Nihang Warrior

[Andy the Sheep]

Paul, If I may, a silly suggestion from a non figure painter :rolling:: some blue tac to remove the turban whenever it's needed? :flushed:
Anyway, that's a real painting challenge and I'm fascinated by the complexity of that attire. Looking forward to see the first drop of paint. :thumb2:

Andrea

[PaulinKendal]

Thanks Andrea. I used blutack for the zenithal priming, and I could continue like that, I guess. It is the obvious solution, really.

That first drop of paint - always a bit of hesitation prior to actually starting, I find. The desk is cleared, the wet palette fresh and clean. Dunno what it is that stops me actually beginning, but this often seems to happen.

[Tim Marlow]

I would definitely paint with the turban separate Paul. Access to the underside of the turban and top surfaces of the face will be almost impossible otherwise. Andy’s suggestion is a good one.

[PaulinKendal]

Good to get some unequivocal advice, Tim. I'll follow Andrea's advice unless and until I really feel not gluing them together is detrimental.

Eyes done, he's alive.

[Tim Marlow]

Great choice of eye colour. Rare amongst south Asians, but then, so are the Nihang. Does this mean you are going with a lighter Asian skin palette?

[PaulinKendal]

At the moment, after a quick and dirty blocking in of the main skintones he's looking fairly dark.

[PaulinKendal]

I see a huge variety of people at work - thousands and thousands a week, from all ethnicities. I'm surprised by how often I see people with truly amazingly arresting eyes. That famous photo of the afghan girl with piercing green eyes is a much more commonplace occurrence than you might imagine - and of course, in the UK, with lots of ethnic mixing, these striking variations become more common all the time.

[PaulinKendal]

Face done, more or less, beard done, more or less, and main colours blocked in, looking truly horrible. The white areas will be shades of cream, yellow and orange, so they needed a pale undercoat for any chance of success. I thought it was worthwhile showing how nasty things can get in intermediate stages.

[PaulinKendal]

Again, some very rough tonal graduation on his shawl. Doesn't hurt to illustrate how shabby things can look as one progresses - getting to this stage can generate despair, until you've been there a few times and know it'll get better as you persevere.

[PaulinKendal]

Blimey. Painting his turban is a real marathon. The orange (VMC Light Orange) is extremely translucent and, infuriatingly, I only sorted out a sensible way to use it, after much experimentation, towards the very end of painting with it! And no, I'm not going to go back over the earlier work to redo it, neither!

Still got the silver beads to paint (had a go with some to ensure the prep work was effective - handling has dulled them). They'll be silver paint, highlighted with Molotow Liquid Chrome - another marathon task.

(The holes and splotchy bits are where decorations will be mounted on his turban).

[Tim Marlow]

He’s looking very good Paul. Yellow (and orange) is a horrible colour to paint though. If I need it, I’ve taken to setting up the colour gradient using Vallejos, and then tinting using Daler Rowney FW inks to get the colour intensity. Most of the time I avoid it though

[Ian M]

A very interesting chap you have got hold of there Paul. More so him being a real person and not a fantasy figure.
He is coming along very well.

[PaulinKendal]

Lots of good-weather-induced pauses in work on this (I'm not complaining!), but he's coming on.

[Airborne01]

I see a huge variety of people at work - thousands and thousands a week, from all ethnicities. I'm surprised by how often I see people with truly amazingly arresting eyes. That famous photo of the afghan girl with piercing green eyes is a much more commonplace occurrence than you might imagine - and of course, in the UK, with lots of ethnic mixing, these striking variations become more common all the time.

That 'Afghan Girl' is surely one of Steve McCurry's most beautiful and iconic photographs - she has a thousand years of history behind those wistful eyes.
Steve

[Guest]

Just used some Molotow Liquid Chrome Paul, really impressive stuff, as is this build. Great to see the head covering slowly changing with subsequent applications of colour .