Drusil: Shading Robe

Today I started shading Drusil's robe, on the side where her other arm will attach. I think I'm going to need to decide what to do with the scalloped edge as well, so I can do that part before attaching the other arm. 

I'm starting to think about going over that red with a more saturated color - definitely second guessing some of my creative choices here. 

Drusil: Metal Highlights, Robe Basing. Tower.

 I got highlights onto the metal bits on Drusil today, cleaned it up a bit more, was still not entirely pleased with it, but decided to move on. Perhaps once more of it is done, I'll have a better sense for what else, if anything I want to do with the metal.

I got a full base coat on to her robe. I have to start thinking about when to attach her other arm. I think I'll probably shade and highlight the area under it, then prime and paint up the underside of the arm, then finish the rest of the robe.

This is not going to be a figure that photographs well. The red is more saturated in person, and the metals have more shine.

Yesterday I was working on my clock tower. I finished applying bricks to the central form, and then put some paste I have over them to fill in the gaps between and look like grout/caulk. Then I cut the top of the central form off, built the top chunk out of the building out of foam core and hot glue, and started adding the wooden framing on the outside.

Here it is with all the bricks.

And here's the top part of the building laid in place. It's not attached yet. I'll talk later about how I'm going to attach it. 

The wider 'boards' around the outside edge of the building are glued in place. The smaller inner boards are not yet glued; I've been playing with layouts to see what will look good. I think I'm going to go with what I've got there. The clock will go in the square in the middle.

Drusil: Shading Metal

 I have found the part of this figure that is going to vex me, and it is the metal.

I had to go over the gold with a different gold - the original kept drying funny, looking chalky and not as reflective as I should. I think this other gold was doing it as well, just less. Good enough, I moved on.

So then I started shading it. I've put down one round of shading, and then cleaned up a bunch of edging. It's still kind of a mess. I might need another round of shadow, but I might not. We'll see next time.

Clock Tower

 I've started another building project. I'm making a clock tower. The bottom will be stone, the top wood and plaster. I started by cutting a bunch of bricks out of foam.

Even with the rig, I had a really hard time getting the bricks to be a consistent size. Getting a constant thickness was the hardest bit, and not having a constant thickness is the biggest flaw as I build the tower.

I made a central frame out of foam core; this is to give me something solid and square to attach the bricks to. Without it, the tower would end up an inch narrower at the top with a 20 degree lean.

Straight lines and square corners are not things that come naturally to me.

Anyway, once I had the bricks cut, I knocked off the sharp edges by tumbling them with some rocks. I think I need more rocks to make that work better.

Then I started gluing them on to the central frame.

That's maybe half way done, maybe two thirds. I'll build the brick up father, then start on the top part where the clock face will live.

Drusil: Hair, Shiny Bits

 Got highlights on Drusil's hair today. I hate doing hair. 

I also base coated the greaves and her armored bikini. I wonder about her clothing choices...I mean, I'd have wanted an armored gauntlet under that dragon, too. 

I'm not in love with the gold, now that it's on there. I'm debating between sticking with it and seeing if it's better when the shading and highlighting is in place, or switching to make those pieces maybe black or dark purple with gold highlights instead. I also was having a problem where the gold would go on nice and rich and saturated, and then when it dried it would get chalky. I'm not sure what the deal is there. I've used this paint before - even on this figure - and did not have that problem. I'll probably try going over it again next time, making sure to shake it well beforehand.

Drusil: Skin Highlights

 I got back to Drusil today and worked on highlighting her skin. I think I'm done with it...I'll see how I feel about it next time. Next will be highlighting her hair. I'm also debating putting colored polish on her finger and toe nails. It would suit her, but I'm not sure I want to draw attention to her feet. 

Completed Experiment

 So last weekend I posted a figure with a weird base coat. It was going to be the starting point to an experiment. I finished up the experiment today. Was it successful? Well, depends on your definition of success. It didn't produce a wonderfully painted figure or anything like that. But I answered the question I wanted to answer and I learned some things in the process. So from that standpoint, I consider it a success.

I had the base coat on previously. Today I started with shading...some green, then dark brown. I highlighted with a lighter version of the base color. I painted the hair dark, and then glazed red in on her dress. 

Things that didn't work: I don't think using the base color for the skin tone works without having the context of the rest of the page. I definitely need to shade and highlight darker/lighter if I plan to glaze over it, which I should have known if I'd thought about it. I would need to think of a way to deal with the fine details. I also think you'd have to have just the right figure for it to look good.

Things that worked: I like the glazed on color, and I think with some work you could paint a figure that way and it would work out, if you solve the aforementioned problems. It would give you a nice, if very non-traditional, look. 

So would I try it for real? Maybe.