Thanks Romain, good to know someone has some faith in my abilities

Got the face mostly done, still need to go and define some deep shadows and give him some 5 o'clock shadow. If you're wondering about the band on his forehead, remember there will be a helmet casting shadow. The eyes weren't as difficult as I thought they'd be. It would have been easier if they had been well defined, but for a first effort, I'm happy. I blocked in the tunic and trousers to see how the overall feel was, it's amazing how the tones of the flesh change with a lighter overall body. The base is just ever so slightly coming through the top coats to give it some depth.










Now I'm going to let my eyes relax and watch some hockey, or shoot some planes down. More tomorrow.

Kimmo

The tunic is almost complete, I need to do the straps and then see what needs to be done. You can see the effect I'm going for: darker in the chest and lighter on the back and so on. The bread bag has been started as well. I found I needed to bring the green back a little on the tunic, the highlighting and shading had turned it too grey. A filter took care of that. I may need one more to tie everything together.








Sorry about the pictures being a bit too dark, I could really use some more lighting in general and a light tent. Alas, no room really. The final pics will be better lit.

Kimmo

Looking good! Nice progress. It is kind of difficult to tell from your pix but I think the contrasts are looking good.
J

Thanks Jerry. I'll get some better shots at some point, right now the table is covered in paint bottles and I'd rather be painting than taking pictures. Next break I might play with the pics in photoshop to see if I can clean them up a bit.

Kimmo

Hopefully that last post didn't come off as snippy, I have so little room to work that sometimes it gets a bit frustrating trying to get in progress shots without doing some major cleaning up which of course takes time and breaks your rhythm.

So, onwards and upwards, or in this case downwards as in pants and boots. The figure is mostly done now, details and some filters still need to be done, but I'm happy with how everything is going so far. Hopefully these cropped, larger pics give you a better idea of where it's at.








I noticed that the tunic had gone too brown with the shading, so a light filter of green and a touch of blue fixed that. I'm now getting an appreciation for how different figures look in real life versus what a digital camera presents. Some stuff is washed out, some stuff looks garish or heavy. I'm sure there's a dark art for getting shots to look how you want them, I suspect a better camera would be a good place to start. Anyways, another break to relax the old eyes and I'll do another couple of hours later.

Kimmo

Didn't get as much done as I would have like last night, felt the energy levels drop so I just relaxed. Continued today with improving the shadows, particularly in folds and under cuts. I felt there wasn't enough contrast or depth going on. I basically applied pin washes of dark green with a touch of blue in places where I wanted sharp shadows. The webbing got some more work, still needs a coat of satin for the leather to stand out a bit. I also gave the tunic a filter to tie the colours together a little more. I also played around in photoshop, these are now closer to the truth, still not perfect. I think the background needs to be darker and possibly blue/grey. It would seem that painting for live versus digital eyes, one has to make adjustments. Something to bear in mind for future projects.









That's it for now. Next update sometime during the week.

Kimmo

Much better piccies. I love the blending on your facial tones.
J

Thanks, not sure if that was me or the camera

Kimmo

Nice paintjob Kimmo.

One suggestion only....would a dark shadow under the lower lip help to better define that part?!??

Just my 2c worth!

Cheers

Romain

Yes it would. I still haven't gotten around to tweaking the shadows on the face. I'll plop the helmet on first and see what we got going.

Kimmo

Not much to report this week, been dealing with a stubborn head cold, not much point in trying to do anything involving thinking. Before it hit, I did manage to get the rifle pretty much done, will post pics soon and hopefully get some time in before I have to start on another project.

Kimmo

Sorry to hear that! Get well soon m8!

Cheers

Romain

Thanks, I think the worst of it is over, now if I can find some bench time.

Kimmo

After a prolonged break to work on an armoured car, I finally got some more work done. The figure is now all together and just about done. I'll take some photos tomorrow.

Kimmo

Can't wait to see it m8!!!

Cheers

Romain

Be careful what you wish for

Kimmo

Well, here it is. For a first effort with acrylics I'm pretty happy. I'm rather pleased with the base. Three circles of styrene, a base of reddish tan and a smoke wash streaked as it dried and given a coat of gloss. Took all of 45 minutes. The ground work is coarse pumice and sand gels. I still need to figure out how to get better photos. I was going to take some outside, but of course it's raining.











A pity that the trousers aren't coming up more grey, you can see what they're like from earlier photos. I'll try to remember to take some outdoors as soon as I can. Onwards and upwards. I have a ton of figures in the stash, and now that I know what to look out for, the next one should be that much better. Thanks for watching and showing your support.

Kimmo

Hi Kimmo,

try to photograph him outdoors! This lighting is definitely too warm!!! It tends to spoil the whole effect!!

And the guy has a syphilitic nose !! You should improve on your makeup skills!!

Well done m8!!

You are allowed to further figure painting and converting!

Cheers

Romain

Kimmo,
I noticed that you changed backgrounds. I believe your camera's auto-exposure might be taking control -- hate when that happens!

Nice work! Keep those figgys coming; I learn from you guys.

--mike

Thanks guys. Mike, yeah my camera has a mind of it's own. It has a lovely autoblur feature as well. I should be getting my hands on a somewhat better camera soon hopefully. The thing that drives my up the wall is that I can take several pics from roughly the same distance and get 3-4 different end results. I guess I need to do a good test session some day.

Kimmo

Looking good. Keep it up!
J

Thanks Jerry, your latest piece is shaping up nicely.

Kimmo

Hi Kimmo!
Just a nit-pick but the hook clasp of the gas canister is usually attached to the belt on the other side of the Y-frame (to prevent it from slipping forward)

Otherwise nice work! the extra detailing is really nice

Thanks Johan. I was going to go that route but I found a few examples of this style as well. I would have had to do a bit of reworking with the bread bag sit and couldn't be bothered to be honest. Looking at refs I saw that there was a bit of variety with where everything was placed and just ended up going with a best fit approach as molded. Next time around, I'll try to go with a more conventional layout, even if it means some extra work.

Kimmo

I figured (hoho) you knew. And you are right, there are definitely alternates out there. Just thought I would mention it!