Hello Everybody...
For today we have the top robe. The robe consists of two parts, the collar, which is black with (yet another) free hand pattern on it, and the rest, which is just a more traditional robe with a reddish-orange hue.
We'll cover the collar first. There is really no reason why I approached this first, it just seemed to me it would require less cleanup work if I did the collar first. The approach is similar to all the other freehand patterns we've done so far, so there is not much new here.
One thing I'll mention (this came up in a real life discussion from somebody who saw the figure in person) is brush size. This is fairly subjective - so your mileage may vary here.
Here is the brush that I've been doing all the patterns with:
This is a Winsor & Newton Series 7 000 Miniature brush. Brush sizes and brands are pretty subjective, but this is what I've been using. I like this brush a lot, although many prefer the same size but the "non-miniature" version. (Just the standard size 000). I find that the smaller length of the bristles on the miniature series vs. the standard series allows my shaky hands a little bit more control.
The problem with using this brush (or any really small size brush), is that when using acrylics, the paint usually dries way too fast, and won't come off the brush and onto the miniature properly. So in order to mitigate this, I use Slow-Dri Fluid Retarder from Liquitex. (This was mentioned in one of my first posts on this thread). I use a fairly generous amount; when done right, this allows me to use a brush this small and not worry about the paint drying out. As a result, I don't have to rush or hurry to get the paint on the miniature once I've put it on the brush. This allows the whole process to be a little more relaxed, and I don't have to use a brush that would otherwise be a larger size than warranted.
(Having said that though, you should always try to use the largest size brush you can for the job
)
Ok - so onto the painting.
Here are the paints used for the General's collar:
The approach to the collar is the exact same approach and colors used to do the bottom pattern on his rear robe. As with that, we basecoat the collar in Carbon Black, and add some subtle grey highlights on the areas where light will hit it:
The grey areas are hard to see, but they're there
Again, as with the pattern done on the bottom of his rear robe, we have a bottom border, a pattern consisting of various kinds of elements, and then a top border. We'll use Naples yellow to create the pattern. Here is the bottom border:
With the bottom border in place, we can now put in the elements that will make up the pattern. We'll be using elements that based on various kinds of "S" shapes. As with the ribbons, I had no particular plan for this. I just started painting some patterns and just let it happen. The one thing we need to keep in mind is to leave some space between the elements and the top border that will be painted on next. (As an aside, I normally paint in a style that is far, far, far, more chaotic then this SBS would leave you to believe, but I digress). Here are some pics of the patterns as I painted them on:
With that in place, let's but the top border on:
With that finished, the next step was doing highlights on the pattern with a mix of Titanium White and Naples yellow. Unfortunately, I don't have any specific pictures for this, but you can see it on later pics.
That does it for his fancy collar, now let's do the rest of the robe and finish it off!
Regards,
Phil