Lou Masses
A Fixture
Although I was planning on doing an article on this, I'd like to run through it first as a step by step. Although I'll go over the painting of the entire figure, my focus will be on the gold lace and metallics used throughout.
The subject is Metal Modeles 90mm 5th Hussar figure. A truly stunning piece and probably one of the best sculpted and best cast pieces on the market today. Clean up was virtually non existant.
Firstly, as I always do, I painted the face. Unfortunately, I thought of doing this prior to starting so I don't have an sbs on that. But the colors used were Sennelier Flesh Ochre as a base, a mix of W&N Lt Red, Mussini "Pozzuoli Earth", and Ventian red for the cheeks and shadows, W&N Naples Yellow and Jaune Brilliant for the highlights, and pure white for the highest highlight. W&N Mars brown was used for the darkest shadows-mixed with Rembrandt Sepia.
Note that on the entire figure, I am imagining the light source (the sun) coming from the upper right of the figure (his upper left) and have and will highlight accordingly to emphasize that.
I also noticed that the macro lens on my camera shows alot that I don't see with my bare eye that I need to correct- under the brow and the moustache needs touching up. I can do that when I add the eyebrows later.
Now for the lace. The shako has been painted up and the basecoat of the lace (Vallejo 983 Flat Brown earth) applied. I have also added the base color (860 Med FLesh) and a wash (W&N Mars Brwon oil) at this stage. Once the wash dries, I can start.
By adding the first highlight of 927 Dark Flesh to key highlight areas I can see where I will need to focus my highlight. At this time it's an overall highlight. I'll show the direction of the light in the next step.
I suspect it is hard to tell on the photos due to the lighting. but now I add the second highlight of 927 dark flesh (which strangely is actually lighter than the medium flesh) and 858 Ice yellow in a 50/50 mix to areas where the light source would show more light. Finally directly over the second highlight but more sparingly (the very tops of highlights) and only in areas that would catch light from the imagined lightsource I add the highest highlight - 858 Ice Yellow.
Finally for tonight, I paint in all of the "real" metals using gold powders. THese are available from may brands and I usually mix them like any other paint. THe base is done in antique gold (like and orange gold) added to that a highlight of a 50/50 mix of antique gold and plain gold and finally touch the highest points with straight gold. I usually uses liquin as a carrier as it dries to a brilliant shine.
Hope this helps and I plan to continue on to other lace areas. As I paint erradically I'll post when I'm able to paint but in the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.
Lou
The subject is Metal Modeles 90mm 5th Hussar figure. A truly stunning piece and probably one of the best sculpted and best cast pieces on the market today. Clean up was virtually non existant.
Firstly, as I always do, I painted the face. Unfortunately, I thought of doing this prior to starting so I don't have an sbs on that. But the colors used were Sennelier Flesh Ochre as a base, a mix of W&N Lt Red, Mussini "Pozzuoli Earth", and Ventian red for the cheeks and shadows, W&N Naples Yellow and Jaune Brilliant for the highlights, and pure white for the highest highlight. W&N Mars brown was used for the darkest shadows-mixed with Rembrandt Sepia.
Note that on the entire figure, I am imagining the light source (the sun) coming from the upper right of the figure (his upper left) and have and will highlight accordingly to emphasize that.
I also noticed that the macro lens on my camera shows alot that I don't see with my bare eye that I need to correct- under the brow and the moustache needs touching up. I can do that when I add the eyebrows later.
Now for the lace. The shako has been painted up and the basecoat of the lace (Vallejo 983 Flat Brown earth) applied. I have also added the base color (860 Med FLesh) and a wash (W&N Mars Brwon oil) at this stage. Once the wash dries, I can start.
By adding the first highlight of 927 Dark Flesh to key highlight areas I can see where I will need to focus my highlight. At this time it's an overall highlight. I'll show the direction of the light in the next step.
I suspect it is hard to tell on the photos due to the lighting. but now I add the second highlight of 927 dark flesh (which strangely is actually lighter than the medium flesh) and 858 Ice yellow in a 50/50 mix to areas where the light source would show more light. Finally directly over the second highlight but more sparingly (the very tops of highlights) and only in areas that would catch light from the imagined lightsource I add the highest highlight - 858 Ice Yellow.
Finally for tonight, I paint in all of the "real" metals using gold powders. THese are available from may brands and I usually mix them like any other paint. THe base is done in antique gold (like and orange gold) added to that a highlight of a 50/50 mix of antique gold and plain gold and finally touch the highest points with straight gold. I usually uses liquin as a carrier as it dries to a brilliant shine.
Hope this helps and I plan to continue on to other lace areas. As I paint erradically I'll post when I'm able to paint but in the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.
Lou
