President George Washington - Completed

Well, I have completed this wonderful new portrait bust of President George Washington, an upcoming release from Michael Miniatures and sculpted by Matt Springer. I feel this is quite an accomplishment for me as it marks my first use of acrylics on a miniature. I have been a dedicated and avowed user of oils for over 33 years but except for the face this miniature is all Vallejo acrylics. The experience had it's up and down moments but by the time I was done I had gone a long way to nailing down consistency of paint and how much load should be on the brush.

So much fun and the fastest piece I've ever done. I'm all excited and ready to start the next bust. I'm not sure I'm ready to use acrylics on a 54mm figure yet but we shall see. Enjoy, and more importantly buy one of these busts when they hit the market!

President George Washington - New Michael Miniatures Bust

A bit of a surprise here! I am happy to show my progress on a new bust by Matt Springer and soon to be released as part of the Michael Miniatures line. The bust depicts George in his later years as President of the United States. I delayed talking about or showing any pictures until I felt comfortable with the direction it was going.

The base color was Burnt Sienna pure from the tube with highlights being built using my usual Titanium White and Cadmium Yellow Medium. Burnt Umber shadows and Alizarin Crimson for the lips and thinned to represent the prominent crimson cheeks found in all of the contemporary portraits.

The hair at this point is simply a "sketch" of color to lay in the highlights and shadows prior to more crisp detailing later.

The photo above shows my bench as it typically looks with the paper palette showing oil colors used to this point. The photo below shows a bit of surprise for those that know my medium. If you have been observant to this point you would have noticed that the bust is primed black from the neck down. You will also have noticed that the drawer below is full of Vallejo acrylics. My plan is to paint the clothing in acrylics so stay tuned and hope for the best!

Tribe Chief Morrow - All Ready to Go!

I really enjoyed painting this piece and I hope it shows. My intention was to balance the realistic appearance of the Gorilla with the fantasy aspects of Raffa's brilliant sculpt. Hopefully that has been achieved.

17th Century Polish Hussar - Update 2

A few refinements on this wonderful bust to share. The face is near completion with further highlights, hair painted and the eyes further refined. I have to say that I'm not totally thrilled with the eyes. From some angles they look great, while from others they aren't quite right.

The pattern is outlined on his coat in a mixture of Mars Black and Cadmium Red. I wanted the pattern to be present but subtle. I plan to go back and work subtle shade shifts into this area to bring out the pattern more.

Tribe Chief Morrow - Update - Nearly finished

Except for the armor plate that goes on his right shoulder and some final "hot-spot" details, Tribe Chief Morrow is nearing completion. Frankly I had forgotten about the extra armor piece until last night and had nearly marked this one as complete. As always looking close-up at the photographs shows me the last few details that need attention. This piece was a joy to paint so thanks goes to Raffa for a bit of something different on my bench.

Second Project of the New Year!

This is the second of four projects currently in process on the bench, one of two busts by the very lovely and equally talented Anastasiya Podorozhna. I am in the process of blocking in my basic colors at this point with any shading (other than the face) being purely rudimentary mid-tones.  The face is about 75% complete.

My plans are for some highly detailed embroidery work on both the red jacket and the green cloak.

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.