SBS Painting a German Figure Dragon 6131

[Vincent Power]

Lost? Yep, I sure am but then again I've never painted a figure before so this sort of SBS is perfect for a novice like me Shawn.
Easy to follow instructions and clear pics of all the stages. Love it.
Thanks for taking the time to put this together, I really appreciate it.

Cheers,
Vincent

[John Everett]

so far, so good!

[Steve Hutchinson]

Shawn

You are a STAR

As I read through your SBS it was check, I have them, I have it, and yes I have just purchased some small "paint by number" containers only £4 inc. P&P for 5 sets of 6, as I was loosing faith with the wet palette too, but because I was leaving it too long between sessions, and though it will reconstitute the paint with more water, I was always thinking the paint was getting lighter

The distilled water is because tap water has a range of chemicals in it which can react with the paint and taint the colour. I get a 5 litre tub of distilled water for £1.35 from Tesco's

I have spent the past several lunch times, at work, trying to calculate how the HL and shadow paint could be mixed direct rather than the move it along the line sort of thing

I last did algebra 40 years ago, and have failed dismally trying to get a drop by drop mixing guide

I have also just sprayed a sheet of plastic card with stripes of black undercoat to do a shade and highlight experiment with the changing colour, as this is the bit I just don't seem to get the hang of.

I have been using a 1/3rd each of paint water and glaze with my mixes, to try and reduce the colour lightening too much as you go up the highlights, the glaze is described as a colourless paint that keeps the pigment bound together which water doesn't do, but you have the results, to show it does work

I still need to make that leap of faith as the highlights go on, and keep dithering between shade and highlight until I completely mess it up and the heads get thrown back into the alcohol tub for a swim??

Brilliant work Shawn, and just the conduit between the profession painters DVDs and books to the guy at a bench trying to "copy" their work

I am still painting on my striped card, and will be re reading your SBS as I keep the faith and have another go

Very well done and I am waiting for your next session, when you are ready

Steve H

[Rob Matthews]

Fab stuff Shawn.

Really nice to see this unfold and Nice pics BTW

Rob

[Shawn Ramsey]

Thanks alot guys.

Steve H- See you know more about this stuff than I do.

Not sure why you would want to mix each color directly for the SH and HL though rather than move it along the line.

Rob- I found a Super Macro feature on my camera that I did not know was there.

A small update from where I left off. I ended up adding three more HL as descibed above. I added just a small amount of 951 white to the last HL color.

It is impossible to show you just how I work all the colors together. After I looked at my last pic I felt some of the SH were way to much around the cheeks so I just blended everything together. I honestly used about every color I had mixed up to acheive the final result. The thing to remember if your working with really thin paint and small brush strokes you can do it. The paint is so thin, even if one stroke goes where you do not want it it wont mess anything up.

For the lip I mixed 815 and 814 together for a nice dark reddish color. I then added some 817 to the mix for HL and just a small amount of 951 for the last HL.

Only paint the lower lip

I still have to paint the 5 o'clock shadow and I will most likley add a little color to the cheeks.

Another reason I like using the paint by numbers cup is because once I have the whole figure painted I may need to go back and add some additional HL or SH. This just depends on how I like the head once the figure was been painted and the head is attached.

Last Pic where I left off.



Head just about done.



Thanks for looking

Shawn

[Steve Hutchinson]

Shawn

I really don't know why either, but it bugged me to the point I tried to calculate it mathematically

I have 3 different mixes in my pots at the moment and it seems I have a big jump from 2-3 highlight to the 4th one, which looks too light

I have certainly picked up some real inspiration from your SBS Shawn, and will be back at the bench soon.

I really hadn't thinned the paint enough to be using muliple coats, which is probably another reason it doesn't always work 1st time.

Using a plastic palette to put a point on a size 0 brush is another great tip too, I was using absorbent paper, which just takes off all your paint

I wish I had a better camera to get the really crisp close ups you have, I will have to see if there is anything in the menu I have missed, but I have had some success with using the Photo bucket editing suite to get bigger images, it just scares me as they do look odd, but you need to look at it without magnification too and as my colleague keeps telling me,

"When it looks OK, STOP!!"

Keep it coming Shawn

Steve H

[Raoul Kunz]

What? Lost?!

This is awesome !
I've only really been working on my figure painting skills for roughly a year and your little tutorial here screams to be tried out, maybe it even works remotely as good as you have demonstrated here .

Thanks !


Best regards

Raoul G. Kunz

[Shawn Ramsey]

Thanks steve and Raoul.

I hope it helps.

Steve- I use a piece of paper to remove the excess paint and get a good point on my brush. Not the plastic plate which I just use for a lazy mans paint palette that i don't need the paint for long.

Your absolutly right about looking sometimes without magnification. Reality is, that is how most people are going to see it.

Shawn

[Shawn Ramsey]

Time to start on the Parka which will be Autumn Oak Leaf Camo.

remember I mix in a small amount of Tamiya Flat to all my paint.

Base coat is 50/50 paint to water and all other colors 40/60 paint to water.

Base coat is 825 and outlined with 822 on the seams.



I then first apply 822 for the brown spots. It took 2-3 coats to get the desired coverage.



Orange Color is 981 + 822 80-20.

I used a size 0 brush for this step because basically you are placing a lot of small dots inside the brown color. It took 4-5 coats of paint until I had the desired results.

I then mixed a small amount of 815 to lighten up the orange. This was then applied randomly over some the pervious orange. You really can't see it in the pic but is does stand out on the figure.





That's it for now.

Shawn

[Steve Hutchinson]

OOOOOHHHH part 2, nice one Shawn

I haven't even attempted Camo yet, but in my meandering through reference books and painting guides,
there are different theories for dealing with highlighting and shading the Camo.

Do you take each pattern as you paint it, which would be the obvious thing to do

The one that sticks in my mind is to highlight the base coat before applying the camo, then use washes for the shadows once all the pattern has been applied.

Highlights can be applied to the patches where they are needed, but it is limited for the "busier" patterns.

Good idea getting the seams done early, it should stop you over painting pattern across the different panels of the parka

Nice work Shawn,

Steve H