Nice work Colin.

Hi Colin, As mentioned already. A piece of Art. I like the embroidery too.
Can you describe the steps to get this result?
I use burnt umber on top of acrylic golden yellow and then start to use oils as golden ocre and naples yellow and white in steps.
What do you think?

Great work Colin and a super likeness .
Very accurate French blue on the coat.

Ron

Excellent finish Colin.

Turned quite well Colin.

Cheers,
Pedro.

Thankyou for the kind words. I actually almost gave up on this fellow a few times. There are some things I am not happy about but if you don't see them I am not going to point them out ;-) every piece is a learning opportunity and a chance to improve for next time.

The gold lace is:

Base sepia lightened with cadmium yellow to produce a dirty green.
Lighten with more cad yellow and ivory white (sorry I didn't track proportions)
Lighten with still more cad yellow and a greater amount of white
Note - the yellow gets mixed in to the highlights to avoid the white turning the base a light dirty green
High highlights are naples yellow and ivory white
It is important to let the various stages dry or the highlighting just blends and bleeds and changes the colour of the base coat

You can see it best in close up.



Blue coat was ultramarine and black
Lightened with ultramarine
Lightened with ultramarine and flesh tint.

The coat is actually a bit light as the real ones are almost black (see the two portraits above). Sadly if you paint a miniature like that you don't get to do any shading and it looks as if you haven't done anything.

Hope that helps

The whole journey along with the piece is just one big WOW !.........Wayne

Hi Colin,
Good on you for picking yourself up after the previous failure. A marvellous piece of work, these unique Napoleonic sculpts are your signature pieces. I applaud your skill with putty and paint and always look forward to your next project.
cheers
Richie
DURNFORD

Quite spectacular in every way.

Cheers
Tommi

Hi Colin, thanks that helps me a lot. I'll give it a try next time around.

Very, very high level of WOW factor, my friend!
Gorgeous results!
Cheers and see you soon!
Zeno

I'm getting tired of saying this, Colin, since I'm proven wrong every time, but THIS one is your best yet. The masterful sculpting goes without saying by now, but the painting is some of the strongest yet seen from you, IMHO. The addition of the 5 o'clock shadow is my favourite touch; I think it makes this more human, a portrait of a flesh and blood person and less of a copy of a period painting.

Looking forward to seeing it at the next meeting!

Cheers,
Brian

Colin

Outstanding. Great work.

Malc

Oh Colin, this bust is just beautiful; and the photographs
are excellent as well. What an impressive presentation.
Congratulations from
The Miami Jayhawk

Outstanding work all around.

Marc

Really nice work. Much likeness and outstanding details!

Its been said here repeatedly so I won't bore you with redundancy... BUT.... putty to paint, your best work to date.

Look forward to seeing this at the next meeting in a couple of weeks.

Bravo!!!

Colin

Thanks for the generous feedback gents. We will now be taking a short break while I paint my house rather than miniatures :-(