Bones WIP - Autumn Bronzeleaf & Spirit of the Forest

[LittleBluberry]

My earlier WIP experiment proved that I paint more regularly when I've got a little accountability.  (I also paint more when my kids are at school, which will soon be the case once again.)  I decided that I should start a WIP for the two pieces I was most interested in finishing, since they're somewhat related. 

 

I plan to use similar terrain for both, namely Pacific Northwest coastal.  I'm also hoping to level up my basing skills and incorporate some water effect and possibly try to replicate some of the lush fern-type vegetation.  Since these are both Bones, I'm not going to worry too much about achieving master-level quality of the paint job, especially since poor Autumn has some sort of skin condition that needs a lot of attention.  These two are about getting something painted and learning more basing skills. 

 

Autumn was already started with a coat of Brown Liner and all of her base-coats down.  If you look closely you can still see bumps on her nose, forehead, chest and leg.  There was a lot of bumpiness all down the left side, I already smoothed out her left cheek with my hobby knife, then applied liner, sealer, basecoat, sealer, sealer.  She started out as a quick stand in for a PC that is a druid with a water domain, but she's getting a little more love and attention than was originally planned. 

 

This Spirit of the Forest was in my Christmas stocking last year, and has been sitting on my shelf waiting since then.  He's just got a coat of Brown Liner for now.  He really doesn't need a base, but I want to do one so we'll see.  I was hoping to have some of the new 3" rounds from the second Bones Kickstarter for him, but if I get impatient I might have to figure out something else. 

 

[Pingo]

"I am Groot Cute."

 

It looks like it will be a fun project. Those two go together interestingly.

[Loim]

I love this.

 

@Pingo thanks, now I'm gonna think that every time I see that mini.

[LittleBluberry]

I had a description of what I did this afternoon, but then the internet ate it. 

 

In short, I tried out my Optivisor and worked on Autumn's face & hair.  Made things much easier to see but I ended up with a headache.  Any suggestions for dealing with that particular nuisance would be appreciated.  Had to use lots of sealer and thin layers of tanned skin, but things are looking smoother. 

 

Pictures!  I'll start using smaller ones soon, I promise.  Oh, and I'm going to try and fix that wonky eye, it looks okay from some angles but not others. 

[Pingo]

I have an optivisor-like object. If yours is like mine, headache-avoidance would involve keeping the thing evenly balanced over the eyes and not moving the head much when looking through it..

[LittleBluberry]

So after a long delay where I worked a little on the Bones LTPK and mostly didn't paint, I finally got some painting done.  I'm hoping to get the druid finished shortly since I've already ordered the realistic water to finish off the base. 

 

Pictures!

 

As you can see, I've tried painting in those bracer thingies that are supposed to be on her arms.  On the front they're sort of there, on the back there's almost nothing.  Unfortunately I'd have to shave off the lumps that pass for that particular detail, so I've done my best to paint them in.  The jewelry looks pretty good, though. 

 

Also, the colors in these photos comes across much truer than the other ones.  It's supposed to be the ocean triad on her bodice, which still needs the highlight drybrushed on.  I think I'm giving up on the blue of the dress and calling it good enough.  So a little more depth on the rocks and something on that staff and I'm moving on to something else. 

[LittleBluberry]

So I did a little more work on Autumn yesterday and this morning, and I think I'm ready to just call her "good enough" and move on.  (Well, except for the basing.  That still needs work, but I'm stuck waiting for my Realistic Water to get sent out.)  After all, she's just for tabletop use and there were a lot of issues with bumps, mold lines & soft detail that are not worth fighting with any more. 

 

As always, the camera shows all sorts of soft transitions that aren't obvious to my eyes plus there's a reflection on her chin.  So this is still a WIP photo, but once the basing is done I'll spend a little more time on getting some nice photos done.  If someone has suggestions on how to do better blending with blue, I'm definitely noticing that it's harder for me to work with, especially the highlights.  Thanks!

 

[Jessie]

I really like how those two blues are going together. It's hard to tell from the angle of the photo, but maybe a teensy bit more shadow on her chest? Just to create a little contrast between her top, which is pretty light, and her skin. I think that will really set that light blue off really well then.

[Marvin]

She looks good! I also like the differing blues.

[LittleBluberry]

Thanks for replying!  I did try and add some shadow on her skin there, but the problem was it was starting to highlight the small imperfections in the skin.  If you look at the metal version and this one, you can see that there are a lot of bumps around her face on the Bones version.  I tried to clean most of it off with an exacto, but that whole left side of her body is just not as smooth as the right side. 

 

Really I'm just done fighting the sculpt.  I'm keen to try out the water effect, I've never done it before.  (The bottle of 'realistic water' should show up any day now.)  And I think she's okay for tabletop use, which is what most of my Bones are for.    Hopefully if I just keep painting stuff then I'll actually improve overall, even if individual pieces aren't display quality.