WIP Critique Death's Head Hussar

[Bailey]

It's been over three years since I painted my last bust, so I thought it was time to do one again. I picked up the great looking piece from Young Miniatures. This is the second time they've released a Prussian Hussar and it's a really great dynamic sculpt. For the time being, I've left the arm off as it would make painting the face and details on the front of the coat much more difficult. I did test fit it and there did not appear to be any gaps that would need filling, so it shouldn't be a problem to attach it later.

I'm working with acrylics, primarily Reaper Master Series paints. I went more extreme with the contrast than I have in the past. It's a style choice and something I wanted to experiment with. Even though it's a larger scale I still think you can push the contrast. Here is what I have so far.

Here's a closer look at some of the colors I used. In the dark shadows I've got a mix of Mahogany Brown, Rosy Shadow, and Burgundy Wine (roughly 70/20/10). The lightest spots are fair skin, fair highlight, and even pure white in a few spots. Then, for some of the intermediate shadows I've used either Rosy Shadow or a mix of Rosy Shadow and Fair Skin. On top of the regular shading and highlighting, I used a variety of glazes - red on the cheeks and tip of the nose, blue on the jaw, and purple to reinforce some of the shadows.

 

[megroot]

Very nice work

Marc

 

[Colin_Fraser]

I like your result and your creative way of indicating colours used.

Colin

 

[Mike Stevens]

Nicely done. I like the high contrast. I also like the consistency of the Reaper Paints.

 

[Aveleira]

Excellent painting Bailey!! Can't wait to see it done

Regards
Pedro

 

[ChaosCossack]

Very cool Bailey...
Probably amongst the best, most realistic eyes I've seen on a bust... bloodshot effect is amazing! Great emotion in this face...

I'm not a huge fan of busts/half figs but I will be following this one closely, pen in hand, gleaning your acrylic recipes.

Colin

 

[Bailey]

Thanks, everyone!

Colin (crf), thanks. It's the first time I've tried showing colors that way. Sometimes in the photos it's hard to tell what is paint and what is just shadows from the lighting, so I thought this would help make it clearer.

Colin (ChaosCossack), thanks, I was really happy with how the eyes turned out. As the scale goes up I try to add more detail, so the bloodshot effect was something I thought I'd try out on this guy. It was a lot of back and forth with the red and white colors. I tried to paint thin lines in red, but couldn't get them thin enough. So I'd dab white on around it to make them thinner. And, of course, at times I'd completely wipe out the red by accident, so I'd add it back and try again. Maybe at some point I'll try it on a slightly smaller scale... though even at 90mm I don't think I could pull it off.

I agree, I definitely prefer full figures. But, every once in a while, I see a bust that I just can't pass up.

 

[Joe55]

An SBS in a WIP Critique thread, now how cool is that !

Excellent work Bailey, looking forward to seeing more !

Joe

 

[Chris Mortimer]

Wow! Amazing sculpt and brush work. This is a simply outstanding figure that I've missed along the way. I love it,keep it up I can't wait to see more.

 

[Kevin D.]

The eyes are great but I LOVE the rendition of the teeth! Also of course is the great blending of colors but I really like the teeth!

Kevin

 

[Viking Bob]

Wow superb painting and an SBS to boot, fantastic idea.

Bob

 

[Kisifer]

Fantastic skin tones...what a great start. Can't wait to see more.

Xenofon

 

[ellie]

very nice indeed love the skin tones and the eyes look very life like well done all round.

ian

 

[Nap]

Bailey,

Again your skin tones are awesome ...great SBS ..looking forward to seeing more

Thanks for sharing...you can't beat a bust!

Nap

 

[Maher R.]

Brilliant coloring Bailey!
I have this in my stash and looking at yours made me want to put it first in coloring queue!

Looking forward to the final bust!

Regards,

Maher

 

[Bailey]

Thank you for the comments, guys!

This is just a small update. I made some minor changes to the face with a few more glaze applications. I also reworked the hair a bit. I tried to smooth out some of the transitions and also exaggerated the highlights more. I started out with your basic dark to medium browns. Then I started to mix in tanned skin and then fair skin to highlight the hair. Those skin tones are really nice highlight colors for hair. I went from brown to roughly 75/25 brown and tanned skin. Into that I mixed fair skin. I went to at least 50/50 fair skin + brown/tanned skin mix, maybe even 66/33. Then just a bit of white for the most exaggerated highlights.

Hair is definitely a pain to work on. And I see a number of spots that still need work. After that I'll be ready to move on to his clothing... which presents its own set of challenges. I was originally going to do a dark green that matched the box art, but based on some research help from the forum it seems his clothing should be black and not dark green. So yeah, that should be fun. =P

 

[tonydawe]

I love the eyes and the very smooth transitions from highlight to shades on the cheekbones. Outstanding painting Bailey. I'm following this project with interest.

 

[garyhiggins]

There's really no mistaking what's going through this chap's mind is there? Well done on a great paint job Bailey, and I'm just off to a quiet room to burn my brushes.
Best wishes, Gary.

 

[Dan Morton]

Bailey - I appreciate that you are doing the close-ups for the painters, but could we have a couple normal photos just to have some comparison?

All the best,
Dan

 

[Bailey]

Thank you, Tony, Gary, and Dan.

Dan, sure, I actually took a couple normal photographs last night. Here you go