Yes, I'm still kicking, but this has been the summer from, well, if not exactly Hell, then certainly a less than stellar summer by all accounts.
Besides everything affecting all of us around the world where the bug is concerned, the ongoing disruption that has introduced for all of us, the continuing and related political dog and pony show here in the U.S., work-related stuff, and concerns for ol' Mom, one of the cats took seriously ill this last week. Extremely dehydrated for some reason, losing clumps of fur, and so forth.
When it rains, it pours as the saying goes.
A visit to the veterinarian and several days later, and Mr. Onyx seems to be on the mend, eating, drinking, gaining back the lost weight, and bothering his sister once more. He is draped along the back of my desk chair at the moment, purring with his head and front paws resting on my left shoulder, clearly enjoying the extra attention and special food.
But let's talk soldiers, the whole point behind this blog. Right? I've managed to complete the various darker undercoats this last week, finishing the dark red areas, applying light gray to the belts, and dark brown to the dragoons' hair and queues. Now the fun part can begin, applying the sparing highlights, those careful dabs and dashes of lighter colors that bring the figures to life.
Typically, when it comes to large units of figures like this one, I break 'em down into smaller, more manageable batches, making sure to complete at least one step per batch in case physical or mental fatigue -- or the Tedium Demon -- intervene, and I cut a particular painting session short. In the case of these Austrian dragoons, we're talking a squadron of twelve. If the painting muse hangs around long enough, I might continue the particular step and apply paint to another dozen figures.
If she is fleeting, on the other hand, then at least I've made some progress before rinsing the brushes and heading upstairs for the night. Ah, the mind games we play with ourselves when it comes to figure painting. But it helps. The Psychology of Figure Painting. Surely, there must be a conference paper there, at the very least, if not a journal article?
But I digress! Returning to the point at hand, if you click to 'embiggen' (wonderful word that, Mr. Kinch) the photograph above, and look closely, you'll observe that the hair on the figures and the cuffs in the front rank have already received their highlights. A lovely light brown 'Nutmeg' for most of the the former, and Citadel 'Evil Sun Scarlet' for the latter. A couple of the figures, however, got Citadel 'Vomit Brown' to suggest blonder hair color, while two received a reddish brown highlight to suggest redder hair tones. I should've been a hairdresser!
This evening following The Young Master's bedtime, I'll follow up with either more scarlet where necessary, or possibly a medium blue atop the dark blue before continuing with white for the belts -- I'm considering an off white rather than a Hollywood Smile bone white here -- a medium brown for the musket stocks and picket stakes, and so forth. All of this will take more than a couple of sessions though. Long time visitors to The Grand Duchy of Stollen blog will know already that speed is not my forte when it comes to painting.
Focusing on the dark blue uniforms more specifically for a momemt, though, I'm going to try not to apply too much medium blue as a highlight to the basic uniform dark blue. My tendency has always been to apply too much highlight, regardless of the color in question. But I recall reading somewhere years ago, possibly in a book by large scale military figure painter extraordinaire and author Sheppard Paine, or possibly in another title on the subject by Bill Horan, that dark blue uniforms were usually so dark that they appeared black at a distance and showed only limited highlights even up close unless very faded due to lengthy campaigning and related exposure to the elements way back in the days before colorfast dyes.
Artistic license aside, I'll try to rein myself in this time around and leave a bit more of the darker undercoat showing. We'll see how things progress.
Oh! Somewhere in there, I must do something about the three flagpoles (in the plastic bag just behind the dragoons and horses ), and the guidons. A figure painter's work you know.
-- Stokes
Comments
Best Regards,
Stokes
A tough year indeed. As a member of a two-cat household, I express my sincere relief in the recovery of your feline.
Interesting what you say about blue uniforms. It's certainly true that they ought to look dark but, as with any figure painting, there is a balance to be found between reflecting reality and pleasing the eye. I say, never neglect the latter!