Painting Bono II.

Just to recap: last time I prepared the figure, basecoated it, and started to paint the main blocks with acrylics. Till this step the process is more or less always the same. You always need a solid first layer with some kind of acrylics; these paints are covering well and giving a good starter point for the further work. I also like to paint the small deatails (like the eyes in this case or the earrrings) with acrylics; these are drying fast, and you don't risk mixing the fine details. I painted some basic highlights and shadows too, but continued the work with oils. To achieve nice, subtle blended highlights and shadows (especially in bigger scales) I always prefer this method.

Some thoughts on the different paints: 

Acrylics are drying fast, after a few minutes they give a perfect, solid and matt surface of paint. They are perfect for the first layer and also to paint the smaller details. In smaller scales (like 30 mm) they are the only real options in my opinion. In fact, you can paint the whole figure with only acrylics, but I think it's not the easiest option. You extremely need to thin the paint and apply every layer with a lot of care, if you want to achieve nice fadings and subtle transition between the different tones. It can be even 20 or more layers on a big scale figure like this to achive the effect you want. This requires a lot of experience and patient as well. Althaugh acrylics are drying fast, to apply this high number of extra diluted layers can take a lot of time. If you rush and don't dilute the paint enough, you will see ugly paint marks at the end. Which is everything but not what we want.

What about Oils? (I never use enamels for figure painting, so can't say anything about them.) In my opinion artistic oils are not good for a first layer, as their layers are too translucent and covering not well. You can really make the most of their advantages at the shading phase. Because of their long drying time, you can apply the appropriate highlight or shadow colours to the desired area and then blend it to the surface. After 10-30 mins gently touch the area with a soft, dry brush. Always start at the area, where you want the effect to be the less strong. Use a medium size brush (like flat2) and blend the paint gradually. If you find the paint not enough homogeneous, or too thick, you can touch the whole area with a bigger soft brush. But try not to overdo this and especially not to cover over other areas with the excess paint.

There is no exact recipe, where you need to apply the highlights and shadows and what colour you need to use - every painter is using slightly different mixtures and methods. However there are some tricks, which can help you if you are uncertain.

I always try to observe the work of experienced figure painters, where they apply the different shades, what colours they use. The experience gained from this is sometimes even more useful than checking real photographs. Studio pics are made with artificial lights, often coming from different directions. The light-effects are therefore not enough strong for our purpose, and they can be misleading. This doesn't mean, that you should never check real things before painting...But there are so many good references nowadays, even on the internet. Figure painters these days are often using techniques observed on paintings from classical painters. These are based on experiences of hundred years, what looks good IN-SCALE. So do not hesitate to check the works of different painters and figure painters, and try to copy the effect they achieved. Yes, copying in this case is means no shame. You can develop your own style later, when you gained enough experience.

An other useful trick is to observe the actual figure. Put it under a direct light source, and
check, where you can see the shadows, and where are the most light areas. If it's necessary, take a picture of it, and use it as a reference later on, when you're applying the paint. If you have an airbrush, you can achieve the same result with it. Paint your figure black, than apply a light coat of grey from a 45 degree angle upwards, while turning your figure around its axis. Than mix a bit more white into the paint, and spray it from an even smaller angle, almost vertically. This way, the paint will work similar as the light, and you will have a figure which is already pre-shaded.

Now about the actual painting process. I placed some artistic oil paint on a piece if cardboard. This will take of the most of the oil component, which would make the surface too glossy and would make the drying process extremely slow. After a couple of minutes I toke over the paint to a piece of aluminium foil. I'm using black, different brownish colours (like umber and sienna), skintone and white. Place the black to the left, than the darkest brown a bit further to the right, than the lighter brown, skintone, and finally the white. Gently mix the closest colours, with care to have a gradual, continuous palette. I also mix a small amount of violet to the corner of a dark brown section, and some red to an other, lighter section.

Apply the colours straight from the palette, without thinner. Always with small amount, just a bit of paint at the tip of the brush. Dark brown to the temporal, under the chin and the cheeks. Some violet brown around the eyes. Lighter tones on the forehead, nose, over the cheek bones, on the chin. A reddish skintone on the lips, to the end of the nose, and some on the cheek-area. This is more complicated in written...Just look at the pictures. Work always on one area at the same time, blend it, and then go to the next area. You can always go back later to further strengthen an effect, so you don't need to do everything in one step.

The last stage on the face was the 5 o'clock shadow. The sculptor made a very nice effect to depict this. So if you are lazy, you can do just a dark wash on the surface, and wipe the area a bit later. I chose to paint the area with nicely blended grayish oils - this won't take too long either. I mixed some black and skintone to get a relatively dark grey tone. With adding white you can mix the lighter shades too. I applied the darker and lighter tones following the already existing shadow and highlight areas. Always just some little dot with the paint, then blend it to the surrounding area. The grayish tone needs to remain quite translucent to show some from the under-laying skintone. We want to show some stubble not a thick beard. I followed the same process on the chest, and also painted some hair with a good 0000 brush.

Finishing the hair and the clothes from this point is pretty straight-forward. I used again acrylics for the base and oils for the shade-effects.

The last stage was to prepare the sun-glasses. As this was moulded from a translucent pinkish resin, needs to be handled very carefully. First I sanded off the remaining of the moulding marks, starting with a 400 grade, then 1000, 2000 and finally 3000, all with some water.

If the surface gets matte
and dim, you can apply this
easy trick: dip the translucent
part into some floor polishing
fluid, like Future polish shine. Wait till it gets dry, and your part is again shiny and clear. I made some dry-fit to the bust. If it is not fitting perfectly, you can gently heat the piece with hair dryer, and form it to the desired shape. With resin it is a much easier procedure than with plastic, and it is quite impossible to ruin the part. However you need to do it slowly and gradually.

I hope you enjoyed to read this article. Next time we're coming with the painting of the beautiful Braveheart bust from Nocturna Modells.

If you are interested for our products, please visit the official Shamrock Miniatures website.

Painting Bono I.

Hello Folks,

I started this bust a couple of weeks ago. I undertook to make a short demo about figure painting at the Dublin IMSS show, and this bust was my choice. First of all, it is easier to show the painting of face, and especially the painting of eyes on a larger scale figure. Secondly, this is a very easy to paint figure, you can progress quickly (which is not a disadvantage when you're making a demo...)

Unfortunately there was no chance to make sbs pics, but hopefully you will find some useful tips though ;)
So, let's get it started.

 In first step I gave a basecoat to the figure with my favourite Mr Surfacer 1200. There was no need for sanding or other preparation, the figure had no remarkable moulding lines or bubbles.




I always wait at least 24 hours before start to paint the figure to give enough time to the primer to get completely dry.






Usually I start with the eyes. Why? Because it is relatively easy to make a mistake with this tiny little feature. And in that case, if it happens, it is always easier to restart from this point, than ruin all your efforts you placed in the painting of the face, isn't it?

 A small white dot in the iris and a light pinkish wash around the eyeball brings even more life to the eye of your figure.

After the eyes were ready I started to paint the face. My favourite base colour is brown sand from Vallejo. I thin the paint at this stage in a 50-50 ratio, and cover the whole surface in 3-4 steps.

I mixed a lighter shade with adding some basic skintone to the base colour, and diluted the mixture with adding more water (around 5-8 times more water). In first step I covered about the half of the face, the most highlighted areas.



I added more basic skintone to the mixture, and even more water. Covered with this a relatively smaller area than previously. Than added even more basic skintone, and covered even smaller area.

I mixed a darker colour with adding some burnt cadmium red to the base colour. Followed the same method as with the highlights, just to the opposite direction.

In 4-5 steps you need to see the base tones on the face. Look at your figure from a further distance (half meter or so) and check the general impression. At this stage it's still easy to correct the contrast between the highlighted and shadow areas. You can still add more highlight or shadow to an area, or go back with very diluted base colour to soften an effect.

I added some red to the basecolour and covered lightly the lips. Be careful with the amount of red you add: again, you can make it too feminine.
I painted the hair and eyebrow with a light black colour. This helps to see the whole impression of the face better.

Next time I will continue with adding more shades with artistic oils.