Figure Painting a la Bob Ross

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In this installment, I will cover the alla prima procedure for wet-on-wet painting using acrylic paints.

Prepare the paint surface with by applying the water and retarder solution with a water brush. This enhances paint control, contour diffusion and more importantly prevents overlaying colors from staining by saturating the porous matte base.

I always recommend applying the intermediate shadow color first. This color is conceived from the immediate value darker than that of the local color.

Reckoning that chroma and color warmth will be lost when mixed with the shadow color,  a stronger tone of yellow mixed from Light Yellow, Naples Yellow, Raw Sienna and a touch of Cadmium Orange was applied. 

The local color with an orange bias was also applied as another intermediary tone to the strong yellow and dark brown. There are no hard and fast rules to this. 

Highlights were added with a dash of Naples Yellow. These colors are then carefully merged together along their boundaries. 

 "Just lightly blend it, one hair and some air" 

Bob Ross

Build up  opacity through increments of thin paint and spread it out evenly in light and gentle  strokes to reduce the appearance of brush strokes.

"Remember our Golden Rule: A thin paint sticks to a thick paint."

Bob Ross

You can enhance the variation of hues by adopting a variation of the "broken color" technique pioneered by the impressionists. Instead of leaving the pure color as they are, I incorporated them together to produce subtle variations of tertiary hues. Most will recall prominent armor modelling guru Miguel "MIG" Jimenez pioneering this technique for armor models.

"You can put as many or as few as you want in your world"

Bob Ross

 

The result from the first session of painting. The alla prima technique - though lacking in finesse as shown by the loose handling of paint - it nonetheless allows a rapid realization of value contrast and color tones. 

Cheers,

Calvin

Refinements Done to the Face

Here are more refinements rendered to the face. I don't think I need to explain this part as it's done more or less the same as described in a previous article I had created HERE. On a side note, the eye brows do need a tad more work but in all everything else seems satisfactory for now.  I have always favored working in an intermittent fashion -  moving from area to area of the project and revisiting the previous work with a renewed perspective - to maintain a the sense of momentum or more aptly in what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes as the "FLOW".

The flying cap was painted alla prima with a local color mixed from Burgundy, Hookers Green, Cadmium Orange and Black. Subsequently, highlighting tones were achieved by incorporating varying quantities of  Raw Sienna and Naples Yellow.

 

The head is attached back onto the bust to assess that compatibility of colors, tones and contrast -the result of which led to a glaze of Light Yellow for the kapok life vest and some preliminary highlights to the sleeves of the flight suit to match up with the chroma of the rendered face.

Stay tune for the next post where I will elaborate further into the alla prima technique when I render the sleeves of the flight suit.

cheers,

Calvin

Establishing a Color Sketch

With the local tones well established for the torso, the painting of the head commences. Notice the convenience in the use of magnetic interfaces for the painting of the sub-assemblies.

The flesh parts are painted with a dark ground mixed from Raw Sienna, Burgundy, Naples Yellow and a small touch of Hookers Green.

 

A preliminary placement of highlights is established with a light mist of flesh - mixed from Naples Yellow, Cadmium Orange, Burgundy and again a touch of Hookers Green.

Deciding to airbrush the flying cap as a time conservation measure, I saturated the face with the paint retarder so that any oversprays could either be removed with a dry brush or manipulated into the shadow areas.

Taking advantage of the damp surface of the retarder, the alla prima technique was utilized to concurrently build up the local color and establish general highlights and shadows.

 

The outcome from this particular painting session reveals the loose handling of paint, soft contrast and muted hues. Though indeed more refinements will be needed, this quick process solely serves as a color sketch for me to glimpse into the future direction of the painting.

Cheers,

Calvin

Young Miniatures - Unterfeldwebel, Kampfgeschwader 54, 1940

Just barely a week after concluding the assignment from Alpine Miniatures, I am once again compelled - or rather inspired - to render the box art for Young Miniatures's upcoming release sculpted by non other than the celebrated veteran sculptor Mike Good. It is not everyday that one gets first dips in reviewing this little gem and giving it a splash of color. I must say that this is definitely one of Mike Good's most elaborate sculpts to current date - given the tremendous effort in sculpting the kapok life vest as well as the array of intricate details on the flight suit and parachute bag.

Underpainting was done by airbrushing a magenta base mixed from Gunze Sanyo Flat Black and Red. The emphasis is not to towards a homogeneous finish but rather to establish color value contrast using a more vivid colored ground.

Preliminary highlights were achieved with two over-sprays - first consisting of a mixture of Jo Sonya Cadmium Yellow and Raw Sienna second followed by Naples Yellow. These were selectively airbrushed over the bright areas of the bust according to the illumination overhead. A modicum of retarder was mixed with the Jo Sonya paints as they were thinned with water for airbrushing. The retarder also serves as a flow enhancer, improving airbrush flow and paint adherence and reducing paint splattering - yielding a much smoother finish. Drying can be accelerated with a hairdryer should one desires a speedier result. Nonetheless one can clearly see that a satin base coat does not present much of a problem when airbrushing with Jo Sonja acrylics.

The  local color for the summer flight suit consisted of a mixture of Raw Sienna, Naples Yellow, Carbon Black, and a little bit of Hookers Green. This was diluted to a semi-transparent consistency and airbrushed over - subtly allowing the dark magenta and pale yellow underpainting to reveal through.With the slow drying induced by the paint retarder, no masking was needed as oversprays could be easily cleaned-up with a wet brush. The analogous relationship of the local color also allowed it to be incorporated as a shadow color for the kapok life vest. 

That is all for now. Until the next posting when I proceed to update on the painting of the head and kapok vest.

Cheers,

Calvin

Alpine Miniatures - Panzerschütze LSSAH Kursk 1943

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Placing aside the Landser bust for the moment, my evenings from the past two weeks have been preoccupied with a new painting assignment from Alpine Miniatures. It's almost an irresistible urge for me not to inaugurate the new year with this upcoming offering sculpted by a new Korean sculptor Lee Sang Min. All components of the figure came together perfectly during the dry fitting. For ease of painting, I opted to leave the right arm and hands detached.

This project also marks a landmark attempt to render intricate camouflage patterns using Jo Sonja acrylics; which I must say handles just as well as Vallejo. The paramount focus is to control the fluidity and opacity of the paint so that a homogeneous spread of paint can be achieve for a smooth finish. That is where the acrylic retarder comes in handy in improving the paint flow and extending the working time of the paint.

The oak leaf camouflage pattern was painted with a brown color base before indicating the key regions with medium green. Dark green was then carefully applied to define the contours of the pattern, giving it its trademark appearance. The bass cartridge of the projectile round was simulated by airbrushing clear orange followed by clear blue over a silver base.

That is all of the work that's been done so far on the first figure with only the P-38 holster left to be attached at the waist. Hopefully I could furnish some updates on the second figure when circumstances permit.

Cheers,

Calvin

Hello 2012!!!

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Here's wishing everyone a happy 2012 and here's an update to the progress of Landser bust from Young Miniatures to kick start the new year.

For curious minds, here's a pictorial description on how the helmet decal was painted by hand.

The boundary of the shield was indicated with dots before filling in the solid color.

A modicum of paint retarder was mixed to improve paint flow. The eagle motif was painted with light grey onto the wet surface of the black. This allows a certain degree of "mucking" around until the desired tones and shapes are achieved. I've found that this method also helps to reduce the build-up of paint, creating a smoother finish.

The final result.

On another note, Fernando Ruiz has posted a short write-up (in Spanish) on my trip to Girona last November over at his blog HERE.

I must say that it was a wonderful weekend to spend with some of the figure modelers from El Baluard and especially for Fernando Ruiz to host my visit in Barcelona and Girona. Muchas Gracis for sus hospitalidad.

Cheers,

Calvin

Alpine Miniatures - Razvedchik, Operation Bagration, 1944

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Concluding the box art assignment on the Razvedchik pair for Alpine Miniatures, here is the first installment on the low down of the painting process.

A base coat of Gunze Sanyo Flat Black was airbrushed on followed by a light over-spray of Jo Sonja Prussian Blue to cut the harsh appearance of the black.

Next, a solution of water and paint retarder was applied.

A mixture of Jo Sonja Carbon Black, Red Violet and Cadmium Orange for the brown sections of the camouflage was applied over the wet ground. The extended drying of the paint retarder solution reduces brush strokes as it allows the paint to evenly level out.

The color for the olive-green sections of the amoeba camouflage were mixed from Titanium White, Hookers Green, Cadmium Orange and Red Violet. They were painted in whilst the brown sections were wet. This not only allowed corrections to be made within a single layer, reducing an unnecessary build-up of paint, but also helped simulate both dirt and shadows in that same step. Other colors such as Prussian Blue and Cadmium Orange were also dabbed on straight from the tube and mingled in (alla prima) to create more subtle variation of tones and hues.

"Any way you want it to be, that's just right. "
Bob Ross

 

Notice the smooth transitional build-up of paint despite having amendments made to the camouflage pattern.

Further progress on the painting of the camouflage overalls after repeated applications. Notice the hints of blue, brown and green randomly applied throughout, adding subtle tonal variety and hue contrast to an otherwise flat appearance of a drab color scheme. I've chosen to paint the MP-40 magazine pouch in Luftwaffe Blue as a nice contrast to the olive green. Storm Blue from Jo Sonya was the perfect color for this. The Gymnasterka was painted with a mixture of Yellow Ochre, Flat Brown and Medium Grey whereas the leather belt was painted with a mix of Red Violet and Cadmium Orange.

This is all for now. Until the next installment.

Cheers,

Calvin