Completed Critique Stormtrooper 1916 (Young Miniatures 1/10)

[housecarl]

Far to nice for a thinner bath, I think you've done a brilliant job.
Carl.

 

[Ferris]

I like it a lot so far Kaz. It has a very artistic look and I would keep it far from any thinners.

Seems like a good advice to 'blitzkrieg' ahead with other parts of the bust and consider the face again at a later stage. The overall result will tell you if it fits or not.

I for one look forward to the rest.

Cheers,
Adrian

 

[kaz6120]

Thank you very much, sam, Carl, Adrian. I took a break for a while (followed your advice ), and decided to keep it away from thinner bath.

Things I didn't satisfied was hard to make it clear, but I gradually recognizing it now. "The face doesn't tell any stories, situation, and feeling." The face was too cool and expressionless.

So, I decided to start over again from making the situation of this soldier clear. the sculpture has young looking and ambiguous feelings such as "young and brave but uneasy look" on his face.

So I decided to follow the situation, added red on lower eyelids to express "sleepless eyes", added a little bit more pink on the cheek to express "young", added purple on lips to express "nervous and dried mouth",
and painted the corner of the mouth look a little bit down to express "uneasy look".



As Adrian says, I will move onto other parts and will back to face again to finish.

 

[marius'mules]

The face is looking excellent.

 

[Sam]

Very nice indeedy

 

[gordy]

Fantastic Kaz!

You've captured it well!

 

[unknown01]

Hi! Kazufumi.
Great progress!
I'm thinking it's difficult to request a contrast and smoothness in VALEJYO - COLOR.
But you're successful in that.
Indeed it's wonderful.
I'm looking forward to future's progress.

　　　 Mitsutaka.

 

[kaz6120]

Thank you very much for your comments, Sam, gordy, Mitsutaka!

I'm not satisfying with this project yet and I don't know why but I feel I won't be able to be satisfied even if I finish this, but I will give it a try to complete this.

Here's the current status. I started painting uniform and other parts.

 

[Meehan34]

To me he is looking very good. What exactly is bothering you about the paint job so far?

 

[marius'mules]

To me he is looking very good. What exactly is bothering you about the paint job so far?

+1

I can't see what has you all stressed out about this---I would be thrilled, if my brush work even looked half as good as this!

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

Looks like you are a hard guy to satisfy ,if the rest turns out as good as the face it will be a stunner from a very simple figure.

 

[gordy]

Kaz the uniform looks great, nice and smooth

 

[kaz6120]

Thank you very much for your compliments, Meehan, marius, Ron, gordy!

What exactly is bothering you about the paint job so far?

Hmm, yes, it's hard to tell...I don't know exactly what it is...

Looks like you are a hard guy to satisfy ,if the rest turns out as good as the face it will be a stunner from a very simple figure.

LOL, yes maybe I'm a hard guy to satisfy.

You gave me a hint why I don't satisfy. Yes, this is "very simple figure", emotionless face with colorless uniforms. For me that's the most difficult factor of this figure to paint.

Boxart paint did a "too great painting job" by adding special painting effects to this simple figure, such as great "shell shock" look, it got the most out of this figure potential. So I didn't realize this is basically a very simple figure until I start painting it.

It's almost impossible to beyond the style of the boxart sample, so I started painting it differently. and I realized that's a difficult way to paint this figure. "Painting this figure differently from the boxart style" is very very hard. Maybe that makes me a hard guy to satisfy.

Kaz the uniform looks great, nice and smooth

Thank you very much gordy!

OKay, maybe I took it too seriously. I keep forgetting to enjoy painting. I move onto the next step!

 

[marius'mules]

It keeps getting better and better---excellent painting.

 

[Paul-H]

Hi

Firstly you are obviously a fantastic painter and what you have produced is a million times better than what I can do, but i bet I know whats bugging you about this face.

For me its a touch too bright and colourfull for the subject matter, I bet if the face was a bit greyer and darker you would be happier with it.

Still like I said I wish mine where a fraction as good as this one is but you did ask. Right.

Paul

 

[Meehan34]

I think Paul is on to something.

 

[Ulrich]

Hope that I will come with my painting near your result.

But like Paul I will paint him in a more greyer color. For me it is an disillusioned, exhausted young soldier

But I know the feeling not be to satifisfied with apainting result because something is wrong with the colors.

Ulrich

 

[tonydawe]

Kaz,

I'd love to be able to paint faces as well as you.

I agree with Ulrich that the face is perhaps too colourful (too much red in the skin tone), and that a more palid palette is required. I would suggest you add a few washes of blue and green over the flesh areas to tone down the skin tone.

I would also suggest you look at applying some dirt and grime on the face itself to add to the sense of misery and despair seen in the faces of trench dwellers in the Western Front. This will make the eyes "pop" more, which enhances that exhausted, disillusioned look.

 

[megroot]

Very nice work. The uniform should be more to the grey side.
The face looks awesome but for a trenchlook to clean. What Tony suggested would work great.
Maybe some purple under the eyes will do look him more exhausted.
Marc

 

[kaz6120]

Thank you very much for your very helpful comments, Steve, Paul, Mike, Ulrich, Tony, and Marc!

Thanks for the advice of putting dirt on this, Tony and Marc, I really appreciate your advice, but as I previously mentioned, I wanted to avoid to follow the boxart style and stereo-type muddy western-front, I've been trying to find another style.

I decided to make him "Before trench", I mean "He is a new and nervous young soldier heading for the western front".

So I took Ulrich, Tony and Marc's advice a little bit, added blue and purple to tone down the reddish skin tone (yet reddish though), added purple under the eyes, and then added few grey washes to the uniform. It looks still green side in digital camera photo but It looks greyer to the real eyes.

I will finishing up this project now, but still I accept any comments I will keep adding and fixing this to make it better.