Although I was reminded that I haven’t posted here for a while a couple of weeks ago, I somehow still managed to put off updating the blog until today. It’s not that I’ve been wholly unproductive – there are a few finished pieces since the last post – it’s more that I’ve been distracted by shooting people in a fictional version of the Old West (Red Dead Redemption 2, if you hadn’t figured it out). I should probably not buy large, immersive games too often. My painting would certainly benefit.
Anyway, as is usual, here’s an update on all the finished pieces. First up, the hobo nickels are all done and framed up, and they look pretty spiffy (except for the one on the left, which is pretty rubbish, but the overall effect is still decent):
They’re also on Putty and Paint if you fancy giving them a vote or whatever (although I don’t think they need it – they’re doing surprisingly well).
I was really pleased with the result, if I’m honest. I was hoping to do something a bit different from traditional flats in terms of both ‘object’ and style, while having a strong theme to hang everything on. I also gave Martin a spare coin and a couple of other people were apparently inspired, so we’ll see if it turns out I’ve created a new fad.
Up next are the commissions I’ve been working on:
The wood ducks aren’t in place as the client wants to keep them separate for transit. They’ve also asked for one more duck scene: the mallards. I’m mostly glad it’s not another one with water.
Finally, I also finished up the astronaut on battleduck:
While I don’t think it’s as effective as the astronaut pursued by a cat, I think it carries the narrative reasonably well. It also shows that I can, in fact, sculpt things that don’t look like I did it behind my back in the dark with my thumbs.
So, what’s up next, then?
First of all, I got another bust. Not one of the Operation Knox busts, however, just an android soldier sort of thing. I didn’t really have any strong ideas initially, so it’s taken me a while to figure out what to do with it. As it stands, it’ll be focused around the faceplate, which will feature ‘Born to kill’ (which you may or may not remember from Joker’s helmet in Full Metal Jacket). Beyond that, I’m going to try to keep it relatively free-form. I do know, however, that I want to mix both NMM and true metallics, again using the caveat that the NMM won’t actually be metal so much as strange composite materials.
To that end, I started out by doing the faceplate in metallics, thinking I’d then mask the edges, paint green and chip back (picture pre-green):
This did not work out as intended, so I’ve started again. I’ve now gone with a relatively reflective surface, which may not suit chipping too much, but we’ll see how I like it once it’s a bit further underway.
I want to say that the reflective area on the mask needs to spread further across towards the eye lens, but I’m wary of it ceasing to be green and messing with my idea of having text over it. I’ve also put in the lens just to make the face a bit more readable. (Note: I was originally going to have a wee glow on that, but it really wouldn’t make sense for a soldier to have a spotlight saying ‘please shoot here to get it all over with’.)
As you can also see, I’ve kept the gas mask thing in metallics. A little more work needed there to add a tint of colour and finish it up, but I think it’ll add a nice complement to the rest of the model.
Fet Paints 