Here's a few in process pics of a soon to be released bust I'm painting for Michael Miniatures. This one was sculpted by Yury Serebryakov. It's a really nice sculpt, as you can see. Doing my best to do some justice to it! I've just started this evening on the blue coat and have laid in the first two highlight layers. Thanks for looking....

Matt

Matt this is beautifully started the skin tone is spot on, look forward to the
rest coming together with interest. Thanks for sharing, RobH.

Awesome work on a another great creation from Yury.
Looking forward to the finish.

Marc

Very nice work, I really do prefer the reality look to the over exaggerated highlights and shading for the flesh tones it make sit seem more real........

Great

Dave

Awesome painting Matt. As Dave says the realistic skin tones really do look more ntural than the highly stylised method of over highlighting and over shadowing. Looks like Yury's sculpted another cracker.

Hello Matt,

the sculpting is stunning it helps to do a perfect job
Awesome paintjob!

Beautiful piece of sculpture. . .

Hello Matt:

Just a beautiful job of painting so far, as the others have remarked. The way
you paint the flesh tones is so natural looking, yet very dynamic. I'm sure
the sculptor's talent has something to do with that. One of the other
impressive things about this sculpted bust is the delineation of the hair or fur
in the head gear. For me, it's the first time I've seen it done quite that way,
and it definitely creates the illusion of reality, IMO.

But I also wanted to remark about your talent as a sculptor as well Matt. Your
rendition of General George Washington is the best I've seen commercially
available. A very impressive piece. I did purchase your Wehrmacht
Cossack bust from Chris Mrosko at the Tulsa show some time
back, and just completed painting it recently. A very nice bust.
Well done — I hope to post those images on PF when time permits.

Kind regards,

rick

Fantastic bit of painting/sculpting. Hardy

Great on BOTH fronts Matt and Yuri!!!

Ray

Thanks for the nice comments! Choosing a good sculpt is always key to getting a good final result in a figure.

Rick - thanks for the support and glad you liked the bust. I hope to do another Cossack bust someday. Great characters to draw from in bust format, for sure.

Thanks again and more updates on this one soon!

Matt

Fantastic painting so far Matt, great skin tones.

Cheers David

Matt I wanted to add my 2 cents with a comment..love your skin tones as others have commented..could you be so kind as to reply with a paint mix for your subtle work on tones??...And... it was such a pleasure to see your 2 Pegaso 75mm pieces on display at the Chicago show..it was only fitting to see you awarded with the Chicago Medal this year..well done..your painting/sculpting greatly inspires...
Steve

Thanks, Steve!

The colors used on the face have been all Vallejo:

Base: Cork Brown + English Uniform + Dark Red +Orange Brown + small dab of Flat Blue

Highlights: Base + Basic Skintone ( continue to add very small amounts of flat blue to each highlight layer to tone down the orange in the Basic Skintone.

Shadows: English Uniform + Violet Red + Cork Brown (for deeper shadows, I added some Cadmium Umber Red)

Glazes of Orange Brown in the cheeks and temple areas, Prussian Blue under the eyes and Dark red on the nose and cheeks as well

As far as application goes, I use many layers of thinned color to build up the tones as softly as possible using as large a brush as I can. I always glaze between transition areas of each layer of highlight and shadow to smooth them. The hardest part is getting the right ratio of paint to water to give you enough coverage, and not get streaks or blotches of color. This just takes practice and getting a feel for the paint. It's always a challenge to use acrylics, but I like the control I have that was never possible for me when I only painted with oils. For example, if my contrast is too hard, I can soften it by glazing over the area with a mid tone and that cuts the contrast.

I hope this helps!

Matt