It may not look like it, but there's been a helluva lot of painting going on since the last pics. Mostly picking out small details on the uniform and webbing and highlighting the khaki.

As you can see I've painted the colour patches in the colours of the 32nd Battalion. The brass A badge on the colour patch denotes that both these soldiers are ANZAC's, meaning they served at Gallipoli. By the time of the Battle Of Polygon Wood, there were very few of these original ANZAC's left in the AIF.

Still a very long way to go. Next step is to apply the shadowing.

Nice progress Tony!

It's an interesting piece that will surely look impressive once finished.

Cheers,
Adrian

Thanks Adrian, I appreciate your comments.

Superb Tony

Tony, great progress, one thing I didn't notice in the first set of pics was the subtle difference in facial coloration between the two figures, very nicely done. Following.

Cheers Ken

Tony - Let me echo what Ken just said - that's a very nice, subtle touch between the two faces. Wow!

All the best,
Dan

Pedro, thank you very much for your comment. It's greatly appreciated mate.

Ken and Dan, thankyou both for your very supportive comments and for picking up on the subtle difference in skin colour between both figures.

For the dying soldier, I wanted to simulate the cold, palid, clammy look of skin that has been drained of blood. For the sitting soldier, I wanted to show that he was hot, flushed and emotional.

For the dying soldier, I added a small amount of prussian blue to my skin colour mix and used Basic Skin Tone instead of Sunny Skintone in my base flesh mix. The result is a cool, pale, slightly greyish skin colour which reflects the fact that the soldier is dying from blood loss and severe trauma.

For the sitting soldier I used my usual mix of Dark Flesh and Sunny Skintone, with Basic Skintone and white mixed into the base colour for the highlights.

I'll add some more red around the sitting soldiers' eyes, nose, cheeks and ears to show he's been crying and his face is flushed. The lips, nose, cheeks and ears of the dying soldier will be given a wash of pale bluish purple. I'll follow the same process for each soldier's hands.

Absolutely great paintwork. I know it is hard to paint subjects like this, but Tony you are going to do it justice

Marc

Thanks Marc, I really appreciate your comments mate and thanks for your vote of confidence.

Thanks Carl,

I've been working on the skin tones tonight. I'll post some more WIP pics in a few days. Thanks once again for your comment.

Hi guys,

It's been a long time since I updated my Vbench, so I've posted a few pics to show you where I'm up to with my "Journey's End" vignette. I've been concentrating on adding the shading and ensuring the colors are right.

Hope you like it.

Just a heart wrenching scene, you can really feel the emotion in this piece. Great work so far.

Thanks Mike, I'm really pleased you can see and feel the emotion in this scene. Ultimately that's what I'm hoping to deliver.

Tony, excellent progress so far and looking forward to following .

Cheers Ken

Thanks Ken,

I'm struggling to find the time to get into my hobby room at the moment, but with WASMEx looming in September the clock is ticking and i need to get cracking. I appreciate your encouragement mate.

Hi Tony
Lovely scene mate.
Very melancholy and poignant.
Looking forward to seeing it in person.
Tony Del

Thanks Tony,

Hopefully you'll see it finished at WASMEx in a few weeks, or at my place for our painting session this weekend.

Finished

I had a few mates from my figure modelling club around to my place this afternoon for a 5 hour painting session, and in the process I managed to finish this vignette.

As promised, I've weathered the base and figures heavily with pastels and washes, and while I have added blood I've tried to keep it in context and not go "over the top".

My thanks to Dan Morton for sculpting this heart-rending and tragic scene. It was my honour to paint it.

Comments/ criticisms welcome.

Tony, a superb finish. My 1st impression was too much blood but the more you study it the more it looks spot on. Great weathering resulting in a vignette to be proud of.

Cheers Ken