Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Day: November 19, 2022

The SlapDash Painting Episode, No° 108.

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I have recently been revisiting my old no name air brush. I picked up a wide variety of Vallejo paints, primers, thinners, and washes so that I could paint my latest round of bust sculpts. It has been a trying time, to say the least. But as I progress through my eight recent builds I am finding a stable, and repeatable method to getting half way decent results.

I am working off of the following methodology. A flat black primer over the whole bust, followed by a grey primer that I spray top down for stark contrast high lights. Then I use a mid tone, straight from the bottle to cover the whole sculpture. I use a darker colour to then paint from the underside only. Then I use a 50/50 mix of mid tone to first highlight, spraying top down all over. Then the high light colour at 100%, top down only. Focus primarily on head shoulders, and ear tips, and maybe belly if my character is fat/barrel chested.

At this point I pick up a tooth brush and then fleck a deep red, blue and green paint all over the bust, avoiding armor if at all possible. Once dried, I go to my last 100% colour and knock those flecks back a tad. And then use my final highlight colour to brighten up the face and very tops of the shoulders only.

After this point it’s all brush painting for metallics, leather straps, skulls, and anything else that wasn’t skin tones.

1.) Flat black primer.
2.) Grey primer, top down only spraying
3.) Mid tone all over.
4.) Darker under colour that is sprayed bottom up. 5.) First highlight sprayed top down and all over.
6.) Second highlight colour top down. More focus on head, neck & shoulders.
7.) Flecked red, blue & green paints for skin variations.
8.) Knock down flecks, and add next highlights for face, and shoulders only. 9.) Begin brush work for metallics and all other elements.

I’m not actually finished with my Ogre royal guard yet, so I’ll have to cut it here. I should note I’m using craft paints that I have thinned with a Vallejo acrylic thinner. I wanted something a bit different to my regular green, brown, red or blue palettes. Looks nifty. I think. Still has a long way to go. Catch you around.

Woken up by acid reflux burning a hole in your throat.

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Not the way I had planned to spend my friday night and/or very early saturday morning, but here we are. Nothing like getting up before 2:00am to wander the house in the dark looking for Tums, and a Gatorade to soothe my singed oesophagus. Other than that, and a pit stop to empty my bladder while I was up, the night went off without a hitch. The house is rather lovely when it’s quiet, and I can hear all the kids softly snoring away in their rooms. Makes me miss the dog, he’d have been up, tail wagging if he heard me walking through the house. A quick snuffle of my hand, an ear twiddle and then he would have scooted back off to bed. Miss that damn fool at the weirdest times.

The birthday party circuit has kicked into high gear, and we now have engagements most weekends from here on out. I could open a modest art supply store with all the gear I have purchased in the last month. The era of loud battery operated toys for birthday gifts has ended. Thankfully. A blessing really.

So what’s the plan today? Oh right, the aforementioned birthday parties. I’m off on a trek through Scarborough to find a glow in the dark Mini Putt place. Will have to think real hard about whether the youngest actually goes. Not a solid competitor just yet. Bit of a rotten cheater with a bad temper about losing to anyone for any reason. May have to leave the kid with Mum for the afternoon. We will see.

Got a start on some Christmas shopping, but I notice the prices have all jumped considerably this year. Good old corporate greed under the guise of ‘inflation’. Tree might look a little sparse this year, but I assure you I did not cheap out. I spent slightly more than last year (due to other kid’s birthday present obligations) but I certainly did not walk away with the same quantity of goods. No matter. I have some major projects on the way (at some point before Dec 31st) so I could potentially buy more if I have missed the one thing either kid was really hoping for. I followed the catalogue images they circled, and the tv commercials they moon over. So I think I’m good. But when more paid work comes in, I could comfortably do one more item each for the kids. I haven’t even gone looking for what my wife wants. Or the in-laws, or any body else even slightly tangentially related to me whom may be expecting a gift this year. Not to worry. There is still time to figure everything out. We are in November, so time is a wasting. If you plan to order on-line your window to get it by the holidays is gradually shrinking. **May the odds be forever in all our favour.