Maenas Painting Log and WIP

Maenas

Maenas

New member
The Koreans strike back - Barcelona Workshop (day 1)

I have finally "landed" from the dream it has been to participate in this workshop through these last two days. I also had the opportunity to meet some renowned painters from my own country, and also held some of their pieces in my hands. Which I had seen pictures over the internet before, but seeing them live, has no price!!
I would like to thank all those who encouraged me to engage in this workshop because I am super happy!!

The workshop was organized by Fernando Ruiz from Fer Miniatures alongside some other assistant instructors (Dani Serrano, Marc Masclans and Jaume Ortiz) and Instructors were Sang-Eon-Lee and Myeong Ha Hwang from Life miniatures and Nuts Planet respectively. Also, Benny Sa was there helping with the translations, explanations and everything else.

We were asked to paint a couple of busts:
WW2 German King Tiger Commander: Modified sculpt without binoculars nor headphones and with a highest cut (without arms)
WW1 Major of British Cavalry

As you see these are into the Historic category AND they are busts so those are 2 new things for me ^^ the aim for the workshop was to learn the technique of painting faces from Sang-Eon and Myeong-Ha which is based on "face mapping" this consists on dividing the face into "geometric zones" to help you understand the volumes of it. I am sure some illustrators or canvas painters will have this thing pretty fresh because for me looked like a "pictorical" thing.

So we went into some theory, then life demonstration, then practice (both days followed this pattern so it was great and "easy" to follow):
View attachment 47628

In the following pic from left to right, some explanations given by Sang-Eon, the original bust without modifications (was there for us to inspect) and the starting point:
View attachment 47633
Having a sculpt as sharp and precise like this one really helps you to get your best results.

The palette!! Paints were diluted 1:1 with water
View attachment 47629

And the colours we used were all from Vallejo Model color line: White; Sunny skin Tone; Red leather; Leather brown; mixed in 8 different tones (4 for the lightest and 4 for the shadows)

This was a little step by step progression:
View attachment 47630

We were asked to be precise so my mates and I struggled and sweated a lot to get this decently!! My impression and of course lack of practice was that it was like painting eyes all the time hahahaha
After all this (took us "students" almost 7 hours) you "just" need to blend the different areas with each other and then glaze some colours in to give the final touches and "lively" skin colours.

I ended mine as you see on following pictures but a couple of guys were able to even paint the eyes!! Anyways nobody went further because of time so we were left to practice and spread the word ^^
View attachment 47631 I just managed to blend one of the zones, but it looks amazing! contrasted and sharp! This is the reason behind being the most precise you can on previous steps.

The result was pretty impressive, for me at least, because I would never had painted a bust like this before, and of course it was a really good practice for me, because as you know I consider skin one of my many "left feet"

And of course a last group picture!!
View attachment 47632

End of part one!!
 
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Maenas

Maenas

New member
ArchArad said:
Unfortunately the attachments aren't showing for me.
Click to expand...
Sorry for letting you all with the intrigue!! My session expired while I was preparing the pictures and redacting the text of the post and when I clicked the post button I went through a "captcha" page (antirobots) and I might lost the contents, I will mend it this afternoon if pictures hasn't appeared by then.
 
Maenas

Maenas

New member
Pictures up for your inspection ;)

@dazz: I do not know if I levelled up, but I think this will slowly enter to my painting subconscious and it will show at whatever futur moment ^^ or at least I hope so!! Have to say that this was just some kind of guided step by step, more skilled ones will surely apply it "de facto". On the other hand the process is not applicable to lower scale miniatures, well I think that at 1/8 it will still be possible profit some of it but none at 28 or 32mm...

On a side note, the usage of this technique once the map of the face is done, really reminds of WWII and Industrial revolution's posters and propaganda.
 
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Zab

Zab

New member
I have been able to adapt that kind of sketching to some of the 28mm stuff we do. It's useful for more organic or broad smooth shapes like cloaks and armor or NMM work. You are right it will slowly gel with your style, not replace it :) So glad you went and found it fun and useful!!!
 
fluisterwoud

fluisterwoud

Active member
Glad you enjoyed your experience in the class. I would love to take a class from him, it's such a different way of painting from the way I do it, it would be great to expand my skill set. What you've done so far looks really good, you get to keep the bust at the end, right?
 
Maenas

Maenas

New member
The Koreans strike back - Barcelona Workshop (day 2)

On our second day we painted the Brittish officer from Nuts planet. I got amazed at the level of detail of the sculpt because he even has skin texture!!
Palette for the day:
View attachment 47646
Made up from Vallejo's Basic skin tone, Medium flesh tone and Burnt red. So we have three highlights(leftmost), a medium tone (middle) and three shadow-tones (rightmost). Shadows were prepared later on adding drops in the way I explained at the pic. So a ratio relationship was created. All those paints were also previously mixed with a 50 paint /50 retardant dissolution (made of 50% water and 50% retardant from Josonja's brand)

I must say that I really liked doing this one.
The approach was very similar, the difference was that they divided the face into somewhat 3d planes like the old 3D games or:
View attachment 47640
And trace those lines into the face as a guide and to know how to interpret each plane/surface, then they selected the main focus zone and fill it with the middle-tone colour, like you see in the third pic of the composition below. And subsequently add lighter tones, then added carefully some of the deepest shadows. Everything then was blended with the exception of the highest light that were maintained as a guideline. Pics 7 and 8.

View attachment 47641

All of these steps were a little bit more faster than the approach from day one, reaching a "refined" state faster than the previous day. But I must admit that it was a little bit more difficult for me, maybe because we were rushing it a little because of time limitations. Following steps after pics 7 and 8 were adding glazes, yellow+skin to top, red+skin to mid zones, and blue-purple-grey+skintone to the lowest part. Also highlights were re-highlighted at this step. Pics 10-12 show the result from all this glazing process. I ended my day there after 8 hours of work (minus 30 minutes for launch and all the time that explanations and demos took out from it)

Next step was adding glazes of green, blue and purple, to all the outer zones of the face and also some more skin tone to bring back the natural look if it went too weird.

At this point I couldn't resist to take another 1/10 bust from nuts planet so I got this one to practice even further those learned things and to practice my TMM bit more. ^^
View attachment 47644
 
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ArchArad

ArchArad

New member
I am really thrilled that you had such a good experience and you seem to have learned a bucketload! I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to take pictures and share them with us.

That knight bust you picked up looks brilliant! Curse our currency and the exchange rate - can't afford to drool too much over imported models. Which may be a good thing with respect to my budget.... :)
 
Sicks

Sicks

Active member
Fascinating approach to painting, looks like a great learning experience, day 1 definitely looks how a traditional painter or illustrator would go about it
 
T

Teronus

New member
Aww crap, happy I still can paint fantasy or si-fi :D Or Tinny! Nice efforts Maenas! Trying to improve is difficult and time consuming, I hope you reach your goals! Ho and that bust, lots of metal and tinny mini details!!! I know who it's screaming for... ME!! LOL Thanks for everything bro!
 
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Maenas

Maenas

New member
@Zab: Did not inmediately think about it, but now that you mention it, It will probably be aplicable too. Problem is that the most difficult thing of doing things this way is to split the object into shapes, we had a precise guide on how to do it for these two busts but on the rest (everything not the face) we are left a little bit alone so I fear it! LOL

@Arch: I am always happy to share, don't hesitate to ask if you don't understand something, I am trying with those posts that everyone can try it at home ^^

@Tero: Yup I agree with you, I instantly thought this Metal is intended for Tero!!! xD xD
 
khavor

khavor

Member
Wow, thanks Maenas. Looks like a great two days with a lot of useful information packed in. Thanks for the pics!
 
meaty_nosebleeds

meaty_nosebleeds

New member
wooooooow that looked like it was a hell of a lot of fun! i wish something like that were avalible here.

can't wait to see the bust too. he looks awesome!
 
Maenas

Maenas

New member
@BAM: It was the first time I assisted to something similar related with painting miniatures and now I know it wont be the last!! ^^

@Khavor: You are welcome. At the end, sharing things is what our WIP's are for, isn't it? ;)

@meaty: Yes it was! And I also look forward all of you kiwis have an opportunity too ^^
 
Digganob

Digganob

New member
Very interesting technique Maenas. Was wierd but made since at the end. Seems like you get to go to all the fun places.
 
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