Completed Critique Byzantine Auxiliary Bust from El Greco Miniatures

[storm_zh]

After painting a few 54mm and 75mm miniatures, I recently started to try something new – the busts, which I believe would be a very different experience. As it is my first bust, I tried to start with something small (and less expensive). Though this 1:12 bust is relatively small in size compared with other 1:9 or 1:10 busts, its sculpture and casting are really good! (thanks to Matt for the great sculpture work and YS for the casting). It is very pleasure painting this bust as my first tryJ

The bust was ordered directly from the El Greco Miniature web store and shipped all the way to my country after a travel of thousands of milesJ

I made a minor conversion to the helmet by removing the nose protector as suggested by one of my friends for getting a full view of the expression on the face.

I painted all of this bust with acrylics. Below are some of the pictures I took for the completed work as well as some taken when I was working on it.

Any feedback or comments are welcome. Wish all the PFers have a wonderful year 2014.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[bagelman1952]

Very nice brushwork

 

[housecarl]

Lovely piece.
Carl.

 

[swralph]

nicely done

 

[brian]

I'm in the process of painting this bust myself and was gobsmacked when I saw your version as I too have kept the nasal guard off and I've used a very similar colour for the cloak only difference is that I paint in oils.I like your version!
Brian

 

[storm_zh]

Hi Ken, Carl, and swralph, thank you for your kind words.

 

[storm_zh]

I'm in the process of painting this bust myself and was gobsmacked when I saw your version as I too have kept the nasal guard off and I've used a very similar colour for the cloak only difference is that I paint in oils.I like your version!
Brian

Hi Brian, glad to know that you are also painting on this nice bust. It looks like that we have exactly the same preference for this bust in term of color selecting and removing the nasal guard Look forward to seeing your version soon. I believe it will be another fantastic piece like many of your previous paintings

 

[Nap]

Hi Jason ,

Firstly welcome to PF ..great painting especially like the flesh ..do share your mixes...like the nasal bar being left off as well

I reviewd this piece , a great little sculpt from Matt Grech .

Thanks for sharing

Nap

 

[pmfs]

Simple but very effective.

Pedro.

 

[storm_zh]

Hi Jason ,

Firstly welcome to PF ..great painting especially like the flesh ..do share your mixes...like the nasal bar being left off as well

I reviewd this piece , a great little sculpt from Matt Grech .

Thanks for sharing

Nap

Hi Nap, thank you for your comments. When I first saw this bust from the EL web site and also Sergey’s box art thread, I knew it is something that I’d love to paint and then added it to my to-buy list. Later, I saw your thread reviewing this bust and it is your review thread (having a lots of large pictures and objective reviewer comments) that fully convinced me that the sculpture and casting quality is really good. Therefore, I immediately ordered it (and also some other stuffs) from EL web store. Thanks again for writing up those good review threads.

As for the color mixes for the flesh, below is what I used for this bust if my memory serves me right (all colors are Vallejo acrylics):

Base color: Brown Sand + Orange Brown + a touch of Burnt Cadmium Red (I intended to use a base color that is slightly darker than the final face color I was looking for)
Highlights: gradually added more Basic Skintone to the base color and previous highlights. For the final (extreme) highlight, I added a bit of white to its previous highlight.
Shadows: I firstly added more Orange Brown and Burnt Cadmium Red to the base color. Then only added more and more Burnt Cad Red to previous shadows for the next deeper shadows. For the deepest shadow, I added a bit of Black Brown which is very dark to its previous shadow.
Tones: I used colors like Old Rose, Violet Red, Royal Purple, and Olive Grey for tones in different small areas. All were highly diluted and applied in multiple layers as needed.

Thanks again!

Jason

 

[storm_zh]

Hi Pedro, thank you for your encouragement. Wish you happy new year 2014.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Sergey Savenkov]

Great job!

 

[megroot]

Beautifull work.

Marc

 

[Steve Ski]

Excellent work!

Cheers, Ski.

 

[HIKARU_REMOVED]

Excellent and beautiful fresh.

Congratulations completed.

Mitsutaka

 

[storm_zh]

Sergey, Marc, Steve and Mitsutaka, thanks much to all of you for your compliments and encouragement. Wish you all a prosperous new year 2014. Cheers!

 

[Mark S]

Beautifully done, very nice piece.

 

[storm_zh]

Thank you Mark. Glad to know you like it