Giraffe: Spots

Worked on the giraffe man today. I started by putting a lighter color on what corresponded to lighter base areas in my reference photo. Then I started putting on spots. Doing the spots is going to take a loooong time. But hey, it's freehand practice, of a sort. I don't think I'm doing great at matching the reference with the spots -- they're too close together and too intertwined. I'm not going to change it now, though. It'll look worse if it's inconsistent.

Orlando: Chain, Tabard

Got back to Orlando today. I finished the shading and highlighting on the chain mail, and moved on to the base coats on his tabard.

Thoth: Skin. Giraffe: Fur

I didn't have the energy for fiddly stuff tonight, so I worked on base coats on things. Here's Thoth with a base coat for his skin. I'm going for a darker skin tone, kinda like the main character Bayek in the newest Assassin's Creed game. This might be a little too dark a base to match that, but I can probably fix it.

And I started the base coat on my next Bones piece. Yes, this is a giraffe man.

Next I'll put the spots on him, maybe with a little texture.

Orlando: Chain. Thoth.

I've started on Orlando's chain mail. This is a base coat with an undercoat of blue, and then a first round of shading that's going to need some smoothing. I don't like the way the chain is sculpted on this one that much. It's very flat. The texture is pretty hit or miss.

I've also prepped my next Arena Rex piece. This is Thoth. The head and arms were separate pieces. His hands I'll paint separately and then attach after; they're a little too much in the way.

There's a lot that I didn't clean up on some parts of the resin. Just too fragile.

2!

Finished up the orc today; here he is with the metal and base done.

I also cleaned up Orlando's face and finished up the hair. Better, I think.

Orlando: Hair. Orc: Finished Kilt, Straps

Did shading and highlighting on the orc's kilt and the straps on his greaves. All that's left now is to shade and highlight the armor. That'll be a longer effort because there's a lot of armor. Might wait for the weekend for that.

Put the base coat on Orlando's hair, put in the whites of his eyes and eyebrows (those need cleaning up), and lips. I won't really be able to judge anything about his face until I finish the eyes. Right now he just looks like a zombie.

Orlando: Face, Orc: Kilt, Straps

I started with base coating the orc's kilt and the straps for his greaves. I also upped the highlight on his skin a bit, which lost the yellow.

Then I went to Orlando and put some glazing on his face. I glazed yellow on his forehead, red across the nose and cheeks, and cool blue/brown on the chin and jaw. I overdid the red, so then I had to go back and fix it. I dunno, I might have liked it better before messing with it.

I'll probably fill in his eyes, mouth, and hair next, because it's hard to get a feel for it when the face is all surrounded by white.

Orc: Leather

I did shading and highlighting on the orc's boots, belt, and bracers. I aimed for continuing with the high contrast. Comparing to the leather, I might need to bump the skin highlighting up. It doesn't seem so super contrasty anymore.

I have to figure out what color to go with for his skirt/kilt thing, too. Maybe red.

Orlando: Face

I did some work on Orlando the Crusader's face. That's a bast coat, highlights, and shadows. I'm working from a picture. I'm not going to try to replicate the picture exactly so much as use it as a general guide. It has fairly complex but subtle colors - there's some green in the shadows, red in the lower highlights, yellow in the bright highlights, and more. So, I have green in my middle shadow and purple in my dark shadows, warm mid tones, and some yellow in the highlights. It's not done - I may put in another level of highlight, and then I think some glazing to kind of bring it together. But he does have a very intense look that I like. I spent a fair bit of time fighting with the shadow on his right cheek, though, and I think I still need to work on that some more.

Orc: Skin, basecoats

Today I was inspired to try really pushing the contrast on the skin of that orc guy I started a while ago. So, I darkened the shadows some and then put in highlights. I took the highlights up a level higher than I usually do. Is it contrasty? Yes. Is it at the high contrast look I was trying to replicate? Not sure. I could probably go another step higher in the highlights, which'd pretty much be off-white with a bit of yellow.

I also did the rest of his face details, which is to say the eyes and teeth. The leather bits and armor are just base coated because it's hard to evaluate how a section looks when it's surrounded by white.

1!

Here's Medusa with her spear in place and on her base. All done!

I wouldn't say I've mastered transparent cloth, but I'm not unhappy with how it came out.

Medusa: Bracer, Headpiece

Today I finished Medusa's headpiece and her other bracer. What's left now is her other hand (with a spear), and her base. Her base will be a simple sand base; I'm planning on doing all the Arena Rex figures the same as far as bases go. They are ultimately game pieces, so no fancy bases.

Medusa: Shield

Finished off Medua's shield and put it in place. I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Medusa: Shield

Worked on Medusa's shield today. Need to finish the NMM gold.

Medusa: Veil, bracers

I've been sick for a couple days, but got back to painting some today. I worked on finishing Medusa's veil. As you can see, I settled on red. The veil area was pretty challenging with all the tiny little folds and valleys. I don't think it's the highest quality work I've done on this figure. You can also see I started the base coat on her bracers and head piece.

Medusa: Drapery. Orc: Skin

I went over Medusa's veil with blue. Better, I think, though I didn't put in any of the flesh toned areas. I was having trouble with brush control today and slopping blue paint everywhere, so I bailed and worked  on something else instead.

The other thing I worked on is the orc. I shaded his skin and just barely started on highlights.

Medusa: Drapery, Snakes, Veil

Today I did the shading and highlighting of the more flesh-colored areas of Medusa's drapery, and glazed it back closer to the flesh color. I also painted the snakes in that area and started on her veil. I went with the same green as the snakes for the veil, but I'm probably going to go back and change it to a light blue. I don't want there to be confusion about what's snake and what's cloth, and the green is awfully bright. Might be a bit much.