ACW Calvary Bust

[EdC]

I was taking some photos of this bust to practice my picture taking skills (which, I am sad to say, are still pretty lacking compared to what I am seeing in the forums).

The figure is a 200mm Verlinden bust that I painted in oils and acrylics. The figure has a cigar sticking out of his mouth (for those who are wondering what it was). The figure (like most Verlinden busts) required very little clean up. It was bit more challanging to paint than the usual busts that have helmets and large hats hiding a large part of the head. The small kepi and long , beefy, face presented more facial area to deal with.

Ed Cepauskas
Hereford, Arizonia

 

[Nap]

Ed ,
Nice painting and the photos are coming alomg , I am currently doing a "Buffalo Soldier" bust , quite challenging but enjoying it , I really like the colour you used for Jacket/kepi ...can you give me an idea of your mixes .


Regards Nap :lol:

 

[garyjd]

Ed, I'm sure there is more contrast on your bust. When taking pictures try doing it without the flash. You should have a function that will allow you to make the photo darker or lighter. This of course depends how much available ligt you have for picture taking.~Gary

 

[Sambaman]

Nice work Ed. Good clean painting. Maybe some more contrasts in the fleshtones would have been nice, but nicely done over all. I have this guy on my wish list as well. Great to see another painters version of it!

Jay H.
OKC

 

[Roc]

Nice job over all, I do think you could probably use a bit more contrast on the face.
As far as you photography goes, very good.

Cheers
Roc.

 

[EdC]

Nap,

Thanks for the compliment on the painting.

For the Jacket undercoat I usedVallejo Dark Blue (number 053). I used two thin coats to get even coverage. Over the acrylic underbase I then put a base coat of Grumbacher Thalo Blue. This is a bit darker that the undercoat, but the transparency of the Thalo Blue allows the undercoat to blend through producing a nice blue. For the shadows I mixed Thalo blue with some Cadium Red and came up with a very dark viloet color(more blue-black than red-viloet). For the darkest highlight I added a very small amount of Lamp Black to the viloet mix. For highlights I used Grumbacher Cerulean Blue as the first highlight. For the lighest highlight I added some zinc white to the Cerulean Blue and a touch of Cadium yellow to warm the mix up a bit.

The Kepi is pretty much the same as above withthe additional use of some acrylic Vallego Prussian Blue (number 051) to do some additional shadowing when I was finished. I used Zinc White to highlight the edges of the kepi. Becaue the white is so strong when appiled straight to a blue color (it can muddy the blue color up very fast) I made sure that my brush was almost void of color by running the brush over my cleaning rag until I was left with a barley seeable white sheen. I built the highlight up through several applications (it is easier to add than to have to remove or dilute color).

Good painting on your bust and I hope this helps. Please post some pictures when you are done.

Ed

 

[Nap]

Ed ,
Thanks for the details , nice challenge doing my buffalo soldier , will post pics once finished ...providing I can get my head round it ...not too computer savvy ....whats your next bust you are planning .


Regards Nap

 

[EdC]

Nap,

I have been watching and reading the Sharpe's Rifles series latley and that has peaked my intrest. I am probably going to do the Verlinden 200mm bust of the 95th Green Jacket Officer that looks like Sean Bean from the BBC series, based upon the Sharpe's series of books by Bernard Cornwell.

Another bust that has my intrest is the Pony Soldier's bust of Agusutus MacCrea from the Lonesome Dove series. I have been wanting to do the bust for some time, but I am not very satisfied with the bust's resembelance to Robert Duvall the actor who played the part. It is close, but not quite right. Now that I have taken up sculpting a bit I think I can make appropiate changes to the bust.

First, however, I have to finish a PiliPili 120mm figure of the Texas Cowboy. He is on the bench right now and it will be at least a month or so before he is done.

Ed

 

[vergilius]

Looks good