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WIP Australian Light Horse Trooper, 1/8th scale bust WIP

Discussion in 'vBench (Works in Progress)' started by tonydawe, Nov 7, 2010.

  1. Dennis Active Member

    Country:
    England
    Hello Tony, lovely work, glad you are enjoying, it is obviously a labour of love; well done. I am looking forward to seeing the finished piece,thanks for sharing.
    Regards
    Dennis
  2. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Hi Marc and Dennis, thanks very much for your comments fellas, I appreciate them.

    I've been fiddling with highlights on the uniform over the past few days, trying to have a nice subtle colour change and smooth transitions.

    I decided that I'd use pastel chalk to help create that desert dust effect that makes the uniformlook like its been sand blasted. The beauty of pastel chalk is that it is real dust, and you can put as little or asmuch as you want on,and if you don't like it, you can simply wipe or blow it off.:cool:

    Pastel chalk also eliminates any shine caused by the acrylics and leaves the surface dead flat.;)

    I also brushed some red brown pastel over the face and some black to create the 5 o'clock shadow. Once again, I've gone for subtlety with this effect in the hope of creating a natural look.

    Before I primed the face, I stipled the area of the beard with the pointy end of my hobby knife blade to create some rough texture on the skin to represent a light stubble. The black pastel chalk has picked up this texture to create quite a realistic looking stubble effect.;)

    As always, I welcome any comments.(y)

    Attached Files:

  3. keith_christie New Member

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Good Evening Tony,

    Very nice work indeed, the step by step explanations are also very useful for a beginner like myself.

    Looking forward to the next installment.

    Best Regards

    Keith
  4. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Looking good Tony, as I knew it would. Nearly done, so what's next?
    Carl.
  5. davidmitchell A Fixture

    Country:
    Scotland
    Bit late in on this one Tony, but looking good. I have tried the pastels before and they work great on all areas.


    Cheers David
  6. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Hi Keith, I'm pleased you likemy progress so far and are finding the SBS useful.

    Hi Carl, thanks mate. Not sure what I'll do next. I'm focussed on doing a good job on this one at the moment. I'm waiting on something to arrive in the mail.

    Hi David, Better late than never mate. Thanks for your comments and I'm pleased to know you share my love of pastels. Absolutely wonderful stuff.
  7. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Hi guys,

    Here are the latest pics showing my progress so far.(y)

    As you can probably tell, the leather bandalero has had a touch of oil paint added, not only to add some sheen, but to add some depth to the colour. I've gone over the oil with acrylics for highlighting. Imixed Burnt Sienna and Van Dyke Brown with white spirits.

    I've now done the upper highlights on the hat and uniform. Some of the blending is a bit rough, so I'll work on smoothing those out. Most of the bus is finished now,but as always the final 5% is the difference between "wow" and "WOW".:cool:

    I'll confess that I'm not entirely happy with the eyes. Something about them doesn't look right to me, but I can't see what it is.:confused: Does anyone have any suggestions? The only thing I can think of is changing the eye colour to brown. Help!!

    Attached Files:

  8. khorgor Member

    Country:
    Australia
    the only thing I spot about the eyes tony is that the right eye is missing some red shading in the right corner - thus making the eye too white compared to the other eye.

    So some shading should balance the colour contrast and fit in with the rest of the face.

    Hope you don't mind the comment
  9. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Not at all Scott, thanks mate.

    That's a great pick up and I'll follow your advice.
  10. Meehan34 A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    The only thing I can see that could possibly be a problem is similar to the other comment. The whites of the eye may be a tad too white but they look excellently painted other than that. I like the blue and would hate to change that if I were you. The catchlight could possibly be throwing you for a loop also, the left eyes catchlight is really close to the pupil so maybe that is what you don't like?
  11. Dennis Active Member

    Country:
    England
    Good Morning Tony, he is progressing very well, lovely work with the pastels, I like the knife point tip,pardon the pun. I understand what you are saying about the eyes, for me the eye colour is spot on but if you were to put a very light wash of a colour of your choice over the whites to try and give that irrated by dust condition of the eyes this may alleviate the eye problem for you. I imagine a Light Horseman would suffer irratted/sore eyes from operating in dry, sandy/dusty conditions. I know modern AFV crewmen suffer from it hence the use of goggles. I am looking forward to your next post.
    Dennis
  12. Dan Morton A Fixture

    Country:
    United-States
    Wonderful painting, Tony! WOW! The leather on the bandolier is amazing. The subtle tricks you painters know!

    All the best,
    Dan
  13. megroot A Fixture

    Country:
    Netherlands
    Excellent work.
    There is indeed something with the eyes in the overall picture. In the closeup i can't see nothing wrong.
    It could indeed be the white.

    marc
  14. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Thanks for your input and ideas guys. The eyes need to be tweaked, rather than repainted, and I'll start by dulling down the white and apply a wash of red to make them look a bit irritated and dusty.

    I really appreciate you helpful suggestions and your kind words. Thanks
  15. jimias A Fixture

    Country:
    Greece
    Turning up great Tony. Beautiful color transitions on both skin and shirt.
  16. dArtagnan A Fixture

    Country:
    Belgium
    Lovely paintjob, Tony! Very nice work on a great bust!
    Cheers,
    Eddy
  17. tonydawe A Fixture

    Country:
    Australia
    Hi Dimitrios and Eddy, thank you both for your generous comments.

    I've nearly finished painting this bust, but tonight I've been trying to fix the eyes. There was something about them that just didn't look right before and thanks to a few helpful comments from fellow Planeteers, I think I've improved them.

    I've added a red wash to the eyeballs, darkened the colour of the iris and repainted the pupils and catch-lights in both eyes.

    I also added some Van Dyke Brown oil paint to darken the shadows under and around the eyes, which has also helped balance out the contrast on the face.

    Last thing to do will be to add a coat of pastel chalk dust over the hat and jacket and then seal the pastels on with Dullcoat. Then I'll attached the bust to a base and I can add this beauty to my display cabinet.

    Attached Files:

    sarouman likes this.
  18. megroot A Fixture

    Country:
    Netherlands
    Great effort.
    I always hate catchlights into the eyes. It looks always unreal. It looks just real when you hold the bust in front of you. When you looks from another angle there is always something that doesn't look real to the eyes.
    Therefore i only paint a glossy varnish into the eyes. That's always a catchlight from what angle you look at it.
    Just my thoughts.......
    But again: Great work Tony.
  19. sarouman A Fixture

    Country:
    Greece
    Hi my friend
    Like when miniature painters always trying to give to persons suffering tone as appropriate to the environment. What I like shows realism.
    He continued to impress us, man
    Bravo!!

    Alexandros
  20. housecarl Moderator

    Country:
    United-Kingdom
    Great finish Tony, very well done.
    Carl.

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