Mad Scientist 90mm concept piece x 3

[Kimmo]

Into every life a little madness must enter...

I happened across an advert for a painter a few weeks back and much to my delight, I got the job. A media shop needs concept figures presented to their client and, hopefully, they'll be happy and order more. The figure is not exactly out of this world sculpt wise, but is fun and will be an interesting challenge as it involves OSL and clear glass. To start with, I'll be doing two figures conventionally, and the third will be in comic book style. Each will have some minor variations in colour.





The designer's vision is something like this, which gives me the basic scheme. Very dramatic, but doesn't quite translate into a 3D version, so I have my work cut out for me.





To get some idea of what needs doing and how the glow from the beaker should look, I took some photos with a small UV light acting as the source.










Not perfect but gives me something to go with. The OSL will be down the road, first I need to get some base colours down and take it from there.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Another fun subject for you , using UV is a good idea as well , 90 mm is a good size as well

Well done on getting the job ....they sure are going to be happy with your artwork

Look forward to seeing more on these fellows

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! I seem to have a knack for getting the interesting projects, there's another one waiting for these guys to get done.


Got the colours blocked in, I did a fair bit of mixing and matching of all my light, desaturated tones and Green Grey for the dark parts. One guy is slightly bluer, one is more green and the other is a bit warmer. Things look somewhat crappy at the moment, things always do at the start for me. Taking a group photo doesn't help things either.




















The real fun starts tomorrow with the first round of shading. I'll approach this as two separate paint jobs, the outer shell and the glow from the beaker in the centre.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Your certainly right about interesting projects ..good to hear there's another lined up waiting

Nice blocking in on all versions

Look forward to seeing the next steps

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Egg]

Excellent )))

 

[KenBoyle]

A great challenge Kimmo! I know it will turn out amazing.

Cheers,
Ken

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap, Egg and Ken!

A bit of a false start, Thursday was a total washout. Yesterday I concentrated on getting the two conventional guys going. Now I remember why I loathe painting "white" sometimes. You very easily get a grey mess on your hands if you aren't careful. Had all sorts of issues with the brushes not behaving and paints not flowing how I would have liked, chalk it up to a bit of rust and not enough paint down yet. I'm hoping the client is as philosophical about these things as I am...

















One thing has become rather apparent at this stage, the scrubs need to have a bit of colour, at least in my mind, the whiter version just doesn't stand out enough. With the third guy, the blue green base should give us a good idea of what works best. I need to add some more shadow to the scrubs and smooth out the hair on both, then punch up the highlights everywhere once the glow is added. This is all a bit of a challenge because I'm trying to be as efficient as possible and minimise playing around with the paints. If I do indeed get an order for several more down the road, I have to have a production line mentality and cut out all the unnecessary steps.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

The first two are now more or less complete. A few technical difficulties, one was resin goo weep. I did wash them with detergent and a toothbrush but guess that didn't do as good a job as I thought. There are a couple of deep areas and apparently the figures weren't rinsed well enough, a lesson to remember for printers. I was wondering why the paint was giving me hassles at times, hopefully the goop didn't do any harm to my brushes. Trying to get a good glow effect proved tricky because there is no room for manoeuver, this will hopefully be corrected moving forward. Knock on wood. I decided to just wing a bubbly brew.



















We'll see what the client says, always a bit of a tense moment. I'm hoping they embrace the concept nature of the pieces at this stage, there is room for improvement all around.


Our third chap is now blocked in nicely, this should be enlightening, if not fun



















I'll need a good think on the highlight and shadow colours, and perhaps a yellowy green glow this time.


Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

The first set of shading has been done, apart from needing to fine tune the shades, I think this is going to work rather well.


















After a brief exchange with the client, everything is going well enough to their liking for now. A huge relief. Now for some clean up work and then to see about some OSL.

Kimmo

 

[Nap]

Hi Kimmo

Catching up a bit...no wonder the clients happy ....looking good ....they are fun to see develop .....look forward to more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Nap! You and me both, my bank account would like to see another dozen or.

Kimmo