Hello Bruce,

I have admired your work at shows and I agree with Lou, it looks better in person.

Joe

It does. He doesn't.

Outstanding work!

A pleasure to see fine work, always!

Tom

Any chance on a few tips on how to create patterns, like the one of the confederate bust blanket roll?.

Hey Bruce!

I've seen your work in magazines in the past, and it's great to see you here posting your work. You are a very good painter and I love your work! Welcome to the Planet!

What can i say??, its a beutiful work all your figures and busts
really nice.

Cheers
Ed

Perfect, that's all I can say. Oh yes, and I wish I could paint like that.

Congratz,

Gino

You're my hero. I've always felt that your skin tones were superb. Are the eyes hand painted? Do you use an airbrush? You should publish something explaining your methods. I'd buy it.

Hey Bruce,
They are all beautfully painted , but I particularly like the Confederate.
The flesh tones are very life like.

Roc.

Bruce, Awesome work on the Reb bust I love that flesh tone, what's your secret ?

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuce! Glad to see you here. Hey, I must say those are the most realistic fleshtones I've ever seen. What do you use for primer? They look really smooth.

Great work, my friend!!!

Great work.....Beutiful Bust...

Thanks to all for your kind words.
To answer some of the questions:
I paint in oils, wet on wet. My mentor for painting faces, especially the larger figures and busts, is Phil Kessling. Phil has written many articles and given many seminars on the subject, and I have 'stolen' all of it. As a consequence, my flesh formula is Phil's; at least what it was when he last published something.
BASIC FLESH MIX
Basic flesh mix for oils is Mar Orange or Mars Brown, Cad. Yellow and Tit. White. Proportions are not precise; just mix until it looks right. Variations can be made by adding a little Cad. Red, Purple Madder, Mars Yellow, etc. You can vary the base color slightly on every figure so that they do not all look the same.
There is the danger of going too orange with this mix, so care should be taken. Over the years I've made little paint chips of successful mixes as a guide to avoid going orange.
PRIMING
Believe it or not Pete, I use Rust-oleum Flat White right out of the can with good results on both resin and metal figures 54mm and up.
EYESMike, the eyes are hand painted. To me the process of painting a figure is as important as the final result, and the eyes are the most important feature and fun to paint. When I look at a figure I always look at the eyes first. If the eyes are well done, I can forgive some mistakes in other areas. But, if the eyes are bad, the figure cannot be saved.
Airbrushing is a method, but not mine. My weapon of choice is a W&N Series 7.

As for a book, I think Phil should write one.

Fantastic work. Thanks for the flesh mix. The slanted bases really set off the busts. Are they commercially available or are they custom made?

Hello Ken,
I believe from looking at the bases that they are Ken Thomas Bases. He does have by far, the best bases available.

I got mine from S&T and Ken Thomas.

Bruce,

You're right, Phil should write a book. His methods areprobably employed by 80% of painters whether they realize it or not.

But he's an elected Grand Master so the likelihood of him writing for us mere peasants is highly unlikely. I know he prefers giving his tips away........

Phil Kessling has written volumes of articles for magazines though. I know I've experimented with many of his mixes for different projects.

Thanks Guy and Bpete. I'll check them out.

I actually wrote an outline for a book once. The problem is I am such a slow painter that I don't have eough photos to illustrate it.
Thanks for all of the kind comments.