Banshee Anonymous bust finished, the next project and a Dungeon Saga troll

Anonymous bust

Just tidied up the bust some more with various little bits here and there.  I redid the rear left shoulder and then decided to continue on the open wound look and made a patch of raw flesh/meat in the hollow area.

To add to the depth I highlighted a mid point area and put a very dark shade below it to try and reinforce the depth perception of the area.

I’m pretty happy with the overall result.  This was my first bust I purchased and intimated me for over a year.  Seeing all the amazing versions online didn’t help.  Really happy I attempted it as it pushed me way outside my comfort zone and I’m not likely to paint this much flesh again in one figure.  Really like how I did the orange hair.  Go complementary colour shading!

I’m now totally converted over to making my own flesh mixes for larger scale figures (for 28mm quick and dirty figures maybe not).  I’m also in awe of people like Ben Komets who paint flesh with only four colours and make it work.  I was getting up to eight base colours in some stages and thinking that I was making it too complex.

Dungeon Saga troll shaman

After the bust I finished the last Dungeon Saga troll.  Now just the orcs/goblins from the second expansion to do.  Think I’ll have a long break before them.  I have the Terminator figures and some LotR figures I want to do as my background/in between painting tasks first.

Adokul the monk

A few years ago I got a subscription to the new defunct Figure International magazine by Andrea.  Part of the subscription was the figure ‘Adokul the monk (RS-013)’.  A very Warhammer (40k) inspired figure.  Lots of big armour bits and skulls.  He will just be on a small base, no big diorama.  I think I will modify him a bit and have his hammer with the head at the top of the figure (rather than under his foot) and have his left foot on something else.  Doing some dry fittings to try out options.  I’ll leave off the arms for painting for now.

Lastly started helping my son (his is 6) work on his first entry to the Crystal Dragon painting competition.  A strange diorama (20x14cm) with four small areas with a high brick wall separating the areas with a mix of skeletons (Reaper Bones), scorpions (Reaper Bones) and eagles (Eureka) in each area.  He has a very strong story idea, I’m still getting there.  Of course when my daughter saw that we were doing it, she started working out what she wanted to do.  All about the next generation :)

Banshee Anonymous bust part 2

Pretty much more of the same this week.  I continued to work on the Anonymous bust, working my way around the model and fixing areas up.

Banshee Anonymous bust

First area that needed some work was the back.  The left shoulder blade needed to be made closer to the right shoulder.  Also the lower back area needed the contrast pushed a bit more.

The left side of the neck proved to be the hardest area.  My original attempt had resulted in a very purple skin finish.  Also the hollow areas were much too stark and continued too far up the neck to the head.  I had a very big inverted V on the side of his neck.  This got repainted at least half a dozen times as I just couldn’t get the colour where I wanted it.  Always too purple or too brown, loosing all the orange tones.    In the end I found using VMC Dark Sea blue instead of VMA Armour brown as the shade colour seemed to work.  I think I’m almost there now.

Under the scar area on the left side of the head I put some normal flesh colour at the base of the neck.  This helped define the area and stopped the shading in the hollows of the neck from continuing all the way up the head to the scar area.  The scars were worked on and I added some more dark red/purple shadows next to the flesh lines to make them pop a bit more.

The wife mentioned that the hair stubble didn’t look different enough from the flesh.  So I took the contrast a bit further.  I used very small dots of colour (both the shadow and highlight) over the stubble area and then with a wet brush sumped the dots out much like you would with oil paints.  You have to be quick as the small dots dry very fast.  I used the same technique on the beard.  I probably should have used the flow medium I have to help out there on second thoughts.  The main hair got some more highlights.

Lastly I glued the figure into the base before the final finish up tasks.

This week more touch up work and trying not to ruin things by over fiddling them.

Banshee Anonymous bust

Anonymous bust by Banshee

The Anonymous bust done by Banshee (Alfonso Giraldes) was the first bust that I purchased over a year ago.  It’s been sitting in the draw waiting for me to get brave enough to try it.  I found the expanse of flesh (and nothing but flesh) quite intimidating.  I decided to start it about five weeks ago and it just sat on the desk.  Proverbial mental roadblock.  I just couldn’t find a way to start it and didn’t want to do it badly.  So it sat unpainted.

Finally this weekend I just dived in.  I used a number 2 flat brush to just get the paint on quickly and to sketch out the rough shadows and highlights.  I found that using the flat brush really enjoyable as it had quite a good point (chisel tip?) and I could use it to do some fine lines as well.  In the end I had to stop as I was doing wet on wet (on wet) and paint was lifting off and leaving bare patches.  The end result was pretty rough and rather orange but I had started.

On the next session I pretty much repainted most of the figure and started getting the colours right and trying to get the blend areas smoother.  I’m keeping the paint very thin for the most part, trying to build up layers to give the skin some depth.  I did the eyes as not having them done was throwing me off.  I think they may be a bit bright however.

On the left side of the face the check groves ended up becoming three scars.  They aren’t really sculpted that way but I used some darker colour to suggest the scars.  I then got the idea to continue that theme and made the left side of the head scarred/burnt as well.  I’m alternating the colour areas by using dark red/purple for the damaged flesh areas and the skin highlight colour for the scar area.  So far lots of glazes used to give some depth.  Unfortunately I’ve made a pattern and need to break that up so it looks more random.  The brain just loves uniformity.

The hair I went for a ginger/orange.  So far it seems to be working, but I have to be careful that the highlights don’t go pink and stay orange/yellow.

So much mixing

Before I started it did a couple of test mixes to try and get the flesh colour sorted using Jo Sonja paints.  I’m really liking just working with basic colours and doing mixes.  Rather than make up a pot of flesh colour (like I did for the Cimmerian King figure) I deliberately didn’t.  This forces me to mix every time and get the mixes consistent.  Hard to do but it’s the only way I’m going to get better at mixing.  I find my flesh mixes always get a bit yellow as I don’t add enough white to begin with.  However I also found that a dot of purple in the mix helps a great deal in neutralising the yellow.  The colours I’m using are

Jo Sonja
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna - more red than brown I find
White
Light Yellow

Cadmium Scarlet

Napthol Crimson

VMC Violet Red
VMC Dark sea blue

The basic flesh mix is raw sienna, light yellow, white and spots of orange, red and the violet red.  The highlights are more white and yellow and orange, the shades more violet red, burnt sienna and red.

 My custom Jo Sonja paint holder :)

Going forward I need the scars to more pronounced and the base of the neck and back need work.  I’m really happy with the cropped hair fuzz on the right side of the figure.  I think the forehead may be a bit yellow.  I’m wondering if the green of the cutting mat I have in my painting area is throwing me off slightly.

Finally keeping with tradition I did another Dungeon Saga Troll.  One to go.