new project.. one of many busts that were waiting the right inspiration. Trying some experiment with OSL and casted shadows as I had never tried pushing it that far... it's always good to learn something new
Just at the beginning but it present to me similar challenges of the NMM technique. You have to be extremely careful and literally plan and study the right angle before even sketching the miniature. It is not just one shadow or portion but the overall miniature and consistency between various materials reflection that will ultimately trick the eyes to make them "perceive" the light source.
Let's see what comes out of this, for time being I've noticed that taking pictures with black&white filter helps a lot to keep monitoring the light balance during the process. Chest brest almost done, next step neck and head.
Cheers!
Ale

Good tip (and by the looks of it high contrast as well?)

Nice start, shall watch with interest as I have this bust in my 'store' also!

Hi Neil! No high contrasts for time being on that photo, just the black and white filter in my iPhone.. guess it gives the impression of “increased” contrast because of the gap between the tones, highlights are with vanilla white (scale 75) while the casted shadows are painted almost in black (actually a mix of kimera black, Vallejo black red and Vallejo orange brown)

Maybe a true colors picture helps (before and after painting the second casted shadow)

And a small update after been working on her face.. next will be working on the left side in the shadows. For anyone who might be interested in this exercise I really recommend the black&white photo editing to check lights.. on her right cheek for instance I did many corrections thanks to that..at the beginning I was using too much of base beige skin color without enough yellow and putting on the b&w filter really helped me finding the right path (assuming this is the right path )
Cheers
Ale

Another small update while starting working on her clothes.. will need to retouch many things as I move forward.. cheers and to the next update! Ale

Impressive.

Last night progress.. working on her « dark » side and advancing with her hairs, cheers! Ale

Another small update as I work on the red robe.. still some work left especially on the red since the osl effect on the right shoulder might be much more effective once the whole robe will be painted but can already starting appreciating it more now that I move towards the final efforts!
also as I’ve promised to Nap, I’ll try to post some step by step on painting the pearls in case someone might be interested!
Cheers,
Ale

Eventually closing this post with a little explanation of how I've painted the pearls of the French courtesan (final pics along with all other great entries in October at the FOTM link here: https://www.planetfigure.com/thread...-midnight-bst-31-10-2020.277760/#post-1100084)

First of all I did some research here and there on the web and finally I've found a good inspiration looking at 2D painting tutorials, in this case the one below from Camila Cuesta:


Many of the steps below follow a similar process but there are some differences in order to adapt it to a 3D painting:
- I had to slightly change the geometries in play: for instance at step 2 I did paint a small inner circle rather than a semicircle like in the 2D picture.
- pearls are "relatively" small (~1mm diameter each despite the zoom in the pictures below ) so no way to use airbrush for my limited skills. I had used mainly layering with a bit of glazing and washes
- always due to a matter of size I didn't stress the whole shape at step 4 but focused on painting almost an horizontal cut to separate the zone with the upper reflection from the lower part of each pearl
- having multiple series of pearls both on her chest and over her hairs I've used different washes in an attempt to harmonize the reflection on the bottom with the closest colour (i.e. greenish/grey for those on the chest, orange for the pearls over her head and bit of blueish/grey on the portion in the shadow over her left shoulder).




coming to colours here the ones that I've used for each and every step:
1. (layer) Base colour is a mix of Red Beige 70804 plus just a bit of French Mirage Blue 70900
2. (layer) Paint a circle (ideally slightly in the direction where the light would be coming from) with French Mirage Blue 70900
3. (layer) Paint a smaller circle with Dark Olive Green 968 in the lower part of the Grey circle from step 2
4. (layer) Paint an horizontal line with Burnt Red 70814 to separate the upper grey/green portion (step 2&3) from the lower/bottom area
5. (glaze/layer) paint a lower reflection just below the Burnt red line at step 4 with Bonewhite 72034 (more visible in the pearls over her head where in principle light is crossing the pearl more "intensively") and a darker small circle at the very bottom of each pearl (again with Burnt red)
6. (layer) paint the upper portion of the French Mirage circle (step 2) with a mix of Pale Grey blue 70907 and SilverGrey 70883
7. (layer) paint a couple of dots of Kimera white, one on the Pale grey blue area (step 7) and one almost over the Burnt Red line (step 4) in my case on the left of the picture.
8. (glaze) used a very light glaze of light tones (Silver Grey / Pale Grey Blue) mixed with base colour Red Beige to blend a bit more the different areas altogether
9. (wash) used different washes on the bottom using either green/red/orange/blue/grey and just between few pearls in order to "recall" in few places the reflection from the surrounding area (i.e. on pic 9 there's a wash of olive green + pale grey blue only between the last four pearls on the right)


.. and that's it! hope you'll find this interesting and why not maybe will be of inspiration for your next works!

and if you have any questions don't hesitate to drop a message, cheers!

Ale

An absolutely remarkable piece of art!Female skin, a notoriously difficult subject for all modellers,under a light source much different than the ubiquitous overhead lighting and the effects are mindnumbing.Hats off to you sir!

Oda.

It is great indeed when PF members go the extra mile to explain techniques and palettes.So much helpful for all of us.

Oda.

Thanks for your comments, my pleasure! And thanks Nap for the post in the other section.. wasn’t sure where it was more appropriate but you’ve anticipated my question indeed

Cheers,
Ale

Félicitations, No31 !

A+ Serge