WIP Critique Young Teutonic Knight Bust

[Andrew Craft]

I started this one a while ago but got frustrated with not being able to get the flesh tones the way I wanted them so he was shelved for a while. Today I took him down and started again. I am trying to go for more natural skin on this one not pushing the shadows and highlights as much. I have noticed since taking photos that his left eye is darker than the other so that's tomorrow's job. As usual it's all in acrylics. He won't be painted as a Teutonic Knight but more of a fantasy hero or something like that from a fairy tale.
I hope you like it and feel free to comment and criticize.

Andrew.

 

[tonydawe]

Hi Andrew,

I think you've made a great start. The skintones look very natural to my eye. The eyes are quite symetrical as you noted. The right eye looks better than the left IMHO.

Keep up the good work mate, and don't stop.

 

[Michael Tse]

If I may draw a comparison, this is how a Japanese garage kit artist would approach flesh painting, and digging it doesn't come close to how I feel.

This is going to be a master piece for sure.

 

[megroot]

Perfect skintone's and a great start for this figure.

marc

 

[unknown01]

Indeed it's beautiful flesh color, Andrew.
Great start.
I feel that this figure is difficult, but I expect your masterpiece very much.

Mitsutaka.

 

[Einion]

Looks great so far Andrew. Is the hair complete? Because I like the colour a lot.

I think it's great that you're seeking to pull back on the shadowing and highlighting - far too often overdone at large scales these days IMO, leading to a very unnatural appearance - but I would suggest adding a bit more here and there. The sculpt has deep-set eyes for example so pretty dark shadows under the brow would make sense visually. Also a few key highlights would help I think.

If you'd like I can take a shot at showing what I have in mind with a quick Photoshop edit later on?

Einion

 

[sam b]

A great start so far
Sam

 

[Andrew Craft]

Thanks everyone for the comments.
Einion I agree the larger ones scale figures can be overdone and I'm still trying to find a style that suits me, but I think it's more towards this more subtle style than the forced highlights and shadows. I'd love to see what you come up with in photoshop. I haven't finished the hair as yet but I plan to keep the colours as they are now just tidy them up a little.

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[davidmitchell]

Looking good so far Andrew.


Cheers David

 

[Einion]

Okay, I took this a little further than I'd originally intended because it was fun to do but hopefully it's not too much.

Here's my suggested version:

The things I did were:
increased the colour in the face slightly overall;
a bit more shadowing under the brow and the crease from the nose;
more highlighting in a few key areas, where light naturally catches the planes of the face;
gave him a 'high colour' in keeping with the red hair;
freckles added also in keeping with a redhead;
a bit more colour to the lip and darkened the upper lip.

The sharp highlight on the nose is to show it has a slight gloss, not intended to represent a painted highlight. Similarly the catchlights in the eyes are just to show they have a gloss finish.

Here it is alongside the original for direct comparison:

My version is also sharpened in a custom way so that's partly the reason for the startling difference, but that's just to try to replicate what it would look like in the flesh.

Einion

 

[Andrew Craft]

Thanks Einion, that looks great. It's given me a few ideas on where to go next, thanks for taking the time to do it.

Andrew.

 

[Andrew Craft]

Here is today's effort, it's hard to tell much difference from the first photos but I tried to keep it subtle. I darkened around the eyes, added a little more red to the cheeks and nose and did a little more highlighting on the nose, upper cheeks and forehead. The left eye still looks off but they are the same size and shape I may have to make it slightly smaller to make it look balanced. The face and hair is very close to where I want it, and it may even stay how it is now apart from that eye.

Andrew.

 

[Andrew Craft]

Here are a few shots with the body attached and under different lighting. The torso is still just roughed out at the moment and colours may change.

 

[Andrew Craft]

A little work on the tunic today. The emblem is supposed to be a stags head, fortunately the difficult part (the head) is covered by the belt across his chest. Still a bit of work to do on it but the base is there, I hope to shadow the edges of it a bit as it looks a little flat at the moment.
Thanks for looking in.

Andrew.

 

[kathrynloch]

Hey Andrew! Looking really really nice so far. That yellow really sets off the flesh tones.

I'm not sure if it's the photo or my monitor calibration but I'm starting to get a stronger and stronger purple cast to the skin tone. Mostly in the shaded areas but it seems to be getting stronger as the pictures progress.

So I wasn't sure...like I said, it's entirely possible my monitor calibration is different from yours enough that I'm picking up purple. But I wanted to check in case it's not my monitor.

Cheers,
Karrie

 

[Andrew Craft]

Thanks Karrie,
Not sure about the purple tones I haven't touched the face for a while and I try to take the photos in the same place every time except for the one I stated were under different lighting.
Here is a bit of an update, a bit of work on the tunic to try make the heraldry a little less flat, and started on the belt and did some more shadows on the cape.

Andrew.

 

[housecarl]

The stag looks well Andrew.
Carl.

 

[Andrew Craft]

Cheers Carl, hopefully it has a bit of depth to it now.

 

[kathrynloch]

It's gotta be my monitor then Andrew. He's looking really great and nice job on the stag!

 

[Paul Kernan]

Andrew
Nice work, mate. Agree with other postings....the larger the scale, the more subtle the transitions should be. A quick question: when you darkened the shadow around the eyes, did you apply apply the shadow mix wet on dry or as a glaze/filter?

Cheers
Paul