This is the latest bust I have finished. I am desperatley trying to take better pictures and I am content with these. Thanks to those who gave advice in my thread in the painting forum. Here are the pics and please give advice where needed as I have learned to go back and re-work figures once "done". Thanks for looking.

Thanks Carl I really appreciate the kind words.

Hi Mike,

I really like what you have done here!

As a fellow Young fan, you have derived far greater pleasure from his talent than I have

It is fun seeing your treatment to one of the early, generic faces from this manufacturer, since I am dealing with virtually the same face, albeit on a WW2 soldier.

Mike I am liking it! I hope you bring it to the Tulsa show. I hate photograpy as I am sure you do. I think our work, as in most all of us here, looks so much better in person.

Michael; thank you for the words. I am huge fan of Youngs work and enjoy painting them very much. The faces can be similar almost exactly similar but I like them all the same. Speaking of what you are working on, when can we see it?

Jason; actually I like taking pictures of my pets and stuff on vacation but taking pics of figs is hard. I am glad you like it and I am bringing him to the Tulsa show. I want to see your stuff there too.

Thanks again guys for the nice words.

Very nice Mike. I hope I see this in Tulsa.

Mike

Hi! Mike.
Excellent painting!
The feel of a material of the metal is very wonderful.
The facial expression is also cool.
I liked it very much.
I congratulate completion.

Mitsutaka

Hi Mike,

wonderful paint, I like this Roman a lot

Stunning work Mike.
I cannot see something for commenting.

Marc

Very nice Mike, like the skin tones and the amrour looks pretty cool

Beautiful piece

Cheers
Tommi

Hello Mike:

Wow, this is a very impressive bust. I’ve seen it a number of times over the years. And you’ve done a first class job on it. One of the things you wrote in your responses to Planeteer’s comments, was that you do indeed, go back and add further painting to your figure work, sometimes, even after it is completed. I need that kind of discipline, . . . Whoa Nellie!

So your comment gave me the idea of suggesting the following. I like your colour palette, colour choices. I also like the “artistic” style of painting like we see on Major Goose’s latest equestrian figure posted on PF. And so I’d like to see you introduce some other colour shades to your fine work. For example, in the top “horse hair” (?) cone in light red with the darker raw umber tones near the metal arch shape that hold it together, I like to see you add highlights at the top area in the individual stands that are almost a light orange colour that is similar to the bronze colours in the lion motif on the chest armor. In the wolf skin that you’ve done such a good job on, I’d like to see you add some light brown or tannish tones to the tops of “fur”. Many wolves are grey but there are other tans and brown also in that gray exterior. And in the armor, I think you might add a tone in the corners and the “shadow” areas that have more of a kind of tarnish, such as an amber or deep yellow ochre tint. I see these additional kind of ways to “expand your palette” as ways to bring this well painted bust even to a more exciting level. Finally — and this is too long, for sure — I think the facial tones and the eyes are spot on. Well done, and congrats,

Jaybird

PS. Since I wrote this off line, it spread all over the place. Sorry. It is so hard to read that much text spread that wide.

Nicely finished bust Mike, but I would agree with Rick about the Wolf skin and add some more colour tones.


Cheers David

Thanks guys so much for the comments & kind words. Jayhawk & David I think you are totally correct about the colors on the wolf. I am fortunate enough to have Tommi painting a viking with a similar wolf "shawl" at the same time. I even commented the other day on Tommi's thread how realistic the wolf fur looked, mine looks blah. Good thing it is an easy fix and actually gives me something to work on tonight.

Thanks again to all of you for checking him out.

Superwork on this bust Mike, i like a lot what you have done !!

cheers

stefano

Thanks Stefano!

Fantastic work Mike. The skin tones are excellent. I hope to see this in Tulsa as well.

Hi ya Guy, thanks for checking him out. I am glad you like him & thanks for the kind words. I am racking my brain to figure out a way to spend some time at the Tulsa show. I have a huge golf tourney that same weekend but I will have a display (if Steve is still willing to tote 15-20 figures ). If you are going to be there I WILL MAKE THE TIME. It really sucks since this will be the first time (besides here) that anyone else has seen my painting. Thanks again sir for all your help since I first started painting.

Excellent paintwork Mike!
Great looking face.

regards,
Marcel.