Bust of the Living Dead

DeepGroover-(T)
October 14, 2012

Caves > DeepGroover's Entry Hall > previous > Living Dead > next

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The subject line is going to be the title of my latest project. I thought it was a funny play on all the "(blank) of the Living Dead" movies. Some of you from work may recall me mentioning this piece, along with several others, I purchased at the regional contest in September. This one was simply named "Zombie", and is a one piece resin bust in about 1/4 scale. As with the others I bought from this dealer the casting was excellent, with minimal cleanup.

I had fun choosing the colors for him. I wanted him to have been dead a while. I experimented with adding green to flesh, and covered with a wash of dark brown. His hair was base coated black then covered with two shades of brown. Shading on his skin was done with mostly green and dark grey. The exposed inner parts of his body were done with mixes of red, brown, and grey, with a bit of black for depth.

I enjoyed painting his eyes, and wanted them to have a cloudy appearance. This was done just by toning town the colors I used.

For his teeth I decided just because he was a zombie didn't mean his teeth hadn't been cared for in life, so I didn't want them to look rotted. I mixed white oil paint with yellow and tan to get a suitable color, then sealed it with clear acrylic gloss.

I used the gloss for his eyes and portions (mostly very deep) of his exposed insides.

I'd seen one of these pieces painted, and entered, in the regional contest. I liked it, but felt it was too dark for my taste (the colors, I mean.) Mine is light enough to see the details that need to be visible, and allowed me some play with some areas....for instance some bruising around the two bite marks on his neck and throat. This was a lot of fun, and a bargain at $30. Also, I wanted to have it done to coincide with the start of "The Walking Dead" season 3. I hope you all enjoy my tribute to an unlikely runaway cable hit show,

August 2013: This bust won first place in the Nationals model competion in the category for fantasy busts.

The 1st place for my "Bust of the Living Dead" resulted from a 3-way split in busts. There were so many bust entries the judges divided them into pre-1900, post-1900, and fantasy.

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