Faerie: Shading Skin

Remember her? I started her a while ago to work on transparent cloth. Finally, I'm back to it.

I put the first round of shading on both the bare skin and the skin showing through the transparent cloth. The bare skin, the shading needs to go darker by quite a bit, and I expected that. The shading of the skin under the cloth I need to smooth out with a mid-shade. The shadow color I put in is a bit dark; I think it needs to be the deepest shadow there.

I am probably going to do both skin areas more or less simultaneously.

9!

Finished her up today. I do have to go back and fill in just a bit under her boot there, but other than that she's OK. The sword didn't go on quite as well as I'd hoped. I was aiming for a different angle, and I think I didn't get it aligned quite right.  had to do a lot of repair afterwards - there was a fair bit of rub-off as I was trying to place the thing. If I were to paint another one of these, I might leave the sword off.

So, she's flawed in her execution, but I still like her.

Widow: Gun, Sword

Highlighted the gun and finished her sword, including putting a pin in it for attaching it to her. On the home stretch now! I do need to smooth a couple things on the gun, and maybe bring up that highlight. I took it to white, but it isn't showing up very well. I'll need to see if that's just an effect of the camera or if it darkened while drying.

I'll have to do a bit of repair work where paint was rubbed off when I was testing the sword placement.

And her sword.

Widow: Roses, Gun

Did the buds of her roses and started on the gun. The gun has a base coat and some shading that needs to be smoothed in a couple places. Next time will be highlighting the gun. After that's done, she has a sheathed katana that goes on her back that I need to do and then pin in place.

Then of course, there's the base. I haven't figured out what to do with that. She came with and is attached to a sculpted base that looks like metal plates. She doesn't really look like a 'metal plates' figure to me, but I also don't want to try taking her off the base.

Widow: Dress, Boots, Gloves

Put some deeper shadows on her dress and smoothed them a bit. Also did the highlights. Then, the boots and gloves. No shading because they're black, but highlights with a couple shades of gray. I also did the stems of the roses because they were tucked in behind the glove, so I wanted to get them while it was safer to slop paint on the neighboring glove.

I have a little touch up to do on her skin, and maybe a couple of blends need some smoothing. Even so, overall I'm pretty happy with how she's progressing.

Widow: Hair, Dress

On the hair: I took a look at pictures of their painted studio copy, which was painted by Marike Reimer. As far as placement goes, she made the rose-side highlights broader than mine, but the stuff on the gun side was similar. So, I figure, if it's good enough for their studio figure, it's good enough for me. I made the rose-side highlight a bit broader and called it good. It's not quite as smooth as it was but it'll do.

I also started shading the dress. I need to mess with that some more to smooth it out. The transitions need some work, and the shade color is going on a bit blotchy.

Widow: Lining, Hair

Alright. I re-lined the edges of her skin with a slightly darker color, and then went to work on her hair.

After fussing with the hair to get the sheen nice and smooth and as bright as I wanted it...I realized I put them in the wrong place. :p See how her head is tilted? Well, if the sun is coming straight down from above, the highlights should not be centered around the crown of her head like that. See here:

If the arrows are the light source, see how the high points they'd be hitting are offset just a bit because of how her head is tilted? The highlight on the 'gun' side of her head should be right up by the part in her hair, and the highlight on the 'roses' side should be farther from the part, and probably a bit broader.

I should go back and fix it. I may or may not actually do that. As it is, the highlights are in the wrong place but I'm happy with the execution other than that.

Origins Report, Future Widow

So Origins went well. As far as the diorama goes, the good news is I took best in the diorama category. The bad news is I was the only entry in the diorama category. So, that was a little disappointing.

But competition season is over for me, so I can get back to painting whatever I feel like. I'll be getting back to the fairy with the sheer gown soon.

Today was Paint Day, so I wanted something less fussy to work on there. I chose the Future Widow from Freebooter. I did her skin and eyes and started her hair while I was there, then came home and did her makeup, glasses, and base coated the dress. For the dress I wanted to go with a color I don't usually use, and something...bright. I'm liking this bright magenta.

 This is a neat figure, but I put her together and primed her a while ago. So, it's not the best primer and she's got some flaws in putting her together. The back of that right shoulder in particular is a little ugly. So, she's never going to be the highest quality piece ever. But she'll still be fun.

I'll probably finish her hair next, then re-line around the dress, then shade and highlight the dress. I might fuss with her glasses a little more too.

Diorama: Done!

All put together! I'm pretty happy with it. Or pretty happy that it's done, one or the other. It's not photographic well, though.