're interested.

I wanted a dramatic sky backdrop to add to the atmosphere. A picture from a library book about the weather came to the rescue. And voilà!

Q.

Beautiful piece. One more to add to my barracks. At this rate I'm sure I'd paid for your kids college education many times over. And yes an sbs on the painting of the tartan would be most appreciated

Walt Damon

Quang, Beautiful job on the figure.~Gary

Quang,my friend,a BEAUTIFUL rendition to both the figure and the dog !!! I can almost hear the "pipes" playing as I look at the photo. WELL DONE !
Kenneth.

yes ,yes very ,very, good so when will it be out , not music from braveheart but music from from rob roy .

Quang...you do your self proud...it is indeed a beauty.

All the best.

Roy.

Well, what are you waiting for. Would love to see your approach to painting tartan.
Oh, and the fleshtones too, please. Indeed there are quite a few of the works of Wyeth where you see these cold grey tones for the faces; it would be interesting to see how you did that on your figure.

Good guess! I reckon that the figure owes a lot to Rob Roy (the movie version with Liam Neeson) especially the opening sequence with the bodhrán drums in the background.

I've got my hands full for the moment. Will need a few days to post the tartan s-b-s. In the meantime, here are some close-ups of the fleshtones.

Cheers,
Q.

Looking forward Quang to see the SBS of the tartan.
Maybe i shouldt try it at my Irish Knight who is on the bench and already primed.

Marc