Thanks so much for the kind response to what I consider to be a ram it over the line project, as I mentioned I started this bust maybe 2012 and at that stage I had the Metals looking better than now by using an old technique that I had developed about 40 years ago using Goldfinger (I think it's by Rowney) it's a metalic paste that comes in a tube like oils and the process was to start painting the Metals on the figure first (this is because it involved dry brushing and the sparkles go everywhere) so started off painting the metal sections on the bust with Matt Black Humbrol, then I mixed the Silver from the tube with black oil paint to produce a gunmatal colour, then a small dab of Humbrol satin varnish to act as a binder, once this was mixed I dry brushed it on trying to leave the recesses overlaps of the plate armour free from this so that those remained Matt Black the process was repeated adding more of the silver each time and working away from the darker areas out to the sharp edges in order to leave them almost silver. I then used black and burnt umber oil paints + the small dab of humbrol satin varnish mix applying very small amounts on the tip of a brush into the dark crevasses and dragging this out blending it into the various shades of gunmetal/silver to create subtle transitions, I would have dry brushed Humbrol Silver onto the extreme edges of the armour plates, a similar progess was used for the brass fittings only using Gold goldfinger paste and possibly more burnt umber for the recesses around rivets etc.
Now I just kept working at this until I was happy and when I left it it looked excellent, however I have not got a clue what happened over several years but everything had lost it's effect and the definitions between the dark areas and light areas had disappeared, well let me tell you I used every curse word in the book, made a couple of new ones up and repeated them multiple times over for several hours, but when I eventually accepted what had happened I started to try and revitalise using 3rd Gen AK Metals, Dry brushed and dry dabbed Gunmetal, then natural steel, then silver, went into the recesses with Black and burnt umber oils (no satin varnish in the mix this time) and that's what you see in the picture, if anything it's very grainy now.
Summing up a lot of the guys who paint with oils will tell you not to mess with them as adding this and that can completely change how they preform and react through time and I have experienced this quit a lot with clearing the self of shame and that's why I am going to give learning how to work with Acrylics another go, I don't like deserting the chosen few oils painters society but if I keep throwing tantrums, developing new curse words that even shock me, I will have trouble getting into paradise and more than likely end up in the other place being handed a full set of artists oils by the horned demon.
TERRY
Oilers are becoming a rare bread, sheesh. By way of the dinosaurs we go, I recon, but I'm still in the fight, HA!
