Finally, Back To The Bench!

I know it has been a long time since my last post. Honestly I went for a couple of months with no work done at all. Between dealing with the passing of my mother and learning how to use new photo software and a new laptop (I went from a PC to a Mac Pro-book), I have been slow. Hopefully this post makes up for that.

One of my current projects is "Tribe Chief Morrow" a great little resin bust from Forged Monkey and the talented hands of Raffa Picca. Yes folks I do like fantasy and Sci-Fi subjects and this one is great one.

After spending some time looking at photos of actual gorillas on the internet I noticed that what we assume to be basically black animals have a broad range of color variation that includes a lot of reddish brown. This is where I chose to start, by applying a base of Mars Brown and removing the excess to leave a warm base tone to build upon.

One dry a wash of Burnt Umber was applied to further develop shadow tones. My painting style has slowly changed to the point that I use lots of initial washes to build tonal value, contrast and identify good color choices (harmony).

Work on the armor plate started with applications of washes, first Prussian Blue..................

............followed by Purple and Burnt Umber. There will be a final wash of Mars Black applied prior to starting to build highlights and develop a realistic finish. You will notice that I started working on the leather portion of his helmet as well, with washes of Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.

Back to the Gorilla. An initial wash of Mars Black was applied and allowed to dry. Mars Black and Burnt Umber were mixed and applied as a wash to the leather and armor plate.

Mars Black was applied as a glaze, being worked into the shadow areas more heavily. My goal is a basically black gorilla that isn't really black. The warm tones are strong now but experience tells me that as I apply neutral highlights to the fur the brown will diminish and the black will become a stronger value.

The last areas that have been worked on to this point are the horns on the helmet and the eyes. The horns are a wet-on-wet gradation from off-white to Mars Brown to Mars Black. This is only a base for further work. Gorilla eyes are interesting. They are basically a strong Orange Brown with Black Iris and reddish whites barely visible. This one is fun!!

This is just one of about four different projects I am currently working on so stay tuned.