Hello figure painting friends,
its been a little while as I have had lots of aircraft to build but the urge for painting something figurey got the best of me..
As soon as the bench was clear from the last build (Mitsubishi type 96 Claude)

I hope you enjoy this (rather ambitious ) build log as it evolves. And please feel free to offer critique to your hearts content, I want to learn and improve

James

Ps.. For those who are interested here is the Claude...

Excellent choice, have fun and inspiration!
Cheers,
Nicolae

I like the look of him, plenty of character, shall be watching with interest.

What make is he, interested in getting one.

Geoff

Thanks folks. Geoff, its a young minis bust
The flesh was based in a dark brown mix of dark vermillion, bright orange, light green and German c black brown.

I feel the eyes on this piece could have been a bit sharper, they were quite tricky to paint.
The eyes were green grey with ivory lights, iris was black and Prussian blue, with lightened Prussian blue lights. Pupil was black with a ivory catchlight

I got a bit carried away and have nearly finished the face, the tones I tried to make a little more olive.
Here is the actor the bust Is based on (I think) Ghassan Masoud

And my attempt so far

Thanks Nap, hope you are well! I'm looking forward to BC, will be an exiting show and just a tad nerve racking haha.
Do you have any tips regarding eyes? I usually paint the white/grey then outer iris inner iris and pupil and catch, then close it in, but always have trouble with one at least. It could be a practice thing or maybe I need a magnifier ( they seem to get in the way)
I may try later to repaint the eyes.
James

Looking good - looking forward to seeing more
(I will probably pick up this bust for myself too!)
Phil

I do not know what medium you use, but I gues this method would work with any.
1) paint eyes off-white (i.e. white with a touch of skin colour in it for warm eyes, or a tiny touch of blue for cold eyes)
2) whadow the eyes using same white mis, but a little bit darkened - I pretend I am painting part of a sphere, so shadows at the bottom, light where it is sticking out
3) a dark shadow underneath the upper eyelid (I try to avoid painting on the eye ball at this point
4) a very thin line of red-coloured shadow on the inside of the lower eyelid (again attempting to avoid the eyeball. Another option (my last set of eyes was a bit of an accident, I will use this on purpose on the next set) is to thinly paint the eyeball with thinner (i.e. water for acrylics, surpentine for oils) - blow dry (but not bone dry - the purpose is to dry the bits that are sticking out while still having thinner inside the folds) then with a light touch with the reddish shadow at the inner corner of the eye (close to the nose)
4) for irisses/pupils, either mark the center of the iris with a dot or a very thin line (outer iris colour) - this step is very important, as it will locate each iris on the eye (so if making an error, whipe away and try again). Important to do both eyes at the same time. So a dot/line for both eyes, then increase the area on one eye with the outer iris colour a little; the same location+size on the other eye; then increase a bit more on the one eye, then the other and so forth until you are happy with the iris size.
5) Work in the inner iris colour - with this colour I also bring out the fomr of the eyeball, but inversing the light (so shadow tone on the upper half, lighter tone on the inner half - and increasingly lighter towards the centre.
6) When happy put in the pupil.

Only when face and eyes are completed, and I have a clear understanding of the mood i am trying to convey do I put in light reflection in the desired position. - so this is done either just before doing hair/hood/whatever or at the very end of completing the bust - the last touches as it were.

A lot of work, but I get really good remarks on my lat work (Darth Yoda, as it was seen on Oundle.
Once I get my camera working again I will attempt to take some close ups (starting my own topic, of course)

Hope this helps

Phil thankyou !
And Landrotten Highlander, thankyou that's an excellent reply. I tried to follow your instruction, and got to me, a much more pleasing eye.. It was easier for me to paint over the old eye than when I started the bust. Thankyou for your guidance !

So here are the improved eyes.. And more facial highlights. The lighting is poor and my phone takes poor photos, but I have a photo anyway.

Also a quick note, I am finding the beard tricky to paint without it looking badly drybrushed. I'm considering using oils to blend blue/black, vandyke brown and white to achieve the "salt and pepper " look. Any thoughts on this ? James

Eyes looking good

I recently noticed something re hair I never did before (I too used to drybrush and got nowhere).

In most periodartwork, the highlights on the hair resemble more "bands of light" across several strands, rather than highlighting the highest points along the strands.
I have seen examples of this on busts, and they always jump out much more compared to the normal box art (shame I cannae find the bl*****g things again).

I wrote out a post and it evaporated! Lol.
Thanks L.H!
Its always the way! Not being able to find things, I have lost loads to the ether.. Haha

I know what you mean, I employed something similar but very subtle on the head hair of my Rurik bust, its a nice challenge to get it too look natural and sheeny and not as in your face as the hair on a L'Oreal model.

Guess who will be studying beards at work today

Thanks Nap ! That's what I'm going to do I think, I have left the beard for the moment so I can approach it with fresh eyes after completing another section. No pics yet but last night at club i had a chat with our other figure guy and got some feedback on the face, I added some small glazes of violet to the lower cheeks and lower eyelids, and worked a slightly strong shadow into the creases between cheeks and upper lip. Pics and updates soon !
J

Morning folks!
A quick question, I have googled this but I couldn't find anything really,
What dyes were available in the middle east in the 12 century? I know of indigo and red, I'm trying to work out what options I have .
Many thanks
James

Interesting post @Nap,
however, this is clearly seen from the viewpoint of the Catholic world (refer to the annotation of yellow with traitors and those of an 'inferior' belief system.

I found this an intersting read
https://worldbuilding.stackexchange...ble-to-the-average-person-in-a-medieval-world

Thanks LH and Nap, there seems to have been a fairly universal dye lot used during that period, I also found on my web hunt an article about Persian carpets and the dyes used throughout. It all seems to marry up, its just a shame there seems to be very few solid references on fabrics from the middle east, and even colours as descriptor, I remebrr seeing a link posted here about what colours meant what in medieval times.
Here is the rug page, not exactly on the same page but a close parallel?
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/carpets-ii

Grateful as ever for your help!
James