When is a bust not a bust?

[Rob]

Indulging my penchant for looking out "girly" busts in 1/9 or 1/10 scale to paint, an ardous task I know given the explosion of 3D sculpted fantasy and fantasy historical subjects, I found this one today.

It is sold as a "bust" and there is a bigger version with legs and even more details.

https://missinglinkproductions.net/products/immortal-empress-xi-qing-bust

Can't insert the image unfortunately.....too big!
No disputing it would be an incredible piece to paint (although probably be a once in a lifetime experience), and a real showstopper at a modelling convention, but is it really a bust?

 

[Larsen E. Whipsnade]

Wow, what a challenge, Rob. IMO (for whatever that's worth) if it doesn't have legs it's a bust. Good luck if you decide to go ahead with it. I'll be following with interest.
Rick

 

[Mirofsoft]

Wow, what a challenge, Rob. IMO (for whatever that's worth) if it doesn't have legs it's a bust. Good luck if you decide to go ahead with it. I'll be following with interest.
Rick

 

[Blind Pew]

I always say a bust ought to be head & shoulders, down to about the sternum or thereabouts. I've seen some where they've been down to the waistline. I mean, just add some legs and call it a figure.

 

[valiant]

Having had a formal Art and Design education, I tend to stick to the dictionary definition "a sculpture of a person's head, shoulders, and chest". I know there are considerable contradictions to this definition...

 

[Rob]

No, it's going to take a braver painter than me to tackle this piece, I struggled to even find what little of the Queen is hidden in there somewhere.
I would love to see it done though, probably need a painter with a CMoN sized ego to try it.

 

[Babelfish]

I'm in the school that defines a bust as going no further down than the chest. i.e. the traditional definition of a bust.

Those "busts" that go all the way down to the waist are "half-figures" as far as I'm concerned. Not busts. Even though their producers describe them as such (as do many painters, as in "I have just finished this beautiful bust of ...").

- Steve

 

[Rob]

I'm in the school that defines a bust as going no further down than the chest. i.e. the traditional definition of a bust.

Those "busts" that go all the way down to the waist are "half-figures" as far as I'm concerned. Not busts. Even though their producers describe them as such (as do many painters, as in "I have just finished this beautiful bust of ...").

- Steve

My school also.
I have a strong preference for head and shoulder busts (not "V" form) in sedate poses, not necessarily classical rigid but not extreme or action based forms.
Also I dislike "busts" that have equipment or weapons (or even more so half a horse) protruding much beyond the perimeter lines of the bust. Something like Nuts Planet's Lagertha or Karol Rudyk's Black Mother are about as expansive as I think a bust should get. These have extraneous detail but keep it close to the main form of the bust.

 

[Babelfish]

My school also.
I have a strong preference for head and shoulder busts (not "V" form) in sedate poses, not necessarily classical rigid but not extreme or action based forms.
Also I dislike "busts" that have equipment or weapons (or even more so half a horse) protruding much beyond the perimeter lines of the bust. Something like Nuts Planet's Lagertha or Karol Rudyk's Black Mother are about as expansive as I think a bust should get. These have extraneous detail but keep it close to the main form of the bust.

Yes I concur with that. I don't like "hobby horse" busts either, and those disembodied hands holding part of a weapon that you sometimes see just don't work at all for me. They just look very odd.

- Steve