Yul Bryner Ramses II Part 4

From the last time we wrote, it was work till 2 am last night. This evening, right after work, delve right into correcting the look on the face that you do not see till we shoot the photo and zoomed in..

From the last blog post, I noticed from expanding it at 15 Megapixels accorded by the Canon 50D with the EF 17-40 F4L USM lens, superb at 40mm or 75mm equivalent in 35mm mode in macro from 28cm....every nook and cranny cannot escape when shot at ISO 400 and F10.

So, I too some white, dilute it down to less than 10% and touch up the upper cheeks to reinforce the contrast with the rest of the skin colour to give it a brighter sheen. I also added some green to widen the shaven face beard are and also to darken the underneath of the lip area at the chin, this is to give the chin a more pronounced protrusion look that is prominent on the square jawed actor's facial features that I grew to love in this movie, which I have watch like more than 20 times.

I gave a super light wash of brownish black to form the edges of the lips and the lip partition line and when dry, dabbed in the 50% dilute Vermillion and Purple mix. I added light skin tone and white to the lip colour mix and dab some onto the top part of the lower lip to give it some 3D look and to enhance the shadows and simulate wet glistening. I also took some white toned down with a lot of water to round off the pupils a little bit more.

Whoa....walla, the face is now done, and time to work on the neck. I kind of like what I see here. Better stop before we overdo it. The tendency for perfectionists is to over perfect what is perfect and break it! This is something we all have to learn to do, especially me.

Double check on the facial pictures, I use a photo from the King and I.

Cheers,

Norman

Yul Bryner as Ramses II Part 3

Finally, I dotted in the eyes. First, a round black semi circle is placed in the eye sockets, then a wash of vermillion to bring our life in the whites, then a smaller circle is painted in English Uniform mixed with black and leaving the centre in black.

What is needed is to tone the neck and paint in the hardest part, the shoal! My God, I am feeling perhaps I could do source for some nice red line decals just to cheat a bit...but Eunice my wife says that I am a coward if I did that!

With a +2 lens over my eyes, this will take more than +2 to work on with a 40 brush! Got to go to Paris this June to Azimuth and Blast to get myself more brushes.....the only 4-0 that I have is almost bent!

Ramses II Yul Bryner Part 2

Using these as the reference photos, lets hope we an achieve what I set out to do..... and the progress report shows.....ALAS!!!!! ET TU BRUTE!!!!!

The Lexar super expensive Compact Flash card tanked and I lost 2 days of work progress on Yul Bryner while trying to load it up....so, we missed the highlights, shadows, deep shadows and high highlights and toning.

Well, this is the result of the final toning over the pinkish vermillion with light flesh shades on the cheeks.

What is left is the neck portion to be done and the flesh colour section for the face would have been completed.

I drew in the eyebrows as the late Yul Bryner has profound ones like Angelina Jolie or Sean Connery. It was done with Red Brown, black and the base tone mix of the flesh and the excess over runs are cut back with 5 layers of watered down basic skin tone glazes. I filled in the eye whites, it now awaits the pupils and the red and black washes for the innards and the eye lashes. Here are two pictures taken the same, but different exposures to check out the tones.

Yul Bryner Ramses II, Ten Commandments

Second Project from Young B Song Series. Serious shit I realised that painting the hood is gonna be heck of a problem later. The figures are well cast with only clean up required at the left of the nose. Far better than the 1:6 scale Luke Skywalker solid 2kg worth of resin I recieved last week as a present from my brother!

I had always wanted to do a bust of the late great actor and musical singer, either in the King of Siam in the King and I or Pharaoh Ramses II from Ten Commandments. Finally when I came across this kit, I got to have a go at it.

The bust was coated with Gunze Surfacer 1000. Then Tamiya Flat Black can spray. Set to dry for 6 hours and drybrushed with Vallegio White. Then I mixed Sunny Skin Tone, Salmon Rose and Red Brown to form base colour of darkened skin and dry brushed on the skin sections.

The picture above is all the above steps done and washed and glazed with the base tone with a dash of Mahogany Wood Grain from Vallegio to smoothen the drybrushing.

Disaster and then final finish Russell Crow Part 4

Disaster struck today as I tried to cut down on the glossy bits of the sheen caused by Vallegio when using the glazing method of painting and the whole top of the bust turned white! So, there was a scramble to quickly use the Future to rescue it from the Gunze Flat to restore it to the original colours again! Phew it saved the day.

Now, lets review again. Below is the heavy contrasts that is done to bring out the features of this famous actor. The strong features are done by having the face :-
1. Painted with primer
2. Then solid matte black
3. Use of drybrushing white vallegio
4. Drybrushing the base colour skin tones
5. Paint in the dark shades
6. Wash with light Sepia Ink
7. Wash with Burnt Amber wash to tone down harsh contrast
8. Dot in the eyes
9. Highlight the high points with skin tones added with white
10. Paint in the lips with 2 tones of brown purple
11. Darken lip lines
12. Dot in the unshaven look with dark chocolate and dark Luftwaffe Green
13. Paint in the 4 tones of yellow for the hair
14. Black wash hair to bring out the contrast

Then you get the pre-colour modulated and blending basic face as shown below.

Then, we need to modulate and tone down or up the high contrasts with various reds and skin tones to give a gradual finish. When all this is done, the bust gets the hat and then a matte spray which turned MAD!@$#&*!

The use of Future saved the day and then the ardous task of using the basic super thin washes of the skins, the blacks, the browns to get back the original look began! After 4 hours of efforts and 16 layers of 5% colour water washing with high speed industrial fan blowing in the background, its finally rescued! With the gold brushed in as a highlight, the final figure is ready.

There is something about the eyes that is not right! Finally, I got it when I discussed this with Eunice my wife and also my son Dominique, a prolific painter himself....I need to get the whites done with some warm to show blood vessels....so, we thin glaze it with red, orange. Then I painted in the eyelashes with dark greyish brown. This gave life to the eyes.

Enjoy!Side View, the dark nooks and crannies turned white and had to have black wash of 1 part paint, 100 parts or so water and 1 part glazing agent to fill it slowly, about 16 layers! Then the shin is brought back to life. And to get back the contrasts and the curvature of the hat, same is use to highlight the areas previously painted with dark grey blue over the black again for about 5 to 6 layers. After rehighlighting the gold trim, all is set!

Finally completed with much peril! Make sure in the future, never to short cut it with Gunze or any matte finish, but to glaze it on slowly with the Vallegio 2% matte varnish over 10 layers to get it right, in this case, the airbrush does not work as well as compared to armour models or planes which I have previous done for 37 years. Labour does pay dividends in spades.

Russell Crowe Master and Commander Pt 3

Finally, I am back from work, fighting jet lag and managed to tone down on the blues to make it darker and closer to dark blue/black like, brushed in the new gold that I bought in the UK. Buttons, epaulets and close in on the top hair locks and the bottom to match both colours. Here is a rotating lazy Susan look of the bust, almost finished except the headrest, which is the most complicated part, It is almost most difficult to do black shading on black.

Enjoy guys. Next update is on the hat, and once done, the project needed the bottom sprayed and complete with label plate, can't wait for it, must finish this weekend.

Russell Crowe part 2

This is part 2 of doing up a subject that is close to my heart Having visited the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth in the UK and inspired greatly by Lord Nelson and the battle of Trafalgar, I visited HMS Victory, which I had made a 1:700th scale model when I was a young lad at 10 with a GBP 0.80 model from Airfix. Now, that is 35 years ago.

Watching the movie is also a great inspiration to want to make this model as close as I can get to the real thing in the movie. I went to download a few photos online of this otherwise, quite a character.

The face at 70% where I ended early post after dotting in the unshaven beard stubs and toning down the pink of the cold cheeks. I find the temperature a bit too cold for the face.

A second look of the face, I find the contrast too strong and too cold. So, I set out to tone it down more.

Some of the reference photos I used. And now, I use the basis to tone the face to finally get the bottom look, now I am happy, i did up the hair, the ears and redefined the eyes and lips....
What is next is to paint in the folds and sewing seams with Sepia Ink and put the the light highlights for the blue coat and down toning of the purple shadows....gold touch to the epaulet and do up the laces....we should be completed with only the headrest remaining.

More London Photos

This is where we parked to see the Westminster Abbey, the back of it just in front of the Methodist Hall.


The River Thames from the Tower Bridge side, seeing the apartments and the parked HMS Belfast in the forground on the right.

This is the Tower Bridge taken with 3 sec exposure using ISO 800 with the ferry that just came in to dock.
A look on the ferry terminal and the HMS Belfast from Tower Bridge side.

The view on other side of the river next to the London Eye.

The emblem of the city of London, the Griffin.


Big Ben Again when its about it give the West Minster Chime. 9 minutes to go.

London by Night in 2 Hours Part 1

Everyone who has gone to Europe has made London a must to visit. On my 23rd journey to Europe, this is the first time I have been to the great metropolis thanks to a dealer of mine from Dorset. I was here for work at an exhibition and we stole a night out driving an hour to do a whirlwind of the sights here. On the way back, we had road works and was stuck for more than 2 hours in traffic.

This is the London Eye from the view on the Victoria Embankment on a Wednesday Evening. Beautiful night scenery isn't it?

It is very difficult to take this shot of the Big Ben due to street lighting, trees blocking the clock and finding an angle that will cover up the scaffolding that is on the Ben due to restoration works. After walking for about 30 mins all over the place, I found that the place where we stopped the car was the best! What a waste of human effort, and with a 2 seconds exposure on ISO 800, we got this shot, holding for dear life without a tripod from the wind mirror of our van.

This is a sight to behold and I wanted to do this for a long time. The Parliament from across the Thames at night. Unfortunate to have the scaffolding near the Ben, otherwise, I would have been very happy.


The Big Ben after zooming in from my position from the car on Victoria Embankment. 2.5 seconds on ISO 800, also holding for dear life on the wing mirror.

The world famous Harrods Mall, taken from our stopped vehicle through the windscreen at ISO 3200, 1/15 seconds.

Went to the war memorial at the back of Buckingham Palace. The recipients of the George and Victoria Crosses in the Great War and WWII.

Another look at the war memorial of the British Empire. Behind Buckingham.

The gate at the side of the Buckingham Palace leading to the gardens at night. We have parked here and quickly took 2 mins to take pictures before the police arrives.


Buckingham, one of the residences of the Queen. The flag is flying, so she is home. This is only the front I was told, the insides are huge.

CORFE Castle Dorset Isle of Purveck

Second Day into England, we got some time to have a run down to the southern parts. First stop was to the Isle of Purveck to see the last hold out for the last of the Royalists and the Cromwellians. They snug in and defy the seige. The castle was finally blown up with gun powder in 1646 and the stones were used to build the small town of Corfe as we know it today.

This is the smallest town hall in the world, in Corfe with the background church where King George was stabbed to death by his Step Mother.

This is one of the oldest pubs still in operations today, some 400 years old, made with the stones of the Corfe Castle.

Enid Blyton Spent alot of her time here in Dorset and wrote most of her stories using the backdrop of this area in Southern England. Here is a tribute to here with a model made into the walls of the castle town of Corfe.

The plague commemorating the remembrance of King George the Martyr who was killed by his Step Mother.

The town pump for water at the centre. Behind me is the Enid Blyton memorial model vignette.

Sunset at Corfe Castle. I walked over to the side of the castle and took this picture behind the first tower at the gate at the right.

This is the side of the Corfe, I went by the side pave way, then climbed up the side slope where I found some places that accorded some grip to my very good Original Swat Win2X Boots. I climbed up the side fence and put the camera on the pinnacle and took a 3 sec exposure to capture this shot.

This shot of the ruin of Corfe was taken from 600m away from the round about at the foot hill on the pinnacle of a fence support for barb wires which oversees the Steam locomotive station at the foothills.

Me at the gates of the Corfe. It was 5.35 when we arrived in the evening and the castle was closed.

The cathedral at Corfe made with the stones from the castle after the castle was blown up.

Me on the bridge of Corfe Castle.

Short drive away was this house. Its in Coom Bissett,just south of Salisbury, beautiful isn't.