My first finished figure of the year, Maximus

[dave samson]

i love the figure as it is one of my fav movies you did a super job

 

[Plushy]

Thanks for the answers Joe . I am trying to improve my blending i mainly use Vallejo`s and a flow improver to keep the vallejos wet enough for blending . But i still struggle to get a smooth colour transition between shadows and highlights and the base colour . I am tempted to try the french miniature painters method which they call juicing they use many thin layers of washes to create the shadows and use the light base colour as the highlight if that makes sense .

Do you use a flow improver or a slow dry additive when you use your acrylics ?

Thanks Plushy

 

[Joe Hudson]

Jame,Dave and Shawn,

Thanks for the kind words. I too really like the movie and I guess that was some motivation to try to get it close to the actor.

Joe

Plushy wrote:

Thanks for the answers Joe . I am trying to improve my blending I mainly use Vallejo`s and a flow improver to keep the Vallejo's wet enough for blending . But I still struggle to get a smooth color transition between shadows and highlights and the base color . I am tempted to try the french miniature painters method which they call juicing they use many thin layers of washes to create the shadows and use the light base color as the highlight if that makes sense .

Do you use a flow improver or a slow dry additive when you use your acrylics ?

Thanks Plushy

Hey Plushy,

No problem at all. I am not sure about the French way but I do it the easiest way I can!! I am too lazy when it comes to painting. I try to keep everything so simple. It is a good thing too. I was taking a few pictures of this figure and kept seeing a dot on his finished face. I thought it was the camera and etc, well it was RED paint!! I just went back with a quick mix and fixed it without any problems.

Here are a few simple things I do for painting. Also, I do not use any flow improver or what not. If you do need to use one the Vallejo glaze medium works well. I have tried it before when I was painting a tartan but did not like that I had to wait longer for the paint to dry.

1) ALWAYS use DISTILLED water with acrylics
2)Use a good pointed brush and not those tiny 10 "O"s. You need to have a thin amount of paint to flow not dry up on the tip. I use the same brush to paint the eyes as I did to paint the pants, cloak and etc.
3)Try to keep the mixtures simple. Here is what I do. I mix colors like an eye. I will take, for example this red, and make a puddle of red paint(eye ball). In this puddle I will make another puddle on it with beige brown (the iris) and then add a smaller puddle of black (the pupil).

Here is a copy of a hand out when I did a seminar on painting whites.

Painting tips:

*****Try to keep all the mixtures simple. I try to use no more than 3 colors in a base mixture and I will usually make the base with either one of the highlight colors or shadow colors.

*****Use separate well’s for your clean up water, Base, Highlight and Shadow. Doing this gives you a chance to use one of these for glazes, to help blend the colors.
If you find that you are getting what I call the NIKE swoosh, you can use a blending/glaze medium. This helps to give you a very fluid paint and will in the end help to avoid such harsh lines.


*****If you see that you have very harsh contrast, take some of the water from the previous color and apply a glaze over the area. You may have to do this several times but this is the reason for the separate water wells.


*****I always use Distilled water with acrylic painting.

Avoids:

*****Never use the same brush to paint white after you have painted something red!! A Hard lesson learned!


*****Complicated paint mixes. This will make it hard to try to touch up an area or missed sections.


I hope this helps.

Joe

 

[Plushy]

Thanks for the Answers/tips Joe . I used to use Distilled water for thinning but with the summer temps that we get over here the paint dries too fast thats why i swapped to flow improver . I will try and get some Vallejo Glaze medium and see how it goes and i will definately be using seperate water wells for the diffent blends/glazes .

thanks once again Joe

 

[Legio Italica]

Great job on my namesake in latin !!!... :laugh:

Cheers :cheer:

Massimo

 

[Joe Hudson]

Plushy wrote:

Thanks for the Answers/tips Joe . I used to use Distilled water for thinning but with the summer temps that we get over here the paint dries too fast thats why i swapped to flow improver . I will try and get some Vallejo Glaze medium and see how it goes and i will definately be using seperate water wells for the diffent blends/glazes .

thanks once again Joe

No problem, I hope it helps. I will try to do a few sbs in the future and I have submitted one to Bob that he is going to post when he gets the chance.

Joe

Legio Italica wrote:

Great job on my namesake in latin !!!... :laugh:

Cheers :cheer:

Massimo

Thanks and that is a GREAT name to have!!!

Joe

 

[num2010]

Joe, nice one you made...love to see.

I notice the figure's face looks real, sensing. I love your paint shade, looks antique.

Num Narongkorn

 

[mike_husky]

exceptional performance

ciao hmy:

 

[Joe Hudson]

Thank you for the very kind words. I did enjoy painting this one and the owner was also very happy.

Joe

 

[shawngehling]

Wow,
Excellent job...
Shawn

 

[Joe Hudson]

Thank you Shawn.

 

[Brokeneagle]

Fantastic figure Joe, the face is brilliant. Thanks for posting.

Ian.