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.

El Greco Laconian Hoplite - Completed

 

Well, he is done. After more tweaking of the helmet details, crest, beard, cloth and chest hair he is complete. I may well tweak some more before the Long Island Show comes along in a few weeks but for the most part I am happy with the outcome. I have to say that the pics don't translate my reds quite the way they look in real life and I am probably going to shoot him in front of a few other different backdrops as an experiment tomorrow.

El Greco Laconian Hoplite - Helmet and Cloth

 

Progress on the helmet, crest, cloth and hair can be seen in the pictures above and below. I have put together a small step by step series of photos (see below) showing the process over the past few days to get to this point. As for the hair on his head and chest, I basically filled out his beard and hair with a coat of Mars Brown and Burnt Umber. The chest hair was created by repeatedly touching the effected area with a worn W&N "Series 7" 000 brush with thinned Burnt Umber in the hairs.

 

The first step was to block in the color panels using Mars Yellow, Raw Umber and Mars Black.

These areas of solid color were then stippled and blended with an old soft brush to develop transitions in the tonal values.

 

Orange reflected color was worked into the wet paint as a "reflected" color tone on the helmet (both sides front and right side back).Additionally, a base wash of Cadmium Red Deep, Mars Black and Orange was applied to the crest.

 

Mars Yellow and Titanium White were used to begin highlighting and unifying the finish.

 

Titanium White with a touch of Mars Yellow begins the process of reflective highlighting. The helmet still looks to soft but additional highlighting once the helmet is dry will begin to pull it all together. Cadmium Red Light is used to begin to get the red dyed crest to begin going towards a dyed and faded crest from the period.

 

The tunic cloth was highlighted with Cadmium Red Deep mixed with Titanium White. At this point the chest hair had not been started.

Pegaso Knight Templar Bust - Completed

 

All Done!! So first let's get the name change out of the way. Up to this point the bust was going to be a Hospitaller but in the end he has become a Templar. Fairly straightforward. All the details are completed with the addition of the rope and the helmet strap tail. A bit of touch-up here and there and we are complete. Enjoy!

 

I have to say the challenges with this project were the armor (no metallic paints involved) and the cloak (achieving a worn, faded black).

El Greco Laconian Hoplite - Flesh and Cloth

 

Further progress on the flesh, hair, eyes and a basecoat of color for the cloth.

 

The face received shadow tones of Brown Madder. This has a slightly redder tone than my usual Burnt Umber. This worked well with the cooler flesh tone I had started with. The highlights are Titanium White with a touch of Cadmium Yellow Deep. The eyes started with a pinkish white base color for the whites with the corneas and pupils picked out in blacks and browns. The hair was started with Burnt Umber and Mars Black. Two layers of color have been applied at this point. A further dark shadow tone will be applied prior to my beginning to highlight and age the hair a bit.

 

The cloth was started with a coat of Deep Cadmium Red (Extra Deep from the old Liquitex line). areas of dead shadow tones were worked in while still wet with a touch of Mars Black here and there. This is far from the finished color as I will be working more towards a faded earthy red. This will not be a brick red nor a crimson/scarlet, but somewhere in between.

Pegaso Knight Hospitaller Bust - Update #3

 

Work proceeds on this bust with the end in sight. I have completed the armor, not a bit of metallic paint to be found on this bust. The leather belt is complete as is the hooded cape. This was a bit of fun as I wanted a faded black cloth with desert dust on it. It started with a brown-black base color over which I added lighter browns and tans to achieve the desired effect. I have begun painting the shield face and have been able to attach that item as shown. All that remains are a few details as well as the rope holding the cape and a bit of trailing strapping on the helmet.

El Greco Laconian Hoplite - Starting the Flesh

As I said before, I have a lot of projects on the fire these days. This great bust from El Greco was on my want list for quite awhile and after recently purchasing it I put it high on my "to do" list. It has been sitting primed, on my bench for a month so last Sunday night I decided to start on the flesh.

 

I decided to try broadening my pallet for the basic flesh mid-tones, adding some tonal value changes in the basic mix rather than my standard technique. The flesh started with straight Burnt Sienna but I used, Green, Indigo, Alizarin Crimson and Brownish Madder to modify the warmth and hue of the colors prior to doing my first wet-on-wet blending. So what you see here is the outcome of these mid tones. Next I will tackle shadows and hair base tones as well as the eyes. A friday night project if ever there was one.