Five Runs, we’re on!
You’d think after three oven cleaner baths I’d get this dang technique figured out, but no, I had to go for a fourth bath, sheeeesh! I was gettin a little worried there for a bit,… Actually it’s been an issue of my thinner working against my primer, not the oil painting technique. I have to clarify that. I’m having a lot of fun working Daria’s methods. Be advised this technique is a bit more difficult working in smaller scales below 200mm. I ain’t giving up yet, no by a long shot.
Trying to keep in step with the technique I’m learning I ran an acrylic undercoat of Tamiya XF-20 Medium Gray instead of relying on my Floquil primer to “hold until relieved”. Sorry, been watchin “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge Too Far”, HA!
My old method was a desert yellow or tan color acrylic undercoat, but I do like the gray undercoat much better, for obvious reasons, clarity of the tones applied.
Now, since the eyes have always been my sticking point I attacked that issue first. I picked up some #6 reading glasses, as mentioned before, and they are working very well, and they’re cheap. I could even get #7’s, but we’re good for now. Using a salmon and white acrylic mix I covered the eye socket and then placed a very thin dark toned line across top and bottom of the eye sockets. Then I placed a super dark brown mix for the eyeball outline, followed by a tinted blue iris, etc. After the eye ball was acceptable I ran a light red and salmon color across the base of the eyes for a slight flesh tone. In between each application I hit the face with an old hair dryer to completely dry the prior paint layer. Uh, don’t forget the glint in the eye!
Ok, the eyes have it, so we’re off and running. It’s still a bit of a dark flesh tone in these pics, but we’ll take care of that right quick. As you may notice, I really didn’t take a whole lot of “in progress” pics, but the blending process is just like any other oiler work, smooth transitions.
Once I had my tonal base set it was just a matter of lightening up specific areas and highlighting others. I’ll let this face sit for a few days while I work the neck and back of the head, etc. The other three heads will follow the same process until they all have had a good 3-5 days rest from the final oiling. Then I’ll go back and detail any crows eyes, wrinkles, lips, or 5 'o clock shadows, etc…
So far, I pretty happy with my results and it feels good to be back in the “saddle” again, if ya know what I mean. Hmmmmm, …hey, he’s kinda got that “Mel Gibson”, thing goin on,eh? Ok, maybe not that good, but there is a resemblance, wouldn’tcha say? lol.
There’s still a long way to go, but we just got started on the meat and tatters of this build, so more to follow.
Tanks for watchin! Cheers, Ski.
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