"Hot" Round submission

So I blitz painted these entries to submit them for the "Hot" bonus round over at Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge V here.

EDIT - I was reminded that it is a prerequisite to hum either Hot in Herre or Don't Cha while painting and or reading about these figures.





/EDIT

That day I ran a 5K in the morning and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing family stuff, including watching the new Spongebob movie. So I didn't get started until about 5:30pm and had to do all the green stuff, basing and priming of the Elemental from then until 10:59PM when I finally sent Curt the email, with one minute to spare!

So that's why no back story or detailed info about figures or process. The pictures were also crappy as I was doing it handheld on Aperture priority mode, but had also forgotten that I had set the F number really low, hence the blurring on the elemental. I just had to go with it as I had no time.

Anyway here are the improved photos.

So the previous two shots are more or less reproducing the shot I submitted. I reduced the Exposure Value to -1.0 because the Fire Elemental was washing out all the color due to the brightness of the yellow. I probably should have spent a little more time adjusting the lights. There's too much shadow in the rear view of the fire elemental.

The Reaper Sea Nymph was part of the Learn to Paint kit #4 Flesh and Skin tones. I tried to follow the instructions and I think I failed. The method is to prime white and then do multiple layers of thinned paint to build up the flesh. The method also calls for lining to add definition to the transition areas. I was a little sloppy with this and missed the starfish completely. Normally I would accomplish this with an ink wash over the base coat.

One interesting thing about this method was that they mixed in linen white into the base flesh triad to lighten her skin tone. I like the effect, but I felt like I wasted a lot of paint because it was 4 drops to one and you only really need one or two drops to paint the whole figure. I also have an issue with following the thinning procedure. Reaper always calls for drops of water per drops of paint, the problem is my water dropper is not a reaper bottle, so of course the drops are enormous. So I wet the brush and try to mix in water to get the right consistency with predictably variable results.

I used Liquitex Acrylic spray to prime her and it seems to be quite a bit more gritty than the black or umber sprays. I'm not sure if I obscured detail but I had trouble identifying some of the complicated straps on her scallop shell brassiere. I think I failed on the skin tone because the final highlight may not have been thin enough, so I basically ended up covering my previous layers rather than blending them with a glaze.

I will note here that there is no guidance on how to paint anything other than the skin. Before I realized there was a sea motif going on I had intended to do metallics. In the end I went with Desert Sand over the shells with a burnt umber wash, the bracelets in particular seem to get lost.

She's okay, but over all not a success.

Where as I spent a lot of time for not that great results on the Nymph and spent very little time on the Fire Elemental for pretty good results. I think part of its success was the fact that there was no time to second guess anything. This was always going to be a study in dry brushing.

He came as a two piece, the arms and chest were separate, and they made no pretense about a seamless fit. The gaps were huge quite frankly. I think I was able to pin him after we got home around 3pm and then did everything else, including green stuff, from 5:30pm on. We shall find out if painting not fully cured green stuff is a problem.

I screwed up and ran out of 40mm square bases so I had to cut one from a scrap of 3mm thick craft plywood. I used a jigsaw this time. It saved me time but I still can't cut straight to save my life.

I PVA'd him to the plywood, don't ask why just go with it, and then green stuffed the four legs of fire out to help blend and secure him to the base. Although it may not bear very close scrutiny, I think I did a pretty good job of texturing it to match the base of the figure. It was just gouging and pulling with a sculpting tool.

The rock areas were my usual air dry clay with texture gel and sand. I then picked through some old aquarium rocks and glued them on like tufts. I think it would have been better to work them into the base more but they look much better painted than when they weren't.

I think I was trying to show you the green stuffing between his arms and his body. I feel like I was successful in making it blend with the rest of the body. So bizarre, asymmetric texture may be my forte.

I'll finish with the paint job. I brushed on white craft paint as primer because I was at the painting desk and jumping back and forth between the two figures. I didn't feel I could spare the time to go outside and spray prime him. The base coats were Yellow on the flaming part and Lamp Black on the black/ ground part. I then Drybrush/ stippled Saffron Yellow and then drybrushed Bright Orange, Burnt Orange and Red Iron Oxide on the flames. The black was Drybrushed Hippo Grey, Rain Grey and Drizzle Grey.

Although he's a little hard to photograph I think he looks good for the effort.

And yes, I based them for Oldhammer.