U.S. Grant

[Len K.]

I just finished painting this bust of General Ulysses S. Grant sculpted by Ron Tunison. It depicts Grant as a Major General circa 1862 as he would have looked at the battle of Shilo. The bust is approximately 1/4 scale and is a great likeness of Grant. Painted in artist’s oils over enamels.

 

[Briggsy]

Great paint work.

Cheers Simon

 

[clubcat]

Nicely done
Melanie

 

[MalcC]

Very nice.

Malc

 

[Blind Pew]

Super painting. You've got the skin tones spot on, also that shade of blue on the uniform, it's almost black. 100% spot on, you've clearly seen examples in museums in the flesh. A top job.

 

[VerSacrum]

Great. If I ever get to painting ACW figures, Grant is on the top of the list. Such an interesting person.

 

[Len K.]

Thanks for the compliments everyone. I am a long time student of the American Civil War and an admirer of Grant. Over the last forty years or so I have amassed a pretty sizable library of reference works on uniforms, accouterments and weapons of the period as well as a collection of authentic Civil War artifacts. I also have very accurate reproductions of Union Army uniforms so there is no excuse for me not to be accurate. U.S. Army regulations of 1861 called for uniform coats to be indigo. Indigo is a very very dark blue with the ever so slightest tinge of purple. The formula I us is very simple and works well for me. When I paint a Union uniform I use Windsor Newton indigo straight from the tube and shade it with ivory black and highlight it with titanium white. The results I find are pretty close to examples I’ve seen in museums and photographs as well as my reproduction pieces. I attached photos of a few examples of Union uniforms I have painted and a photo of part of my Civil War antiques collection.

 

[VerSacrum]

What a collection. My only experience with the ACW is films (Glory, Gettysburg and its worse prequel), Ken Burns documentary series and Chris "Vlogging through history" Mowery's videos so I can't judge the accuracy of the uniforms but they sure look great. Particularly like the subtle weathering on Chamberlain (I always overdo my own)

 

[Doug Halke]

I've been using the Indigo and Ivory Black but was kinda shy about just using white to highlight - adding a little Cerulean Blue and/or Naples Yellow to the mix to dull it a little. Your results look very good. though. I'm gonna have to reconsider.

Curious - what did you use for the gold metallics on Chamberlain's scabbard?

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Doug