Geoff Charman
A Fixture
One of my recent purchases this time from ElGreco.
It's a bust of one of the many Marechals on Napoleon's staff, and one I hadn't heard of as he was not at Waterloo having died on 22nd May 1809 at the age of 40 in Austria.
Text taken from Wiki.
"during a lull in the second day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Marshal Lannes went and sat down at the edge of a ditch, his hand over his eyes and his legs crossed. As he sat there, plunged in gloomy meditation on having seen his friend, General de Brigade Pouzet, decapitated mid-conversation by a cannonball, a second cannonball fired from a gun at Enzersdorf ricocheted and struck him just where his legs crossed. The knee-pan of one was smashed, and the back sinews of the other torn."
He died from these injures after one leg had to be amputated. Napoleon stated that "he found Lannes a pygmy, and left him a giant"
The bust came in two parts, head and torso and with a resin plaque to attach to your own base.
After the usual cleaning up and washing I primed him in Halfords white car primer from a rattle can.
I started with the head as is my norm, and had to create quite a smooth skin due to his age and not the rugged weather beaten look of previous busts. This was painted in Artist's oils but with the eyes painted with Vallejo Acrylics.
The hair has just had a base coat and I shall return to this later.
Now for the body, all done in Vallejo Acrylics but with docraft Pearl medium added to give a metallic effect as required and Citadel brown, black and flesh washes where necessary.
Colours blocked in, the shoulder belt given an intial coat of light grey mixed with pearl medium to give the silky material look. the ochre colour is the base to the golden braiding, this with then be given a wash of Citadel brown wash then over that an ochre and pearl medium mix to highlight the braid, I shall do the same with the epaulettes but use the flesh Citadel wash and a lighter ochre paint/ pearl medium mix to give a slightly different gold colour , but I am getting ahead of myself, so here is a couple of pics as we now stand.
The blue does look slightly darker "in the flesh" but I think I shall need to give it a slightly darker go over with a wash.
So that's it for now.
TBC
Geoff
It's a bust of one of the many Marechals on Napoleon's staff, and one I hadn't heard of as he was not at Waterloo having died on 22nd May 1809 at the age of 40 in Austria.
Text taken from Wiki.
"during a lull in the second day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Marshal Lannes went and sat down at the edge of a ditch, his hand over his eyes and his legs crossed. As he sat there, plunged in gloomy meditation on having seen his friend, General de Brigade Pouzet, decapitated mid-conversation by a cannonball, a second cannonball fired from a gun at Enzersdorf ricocheted and struck him just where his legs crossed. The knee-pan of one was smashed, and the back sinews of the other torn."
He died from these injures after one leg had to be amputated. Napoleon stated that "he found Lannes a pygmy, and left him a giant"
The bust came in two parts, head and torso and with a resin plaque to attach to your own base.
After the usual cleaning up and washing I primed him in Halfords white car primer from a rattle can.
I started with the head as is my norm, and had to create quite a smooth skin due to his age and not the rugged weather beaten look of previous busts. This was painted in Artist's oils but with the eyes painted with Vallejo Acrylics.
The hair has just had a base coat and I shall return to this later.
Now for the body, all done in Vallejo Acrylics but with docraft Pearl medium added to give a metallic effect as required and Citadel brown, black and flesh washes where necessary.
Colours blocked in, the shoulder belt given an intial coat of light grey mixed with pearl medium to give the silky material look. the ochre colour is the base to the golden braiding, this with then be given a wash of Citadel brown wash then over that an ochre and pearl medium mix to highlight the braid, I shall do the same with the epaulettes but use the flesh Citadel wash and a lighter ochre paint/ pearl medium mix to give a slightly different gold colour , but I am getting ahead of myself, so here is a couple of pics as we now stand.
The blue does look slightly darker "in the flesh" but I think I shall need to give it a slightly darker go over with a wash.
So that's it for now.
TBC
Geoff
