(nudity) Hasslefree 40mm Artemis WIP

[Boss Ardnutz]

I've had this mini for a couple of years but have only now worked up the courage to paint it. It's my wife's birthday on Thursday so I aim to be done by then - so I'll have to work fast - but I'd rather miss the deadline and get a good result than finish on time but with a crappy job.

Although it's a very nice cast overall, I did have some trouble with surface defects on the shield rim, the inner thighs and the back of the right leg.

I want to achieve a few things with this mini:
# high contrast from shadow to light
# Zenithal lighting
# balanced and reasonably complex tones with the skin being cool in shadows and highlights but warm in the midtones
# NMM bronze for the metals with some patina to cool the colours down (but not too much as her gear is not an antique yet!)
# freehand shield design based on the Rod of Asclepius (my wife is a doctor) but with a sword instead of a rod

So far I've cleaned up the figure and given myself some guidelines for the Zenithal lighting with a few bursts of white enamel primer. Next step will be to basecoat the skin - I am thinking Dheneb Stone + Elf Flesh...

Any suggestions are welcome - I have very little experience painting human skin colours, and none at all painting nudes, so any help will be warmly welcomed!

[TrystanGST]

Having just finished this mini recently, I can say it's a lot of fun to paint. Definitely have to be on top of your skin tones though, since that's really all there is.

[10 ball]

Yes a great mini, and as Trystan showed us a mini that shouts "FREEHAND DESIGNS!"

[TrystanGST]

Yes a great mini, and as Trystan showed us a mini that shouts "FREEHAND DESIGNS!"

Good point - the shield is about the best freehand surface you could ask for on a mini.

[Boss Ardnutz]

I found some instructions on making a cheap wet palette, so I'm giving that a go. Here's my skin basecoat mix.

Here's the first basecoat. Looking at it now I think I'll need to completely cover the Zenithal primer, but at last the photos will be a useful reference and the different primer shades should affect the vibrancy, thus helping get that head-to-toe contrast I am after. Annoyingly I've noticed a few more casting faults on her arms. Have to fix that tomorrow.

[MAXXxxx]

good start, but I feel that what you used is more like a wash/glaze, than a 1st basecoat.

you'll hate and give up the figure, before you get an even basecoat and start with the shadows/highlights, not to mention until you finish it.

edit: one small thing if you are aiming for perfection: one small (and I mean really really small) mouldline at the left nipple, and a much larger one on the right tight (the front part is not smoothed out enough)
it's still not too late to fix them.

[Cileon]

I'm really looking forward to this especially with your aims on this mini. After watching the dvd from miniature mentor, this is indeed a first base coat, this method is going to ask a lot of time and patience so best of luck making it to the deadline!

Cileon

[Milosh]

I have used this thin of paint for basecoats before and frankly I find it a waste of time. It is going to take an enormous amount of time to get full coverage. as a time saver I would add more paint to that mix, it will still be thin enough to not hide details but thick enough to get full coverage after three or four passes. Your base color looks pretty good, you might consider adding a touch of pink to that mix since you want the highlites to be warmer. I'll be watching closely sir as flesh is my favorite thing to paint, especially on the girlz.

[cfwheeler58]

We have nudity.....where's Supervike ?

[Boss Ardnutz]

Thanks everyone!

I've had a go at sanding down those mould lines and most of them are ok now I think - but I will have to putty up the one under her left breast as it's quite deep and determined to catch the light :grrr

Have thickened up my paint a bit so coverage is improving. Had to run outside and shut the car windows because it started raining, this happens every time I try and air the car out.

I agree a bit more pink is needed - will add it to the next basecoat.

Mould lines addressed:

Next basecoat (pink not yet added, plus I'm having some trouble with whitebalance and exposure - the background is a plain white piece of paper):


Now I just have to wait a while as the greenstuff cures a bit before I try and fix the crease under her breast. I've decided I really hate working with resin - the prep work is a massive pain.

[TrystanGST]

Much better. I painted the metal 30mm one, so I can't speak to the 40mm resin one, but it's coming along nicely.

[Boss Ardnutz]

Ok. Once I started working on the mould lines, I found a bunch more. Next time I'll primer white, wash, and then fix - the dark primer doesn't reveal the problem appts the way I thought it would.

At this stage I'm going to have to accept any remaining defects, or admit defeat and strip / re-prime...

[Milosh]

Way to press on sir. I'd say you have her ready for painting now and in the right frame of mind. Looking forward to the next application.

[Boss Ardnutz]

I'm happy with the skin basecoat at this point. I added a tiny bit of P3 Carnal Pink and it has taken some of the sallow tone out.

[Boss Ardnutz]

First shade. Mainly Bestial Brown with a tiny bit of Carnal Pink and Dheneb Stone.

[Boss Ardnutz]

Second shade. Bestial Brown plus a little Goblin Green, and a smudge of Carnal Pink. A few areas also got a much lighter glaze of Goblin Green plus Carnal Pink to try and get the slight olive tone I'm after.
A bit too dark in places, and too warm / tanned for what I want in the lower half. I think part of the problem is it's too saturated - how best to fix that?

At this stage I've also gone back over some of the midtones with Elf Flesh + Carnal Pink in an effort to correct some of the mistakes.

Next step possibly a fairly dark tint (mostly very dark grey) plus some blue-purple, I think. Hopefully that will reduce the saturation of colour in the shadows as well as cooling things down a bit.

[Boss Ardnutz]

Struggling a bit. I've been rather disorganised on my palette which is making it hard to get consistent mixes as I move back and forward through shadow and midtone. Shadows include Blue Ink, Scab Red, Codex Grey, Thamar Black and Bestial Brown. Going back through the midtones trying to fix the overly-brown tint and cool the skin a bit has included the original mix and various similar mixes including Dwarf Flesh, but usually with a fair bit of Carnal Pink which is rapidly becoming a favourite colour.

The upside-down photo is just to illustrate the shading a bit better so it's easier to tell what's painted on and what's self-shadowing.

Any suggestions at this point would be very welcome!

[TrystanGST]

I can tell this isn't your first rodeo, so to speak. It is interesting watching this come together. I tried to go for heavy contrast by starting with a dark brown, but ended up with a lot darker skin tone overall because of it. So it's cool to see you get some dark shadows without running into the same issue.

[Boss Ardnutz]

Here's the result of trying to even out the blending and correct some of the balance between light and midtone. I've basically started the first few layers of highlight by mixing in some Skull White along with the various flesh tones already used.

I think I can push the highlights quite a lot further than this.

Her overall skin tone is actually a bit paler than the photos show - my mobile phone has rather limited colour correction, so about all I can do is boost the exposure and dial back the contrast to try and match as close to real life as possible. Since I'm going for Mediterranean skin tone I will need to warm and brown the mid tones - I think some very thin glazes of Dwarf Flesh should do the trick, but we'll see...

Enough blather, here are the latest progress shots, now back to the brushes!

[KruleBear]

The variation in skin tones is coming along well.