International Flat Figure Society - British Flat Figure Society
Flat Figures Painters Forum => Techniques => Topic started by: Glen on November 29, 2013, 04:58:47 PM
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OK, I'm starting another project. This time, a 90mm Elf Pinup babe. This may be a bit on-again, off-again, due to the upcoming holidays. I'm not sure how much time I can devote to it for the next month or so.
I used an interweb pic (wearing clothing and safe-for-work, no less) of a fairly thin gal with long hair. I made a few mods to the hands and added the sword. I made the drawing, inked it in, then scanned it to a height of 90mm. I have an old light box used for viewing 35mm slides (you older folks may remember those...) to trace the image onto a piece of .020" sheet plastic. The drawing was re-inked, then cut out using some straight and curved scissors.
The piece was then sculpted over the plastic using two-part Aves Apoxie Sculpt putty. I did the face first, but kept it simple - shallow depressions for the eyes and cheeks and slight mounds for the cheekbones. The eyes and mouth were engraved. This was followed by the thighs. This was followed by other sessions to form the torso and right hand, then the hair and panties (knickers, sorry...), then the sword and left arm. The nose and pointed ear were last. I tend to work in separate ares to avoid dragging my fingers and tools through still-soft putty. In each case, the putty was force-cured using the heat from an incandescent light bulb and the cured putty carves and sanded to the final shape and smoothness. The sculpt image is a table-top shot on my desk with some offset light. It shows only slightly more relief than a scan. The piece is about 1mm thick on average with the arm and panty ruffles bumping it up to 2mm in those areas. Other parts of the panties, bra, and sword are engraved. My intent to is paint all of the decorative bits on the lingerie, so we'll see how that goes...
Questions and comments welcomed.
Cheers,
Glen
[attach=1][attach=2]
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Amazing work, Glen.
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Thanks PJ. Here's another pic. This one is primed with Floquil Model Railroad Gray Primer cut with a bit of lacquer thinner and brushed on. It took about 90 seconds... One thin I noticed is that there was a lot less final cleanup before priming. I paid more attention to smoothing things out before the putty was cured by painting over the putty with a wet (water) flat paintbrush. The idea was to smooth out tool marks and fingerprints, while also removing stray bits of putty and stray bits of sanding debris from previous carving and sanding sessions. I think it was time well spent.
The first painting session is next!
Cheers,
Glen
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Thanks, Glen. I'll watch for further developments.
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I've made a small bit of progress. I've painted the underlying skin tones that will be covered by a sheer bra and panties. The skin is Reaper's Tanned Skin triad. A bit of Chestnut Brown was added to the Tanned Shadow to produce the darkest shadow on the skin behind her arm, around her back, and at the far end of her ...umm, derriere. This will be covered by a thin, transparent coat of off-white to represent the sheer material. The idea behind (ha!) it all is that the material will cut down the amount of light hitting the skin and create its own shadow. The material will also prevent light from bouncing back to the eye, so the skin will appear a bit darker and a bit grayer.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 8)
More later.
Glen
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SOMEONE has been doing research at Victoria's Secret!! 8) I'm a believer. :P
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Well, VS and the interweb... Turns out if you Google Image 'lingerie' you get at least 50 pics... Who knew!? :o
In the meantime. I've added the base layer of the sheer material on her undies. It's Reaper Misty Gray, Sealer, and water in a 1:3:3 ratio. This is slowly built up to the desired opacity, but you have to give each layer time to dry completely, otherwise, the fresh concoction can lift and drag up the previous layer. I use the heat from an incandescent light. It doesn't look very good now, but eventually it'll all come together.
Cheers,
Glen
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Some progress! We had three great days of 70+ degree weather, so I worked on some MG projects, got the B inspected , and tore around the local roads for awhile. In the meantime, I've painted an embroidered decoration on the elf pinup's lingerie. This consisted of Reaper Leaf Green and Pale Green leaves - a basic two-stroke egg shape - and Fire Orange and Marigold Yellow flowers - basically a set of dots. I looked at how pinyip artists from the 40s -60s did such things and they're often just a series of vague shapes with varying concentrations of color. I've pretty much emulated that; the spirit if not the actual skill ;) . The two pics show the entire piece at near actual size while the larger pic shows what's actually there. It doesn't look great, but then when you put your nose two inches from Elgren' paintings, they lose something in the translation as well. Likewise the Mona Lisa...
After some cleanup, the eyes are next.
Cheers,
Glen
Edit: fixed typo(s)
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Well, our three days of MG weather was promptly followed by an ice storm and four days of sub-freezing weather. We knew it was coming, so we were prepared. We're still chipping ice, but it's getting warmer. In the meantime...
I've painted the eyes and applied the base skin tone, a 1:1 mix of Reaper's Tanned Skin and Rosy Skin. The eyes are a Misty Gray with a bit of Fair (Skin) Highlight. A slightly darker gray was added across the eyeball to depict the shadow under the lid. It's barely visible... The iris is Ritterlich Blue for the outer ring, Sapphire Blue for the upper third, and Sky Blue for the lower two thirds. Pure Black was used for the pupil. The eyes were outlined with Blackened Brown, which becomes the base for the eyelashes (added later along with a white glint). Next up is the skin and eyelid highlights and shadows.
Questions and comments are welcome.
Cheers,
Glen
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Progress! First and second shades and highlights blocked in using a 1:1 mix of Tanned Shadow and Rosy Shadow (Shade 1) then a bit of Burgundy Wine added to the Shade 1 to further darken it. The highlights are Tanned Highlight and Rosy Highlight (Highlight 1) with Pure White added to it to create the second highlight. You can see how things are starting to take shape. It looks splotchy now, but the next step is to add a thin mix of Tanned Skin and Rosy Skin to begin the blending process. Final shading/highlighting will be done after that. Then the lips, although I'm not sure about the color - traditional pinup red or maybe a dark pink.
Cheers,
Glen
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Keep going Glen, not my kind of subject but I'm watching every move.
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Nice work. I like the detail on the undies!
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Charles/PJ, thanks.
Still making progress. The images shows round one of the blended skin tones. I have to further reduce the shading under her cheekbones and do some other touchup. Also did some workon her lips. Since she's going to have light blond hair, I opted for a medium pink with light pink highlights. There's also some light pink eye shadow above the eyes. Will finish off the eyes and lips later.
Still debating whether to use metallics or non-metallic metal techniques on the sword. I'm far more comfortable with metallics than NMM.
Cheers,
Glen
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Think your getting the hang of this figure making lark Glen, and the painting just brings it all together ;) well done
You'll have to show us a "how to" from drawing to finished piece ;D
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Well, I 'll give it a shot down the road, but I think I'd rather have Rafa give us a tutorial. His sculpting his magic!
Glen
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Well you did it again Glen ... great job
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Thanks AK. Been fiddling with the piece for the past few days, but I haven't made any postable progress. Weather's been better so doing other things. More later.
Promise.
Glen
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Some progress... I've worked on her face and re-applied her makeup (yes, elf pinups wear makeup 8) ) and painted her hair. I added a bit of Pure White to the skin highlight colors (see below), then a little bit of red to create a pink blush. The hair is Golden Blonde for the base, the GB progressively lightened with Linen for highlights with Pure White for the finals. The sword is next if I can get off the fence and decide whether to go with metallics or NMMs.
Questions and comments welcomed.
Glen
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The sword is pretty much done. I used different Reaper and Vallejo white and yellow metallics - straight and mixed* - to put a glinting shine on the blade, hilt, and pommel. Sort of NMM techiques using metals... My mental jury is still out. Part of me likes it, part of me not so much, but my head's being coy, so I'm not sure why. :-\ Thoughts anyone? The next task is to engage in a myriad of touch-ups, some lining (e.g. lower edge of the bra sides) and fixes/mods for anything else I find - like eyebrows and lashes.
Cheers,
Glen
*The Reaper, Vallejo, and Andrea acrylic paints are intermixable if anyone's wondering. I still have a few Vallejo paints in my paint drawer. It'll be a race to see if I can use them before they turn into a jelled mass in the bottle.
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This is probable the next to last pic. I've finished off the eyes (dark brown colored pencil) and did a number of touch-ups, some lining, and a general cleanup around the piece. Now I set it aside for a week or so before I go back to it and find the inevitable goofs. You have a week to look at it and tell me what I've missed... :-[ .
Happy holidays everyone; fresh paint and the wind at your backs!
Glen
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Final version. Just a few minor touch-ups here and there. Went with a simple brown frame and usual black background (felt card in this case). Padded two-sided tape secures the piece to the background. The pic was scanned in the frame. Hope you enjoyed the little trip.
Great New Year everyone!
Cheers,
Glen
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Very nice work, Glen. I wish I had your talents. 8)
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Thanks PJ. Lots of views, but not a lot of feedback. I'll continue to muddle through the process. I want to do an Elvgren-esque style pinup and maybe another gal in a wooden wash tub.
Cheers,
Glen
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I have a special file of "pictures that would make great flats." I've gotta find some way to make these work into flats. I'm thinking of a line drawing on a piece of plastic - using paint to do the work of engraving. Have you ever tried this? Think it will work? More like flat art, I know, but I have to work with what small talents I have. ;D
Here's an example of what I mean: Dietrich from "Shanghai Express" (Also in B&W, which I love!) I also have several "Red Sonja" illustrations I'm dying to do. Also a fan of Elvgren as well.
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PJ/RM, I haven't tried the method you're talking about, but it has crossed my mind. I do know that Elvgren used photos and did light sketches on his canvas before laying on the paint. FWIW, coloring books use a similar method as well - lines on paper. Likewise paint-by-number sets. I see no reason why your plan wouldn't work. You would only have to put the drawing onto a surface appropriate for your chosen medium - watercolor/acrylic paper, oil paper, and the aforementioned sheet plastic. I would lightly scuff the plastic and primer it before painting.
My method is similar. I take a photo - or photos - and scale them in Photoshop to about twice the size I plan on sculpting and painting. I trace the photo onto vellum with a 2H pencil, making whatever changes in arms, legs, hands, hair, expression, etc., I need. Once that's done, I can redress the figure in whatever clothing (or lack of) I want. Once finished, I ink the drawing, and scan it to my chosen scale, which is about 90mm it seems. The torsos (the Elf pinup) are made at 90mm from bottom to the top of the head. Hats are extra (Steampunk pinup). I've pretty much settled into the 90mm size, but some earlier attempts were larger (Texas Heat and Bathtime Surprise). After inking, I put the drawing onto a small light box (used for 35mm slides) and trace the drawing onto a piece of .020" thick white plastic (Evergreen of Plastruct). I use sharp scissors - straight and curved - to cut the piece out. At this point, it's ready for putty. The basic drawing doesn't take much time at all, but my drawing skills aren't such that I can whip through the changes. Lots of erasing and do-overs. I can go from photo(s) to plastic in a couple of hours or so.
Cheers,
Glen
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My feeling exactly... :)
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I'm thinking of a line drawing on a piece of plastic - using paint to do the work of engraving.
It would be like painting on canvas at this point, yes?
Yes, exactly.
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PJ/RM, I haven't tried the method you're talking about, but it has crossed my mind. I do know that Elvgren used photos and did light sketches on his canvas before laying on the paint. FWIW, coloring books use a similar method as well - lines on paper. Likewise paint-by-number sets. I see no reason why your plan wouldn't work. You would only have to put the drawing onto a surface appropriate for your chosen medium - watercolor/acrylic paper, oil paper, and the aforementioned sheet plastic. I would lightly scuff the plastic and primer it before painting.
My method is similar. I take a photo - or photos - and scale them in Photoshop to about twice the size I plan on sculpting and painting. I trace the photo onto vellum with a 2H pencil, making whatever changes in arms, legs, hands, hair, expression, etc., I need. Once that's done, I can redress the figure in whatever clothing (or lack of) I want. Once finished, I ink the drawing, and scan it to my chosen scale, which is about 90mm it seems. The torsos (the Elf pinup) are made at 90mm from bottom to the top of the head. Hats are extra (Steampunk pinup). I've pretty much settled into the 90mm size, but some earlier attempts were larger (Texas Heat and Bathtime Surprise). After inking, I put the drawing onto a small light box (used for 35mm slides) and trace the drawing onto a piece of .020" thick white plastic (Evergreen of Plastruct). I use sharp scissors - straight and curved - to cut the piece out. At this point, it's ready for putty. The basic drawing doesn't take much time at all, but my drawing skills aren't such that I can whip through the changes. Lots of erasing and do-overs. I can go from photo(s) to plastic in a couple of hours or so.
Cheers,
Glen
Thanks for this primer, Glen. I have saved it for future use.
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Sure thing. I'm thinking of trying it myself. Lots of projects stacking up tho', and not all of them figures...
Cheers,
Glen