WIP Critique George Washington, APG 250mm bust

[tonydawe]

I picked up this magnificent bust of George Washington last weekend for $30 at a swap & sell.
The previous owners' paint job was stripped off and I started again from scratch.

I spent most of the weekend applying the base coat, first shadows and first highlights and then adding the stipples of paint to bring out the colour variations and textures of the skin. Once that's done, I'll do the oil washes over the acrylics to finish the skin tones. The eyes were painted in Josonja acrylics along with everything else.

 

[tomifune]

Good pickup as this bust is OOP. Matt Springer sculpted this and I thought it was one of the best I have seen of GW.
Great start as usual. Are you finishing the eyes with something else as the Jo Sonja's dry awfully flat?

Bob

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Bob,

Once the oil washes have been applied I usually do a final series of touch ups with acrylics before I finish. This might also include a couple of coats of gloss medium over the eye balls, but sometimes I don't bother. It all depends on the bust or figure. I probably gloss the eyeballs on this bust.

 

[Joe55]

Looking good so far Tony. Anxious to see how thing develop.

Joe

 

[Andrew Perren]

Good start mate. What did you use to strip the original paint?

 

[mark126804]

Very Nice Start.

Mark

 

[captnenglish]

Great start! Inspiration to re-paint my copy.

 

[tonydawe]

Thanks fellas. Andrew I used Mr Muscle oven cleaner to remove the paint and then a stiff wire brush and some paint thinner to get all the primer and bits out of the folds and hard to reach areas.

 

[taff edwards]

Hi Tony
Cracking start love the tones looks like a lovely bust to paint , following with interest
Chris

 

[peedee]

Very very nice .

I shall enjoy watching your progress with the next steps.

Paul

 

[megroot]

I really like it so far.

Marc

 

[NickM]

Off to a great start, mate, you've done a lot since Saturday already!

 

[phil_h]

Looking wonderful, can't wait to see more
Phil

 

[smudger1960]

This looks like a great bust tony,you have made a cracking start mate

 

[arj]

Superb start on the face.
Looking forward to see the effect of the oil washes.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[tonydawe]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the encouragement and supportive comments.

I've now done several oil washes over the face and as you can see the dot painting has been reduced without being eliminated and the skin tones are now deeper and have more contrast.

The rest of the bust is still largely base coated and I'll be focusing on building up some texture and contrast in the overcoat.

 

[peedee]

Nice.

Paul.

 

[Oda]

Wonderful!

Oda.

 

[peedee]

Yep Wonderful and nice.

Paul.

 

[tonydawe]

Thanks guys. More pics to come soon.