Violinist finished

The Violinist

It is done.  I missed last week’s post due to house issues and needing to do some roof repairs (something I hate doing).  So the final stage of the piece was a little dragged out.   So lots of pictures to make up for that :)

This stage was everything come together.  Gluing on the fence and the cat; adding a new broken pillar in the back corner as the single bush looked a little barren; painting up and gluing on some fallen leaves; gluing on the pots and bowl and lots of pigments over the ground.

I also needed to putty up the base of the fence as there were a few gaps there.  I also added in a vine to add some extra colour to the piece.

Black cat

The vine

The vine trunk is a piece of coconut fibre.  On that I superglued some paper leaves (the laser cut kind).

Paper leaves

Once they were dry I used some PVA glue on the trunk and dipped the whole thing in some loose leaf mixtures (light green, dark green and olive).  Then I added some yellow paint to the tips of the vine and some dark green into the leave bases and trunk.  I really should have painted the trunk first.

Scenic leaves

I don’t really know if I like the end result of the piece.  I think it’s just been too much time on one project so the grind got to me.  To early yet to enjoy it.  Doing the wall twice wasn’t fun.  I also learnt I need to spend more time planning layouts.  I changed the layout a few times and that did cost me time.  I ended up painted a dog I didn’t use and four wooden boxes that I didn’t use.

I’m really glad I tried new things like the water effects.  Much like the snow effects I used on the Prince of Novograd I learnt a whole new set of skills and which products are good (and not so good).  Next time water and snow :)

Go water!

Unfortunately this weekend the rain came in so I don’t have any decent light for real photos.  So I’ll need to get those later.  For now here are some bench photos.

Bone?

While in the shed fixing other things I also made up a prototype figure holder.

Figure holder, made for 54mm figures but will work with 28mm figures .

I’ve seen these around previously.  The idea is the metal bar allows you to rest your fingers on the bar to be more steady with your painting.  The bar also spins so you can access all of the figure.  Rather than pay $40+ for one I made my from a coat hanger and wood scraps and the spring from a peg.  Shed life!