Hello all,
I finished my Dracula bust yesterday. It's from United Empire Miniatures.
It took me 5 tries to get a paint job on the face that I liked. Thank goodness for paint stripper :-) .
As always, I appreciate any and all comments and constructive criticism you may have.
Here are a couple of pictures.
Hope you enjoy it!





Thanks,

Mongo, truely an incredible job. If it took twenty tries I'd say it was worth it. It's those eyes, they're great! I found myself staring at them waiting for them to blink.

Wow Mel those are great eyes and that dude old. The flesh tones really look nice, the five tries were worth it.

Well, I cannot think of a single criticism. It looks like a fun bust to paint.

That face is Incredible - you have done a Superbe job on it.

Personally, the hair seems a bit 'flat' to me. This is totally personal. AND it could be the indoor lighting so don't take it as a knock on Dracula at all.

I love the jacket too, the purple blends well with the shadows.

WOW! AWESOME! This is exactly like the movie thing, this is so real if I had it at my home, I won't be putting it in the bed room, would give me some scare at night. WOW! This is AWESOME!

The eyes are brilliant, all references to Dracula mention the powers he supposedley held in those eyes and you've captured them briliantly.
Well done.

Hi

SUPER JOB!!!

The face and robe are awesome. I wonder which actor modelled for this figure...

I think the hair is a letdown though. There is not enough depth or variety to it in the photos. It looks like you took the photos with a bright light source illuminating from above. Maybe that's washing out the hair. I see a big reflection off his forehead in both photos.

Thanks for sharing.
My wife will get a kick out of him!

Cheers
Andy

Hi guys,
Thanks for all the nice comments.
Slodder....I appreciate the comment about the hair. It's comments like yours that help me out the most. After awhile you stop seeing the flaws in your own work. I'm never opposed to constructive criticism. In fact, I encourage it as best I can. So keep'em coming guys :-)
I think I see what you mean. Maybe a coat of semigloss would help. I'll have to see if I have any at home.
Thanks again

Andy,
You must have posted while I was writing my other reply.
Yeah, the lighting on this figure looks pretty bad. It was the overhead lighting in my workroom. I usually reposition my work lamps to get more light from the front and sides.
Just went too quick this time. Shortcuts never are
As for the hair, do you have any suggestions on how to improve it? Right now it's a wash of Paynes Grey that was then "dry brushed" with Titanium White while still wet. After drying, I did a second drybrushing with straight T. White.
Thanks for the help

Mongo... this is great. Wonderfull face... and those eyes... this is one of the most realistic painted faces I have ever seen... Great job. You really have talent, my friend.

The only thing I would like to comment is his hair... as Andy said perhaps it lacks depth. I don't know much about painting white hair so I haven't got a clue how to give more "texture" to it... Could you tell us how you did it? The border between the hair and the face shows a bit too much on the second pic, or is it the lighting? I hope you don't mind these comments... I'd be happy if I had just a bit of your skil.

Mario M.

Hi Mario,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I think I just beat out your post with my last post.
I thnik I answered most of your questions there.
And no, I really don't mind what you said. I truly appreciate the comments and questions you guys have made here and on my other figures as well. My goal when I post pictures is to get honest comments on my work. It's the best way I can think of to improve. Never think I take any offense to comments and question like yours.
Thanks my friend,

Hi Craig.

simultaneous postings are such fun!
I've never painted white hair like on Vlad there. I wonder if adding a little sepia to the shadows would help. Most people have some hint of their old hair color in their white hair. Vlad started with dark hair, I suppose. The problem is that he's a vampire, so normal color rules wouldn't necessarily apply. How does his hair look to you? Maybe the photos aren't conveying the reality well? Given your description, it sounds like adding some sepia may help.

I learned in painting blond hair that a bit of green can help it look good!?!?! So I wonder if a bit of umber or sienna could help with the depth of color in the hair. How big is the bust? Perhaps you could try varying the shading and color content of the various 'strands' of hair? The molded creases divide the hair into different strands. With a bust, I think varying the colors in those strands could help add some depth. I wonder where Anders is? He's painted a lot of busts and could probably be of more help than I.

I'd like to see a photo of him in the sun to get a different view of the colors. I've largely given up on indoor photos because sunlight works well! And we've even had some sun around here!!

How did you do the eyes? They are awesome. And my wife thought the bust was pretty cool. That's high praise! I still get the "He looks like the living dead.", although less often now!!

Cheers
Andy

mongo - the hair comes across to me as monotone. Not a lot of depth. May be bit more gray wash in the creases or a bit darker way down deep.
The Tit. white drybrush may also raise the top edges too.

I just noticed the base (couldn't get lower than the jacket ) did that come with the bust?

Hi Andy,
Those sound like good ideas. My experience with Sepia is that it is pretty intense and might be too much for the white hair. I'll probably try it with Raw Umber instead. And I think I'll try doing highlights with other shades of white as well. I won't be able to get daylight pictures until this weekend but I'll give that a try as well. Thanks for the tips
The eyes ended up being much easier than usual on this figure. First I painted the whites with Liquitex Parchment. This isn't available anymore but it can be mixed using T. White with a little bit of Lamp Black and Yellow Ochre. It gives the T. White a slight greenish cast.
Then, when dry, I applied a wash of Alizerin Crimsen and let it dry. I ended up giving the whites another coat of Parchmant to reduce the overall red of the Crimsen. This left the eyes red rimmed. I painted the iris's with Paynes Grey and I did my best to get the bottoms to just barely touch the bottom eyelid. This gave the effect of him looking "up" rather than straight ahead. The effect shows much better in person than in my lousy photographs
Also, tell your wife "thanks" for me. I'm glad she liked it.

Scott,
The base is from Ken Thomas of Thomas Art Bases. I get most of my bases from him and he makes the most beautiful looking bases I've ever seen. This one is Bolivian Rosewood and ran about $16.00 (US). I'm lucky in that he lives in Pennsylvania (like me) and I see him at 2 of the figure shows I regularly go to. But he sells by mail order as well. If you want, I'll get his address at home tonight and post it here for you tomorrow.
Cheers

Incredible bust. I don't know what I'm more impressed with, your painting of it, or the scupting of the bust. This isn't a "model" this is art.

A nice quote and how Gary Oldman delivered it: "Hrrrrrllistennn thooo themmm...the childdrrrenofthenite......wat sweet music they make!"

And what sweet busts you make Mongo!

Awesome!

Toni

incredible figure!! So how did you decide on the final skin tone and how did you do it?

Trully amazing! What scale was that kit?

Hi guys,
Wow...thanks for the extremely nice comments. Rodger, I'd say join me in being impressed by the sculptor. Any schlub can slap paint on a model I'm the proof of that). But to be able to create something like this from a lump of clay is true talent in my book.
Shonen Red, the scale is probably 1/9th or 200mm. I'm not positive but those are the usual scales for busts.
Godfather, this is actually the first skin tone mix that I came up with myself
The others that I've used I got from friends and from Shep Paines figure painting class.
At first I was trying to make him all pale white and splotchie looking. I've seen this done on pieces in Amazing Figure Modeler magazine and I tried to copy the method described in one of their articles. For various reasons I didn't have too much success trying that. So I decided I would paint him with a more normal skintone, just rather pale.
I used my Liquitex Parchment and added a little bit of Burnt Sienna into it until I liked the results. I painted this all over and then began adding more B.S. to the shadow areas and more Parchment to the highlight areas. When this was dry, I made a VERY thin wash on B.S. and sparingly painted this into the shadows and the wrinkles too. I did this a couple of times until I built up the shadows to my liking. I was satisified with the highlights as they turned out so I didn't add any more to them.
I'm actually pretty pleased with how the face turned out. I think I'll have to try this mix on a "non-dead" figure
Thanks again to everybody that took the time to comment here. As I said beore, I really do appreciate it. And especially the constructive critiques of my work. I'll be trying some of the suggestions I received this week. When I'm done, I'll post the results in a new thread.
Thanks

What can I say that hasnt been said already?
Top of the class .. Mongo... absolutely brilliant! Its a pity Gary Oldman couldnt see this himself! The pink shade on the lower eyelids is so real looking and those eyes .. those eyes!!!!!! I actually like the hair colour ..... whatever centuary he came from, wigs were common and his hair seems to be styled something like this. For me .. its perfect!!
Brilliant tones all over. Great work .. its a pleasure to see it!