Le Cimier's 90mm General de Brigade - in progress. Oils

Face is not finished.

Colin

Nice looking blues and gold lace Colin . Look forward to seeing more of this figure.

Jim Patrick

Very neat and very nice work COlin, look forward to seeing more.

Very nicely done so far Colin. I really like you flesh. Keep up the good work.

Beautiful work Colin. Whats next on your workbench?

Hi Guy & thanks to all who post kind comments - I am trying to refine my painting technique and to make the big life changing decision - Vallejo or oil. I've tried both and like both - and I think I am equally effective with each medium. But I think I am tending toward oils. AsI think my painitng is the weaker part of my repertoire, I'm doing a few commercial kits to try to improve.

I have to finish the General of Brigade (ETA - about a week or so)..... and I am working on Barton's 90mm mounted Captain Manhes in parallel (I'll post pix when I get far enough). I've never done several figures at the same time before and it is the way to go. Stops that desire to rush ahead before the paint is dry. White Models' 90mm Lasalle is on deck.

I also want to sculpt something again - either a 1/6th figure or a 1/48th Napoleonic - If I sculpt somthing I will try to SBS it.

Cheers

Colin

Very pretty, Colin!

Very well done, Colin. I especially like how you have done the waist shash.

Keith

Colin,

You have a nice technique, and the figure is painted very nicely. May I make a few constructive suggestions?

Be careful in highlighting the black feathers on top of the hat (and highlighting any dark color). These feathers are very black and a subtle highlight might be more effective and realistic. I like to mix a SPECK of blue-gray with my black to highlight things like this. Also be careful about over highlighting the blue coat. French blue is a VERY dark, rich blue color. While it may be the lighting used in the photo, it appears as though the coat is more a mid-blue/gray.

A last suggestion concerns the skin tone. Your shading and blending techniques are very good, but the flesh seems a little cold to me. You might try warming up your colors very slightly - especially the highlights. Have you tried adding a bit of sparkle to the eyes? Consider reducing the shadow on the side of the cheeks - this figure doesn't really have much of a depression beneath his cheekbones (some faces do).

The lace is first rate.

I know there has been some debate on this site about offering constructive suggestions to in-process work, but I know I always greatly appreciated - and REALLY needed it - it when I was getting started. I hope that Colin (nor anyone else) is offended by my suggestions.

Keep up the good work.

Bill Horan

Thanks for the helpful input Bill. I would not have put in progress photos on the site unless I was receptive to comments - yours are appreciated. Hopefully anyone putting work on line here is receptive to constructive comments and is free to ignore them if he or she disagrees - otherwise all we have is a chorus of "yes men."

BTW - I would not have tried this figure had I not seen and been inspired by your version in your first book. The anatomy of many of the large scale Le Cimier figs is suspect but this one is quite good - although I'm not entirely sure about that stance!

I agree with your comments about the feathers - my highlights are too drastic and too grey.

And as you suspected, my inept photography and the use of raw outdoor sunlight combined to wash out the blue. The actual colour used was W&N Indigo + Mars Black (as you might expect - reasonably dark) - highlighted with some unbleached titanium. While one has to allow for field fade in the colour of such uniforms, I expect that this would be less of an issue in a general officer's coatee.

I have done a little more on the face since I placed the photos above. My flesh colours are derived from Phil Kessling's approach I saw on the old HM forum. You are right that mine are a little cold. I have drawn them together a bit more with a wash of Williamsburg Pompeii Red - a nice earthy rust red and that seems to have helped a bit. I like to use touches of greens, blues and violets in my faces and that may have cooled things down too much too. I've added catchlights to his pupils.

Re. the lace - if anyone cares, here is my recipe - Moving from darkest to lightest

- raw umber;
- cad. yellow + mars orange;
- cad. yellow;
- cad. yellow + HOV Ivory white ( yellowy ivory shade);
- pure Ivory white.

This is Its still in progress too.

I should have noted that I added top eye lids to the Le CIimer sculpt to reduce the oversizzed eyes. I've also added a shirt collar since the pics above were taken..

Thanks again.

Colin

Colin,

I actually completely removed and resculpted the eyes on my figure. You're right - they are badly oversized. Otherwise, it is a nicely posed and sculpted figure. I think Victor Konnov did this one - an excellent sculptor.

Try a flesh tone for highlighting blue - and use it sparingly. Subtle highlighting is very tricky with dark oil colors. While the colors are wet, it is hard to see the contrast, so the natural tendency is to add more and more highlight color. When it dries, the highlight can come out overdone.

Bill

Collin,

What more can i say then already is being sayed.
Beautifull work.

Marc