Female Faun. 1/24 Miniature Figure Bust: Update 9 Feb 2014

[Rob]

This is a review of my next contribution to this group build.

"Mujer Fauno" - the Female Faun
A miniature bust by Origen Art - approx. scale 1/24

[youtube]uYIAkcbE3Ug[/youtube]

This is an exquisite little figure with some quite wonderfully sculpted detail.
But (why does there always seem to be a but!), it has a wretched mould line on her left arm which, if the delicate shape of her arm is to be retained, will need a bit of care to fix. Oh well!

I first saw this figure as an entry at this year’s Euromilitaire and was smitten. The figure immediately brought to mind the wonderful, and now iconic, portrait of the ‘Afgan Girl’ on the cover of National Geographic a few years back (see link at bottom of page). While the plans for this figure are still at an early stage, my immediate intention is to base my colour scheme on this photograph. I think I will be painting this one in acrylics.

I aim to finish my HMS Anchusa build before getting on with this, but hope to start this side of Christmas.

The packaging



The Figure (on a cotton reel for scale)


The horns (a nice touch is the piercings on the horns and on her lip)


A mould line on her left arm and head (oh dear)


Links
Origen Art
http://origenart.blogspot.co.uk
YouTube Video Music
Creative Commons
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/
Another reviewer’s thoughts on this figure-
Wantstoplaymore -

[spruecutter]

Looking forward to seeing how thins turns out.

[Gav0909]

Looks like a very nice model there. Be interesting to see this come together.

[Paul]

Can't wait to see what you do to this rob

[Rob]

Origen Art Faun - Primer Applied

…in which the Faun is primed and I talk about the airbrushes I use.

[youtube]aUzTOOWyGpU[/youtube]

The brushes

I struggle with traditional top button, double feed air brushes (having no coordination) so…
Paasche H single action, bottom feed: a gem of a tool - robust, foolproof in operation (useful in this house), capable of top results and simple to clean
Grex TG gravity feed, trigger operated, double action, classy - far more intuitive to operate in my hands (your mileage will, no doubt, vary.



The Faun sanded and filled



The two stage priming priming process

Vallejo acrylic black primer followed by Tamiya acrylic flat white for the highlights





Next up - the girl gets some paint!



Music on video
Licensed Under Creative Commons
URL: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... -OhMallory

Copyright: Creative Commons Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Anchusa
North sea Frame

[Rob]

Origen Art Faun - Paints and Flesh Coat

In which, I gabble on about the paints I am using to paint the Faune gets her flesh base coated

[youtube]bM8EttEPGDo[/youtube]

Paints

I had intended painting the Faun with Scale75 and Vallejo acrylics. However, I got a set of Golden Fluid Acrylics for Christmas and I wanted to give them a run for their money. These are the same as their tube artists paints but in fluid form. They are highly pigmented, single pigment paints and ideal for mixing intense clean colours. However, like tube oil paints, they do present challenges for the model maker in that unlike our favourite ranges by GW, Vallejo, Lifecolor etc, they are not uniformly flat or opaque. Both of which need dealing with in terms of coverage and finish - neither of which is insurmountable. More on this in the video. I have put a link at the bottom of the page to Golden’s fluid acrylic web page and to a very useful colour mixing tool.



Flesh coat.

I will be airbrushing the base colours for the flesh and main elements of the clothing. This will be followed by brush work to increase contrasts and volumes and to paint details such as lips, eyes and metal work.

The basic airbrush method will be used for all areas apart from the flesh which gets a shadow undertone applied by brush.

1 - Primer



2 - Masking followed by Base Coat airbrushed from slightly below



3 - Flesh shadow undertone - random dots and dashes applied by the tip of a brush with darker peachy shades of flesh and brown followed by a thins coat of the base colour. This represents blood vessels under the skin and adds life to the flesh and prevents it looking too much like porcelain. (Spoon for illustration)



4 - Shadow Coat sprayed from below



5 - Highlight Coat



6 - The result pending brushwork (paint bottle for scale)





Next time I will do the rest of the base coating and talk about my brushes

Links
Golden Fluid Acrylics
http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/co ... /index.php
Golden Virtual Paint Mixer
http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/mixer/

Video Music

Copyright licensed under Creative Commons

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/

Thank You For Looking

[Nige201980]

Like I said on the video mate always love your work and learn so much.

[JayCub]

Im keen to see how this turns out Rob, im not a good figure painter so i appreciate the tips along the way.

Tom

[T3hGuppy]

Lovely work dude.

I'm pretty new to Paint figures with an airbrush watching you is invaluable.

[Rob]

Thanks fellas, the encouragement is appreciated.

When painting figures with an airbrush the temptation is to go too heavy with the initial coat of base tone. Don't worry too much about total coverage as the shadow and highlight coats will fill in the gaps - and then the fun bits with the brush begin (well, it makes me happy anyway).

[chief5437]

Brilliant videos, really good instruction. Thanks mate!

[Rob]

Origen Art Faun - Base Coats and Brushes

[youtube]q91z8y5T7Qw[/youtube]

The Video covers the base coating of the Faun and talks about the brushes I use. I have posted the information and thoughts about my brushes here

http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=4556

First up, the figure has had all base coats completed by airbrush (base colour, shadow, highlight as described in the previous posting about the flesh coat).

1 Vest and Pants.



2 Upper and Lower Arm Coverings

Inspiration (good old google)!



Coats





Completion ( a bit of remedial brush work required on lower pad)




3 Horns and hair





That’s it for now It all looks a bit stark but it will come together with the next, brush work stage.

Thank you for looking. If you are interested, please see separate post about my brushes http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=4556

Video Music
Music
Copyright licensed under Crative Commons
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/

[Rob]

Palettes for acrylic paints
(Posted to both Group Build and Tools boards)

[youtube]p7w4zXCSXso[/youtube]

Following on from my post about brushes, I now turn to palettes - an everyday essential!

I use:




White ceramic tile. The colour and smooth surface make it easy to mix paints and it’s useful for quick paint jobs but the paint will dry quickly on the tile.

Well palettes. Commercial and home made varieties in abundance. Brilliant for making up pools of ready thinned colour and for mixing shades. The self contained, wet mixes mean that the paint does not quickly completely dry-up on the palette. Just the ticket for painting layers. This is the tool I use for a single session. A so and so to clean though!



Wet palettes - a tool of considerable, simple genius! Home made or commercial, these palettes provide for extended painting sessions and allow the modeller to return time after time to the prepared paints. All that is needed is a suitable receptacle preferably with a lid, a layer of a water retaining material (e.g., sponge, cloth, blotting paper) and a water resistant paper barrier - kitchen greaseproof is ideal. The palette works by slowing or stopping the evaporation of water from the paint binder. As I found out while making the video, while non-stick greaseproof paper will work, the paint does not remain bound and will bead-up on the surface: bog-standard greaseproof is the way to go! Lid off - the paint will be workable for an hour or so, lid on, the paint will be useable for a day or two. If aiming to store the paint on the palette be sure to spray the sponge with a bit of kitchen sanitiser spray - or mould will form!



On the other hand, non-stick greaseproof is ideal for this…



Mmmn, Dundee Cake (link to recipe http://castlekellycrafts.blogspot.co.uk ... -year.html)


Next up in this series I hope to do a post about blending colours with acrylics

Thank you for looking. I hope that you fund that useful (interesting?)!

Video Music
Music
Copyright licensed under Crative Commons
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/

[Paul]

That's for sharing that rob, very handy

[5Craven]

That's for sharing that rob, very handy

and not to mention tasty!

[T3hGuppy]

Really nice tips on the palette

The Faun is really shaping up stunningly.

[Rob]

Origen Art Faun - Nearly There!

Most of the brush work work has been done and this is the last time you will see her until the final reveal.

[youtube]dPSa1W6zR-A[/youtube]

I had aimed to include today a section on blending with acrylics but the video became to long and unwieldy, so I will make separate posts - blending will follow soon.

Progress

As well as picking out areas of detail such as the eyes, the aim of the brush work was to add contrast and volume by defining and emphasising shapes by manipulating areas of light and shade. I have pictured the light source as falling from above over her left shoulder. On her face, for example this means that the the high parts of the left side of the face on her brow, top of the cheek, side of the nose and chin are made lighter than the corresponding features on the right side. This approach carries on across all areas of the figure.

While I have added a glint of light at the bottom of her belly button, highlighted the top of shorts and gently caressed the upper sides of her hips (ooher) with a light shade, I have left the lower half of the figure relatively low key as the desire is to draw attention to the top half.



Over the next couple of weeks there will be three more posts…
Blending
The Faun’s pedestal (she has to sit on something, after all)
The reveal

Thank you for looking

Video Music
Music
Copyright licensed under Creative Commons
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/
Oh Mallory (Instrumental version)

[Paul]

Stunning work as always rob

[Coen]

I've been watching your vids and now these posts closely Rob... They're enormously helpful. They'll be more so when I start my geisha in a day or two.
Your work is inspiring, and educational.... Also enjoyable.
I'm really looking forward to the next few vids.

[Nige201980]

Rob you are a master at this sort of build and i always learn so much from you videos and photos just love seeing your work its always stunning

[T3hGuppy]

Another great update and so much useful information.

[JayCub]

Thank you for the information Rob, I have subscribed to your channel,but it is also great to see the photographs here on ISM

Tom

[Rob]

Blending Acrylic Paints (posted to both the ‘Figure Group Build’ and ‘How To’ boards)

...in which I attempt to demonstrate acrylic paint blending methods for brush painting figures.

Three methods are introduced - layering, wet on wet blending and two brush blending. The first two get serviceable demonstrations on the video but the third, which is new to me, is a poor effort!


[youtube]_XrwCr7kv84[/youtube]

On my figures, when using the hairy stick, I use three methods for blending acrylic paints to achieve smooth transitions from one colour, tone or shade to another: layering, wet on wet blending and two brush blending. The last of those is new to me and still a work in progress.

My video demonstrates each of the methods in turn with varying degrees of success. Links are provided below to some superb examples of figure painter using these techniques properly!

Layering

Unlike oil or enamel paints, which remain open or workable for some time and therefore allow colours to be mixed together on the figure itself, acrylics dry extremely quickly and need different approaches if the same seamless transitions and blends are to be achieved.

The main system used is layering which is the addition of thin coats of progressively lightening (for highlights) or darkening tones or shades of paint on decreasing areas of the model until the desired transition or effect is achieved.

The paint to be painted in each layer is thinned using water or a medium (retarders and flow improves can be added if desired) and should be of a thin semi-transparent consistency (difficult to describe in words!) - it cant be too thin (you will just need more layers to see the desired change in colour), but too thick is no good whatsoever! NB - do not use AB thinners to thin paints for layering - the solvents used to make our air brushes work may, with the friction caused by the brush stroke, reactivate the lower layers of paint and cause them to lift off - ask me how I know! Vallejo’s FAQ says this too - so it must be true!

Each layer must be fully dry before moving on to the next.

As each layer goes down, especially if there is a significant increase in the tone or shade, when dry a ‘tide mark’ or line showing where the value changes may be visible. These can be further blended by feathering the edges with even thinner washes of the tones or shades in question (eg a line between a dark and a light layer can be feathered with a mid tone).

Example from the video - clumsy and certainly not seamless! But, illustrates the text above. The transition from VMC English Uniform to VMC Beige has been done in 8 progressively lighter layers - nowhere near enough for this size of object but useful for demo purposes.




Wet on Wet Blending

My favourite! Quick, effective and, with a modicum of practise, easy!

In this method (which is based on a traditional watercolour process) a thin wash of the base colour is painted onto the general area of the required blend and immediately, the desired highlight or shading colour is painted onto the high spot or shadow area and quickly feathered into the wet wash. Capillary action takes care of the rest! The trick with this method is to work quickly (that wash of paint will dry as you watch) and to ensure that the colour to be blended is thicker than the wash - if both are the same thin consistency, the two colours will completely mix of their own accord without the required controlled transition.

Water can be used as the first coat if the paint to be blended is, for example, a contrasting colour and you do not want its value or hue to be changed by the wash of base colour.

Once feathered, leave well alone until dry.

Again - thin with water and or medium and not solvent based thinner. A little retarder in the wash can help to slow everything down which can be good (but not if your are, as am I, impatient)

This will make more sense if you watch the video!

Examples




Two Brush Blending

This is a new one and I have just started to try it - it seems most useful.

Similar to Wet on Wet but the paint to be blended goes onto the a dry model and is then blended in in quick succession with the tip of a second, clean, damp brush. Exponents of this method use a special medium to dampen their brush - good ol’ spit! When I first saw this I was a bit dubious but in practice it seems like the fluid acts as a resist and prevents the paint leaching to far into the liquid. It also seems to grab the paint making the feathering process effective. You will see me have a go on the video but it’s a very poor effort - check out the linked vids for the real deal.

Links
Layering acrylics to paint faces

Marion Ball (about an hour, but magical!)


Iguazzu (18 mins of genius)



Layering for skin tones
Coen! Top man - top job


Two brush blending

The basics well explained and demonstrated
Brant Benoit
1
2
3

Used to shadow and highlight a figure
Studio McVey 1

Studio McVey 2


Thank you for looking

Video Music
Music
Copyright licensed under Creative Commons
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/
Oh Mallory (Instrumental version)

[Coen]

Thank you thank you thank you!!

I just read through this, tomorrow morning I'll talk in the video portion.
Rob, I, for one, appreciated the huge amount of work that it took to put this together.
Now the forum has a figure painting guide in progress.

[Nige201980]

Rob this is fantastic mate thank you one day once I get some decent brushes and paint I'm going to give figures ago and I will be referring to this guide so thank you mate.

[wappynutter]

Beautiful, beautiful work Rob, ...and very interesting paint info which I need to study and read later when I get 5 mins...
Thanks for sharing buddy, you are a star!
Looking forward to the final reveal!!

[Rob]

Thank you all for your smashing comments about my posts - I am glad you found something in them of interest.

Now, at the risk of overload...

A Base for the Faun

…in which I build a pedestal for the bust.

[youtube]EI3IOfxNnVI[/youtube]

The aim was to build a stand for the figure that was interesting in its own right but which leaves the figure as the centre of attention.

The bottom of the bust has a pilot hole which was drilled out to accept a 1.6mm brass rod



Using wood batons salvaged from a bag of kindling supplied by a neighbour who is a crafts teacher I built a 1” square x 2/12” tall pedestal. a corner edge was trimmed back and the pedestal was covered in teak(?) veneer - also a product of the magic kindling bag.



The top and side was coated in a mud coloured mixture made from Sculptamold - a dry papier mache material, to which you add water, that sets well and has excellent sculptural properties. Dried roots from last year’s tomato plants were added to add organic interest!





To add a little more interest I built some mushrooms out of Green Stuff - and here they are painted. I have to admit to being chuffed to bits with them!



The pedestal was not that stable so it will be attached to a resin base - again by 1.6mm brass rod. It will all be tidied up a bit once the figure is in place.



That’s it. Only the final reveal to come - hopefully in a week or less.

Thank you for looking

Video Music
Music
Copyright licensed under Creative Commons
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Josh_ ... Wake_1790/
Oh Mallory (Instrumental version

[Coen]

That was excellent. Talk about scratch base. Wow.
That turned out perfect.
I can't wait to see that all come together Rob.

[alextheblue]

Absolutely fantastic work Rob!!

I've been watching your videos on Youtube and as a result have forgotten to leave a comment here on ISM! Your videos are so good I would happily pay money if these were available on a DVD or download - but you do them for free! Each one is a masterclass and I've learnt so much; could happily watch them all day long!

[T3hGuppy]

God damn it stop being so good!!! lol.

Love the base dude.