1st Figure

[Chris Ribchester]

First attempt, its basically done apart from a bit of touching up, figure is CS Bourne from MMM.
Would definitely welcome tips on how to improve the flesh tones, now onto the body.
cheers Chris R..

Will improve layout on next post, hopefully.

 

[housecarl]

Everything in the right place Chris.
This may help.
There's an excellent eye painting tutorial at the top of every page.
In ''articles'' .

 

[Stephan]

you should do more shadows and highlights.
for the first time try to mix the basecolour with white for hL and
brown for the shadows.
The upper lid needs a black line and the lower a red one.Try it its
not so difficult.
And the uniform should be a bit cleaner to the flesh on the neck.
You may also highlight and shadow the hair. Later I think,
thanks for showing, thats better than my first.

 

[vidaldiego]

In general the work is good, you would have to work on the lights and shadows to give depth. Eyes you would have to make them bigger, you can try with oils that can "erase" and re them.

Diego.

 

[Chris Ribchester]

Thanks for comments, after I posted I had another go at skin tone, looks a bit better, will have a go with more highlights and shading, and the eyes. There's nothing like a photo to show up where you went wrong, still onward and upward as they say, will post again after another go at it.
Chris.

 

[Larry Esposito]

Chris,

Great start. I'm new here too, but have watched a boatload of tutorials. I believe that the theory is to space the eyes farther from the nose to avoid the cross-eyed look. Agree that they are too small too, I'll be following with interest.

 

[peedee]

Nice choice of figure for a first go Chris.

Well done

Paul

 

[Chris Ribchester]

Here we go again, started redoing, the face and eyes were looking better and I thought lets glue the head on, so used a new glue, trouble was it expanded and leaked from the joint, cleaned it up and thought don't like that, so it is back to undercoat and put to one side. Got another one on the go, bust of Napoleon, hope I've learnt from the first one.

Bourne as he is now.

 

[Viking Bob]

Chris, Don't give up, we've all been there. If you do cock it up again dettol works wonders.

 

[peedee]

What glue was it Chris?

Paul.

 

[DaddyO]

Nice first effort Chris.

As Bob mentions if you are using acrylics a bit of Dettol will clean the paint off even after it's dried. I find this especially handy for those morning after looks at a painting session done at night under artificial light.

I've found it takes a while to get back into painting if you've left it for a few days; your own eyes seem to warm up and it goes much better. Even so I regularly strip off figures (or just faces) that I'm not happy with.

Keep persisting and you'll get there.

Paul

 

[Chris Ribchester]

What glue was it Chris?

Paul.

Gorilla glue, I'd used it on something else and it didn't seem to bad, learnt my lesson, use something else in future.
Cleaned the figure with warm soapy water and nail brush, it looks ok under new undercoat, its put to one side at the moment while I have a do
with a CGS bust of Napoleon, much happier with this, hopefully I'll post a photo later this week and see what people think.
Chris.

 

[peedee]

Nice one.

Paul.

 

[Chris Ribchester]

A few photos of where I'm upto with my Napoleon bust which is now going to be my first completed figure, I don't want to do much more on the face so on my next one I can see if I'm making progress. Tips always welcome.

 

[Babelfish]

Cleaned the figure with warm soapy water and nail brush.

Best way is an overnight soak completely immersed in Dettol, preferably in a closed container, and then clean it all off with an old toothbrush. That'll shift it, although I do find Dettol works most effectively on metal pieces.

- Steve

 

[peedee]

A few photos of where I'm upto with my Napoleon bust which is now going to be my first completed figure, I don't want to do much more on the face so on my next one I can see if I'm making progress. Tips always welcome.

Hi Chris.
I honestly think this is splendid for your 'first go'.
Your idea of plotting your learning by keeping this as a benchmark is spot on.
Don't ever get rid of it, this is the special one...it is number one.

Paul