Completed Albert Jacka wip pics

[Einion]

This is certainly a tough likeness to capture Ken with his bland, smooth-cheeked face, plus that's some chin!

Not sure if you've made the moulds yet but I think you've missed the nose and there's not enough depth in the chin (even allowing for compression of the tissue by the strap). Right eye also needs to come down; hard to tell from such a limited number of photos but his looks marginally lower than his left but on the sculpt it's noticeably high.

The arms also look a little tight to the torso. Just as a general thing, even if he were standing at attention they shouldn't curve inwards this high up because of the blousing of the sleeve.

Einion

 

[mil-mart]

Steve, cheers mate.
Michael, he certainly was a bit of a local celebrity.
Markus, thank you.
Einion, I wasn't able to post WIP pics as I would normally do because of the rules of the Chief 2010 competition and unfortunately I don't have the bust with me at present. Looking again at the pictures you certainly have some valid points and I'll be taking a closer look at the bust when I get it back. Always appreciate and welcome your comments.

Cheers Ken

 

[bonehead]

Nice job Ken.

Your working photo depicts a common pitfall of using old period photos from the WWI era: it was very common for the faces of studio portraits to be heavily retouched, virtually blotting out any subtle folds or surface features of the face. I can assure you that, in real life, this guy actually had some sort of definition of the lower eyelid, and the masseter muscles at either side of the nose and mouth. But the heavy hand of our erstwhile retoucher has clumsily made certain that we have no impression whatsoever of what these might have actually looked like in real life.

Also, the lighting on the chin suggests that it may not jut out the way you have done it on your sculpt. In fact, that big old lantern jaw looks to be relatively flat or even receding. Sadly, our thoughtless retoucher may call even this feature into question.

As an example of what i am talking about, here are two pics of Victoria Cross winner and the Red baron's most famous victim, Major Lanoe Hawker VC:

I sculpted him many years ago, with the smooth bland face shown in the first pic. Then, much later, I found this unretouched photo. As you can see, there is a world of difference between the two depictions of his face. Check out the big differences between the eye, mouth, cheek and chin areas. I would suggest that anytime you see a photo with such bland and smooth features, one should seek out other photos and proceed with caution. Obviously, I learned this lesson the hard way.....

D'oh!

Cheers!!

Mike

BTW, just had a gander at Tony Dawes' posted photo at the top of page 2. This definitely is a better photo showing some surface features and, as i suspected, his receding chin. This photo plus your original one together would serve as a much better reference. Tony says the war aged him. I say baloney. The mad retoucher "de-aged" him and the second photo is a more honest depiction of his actual appearance.....

 

[sam b]

Spot on mate !!
Sam

 

[mil-mart]

Mike, after going back over and over the pics again I think I see what you mean about the practise of retouching the pictures , I thought it was only the Super Models of today who went in for that sort of thing . I will however take your advice for future reference and study more pics of the subject as it's definitly not something I would of considered until now and I bow to your experience and talent. Much appreciated.

Sam, many thanks.

 

[DaveCox]

Great bust - another one I want to paint!

 

[mil-mart]

Thanks Dave glad you like him.

Cheers Ken

 

[Christosjager]

Very nice work Ken, Mike's advices are precious to all of us.

 

[mil-mart]

Very nice work Ken, Mike's advices are precious to all of us.

Christos, you're right. I'll certainly be looking at old picture in a different light, many thanks.

Cheers Ken

 

[Michaelg]

Just to hijack the post for one second. Who makes the best 90-120mm WW1 figures?

 

[mil-mart]

Hi Michael, for 120mm try these by Jon Smith http://jsm.tuwhost.eu/index.php?article_id=21&clang=1

Cheers Ken

 

[Michaelg]

Thanks Ken.

 

[Barke02]

Smashing sculpt Ken!

I understand what Mike is saying about the retouching..
A year or two back I had the privilege to scan 500+ glass plate negatives discovered in an old fireplace at Sevenoaks, and there was some period 'retouching' done here and there.

You can read the full story here..

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=101882

...although you may have to register to see the images.

Cheers,
Jon.

 

[mil-mart]

Hi Jon, thanks for the link I've just registered, a very interesting thread. Thanks for the comments mate.

Cheers Ken