Stanislaw Skalski bust - Finished!

[Mongo Mel]

Well..I've finally managed to finish something!
It's a 1/9 scale bust of Wing Commander Stanislaw Skalski.
It's produced by mirage out of Poland and sculpted by our own Jacek Spychalski (thanks Jacek )
I fell in love with the face the first time I saw this piece.
A little research showed a remarkable likeness to the real man.
Here are some pictures...

As always, I'd appreciate your comments and especially your constructive criticism.
Thanks,
Craig

 

[Christos]

Great painting Craig!
best regards
christos

 

[Sambaman]

Beautifully painted Craig! Love the subtle shading on the fleshtones. I'm with you, this my favorite bust that Mirage puts out. Is it just me, or do the eyebrows look just a tiny bit too harsh? Over al the piece seems to have a lovely subtle look, but the eyebrows seem to jump out at me just a tiny bit. A small detail on a well done piece!

Jay H.
OKC

 

[Mongo Mel]

Thanks Christos

Jay, thanks to you also. I agree, the eyebrows tend to stand out in the pictures. I think it's that I didn't blend the highlights into the base color on them. I think I can fix that easily enough. My problem is that I think the eyes look a bit too intense. I went with blue as that was what I was using on another bust at the time. Maybe brown would have been a better choice. Does anyone out there know this actual eye color?
Thanks ,
Craig

 

[Major_Goose]

very very beautiful work on a nice sculpture !! Brav o

 

[Uruk-Hai]

It might have been a while since Ive last saw your work. If Im not mistaken this is one of the better ones. At least when it comes to my taste.

I think the leatherhelmet is very convincing and also like the shadowing of the jacket.

Cheers

 

[megroot]

Craig,
As a true admire off your bust painting i can only say that this one is no exception in extremely neat bustpainting.
Great work.

Marc

 

[KeithP]

Craig-

Looks good! Especially the leather. Would you pls share your mix for the leather and yellow?

Thanks,

Keith

 

[ArturM]

Great work, Craig!

best regards
Artur

 

[Jacek Spychalski]

Hello my Friend !

Great work , like Your painting very much , lovely skin tones and yellows on his life west !
But remember please about Skalski's name SKALSKI hand painted with white colour on his flying helmet .
http://www.elknet.pl/acestory/foto/skalski1.jpg
http://forum.valka.cz/files/thumbs/t_skalski_162.jpg
And Skalski's ligt blue eyes are correct http://www.fotoinfo.pl/sob_055b.jpg
Congratulations and best regards
Your friend Jacek

 

[Mongo Mel]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the nice things you've all said.

Costas...good to hear from you again my friend.

Janne...this is the first thing I've finished since last August! I'm really happy with the life jacket myself. I've tried painting these before with no luck. But I managed to get a combination of colors that I liked this time.

Marc and Arthur...thanks to you too for your kind comments.

Keith....I'm always happy to share

Leather mix:
Paint Burnt Umber for average, shadow with Sepia and highlight with Naples yellow (all wet-on-wet). Then do secondary shadows and highlights with same colors (wet-on-dry).
Yellow mix:
Paint for average with a mix of Gold Ochre lightened with Naples Yellow.
Shadow with Mars Yellow
Highlight with Naples Yellow
And the seams were done with just a tiny bit of Burnt Sienna
Again, all were applied wet-on wet.

Jacek...Very good to hear from you again. I'm glad that you like my painting of your excellent sculpt. This one has just a fantastic face it was a real pleasure to paint it.
Boy..i was hoping that no one would notice that I left his name off of the flying cap
Yes, it should be there but I was just a bit afraid (chicken!) to try it. One way I thought of was to use a very fine point marker. I have a couple in other colors that I've used to good effect. I just need to pick up a white one.
Do you have any other suggestions for me?
Blue eyes huh? Guess I gott lucky
Thanks again to all,
Craig

 

[Jacek Spychalski]

Hello again my Friend !
I thing best way to paint name on the helmet is a small and "sharp" brush (I use 00 size)
and please use oil colour , when something going wrong its easy to remove with tissue paper. Maybe some training with paper first , for finding best results ?You are very talented modeller !

All the best

Jacek

 

[Mongo Mel]

Hi Jacek,
Thanks for the tip. I definitely would have used oils, there's nothing better
Thanks for that wonderful compliment!
Coming from you, that's very flattering

Seeing your version again made me realize that I had my life jacket ties the wrong color. I did a quick search and found this picture. Wish I had stumbled across it earlier. Looks like I need to make some corrections.
Things like the ties, the rubber inflation tube and the hardware on the right side of the flying helmet.
I painted mine brass and it makes sense that it would be steel.

Thanks again my friend.
Craig

 

[Kyle]

This is very well done. You can see the stress and worry in his features. You have captured him very well, Craig.

Cheers,

Kyle

 

[rafaelega]

Ver nice work Craig. I like spacially the eyes!! IMPRESIVE!!

Rafa

 

[vergilius]

Very well done ! My compliments!

 

[PJ Deluhery]

Great work, Craig! The leathers and the flesh are especially nice. Glad you're not letting your insturctional work interfere with your painitng! Hope to see you at MFCA.

 

[Mongo Mel]

Hi guy,
Thanks so much for your kind comments.
there are some corrections in the works as we speak. I found out that the Poland patch should be blue for pilots (red was for ground soldiers).
Plus a couple of other things already mentioned.
Pat...I plan on being at MFCA again this year. I look forward to seeing you again too
Craig

 

[Mongo Mel]

Hi guys,
Here are a couple of pictures with the correc tions made to the bust.
These include adding the hand lettered "Skalski" to the flying helmet and correct colors on the life vest ties and shoulder patches.

And for fun, a cropped version in sepia tone to mimick the actual photo of Skalski --<

Thanks to everyone for the help
Craig

 

[megroot]

Craig,
Your "minor" changes makes this an outstanding painted bust.
Great work.
Marc