Enjoying Painting Once Again. . .

Not much to look at so far, and I've violated my "Fleshtone First" step, but I am very pleased with the Charcoal Gray highlight on the black areas. Not too much, but just enough difference from the straight black.

A wee bit of painting progress the last week or so on the first platoon of eight privates, a few drummers, and a couple of officers. This time around, I am playing with the order in which I do things and trying to resist the urge to apply too much highlight color to the blacks, blues, and reds.

On that note, I've found a very nice dark 'Charcoal Gray' acrylic that seems to provide just the perfect highlight for black leather and cloth of various kinds. Less silvery than the Zinc used in the past. See what you think.

On the technical end of things, I've been using larger #4 round brushes for much of the painting so far. Another one with a not so good point and a new one with a very good point where more precision is called for.

Anyone else find that the longer you paint figures, the less very tiny brushes have been necessary? The last few years, much of my brushwork has been done with #4 and #6 rounds with #1, #2, or #3 rounds used for very small details like buttons or decorations on the chests of mounted officers.

Of course, it could just be that I'm painting nominally 30mm figures now instead of the true 15s of years gone by, but even so.

When I was a young, callow figure painter 40 or so years ago, I thought that teeny-tiny brushes were the thing. And, of course, that meant that painting even a single figure took forever. But it need not be that way!

The figures are, of course, slated to become the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Infantry.

If I am not too worn out after a day putting down new mulch, trimming missed spots around several beds, and taking care of a few other things outside for The Grand Duchess, I'll get back to these this (Sunday) evening and take care of the red neck stocks and fleshtone before possibly moving on to the facings and turn-backs.

-- Stokes

Comments

Stryker said…

They look great but strangely I am finding that my own brush tips are getting smaller!

6:09 PM

Bloggerator said…

I like to use the largest brush I can get away with. Provided it's got a good point, a large brush simply means you spend more time painting and less time going back and forth to the pot!

As usual, your figures are charming, Stokes.

Regards,

Greg

4:58 PM

Fitz-Badger said…

Yeah, it's not so much the size of the brush, but how good of a point it has. In fact, a larger brush can hold more paint without drying too quickly so you don't have to dip back into the paint as much.

5:09 PM

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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