I'm finally doing it.

[ausf]

I've been meaning to get serious about painting for a while now, but the spare time has gone towards sculpting or kits instead. I have a pretty large line of Vallejo, some Reaper, Series 7s, oils, etc. and I'm no stranger to painting (non-figure) or airbrushing.

I'm not really a beginner, but never painted figures past a few experiments in styrene 1/35 or Hornet heads, so please give me some criticism and direction to explore.

I grabbed a styrene kit off the shelf, Moebius' 1/8 Bride of Frankenstein to get started. Th sculpt is very nice for injection molding, assembly was straight forward. I primed and sprayed the base color, then layered some washes and detailed. There's a subtle variation I can't capture in the pics.

What am I missing?

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Looks pretty darned good so far. More pics from a front oblique would help so we can get a better sense of shading around her nose, cheeks, ears etc. cool so far. Not an easy kit to start off on either....but a very cool one. I always figured Elsa's hair was black.

Colin

 

[ausf]

Thanks Colin, I'll try to grab some better photos. I highlighted the bridge of the nose, forehead, chin, high cheekbones and pursing area around the lips.

I thought the same about the hair, but references show Elsa as a green eyed auburn. I put a fair amount of reddish highlights in that 'do, but I seem to lose a lot in the photos. I need to mess around with the camera settings.

 

[Colin_Fraser]

The vignette looks a little rude too.....she is trying to pat "little Frankie" and he is saying "whoa!"

Maybe I am just warped

Colin

 

[ausf]

It's the angle, and yes there's warpage. Whether it's you or him remains to be seen.

Here's some better close ups. What's the best way to blend, go over it with oils or acrylic washes?

 

[FigureLover]

Great first figure, the eyes are superb, as are all the details such as lips, hair etc. The flesh is good, and with a bit more blending it will look fantastic. There are many ways to keep blending from where you are at the moment, most people would keep doing the acrylic thing, with lighter(less paint) washes to just get rid of those faint harsh lines that you have, like below the hairline. I personally would use oils, as a wash to blend in the lines. Its personal choice.
I must say that you have got a good skin tone/colour, something not many figure beginners get until after experimenting for a while.
Ben

PS, just happened to find this pic after posting, bit of inspiration I guess

 

[swralph]

Great first figure, the eyes are superb, as are all the details such as lips, hair etc. The flesh is good, and with a bit more blending it will look fantastic. There are many ways to keep blending from where you are at the moment, most people would keep doing the acrylic thing, with lighter(less paint) washes to just get rid of those faint harsh lines that you have, like below the hairline. I personally would use oils, as a wash to blend in the lines. Its personal choice.
I must say that you have got a good skin tone/colour, something not many figure beginners get until after experimenting for a while.
Ben

PS, just happened to find this pic after posting, bit of inspiration I guess

I more or less agree.except if your painting with acrylics I would stick with acrylic washes not that oil washes are wrong per se.I remember the first figure I painted the face turned green I really didn't have a clue

 

[ausf]

Thanks gents.

Figurelover, that photo is great, thanks! I guess I could really go red with her. I wish I could claim credit for the tone, but it's Reaper fair skin, golden skin and red brick right out of the bottle. I got a bit more creative with the Monster's tone, some blues and green, I get that photographed soon.

The look of the eyes are all Future, it gives a beautiful effect. It works great as a lens in instrument panels, I thought it would help with eyes too.

I think I continue with the acrylics then. I've worked a lot with oils on canvas years ago, but nothing this small and I'm afraid of losing the tone or washing it out even more instead of blending. I'd hate to turn it into a clown makeup.

My natural inclination is to airbrush, but my 30 year old Iwata is a siphon feed and not worth the effort to change colors for tiny amounts of blending.

 

[ausf]

One other thing looking at the painting of the scene. I went to great lengths to eliminate the seam in the Monster's hair around the back, but apparently it's supposed to be there...

 

[FigureLover]

I use Future as well for the eyes, gives a great sheen.
One thing I have learned over the years, is to find something that works for you and stick with it. You can get 50 different techniques from different people, and still find something completely out of the box that works for you. You have a great base to work from, stick with it and iron out any imperfections that you want to fix. Your on a great start
Ben

 

[Oldironsides]

Great painting ausf.

The skin tone in the colour picture on the bride is very washed out. Experiment with acrylic washes in the highlight areas with almost off-whites, light greys and even very pale green. Some redness around the eyes will also help give the impression that you need of Frank's 'undead' bride.

Enjoy!

Mark

 

[ausf]

Thanks again for all your help gentlemen.

When I apply the acrylic wash, I get a slight hard edge when it dries. I've added some surfacant (Simple green) to water and paint. I wonder if I'd be better off adding the paint to clear satin of matte varnish, just making it a less pigmented paint instead of wash.

Experience tells me the edge is from a matte surface inhibiting the flow, but I don't see a way around it short of constantly clear coating between shading.

 

[Oldironsides]

Hi ausf

I would recommend 'wet blending' and thinning your acrylic paints with lots of water to reduce the problem of hard edges between shades/colours. There are some good videos on wet blending on YouTube that will help you.

Mark

 

[ausf]

Thanks Mark,

I checked out a few videos and gave it a shot. Pretty straight forward and worked nicely. I used Vallejo's retarder and it blended nicely. I'll get some photos soon.

 

[Oldironsides]

Hi ausf

I look forward to seeing them.

Mark

 

[Ferris]

Hi,

The hard edge after drying can also be caused by putting it on too wet. You then get what is called 'pooling'. Basically this is when there is enough water around for the surface tension to kick in and form a drop. If that dries, pigment moves predominantly to the edges to form that hard edge.
To avoid pooling, you can 'discharge' most of the bulk water from your brush by holding it against a piece of kitchen towel, or cloth. This removes most of the paint from your brush, but leaves enough to just wet the surface you are painting, to form a continuous, even colour layer.
The more you thin the paint, the easier you can get pooling.

Hope this is of use.

Your model is looking really good for a first big one. It's not an easy one I think.

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[ausf]

Thanks Adrian,

That's precisely what was happening. I was relying on capillary action with a very thin mix around the edges or between the fingers but was getting hard edges where the paint collected as it dried. Using a gloss clear coat and a surfacant to break the tension is enough to avoid that when I'm painting armor or aircraft, but I think I'm expecting too much of the technique when painting flesh.

I'm glad I grabbed this and the JS resin piece as the first two to try, I need to learn the differences by actually dealing with them and paint.

Jeff