The Choice

[PaulinKendal]

After a festive pause I'm progressing with The Beast.



Not sure about his scrap of clothing - he's clearly done something beastly to a beautiful pinto horse. If it continues to look too comical I'll alter it. But not till the skulls, metalwork and horns are done.

Hlin is awaiting the arrival of a spray booth from our host, then I can prime her with Mr Laquer.

[Mickc1440]

That really is looking good, it is a superb figure

[PaulinKendal]

Thanks guys.

In fact, looking at those pictures, I've already decided the dappled horsehide must go! I'll change it to something ghastly - lizardskin maybe.

[JR]

Wow  Paul great painting and shadows on the body. Looking fwd to the new lizard material.

[yak face]

Fabulous work paul , its a bit awe inspiring to a non figure painter like me ( actually I should say a rubbish figure painter like me - i still attempt them but never get any better !)
The beast looks excellent , very angry ! , cheers tony

[Tim Marlow]

Very nice work Paul. The skin tones around the muzzle are superb, as is the hoof colour. Glad you are redoing the scrap of clothing, it just looks wrong as it is. Personally, I can’t decide if it is leather, untanned animal skin (unlikely as there isn’t any texture), or cloth…….gives you plenty of options I suppose…..

[Jim R]

That is superb painting Paul. I hope that your primer issues are behind you.

[PaulinKendal]

Thanks everybody.

Having made the decision to erase the horsehide, I can't wait to get it done - although I'm not sure if I can pull off lizardskin properly JR - we shall see!

If it's any consolation, yak face, I am still trying to screw up the courage to plunge in to plastic modelling proper, rather than plastic painting. I'm sure I'll be rubbish at that too, to begin with. I'm certain figure painting primarily requires good techniques (learnable from people here and on YouTube) and tons of practice. That's all. As Tim Marlow says, it's only pushing paint around, after all .

Tim Marlow - like you, I'm confused by that modesty material of his. Just keep reminding myself it's fantasy, so anything goes.

And it's not the only conundrum. Look at that top-shot - how does he do up the buckle on his back?! Maybe he has a dresser? I can picture Tom Courtenay fussing around The Beast in his lair - "you look wonderful, ducky, they'll adore you out there!“

Jim R - I've got a spray booth on its way. Once I have that I'll lacquer Hlin, the subject of the priming fiasco - wish me luck!

And I'm refining my ideas for the diorama these figures will go into. It will include a great big tree, that I think might take an age to construct. Still, interesting departure for me.

[Tim Marlow]

If you go for lizard skin (pretty damn big lizard, but hey Ho ) best advice I can give is find a picture of one you like and copy it…..

[PaulinKendal]

Let's see how this goes...

[PaulinKendal]

And start again...

[PaulinKendal]

This looks promising - much easier painting the paler shapes rather than trying to paint the darker bits in between, of course. At this stage, the dots are brighter than they'll finish.

[PaulinKendal]

[Tim Marlow]

I like that. The turquoise contrasts nicely with his skin tones.

[PaulinKendal]

Now I'm going to try to blend, smooth and tone down the spots, especially in creases in the skin. Without mucking it all up...