Queen Boudicca of the Iceni

[Guest]

Absolutely amazing work

[Guest]

Cheers Graham glad you like it

OK guys part 2, possibly the last part, After leaving it over night you will see that the paints have dried hard and they often change in appearance. So nows the time to have another look at it and see what needs changing. The first thing i noticed was the black bindings were tooooo black and needed lightening and also most of the shading and highlighting needed pushing, that is to say needed more adding to it.

First of all i went over the bindings in burnt umber and then highlighted them by adding a bit of white

I then went over the underneath painting it straight burnt umber, what i am doing now is pushing all of the colours to the extreme of light and shadow,

As you can see, the burnt umber is painted into all of the deep creases and then the further up you go towards the top the lighter it gets.

I then went over the bindings again adding slightly more white to the top most parts and then black at the extreme edges to make them pop.I always use a dark colour where parts meet, if you look at your own clothing say where a shirt cuff sits against your flesh, you will see a very dark and very thin shadow, and thats the effect i want, it also makes different parts pop out.

On this pic you can see where i have run the burnt umber from the underneath into the deepest creases and then graduated it up to the highest highlight and the black edging around the binding makes it stand out.

On this pic ive gone over some of the creases that are further down towards the bottom and taken off some of the highlights

So this is just about done now and ready for the other leg. What i will do now is wrap the top half in clingfilm so that i can hold it whilst i paint the other leg.

Ill do another SBS when i paint the tartan cloak specially for Ian

Paul

[eddiesolo]

I am in total awe mate, wonderful work. Love what you do, one question Paul, have you ever sculptured your missus, think she would love this or hate it?

Si

[Ian M]

Gob smacked!!

A fascinating process which I am enjoying seeing so well explained.

Ian M

[Guest]

Si many thanks, as to your question, ive never sculpted her but i have painted her a few times over the years, unfortunately i cant show them here for various reasons

Thanks Ian i had hoped that i had explained it well enough, its much easier to demonstrate it rather than trying to spell out what you are doing, but if anyone has any questions please fire away

Paul

[Guest]

I like the way you have shown the brutality of the day and the constant conflict between the Iceni and the Romans.

And the way you depicted an armless charioteer.

Joking aside,

Im more intrigued by your method of painting only half a piece at a time like the horse and the leggings ,I think most of us would slap the paint on as much as we could, so we maintained the shade of colour across the piece.

I take it that's the artist eye at work and that you detail in small areas for maximum result.

Where you taught or is it self development and endless experience.

Cling film who would have thought it.

Im really enjoying the journey.

[Guest]

Excellent work and excellent tutorial.

Now that we know the trick we have no justification if our figures are not the same level of quality.

Francesco

[Guest]

Thanks for the kind words Harry, as for the painting, because this is such a large piece it has enabled me to flit from one bit to another and keep the interest up. Matching the colours isn't too much of a problem as you can mix it then compare it to the original colour and adjust it as required, I suppose it is just my eye, ive always been arty, but a lot of what I do is from practice and experimentation. I think its very important to try new things, I always experiment with colours to try to get different effects, and try to use different techniques like pointalism, rubbing, and sponging. I certainly have loads to pick up on sculpting and that's something I try to learn by having a go, and forums like this are a great source of feedback on how to improve my figure sculpting.

As for clingfilm, brilliant stuff to protect what you have painted if you need to hold it, just remember that the paint has to be at 48hrs dry or it can stick and pull it off.

Francesco thanks for the comments mate glad you like it

Paul

[Guest]

Hi all just one update pic today and thats his other leg, done the same way as the other one

Works been pretty busy at the mo so i havnt had as much bench time as id have liked but hopefully i should get some more done at the weekend

Paul

[Ian M]

WOW. I still sit and study this build with wonderment!

Ian M

[Guest]

cheers Ian

just another quick update. I thought that he was looking very plain, so I decided to add a sword belt across his shoulder, made from milliput, the back part will be added although it wont be seen because of the cloak

Think ill move on to the chariot again

Paul

[Andy2035]

WOW. I still sit and study this build with wonderment!Ian M

Hi Paul,

I'm with Ian on this, I keep getting drawn to look at this from the start trying to take it all in, thank you so much for taking both the time to explain how you do things and for sharing this with us...

Andy...

[Guest]

Andy im more than happy to help anyone out with figure sculpting or painting, im still learning as well not only from just doing it but from other modellers

Paul

[Guest]

Impressive, as usual.

Is the milliput the standard or fine type? I would have some difficulty to model it like this, do you just wait that it become a little harder then shape and carve it?

Francesco, learning, learning

[Guest]

Hi Francesco, firstly many thanks, I often make belts and buckles from milliput, this is the standard milliput, the problem with the fine milliput is that for small things it often cracks, so for belts i use standard and its fairly easy, just add a bit of flour when you have mixed it, this stops it sticking to everything, and then roll it out, i use a paint can, Then cut a strip off. Just wet the area where you want it to go and lay the strip on pushing it firmly onto the figure, then trim it to size. To make the buckle i cut a square of the thin milliput out, then using a fine blade just indented the inside edge of the buckle so that you are leaving the bit of belt that goes through the buckle, if that makes sense.This is then placed on the original strap by wetting it. For the final stage just add some holes for the buckle pin and a tail for the end of the strap. You can make a buckle pin from stretched spru and just glue it on when its all gone hard. Painting to get an old leather look is any dark brown and use orange and white to highlight and blue for shadows, you can use a darker brown if your base colour isnt too dark but for burnt umber use blue for shading.

Paul