Just in time for Halloween, I have my latest project finished. This is the piece I bought after seeing the original sculpt on a fantasy/horror forum. I was impressed with the originality of it, and also that a college kid sculpted it. He's a cool guy, and I was proud to support this...his first effort at selling one of his creations. He named it "Brute", and its not based on anything already out there. For that reason I'd assume a person could paint it any way they wish.
When I studied it I thought it looked very reptilian, so I chose a paint scheme to reflect that. I painted the chest and main body beige, with the rounded scales in shades of green with a bit of yellow. To bring out the fantastic texture in the skin I coated the whole thing with brown acrylic wash. This also helped seal the paint...an unexpected bonus. I chose to paint the head and face darker than the body, and thanks to the great type of resin I was able to blend and fade colors like I wanted to. Shadows in the skin were done by adding a touch of black to the beige, and following natural shadow areas of the body.
In keeping with the reptile theme, I did the eyes with slits for pupils instead of ordinary dots. I gave the irises a two-tone color of dark and light yellow, and added a touch of pink to the whites. To top it off I created a subtle "halo" of red around the edge of the iris. My bust came with an unfortunate casting defect...there were some air bubble sink holes in some of the sculpted teeth (the two large outer ones were separately cast). My solution was to trim the defective teeth off, and create new ones with a toothpick. The eyes, mouth/teeth, and scales were coated with clear acrylic gloss to further the reptile look.
This was lots of fun to paint, and I'm looking forward to future pieces by that talented young artist.
While I'm on a roll here, I'll announce I've already made my reservations for next year's Nationals in Colorado. If things work out my sister will accompany me this time. I'm excited and can only dream of doing as well as my first time.
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