Evening Planeteers

Managed to finally get around to completing this one after a mojo slump part way through

It is, of course, one of the beautiful 1:10 busts made by Alexandros and cast in resin. Arriving is a small box packed with a 'straw like' material it didn't take too long to prepare for painting (although I did manage to miss a few mould lines and had to scrape them off after painting and then re-touch - ahem!)

I've never been comfortable with painting gold lace or silk so this was a bit of a 'sink or swim' figure (I've previously avoided figures with these materials rather than struggle and fail)
Having painted the face I decided that it didn't have enough contrast so ended up painting the whole thing again using some stronger colours in the shadows to give it a bit more 'life'.
Anyway quite pleased with how he turned out in the end and glad to be able to move onto the next one . . . .

Cheers
Paul

ps - photo's are unedited and the strong shadows on some are a result of using the bright evening sunshine

Great work, very subtle

Excellent paintwork

Mobo

Thanks gents

Excellent paint work.

Morning big guy

Proper Lloyds bank me

I bought this and another one second hand, but since they are basically similar colours I'm saving the other for the moment and have cracked the box on a real oldie What did surprise me when I was painting was how much more work is needed for these larger busts after a few 1/12 and 1/14th ones.

I was a bit caught out on the skin tones, as I mentioned, after using my usual mixes; they simply lacked 'interest'. I put the figure to the back of the bench and went away for a week or so occasionally picking up a brush to try adding a glaze, but in the end I got all radical and added layers of orange, green and purple (each mixed with a tiny touch of the base colour) applied in a sort of dabbing fashion as if I was painting small dots. Once these layers had dried properly I went back and glazed over the whole face again reworking the highlights with more sunny skintone and was much happier with the effect. I kept plying with the skin whilst I was painting the rest of the figure and it's probably a bit overworked now, but pleased with it overall.

Cheers
Leggy

Very nice work Paul.
Those eyes are superb.

Cheers,
Andrew

Cheers Andrew

Late to this one Paul, but that is quite something!

Thats very nice painting, not overdone and just right. You flesh palette is superb (whats the secret) very subtle.
Beautiful mate.

There's a lot of stuff gets posted so i often find I'm in the same boat thinking what ? When did that one appear?? Glad you like him and appreciate the kind comment

Cheers Bob. Glad you like him

Been a bit off my game recently, struggling to get going with anything so this one took much longer than usual.

Thanks for the comment about the flesh tone which I was quite pleased with in the end. here's a potted history of how it went with this one -
Basic colour is Pink Flesh (Scale 75 one on this I think, but the Vallejo make one which is very similar) I'll usually add some English Uniform or blue to grey it out a bit and then add Black red or Burnt red for the shadows and darken that with a dark brown/dark blue mix for the deepest parts. Highlights add Basic skintone and then light flesh.
For this particular figure it looked a bit 'flat' when done (possibly because of the size?) so I went back in and added some very thin orange, then mid green and mid blue (yep , proper bright colours!) to the shadow areas in a sort of stippling action building up the layers very gradually. Of course the colours tend to cancel each other out when overlapped so don't appear quite so vivid unless you look closely. Having got some interest in the shadows I then needed to liven up the mid tones which I glazed with sunny skintone and a bit of orange on the forehead. A few touches of very thin red to the cheeks and tip of nose and a glaze of Prussian blue to the lower cheeks/chin. Lots of back and forth over a few days until the whole thing looked more balanced to my eyes.

I think people generally avoid greens, oranges and blues when painting skin tones, but we were encouraged to look for them when I was an art student and I think they really help lift a bust especially. (On the smaller stuff you can get away with less work and fewer colours)
Anyway hope that helps and is not just me wittering on in my usual way leaving listeners with eyes glazed over

Cheers for now
P

Thanks for that Paul, have saved this so I can give it a try, you never know,it may improve my painting. By the way, my latest effort I stripped the face twice. Arghhhhh.

Cracking piece of work on this Paul. Great skin tones, very subdued but so lifelike.

Neal

Cheers Neal

You have done justice to the Bravest of the Brave. Thank you so much for your work

Excellent work - I have a vested interest having painted a 28mm version of him for my dio.

W.

Cheers Guys

Ney's endless charges at Waterloo left a strong impression on me as a boy even when I couldn't remember much else about the battle. As I got older and read more around the whole era those childhood memories still gripped me and, when the bust was offered for sale, I just couldn't resist.
(Incidentally the small boxes that these busts come in appear quite unassuming compared to some manufacturer's offerings, but make no mistake they are beautifully cast and well worth the money IMO)

Cheers
Paul

Thought you might like to see my little guy -

W.