I got back to Phaedra today. I put shading and highlights on her skin, and then put an undercoat on her armor. The armor is going to be metallic bronze. Metallic paints are somewhat transparent, so having an undercoat helps with coverage, and also adds depth to the metallic color.
Worked on the details of Perseus's face - eyes, lips, teeth - and added some color glazing on the highlights. Then I moved on to the helmet. The inside her been painted dark brown, the outside was base coated in dark green and then bronze, and then I glued it on. I can finish it in place.
I haven't decided what color to make the hair on the helmet, but let's face it...probably red.
Continued on Perseus's face, adding another round of shadow and some highlights.
It might need some tweaking, but I'm happy so far. I don't totally love the forehead, but his helmet will cover most of it, so I'm not going to worry too much about that until the helmet goes on. Which, now that I think about it, I might do soon.
Base coated Perseus's hair. I think this will be really helpful. I definitely need darker shadows on his face, and maybe in a starker color than the purple.
As I continue to work with this guy, I'm also noticing some things about the style of the sculpt that should inform my painting choices. It's a very rough figure - the texture on the hair and face is quite distinct. There are tool marks on the surface. This doesn't make it a low quality sculpt, it's a style. But it tells me that a super smooth, super delicate paint job might not be the best choice for this guy. It might suit him better to be rougher.
I mean, look at his face. This is not a delicate guy.
Finished up the Trojan Horse today. I don't have a lot to say about it - it was a quick, fun paint.
I did learn that I need to be more particular when removing supports from printed figures. Found a number or areas that I should have cleaned up more.
Quick weekend project: the Trojan Horse I printed out a couple weekends ago:
Needs some highlight and some detail work still, but it's moving along pretty quick.
I got back to Perseus today, specifically working on his face. I've added shading here.
The shading needs to go darker. Also, while I usually like skin tones that are shaded with purple, I'm not sure about this one. It's really hard to tell while he's just one big blob of base olive skin, though, so I might need to block in the hair color at least to get a good read on it.
Lined/shaded Medusa's snakes. I'll be honest, I am super sick of these paints, so I did not do this with nearly as much care as I could have. I lined between the snakes with really dark green-brown, shaded here and there, and called it good. The difference is subtle, but significant.
Then, I put her aside and picked up Phaedra. Looking closely, it looks like she's a person wearing a whole lot of armor. I wasn't sure; I thought she might be some kind of clockwork bronze person or something. But no, looks like a person wearing armor. So, I put a base coat on the areas of flesh that do show. Most of it is going to end up shaded. I was not super neat about it.
This figure is silly, and the casting is terrible.
Got the rest of the pattern details and the highlights on the snakes today. Yay! I need to do shading over the whole head of 'hair', and then she'll be done for a while. There's anatomy on the bottom of her neck that I'll paint eventually, but I'm going to do that after she's attached (and the brass rod is removed or cut down).
Finished up the lines for the patterns on the snakes. Next: filling in the light and dark patches inside the lines.
I started adding the pattern to the rest of the red snakes. I'd hoped to get farther with it today, but I didn't get in as much time as I'd have liked. Anyway, I think I'm through just under half her head.
I was going to shade the snakes I'd finished the detailing on, but realized that I'd also end up shading unfinished snakes, which I don't want to do. I want the detailing on the red snakes to be in place before I shade. So, I went back and base coated the rest of her 'hair'. I'll detail and highlight it, and then go back and do shading over the whole thing last.
I got back to Medusa's head, working on detailing and highlights on some of the snakes. Still needs shadow.
I think I like it; I think the pattern on the red snakes and the handful of bright green snakes will work.
I also think it's going to take a looooong time to finish her whole head of 'hair' and am thinking I might regret my choices.
Here's the finished mermaid:
And a next project. This figure is Phaedra from Arena Rex. It's silly, but it's also something I can finish quick and not put a ton of effort into.
Finished up the paint on the mermaid today. All that's left is her base, to which I have added some texture and a shell.
