Performing for Giants Diorama

[Mierot]

Tonight's addition of a roof wraps up the major construction work for the building.

 

 

The shingles are centimeter-wide strips of cardboard with random cuts approximately halfway across each strip. Gluing them on was a bit of a pain since I only put glue on half the strip width. I got into a process of apply glue, place on roof, clamp with binder clips, pause, repeat, utter choice word when previous rows slipped. Now I understand why roofing shingles are constructed as they are. Next time I will make them wider.

 

I have detailing plans for the building, but I think I need to move onto either painting a figure or constructing the base. It is too easy to get into tiny details which just are not important for a backdrop.

[Jasonator]

Wow, you are adding more and more complexity, and detail every time I check on your WIP!

Really amping the effect.

Great going !

Love what you are doing !

[Darsc Zacal]

This has been an interesting project to follow. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

[Mierot]

Thanks for the encouragement! I have not been drawn this much into a project in quite awhile. It is still fun, so I look forward to spending some time on it each evening.

[Mierot]

I decided to give the building a bit of a break to regenerate the creative juices and to finally slop some paint around. First up is Liriel.

 

 

My WIP-pic-fu is not very strong right now. I need to switch to my DSLR instead of using my cell phone.

 

I want to keep her skin tones warm, so I used Chestnut Brown (love that color), Rosy Shadow, Rosy Skin, Fair Skin, and Fair Highlight for her face. I'll come back in with some Linen White, or maybe Pure White, once I finish the eyes.

 

To contrast with the warmer skins tones, her color is base coated in Breonne Blue, while her overtunic colors are based on mixes of Leaf Green + Ashen Blue, shaded with a Leaf Green + Breonne Blue mix. There are a couple of highlights, which the cell camera failed to pick up very well, using Pale Green + Ashen Blue and a bit of Linen White added for a second lighter highlight. I did a fair amount of "I wonder what this will look like" paint mixing for the figure. It was quite liberating.

 

Her hair is Chestnut Brown, with a couple washes of Dark Skin and Dark Shadow + Walnut Brown, highlighted with Bone Shadow. The hair is rather subtly sculpted on the sides of her head. I lost a bit of the detail due to my first basecoat layer being thicker than usual. I cannot say I am happy with my hair painting. I wonder if it is possible to spot strip the paint without having to sacrifice everything to the Simple Green... 

[spencerjohn]

Your doing an awesome job on this!  Everything looks top notch and well executed, congratulations so far!

[brushforhire]

Fantastic work. I love this concept

[Jasonator]

I'm looking forward to seeing where you are in this project.

Like your color choices, and the discussion about what colors you

are using !

The building is looking terrific.

Amazing that it is matchsticks, cork, and cardboard!

[Mierot]

I can finally post an update after more than a week! A cold and uncooperative hands limited what I could work on, but all that is over. Today was extremely productive, cleaning up Zephima and painting Liriel.

 

Liriel is about 70% finished. Today I worked on her pants, boots, belt, and instrument. Her pants need another highlight, or two, while I haven't decided exactly what to do with her boots.

 

 

I used various combinations of ruddy leather, oiled leather, blackened brown, and walnut brown for her boots and belt. I think there may be some leather brown in there too. I neglected to keep track of exactly what went where...

 

 

Her pants are tanned leather for the base coat, oiled leather and ruddy leather for shading, and a touch of buckskin pale for a highlight. The lute/mandolin/bouzouki is base coated with ruddy leather and leather brown.

 

When I could not effectively paint, I did spend some time fiddling with the building, adding a door, windows, and window box.

 

 

The window is made of the plastic from a blister package. I scored the lines for the diamond-shaped panes using the back of my exacto knife, then traced over them with a sharpie marker to mimic the strips of lead between the panes, quickly wiping away the excess.

[Sirithiliel]

oooh that should be an amazing diorama! Good luck!

[spencerjohn]

Ah good idea for the window, I think I will have to buy something with a large blister at some point!

[Mierot]

Ah good idea for the window, I think I will have to buy something with a large blister at some point!

 

I used a paint triad blister and still have a third of it left. I sacrificed a section as a proof-of-concept/practice piece. I expect a standard Reaper blister should work for most windows.

[Mierot]

After a false start and a simple green bath, Yephima has most of her basecoats.

 

 

Her skin color is bronzed skin, which I've never used before. It is darker than I expected, but looks nice. Her hair has a base of blond shadow, while her skirt is a mixture of leaf green and walnut brown, which yielded the darker hunter green I was looking for to compliment the bronze skin tone. I always have coverage issues with green, so I need at least one more layer to get a smooth, consistent base for the skirt.

 

The mold line demon struck, with a big, obvious one growing out of her hairline. I'm going to have to work to get rid of that behemoth.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Ooo! Love that bronze skin tone! The hunter green is also very nice, too bad about that mold line, those suckers can be tricksie sometimes and sneak up out of nowhere I swear...

[Mierot]

This weekend had its diorama ups and downs.

 

The Downs

While I managed to (mostly) clean up the hairline mold line on Yephima, I discovered even more nasties I missed. She has a deformed left nostril, a big air bubble on her right cheekbone, and a chunk of her hair at the part is lifting up. All of these will require putty work to repair.

 

Painting on Friday evening was one frustration after the other. To fix these issues I'm going to have to dunk her in simple green and start over. Third time is the charm, right?

 

The Ups

Frustrated with my painting, I turned to the base. My woodworking friend has a scrap sheet of quarter inch MDF, from which he kindly cut out a 5" x 8" section for my use. Having this as a solid base is proving to be wonderful. It is consistently flat!

 

Armed with some air dry clay, I sculpted a cobblestone road. The cobbles were stamped using a prong from a computer power cable, the type used to connect an internal drive to the power supply. I tend to hoard cables, so I had no qualms about cutting one up.

 

 

Given the thinness to which I applied it, the clay predictably shrunk, curled, and cracked a bit while drying. The cracks and shrinkage I can work with. The curl will need some weight, strong glue, and some putty to get under control.