Drummer Boy
This lil feller can rattle away all he wants now, he’s done. The task of accurately depicting his sleeve details wasn’t as bad as I had expected, simply because they are not accurate, HA! I never got a reply from the Black Watch Museum in Scotland and some photos found online just weren’t clear enough for me to be sure exactly what these emblems are. I’ve had plenty of advisors tell me what they were, but I gotta see it for myself.
I did make several tempts to add fleur di lis’ to no avail, total failure. My brush work just wasn’t cutting it. The more I tried the worse they got, so I called “time out”. As I stated earlier, I hate being inaccurate if I can help it, especially on something so visible, but my brush talents had reached their limit. Ya just gotta know when to move on, so that is what I’ve done.
All of the techniques and processes for this lil guy are the same as all of the other Highlander figures, except one. I utilized a technique I’ve been studying lately, “stippling”, one used quite successfully by “Mike the Kiwi” in his new book
“Modelling and Painting World War I Allied Figures”. It’s a new release and I just received my copy a few weeks back. I stippled the bonnet/cap on the Drummer Boy with oils. Yes, that’s right, oils. It can be done successfully with a bit of trial and error. I know this is such a minor attempt, but it gave me a good idea of just how this will work with oils, my preferred medium.
Next up, the Frenchmen, and what a relief, lol. I can’t say I won’t ever go back to the Napoleonic era; the colors are just too spectacular to pass up and the learning potential from working bright colors is astounding. I’m just not hip on the “Battle of the Tartans” enough to take on another fight like this one any time soon, HA!
Thanks for watching, all comments welcome. Cheers, Ski.
Mike Butler’s book is available here:
https://www.crowood.com/products/mo...es-by-mike-butler?_pos=2&_sid=1670b538c&_ss=r
Prime example of how Mike paints using the techniques he explains in his book:
https://www.planetfigure.com/attachments/mikemaoriboy-jpg.453840/
Now that is a goal to strive for, to say the least. You’d swear this figure was alive!