Hello everyone, this thread will be more or less a guide. So feel free to ask questions.

A long time ago I bought the limited 1/9 scale RED bust by Mindwork. It's a rather large bust. I recently found a nice blueish plinth at the "Zinnfigurenbörse" in Kulmbach/Germany that I really liked. I kinda thought about this bust right away.

As I did with other miniatures, I started with primer setup with three primes.
I primed everything with black at first. After that I used a red primer from below.
As a last step I used a white primer from above ... very gently.

The red is a the sketch for bounce light/OSL effect. I used red because I don't have any other color.
The white is a the sketch for the normal light. As with light, the white primer covers the red where the primer hit's the mini. As we know white light is brighter than colored light. So spaces/areas that are very bright due to white light, can't be red anymore.



I did pictures of every angle that is interesting and did some nice manipulations in Photoshop.



The renders from Mindwork Games are also a great reference.

That full scale figure looks like a great piece to work, excellent.

Following!

Thanks for sharing your approach, this will be very interesting.

Very nice start to a very dramatic bust, really looking forward to how you play with the light on this one.

Cheers Simon

Following with interest.

Malc

Hello again, I did some more work on the RED bust during the last days.
At first I did a initial sketch. I choose to use only KIMERA (single pigment and pre-mixed) colors.

You can see that I first started with only deepest shadows and highest highlights. I than tried to paint in between those parts. I used brighter mixes to finish the sketch for the skin.
The layers in the first pic are mixes of those colors:
- Carbon Black (single pigment)
- The White (single pigment)
- Darkness (pre mixed)
For the middle pictures:
- Bone Khaki (pre mixed)
- Shiny Skintone (pre mixed)
- Tenebrous Teal (pre mixed)
I added those for the last picture:
- Turquoise Deep (singe pigment)
- The White (single pigment)



I was quite happy with the sketch, even though there were some mistakes. I took the bust with me to a painters hangout. I painted the face and a bit more of the skin. But without my references at hand I lost track and started to paint to bright mixes. Also in the wrong spots. I had to restart again.

I used the following paints:
- Carbon Black
- Bone Khaki
- Tenebrous Teal (just a little little bit)



This is the reference with and without bounce light:



I have a specific plinth in mind that is tinted blue. So I needed to add more blue into the midtones. The idea is that the main features of the miniature have very desaturated or blueish tones.

I added those colors to the mix:
- Pthalo Blue Green Shade
- Turquoise Deep
- The White



In the next step I made up my mind about the colors I wanted to choose. There are some things that we need to keep in mind, when choosing colors.



I thought about the colors above. But I wasn't very happy. Red would have been great. The bust is named RED. Red and blue are complementary colors ... why not. I than thought about a sheme where I would use only blue and use a stronger saturation for the bounce lights.
In the end I choose red, because it is easier to paint red. It works as a divider between the blue plinth and the blueish skintone.

I used the following colors for the red bounce light:
- Turquoise Deep (single pigment)
- The Red (single pigment)



Since this is a sketch I can go over board with everything. I will paint over most parts anyways. I added more Red to the bounce lights.



I need to sketch the hair and the armor next. The hair will be extremely bright. It should look very unnatural. The armor will be rather dark but shiny. I also need to change the color of the red to magenta. Otherwise the red bounce light would indicate a very harsh lighting situation. You could read it as two light colors. Blue and red. But it has to be blue skin with a red bounce light. Therefore the parts lit by the red light must be magenta/violet.


You can see how the colors will mix.

Very comprehensive explanation and how you reasoned through the colour mix is very interesting. I can see how good this will be by the end of the process.

Cheers Simon