The Grinder 200mm bust

[marta]

Hi,

That's one of my latest miniatures, finished aroud September 2012 (I'm pretty slow painter).
Beautiful bust sculpted by Roberto Chaudon. Painted with acrylics and oils. My second bust but the first one in such a big scale.
At this point I'm thinking about pimping it a bit, so please let me know where did I failed the most. I got some ideas what's wrong or not good enough, but maybe I'm missing something

cheers

'eM

 

[Ron Tamburrini]

I would leave it well alone looks super ,but damed disturbing
Leather looks superb, oils there I would think

Ron

 

[T-34/85]

There is no failure here. Excellent painting!

 

[Ulrich]

Excellent painting. Like the leather and the handles of the weapons

 

[megroot]

Excellent work, and in my opinion you shoud leave it as it is.

Marc

 

[FigureLover]

Overall that is one hell of a job, the skin tones are great but the armour,knife and all other added bits are absolutely outstanding, the shading is excellent.
The only points I dont like, and its only my own personal opinion, is too much grey in the hair and eyebrows, it looks a bit too stark compared to the rest of him. Maybe a dark wash to tone it down a bit would make a great difference. A little 5 o'clock shadow for his shaved head would also good.
Ben

 

[Joe55]

I agree with FigureLover about the hair and eyebrows. Overall you did a marvelous job !!

Joe

 

[kagemusha]

Agreed, hair and eyebrows need less contrast and, if I may suggest, a tinge of pinkishness to the raised tribal on the left upper arm to represent scar tissue.
Possibly a faint wash of skin tone to mouth/nose area to create transparency.
In all other aspects this is a superb piece of painting. Very nicely done.

Regards

Ron

 

[marta]

Thx guys.
The hair and eyebrows are bit weird I guess I'll try to fix that first.
I'm thinking also that there is not enough contrast on the skin, face especially. What do you think?
And maybe little fresh wound on his chest? with a bit of blood? Or is it gonna be to busy?


@Ron: the leather elements are painted oils and acrylics (in this order). It was my first time with oils so I had no idea what I was doing, and couldn't achieve high contrast, so decided to finish it up with acrylics. Actually only the skin and hair are 'pure' oils. Metal parts are ofc acrylics, and the red cloth is mostly done with acrylics.

@FigureLover: I'll think about this 5 o'clock shadow, his head does look a bit empty. I was thinkin about big aztec tattoos on his skull, but I was affraid that it's gonna be too busy (especially with the scarifications), but shaved head should look good.

@kagemusha: I never thought about doing his mask semi transparent. It was always very thick fabrick in my head. But the scarifications need some work for sure.

BTW, the original bust had a hole in the mask, and you could see his teeth. I decided to hide it (asking Robert if he's ok with it first) because now he looks even more sinister, and yes... disturbing.

cheers

'eM

 

[housecarl]

Some superb details 'eM.
The leather is especially nice,
Carl.

 

[Wheels]

There is much to like here.
Love the 2 weapons and the armament.
The overall feel is strong.
My only problem is the skin. It looks like leather from the back.
The contrast and shading looks good generally. The color seems a little off to me.
Also, the eyes seem very peaceful for such a strong character, but they are
very well executed.

Marta - For context...I can't paint this well on my best day.

A great job on a fascinating subject.

 

[Helm]

If you want to tinker with (personally I'd leave it alone it's excellent) maybe work in some "tattooing" around the scarification that's already present? Agree re the grey just run a dark wash over it but it's fine as is

Steve

 

[smudger1960]

Hi eM,that's a teriffic result and some lovely brushwork,is the tattoo sculpted onto the left arm or did you paint it?,another colour I like is the green handle on the machete,it's a very striking green and looks lovely,beautiful work on the leathers as well,congratulations on a great job

 

[Nap]

Hi Marta ,

Love the work you have put into this ...leatherwork is amazing please do share how you achieved this ...you said you used Oils first then Acrylics ...really interested in this .

Personally I would do more contrast on the flesh as well as some 5 o'clock shadow on the head as well , and put a wash over the hair as well ...eyes are great ...

I would not put too much else on the skin otherwise too busy IMO

Ist bust in this scale eh ...I am off to cry in the corner ....great stuff Marta

Thanks for sharing

Nap

 

[pmfs]

Beautiful work with stunning textures. Less positive points are the hair and eyebrows, but if you like as well is the most important.
Pedro.

 

[Don]

Would leave this well alone, you have done a wonderful job so far, why change it?
I love your leathers though wonder at you saying you used oils then acrylic on them. Leathers and his weapons are stunning. Really stunning.

Don

 

[marta]

Finally I decided to fix only hair (a bit of black wash in the recesses), tidy a bit face mask and add some red to the temples and cheecks. I was too affraid to mess with his scalp, but I'm definitelly using the idea of 5 o'clock shadow with next bold guy (would it look ok on pegaso's Iroquis? or Native American will be bad example here?).

With the leathers I needed to use acrylics on top of oils to accent fine detalis, as I had no idea how to use oils and was basically blindly experimenting ;]
So I painted base in acrylics, used oils for general shadows and lights and then painted all the damage and fine details again with acrylics.
Here, on the straps, you can see what I mean (photo is from WIP stage)

cheers

'eM