Hi All,
have done some more work on the China Lady.

Attached the pony tail, did the band thing the holds her ponytail, re-visited the pearl necklace, to give it a cooler tone, hint of blue in the shadows.

Starting to work on the 'Glamour Jewelery' too. The part on top of her hair was base coated yellow, given a base coat of GW brass, some highlights of gold, and looked too shiny. So I tried GW brown ink to cut the shine & add depth, happier with the result.

The Red Gemstone is just Vallejo red, given several coats of Vallejo Gloss.

The hair bands weren't too pleasing, until I undercoated them with GW foundation red, then a fresh coat of Magenta. no white under coat show through, smiles on the work bench.

I have tried highlighting the flesh, particularly on shoulders, collar bones and other high points, still developing these skill sets.

Some of the shots have been taken twice, once with camera flash, once without, so there is a better chance for viewing.

The figure over all....

Details of flowers, jewellery

Flowers and Jewelery,
flowers I have undercoated with GW foundation paints, then top coats of Vallejo.
The yellow ones with black centres, I gave the centres a GW flesh wash, more on an experiment then anything. Doesn't give them the depth I want, still learning flowers, which don't make much of an appearance in the average warriors garb.

Oh, the hair I gave a top coat of Vallejo satin, to replicate the effect of natural hair sheen. I feel as though such a lady would have beautifully groomed hair, and applying catch lights and highlights nearly drove me up the wall....

Flowers still need some finishing before I add the next bunch of flowers etc.

Feedback welcome, as always....

(Must remember, the green pills with the blue stripes.....or was it the blue pills with the green stripes?......)

Very nice work so far!!!
chris

There is a very fine line between a hobby and mental illness Jamie. Which side are you on mate??

Seriously, you're doing some beautiful work there Jamie. If I may suggest one thing.

When you look down on the figure from above, you can see those areas of skin that require highlighting. The areas under the arms require some subtle shading, because they will not be exposed to light.

very nice lady

A cute lady.
Quite good painting.
I'm looking forward to completion.

Excellent progress Jamie

Great progress.
Absolutely
Marc

Thanks Gentlemen

Thanks for the feedback.
I'll refer to my notes on paints used, and try some of those dilute build ups for highlights, that Tony Dawe uses...

Wont be getting round to that till the weekend, posting Monday.
I'll try some more work on the flowers also.

Looking back at the figure, so far, it has been a great learning exercise.
What has also helped is the encouragement from all here.

Already I can see how I can do better on the next figure.

Cheers to all

It's looking great,Jamie.
And I'm looking forward to seeing the finished piece.
One thing I reckon you've got perfect is the nipple colour,seriously that's something that surprising as it may seem is rarely done right. ~ especially on Asian subjects.
Just goes to show how important research is.Well done.

Janus,
Great looking and far better than I could do.
Cheers
John

Thanks Mark/Stiff

..The book by Andrea Press, 'Painting Miniature Female Figures' has been a constant reference as I did face, skin, nipples.

The logic behind selecting this as my first ever figure was 'elbow room' to paint, nice balance between scale, flesh areas, clothing, details (which has stretched me) and cleanness of the original figure.

Plus, I wanted to do something that didn't have five o clock shadow, and tooled up to the eyeballs with weapons, camouflage, etc etc etc

As for the nipple colour, the research comment gave me a huge grin

'But honey, I need to look at all these girly mags, to get the details for China Lady right'!!!

Mark, I agree. too many painters give there bare breasted ladies bright pink nipples, no clue that nipples on a lady are subject to skin tone rules....

Cheers
PS; Thanks John; your figures are up there too!!

Highlights of flesh tones

G'day all,
after reading how Tony Dawe did his face on 'Lucky Jack' I thought I'd better return to the basics.

So, after returning to my notes on what paints I used for the China Lady, (mix of Vallejo Light flesh & Yellow Ochre) made up some base colour, then split it off for highlights and shadows.

Added a touch of white for the highlights, had a very thin ratio, of about 10:1, then did some very light coats several times, building up the layers.

As for shadows, revered the colour ratio, adding more yellow ochre, till it was virtually straight ochre for the darkest shadows.

Posted twin photos, one with lights of lighting & flash, one with single light source and no flash. Flash washes out so much subtle effects!! GRRRR

Highlights on the tops of the breasts, shoulders, collar bones, upper edges of shoulder blades.

Shadows in cleavage, where arms are against the body and underside of breasts..... and I say breasts, because I'm not allowed to say 'Boobies'..

The other sides...

hope the shots help show the highlighting and shading efforts.

Still need to revisit the face, tidy up the few spots of stray brush marks (Happier I can do that now with growing confidence.) Flowers are coming together, not quite as I would like, but I'll get there.
Also decided to do the hair thing (I'm sure ladies know what its called) as a metallic finish, rather then the carved wood with grain I visualised earlier. trying to pull of wood, if successful, would have been out of place on the figure, so to link all the jewelery together, went for GW gold, with a wash of brown ink, so it looks like some kind of bronze effect.... Kind of ok, I can live with it.

A big thanks to all the planeteers who shared their advice and experience, as those who encouraged to keep on going.

PS sorry she's on the lean, didn't set the camera on the tripod squarely....

Hi Jamie,

You learn quickly Grasshopper.

The shadowing is very effective, although it's difficult to see the highlights in these pics as the skin colour is rather light to begin with. I hope you're happy with the results. Now that you've learned this technique of "glazing" with acrylics, you'll grow in confidence with your painting.

She has a very definite resemblence to Michelle Yeo - hot!

Well done and keep going mate.

So Close to finished...

Well, after making time for this lady (crying out for attention) and some encouragement from the Purple Patch Painting Plant (aka Tony Dawe) this is where I am at with what I still consider my first ever figure.

(Technically a bust, but we know what I mean).

Only one little bunch of flowers to go, for the back of her head, and thats only waiting as I try and repair a ribbon that I snapped off, and the pearl necklace for her left ear.

I Think its Costas (Major Goose [?]) who gives his figures a shot of acrylic varnish ..apologies if I have got it wrong.

She does have a minor dose of the glossies from where I layered the glazes for the skin tones.

Once the matte coat is down, I intend to give a stain coat to the pearls, a touch of gloss to the eyes, but I don't know how to deal with matted down jewelery...and ideas? mask off first? or coat in satin also, with a gloss for the gems?

I am pleasantly surprised by how the largest flower turned out....Suppose I was in "the Zone" for that one.

I am mucking about with a turned wooden base for her, so she can be displayed properly.

Feedback welcome.

Cheers

PS, eye brows need touching up, I just noticed.

very well done Jamie!

i think you actually picked an insanely difficult subject for your first figure, skin ( and she has alot on display ) hehe... yeah skin is very difficult to do. i always do faces and any exposed flesh 1st on any piece as it is the most likely to go wrong...

exellent work.

so whats next?

mark

Jamie,

Fantastic job mate, she's looking wonderful. The subtle blending of highlights and shadows on the skin is spot on. I think the floral decorations in her hair are awesome.

Keep up the good work mate.

Thanks

Thanks,
Mark, appreciate the feedback. One mans insanity is another mans logic. Yes, it was a perhaps a bit more ambitious for a beginner then it could have been, but thanks to the feed back of others, progressed rather well.

Tony,
I find it interesting to see how the skin tones are so well blended, yet the Kimono could have more more work done to it... Interesting to see skills progress just over one figure.
Thanks for the hint on Glazing

As for whats next, well, got a hankering for another bust, but have to keep an eye out for one that 'speaks' to me.

cheers

Your figure is very beautiful, Janus!!!
Flesh color is very beautiful.
The female flesh color is very delicate, but you're expressing that well.
I think a wonderful work!