WIP Critique Iroquois

[Eludia]

With my local IPMS club Christmas competition fast approaching I thought I should make a start on my entry.

120mm Iroquois from Mitches Military Models. It's a lovely model, I hope I can do it justice.

I'm painting this one with Jo Sonja acrylics to get some more practice using acrylics and hopefully make my peace with them. I slapped a few base coats on the other night and tonight I made some good progress on the fleshy areas. To be fair, I wasn't looking forward to this as I've never attempted Native American skin tones before so I had that to contend with as well as working in an unfamiliar medium. To say that I'm pleasantly surprised with how he's progressing would be an understatement.

The basic skin tone was mixed from Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna (roughly 2:1) and a spot of Cadmium Scarlet. Naples Yellow Hue was added for highlights and Burnt Umber for shadows. All done on a homemade wet palette as I'd like to save the mixes for when I get round to doing his hands.

Critique and hints/tips would be greatly appreciated from all you acrylic gurus out there

 

[bucsfan21]

Eulida, I like the flesh tone on the in progress Iroquois very much. Think you have nailed the flesh tone spot on....I paint in artist oils using wet on wet technique. Can't add any tips on acrylics, but enjoy seeing your in progress work!

All the Best, Terry Martin-member of the Atlanta Miniature Figure Society

 

[Nap]

Love those skin tones ..."borrowed" the mixes..thanks for sharing

Nap

 

[Eludia]

Eulida, I like the flesh tone on the in progress Iroquois very much. Think you have nailed the flesh tone spot on....I paint in artist oils using wet on wet technique. Can't add any tips on acrylics, but enjoy seeing your in progress work!

All the Best, Terry Martin-member of the Atlanta Miniature Figure Society

Thanks Terry, it's nice to see you looking in

 

[Eludia]

Love those skin tones ..."borrowed" the mixes..thanks for sharing

Nap

Thanks Kev, borrow away by all means. I "borrowed" them myself from the fantastic colour mixing book by William Powell (Native American bronze tones) and just modified it till it looked about right to my tired old eyes.

 

[Viking Bob]

I have this one in my GA, so looking forward to seeing one finished.
Your off to a great start.

 

[Eludia]

Cheers Bob

Hopefully you won't have to wait too long, the competition is 4 weeks today.

 

[Oda]

I agree with the rest.It looks very good even at this point.I think you are going to nail it.

Oda.

 

[peedee]

I do hope you get this completed on time Billy, mine's in it's box in the queue.

Looks great so far.
the only tip I would offer anyone using acrylics as a new format is
'when you have thinned them down enough....
don't forget you can thin them more for different effects!'
Happy painting buddy.

Paul.

 

[Eludia]

I agree with the rest.It looks very good even at this point.I think you are going to nail it.

Oda.

Thanks Aris, I'm not too sure about "nailing" it but I'll be happy to get it finished to a standard that's acceptable to a casual eye

 

[Eludia]

I do hope you get this completed on time Billy, mine's in it's box in the queue.

Looks great so far.
the only tip I would offer anyone using acrylics as a new format is
'when you have thinned them down enough....
don't forget you can thin them more for different effects!'
Happy painting buddy.

Paul.

Cheers Paul, nice to see you looking in

I still need (lots) more practice at thinning the paint to the right consistency, it's all a bit hit and miss at the minute. The JS paint goes a bit weird when overthinned, especially with water, so I'm experimenting with their Flow Medium and Magic Mix. Flow medium for general thinning and Magic Mix for glazing. The bottom line is that I know what I want to do but the paint isn't listening to me

 

[Eludia]

The results of about an hour and a half pottering about in my shed tonight:



I did a bit of work on his hair, added a bit more contrast to his belly and laid on some yellow ochre base coat to the coat facings. I painted the tree a few days ago but it needs a bit more work to tone down those bright greens.

 

[clrsgt]

Great timing. My wife just gave me this one a an anniversary gift, so will be following this one closely. Since I have never painted an American Indian before, I will be borrowing your flesh mixtures. You are off to a good start.

 

[Oda]

Billy you are too modest.I sincerely feel that your work so far (considering the fact that you are using a new medium) is of a very high standard and I am absolutely sure that this will end up "turning heads".I have a similar figure (albeit in 54mm,my favourite scale) by Chronos and I will definitely use yours as inspiration and guide when I do get around painting it.

Oda.

 

[Eludia]

Some more progress - suicide zoom pics



I'm slowly working my way down the model, doing some more work on the coat facings, metals and the bead-work around his neck earlier today. Tonight, I might have a proper go at doing the reds. I'm starting to enjoy using the JS paints now that I'm getting a bit more of a "feel" about how to work with them

 

[Eludia]

I moved my bench from my shed into my living room tonight and did a bit of painting in front of the telly. I concentrated on the red on the top half of his coat. I'm reasonably happy with it but, as the photos show, even JS reds dry with a bit of a sheen.

Red palette:

Base - Brown Madder
Shadows - base + Indian Red Oxide
Highlights - base + Cadmium Scarlet.

I added a touch of black to the Indian Red for the deepest shadows and top lights are pure Cad Scarlet



And a photo of my TV bench just for the hell of it.

 

[arj]

That's coming along very nicely.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

[billyturnip]

Looking great so far Billy and looking forward to the next update.

 

[anstontyke]

really lovely work, following this with great intrest.
thanks for sharing the colour mixes
its definitely a head turner

anstontyke

 

[megroot]

beautifull work so far.

Marc