Thursday, October 25, 2007

Shii part 2

I've been working on Shii for last few days and I can finally see the light at the end of this tunnel. :)
I finally repainted her thighs (the area before her underwear and stockings). I had some issues with it. When I glued the parts together, I had a slight gap that was just bugging me, so I had to fix it. I masked the stockings and panties, puttied the gap and painted. The only problem was that when I took the masking tape off, I discovered that the skin I painted was way too pink. So I had to repeat all of the steps and do it again. At least now I am happy about the results.

Also I have been working on her head. I connected her bangs with her head and puttied the gap between them.
Still working on touch ups on her hair, but so far I like it.
There is not that much left on this girl to do. I have only her sword and some more touch ups. So for now I have her body standing on the shelf and cheering me to finish her up.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

My watercolor commition work

For last few weeks I've been working on this piece for a friend. This is a portrait of two girls, who are really really cute, and my job was to put on the paper their cuteness. The size is 16x20 inches and its all done in watercolor and some watercolor pencils. My friend was very happy with result. Actually I am happy too, I think my skills with portraits is improving. Also I am very happy because now I have some time to finish my resin kits
This is a photo of finished portrait, but it got a little overexposed by light.
So here is a scan that I took from a finished piece.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Arisugawa Shii

Finally, after a very long time I found some time to update my blog. :D Today is a good day for me. I just finished my commission watercolor work (will probably post some pictures later) and now I have time to work on my Shii.
This kit is based on Shunya Yamashita's work and sculpted by I-don't-know-who, but whoever did it, did a great job. I love this kit, even thought she is half naked. I wish I had her body :) OK, back from a dream land. I am planning to use this kit as a entry for Winter Contest at the E2046, so I am trying to make her as perfect as possible.

The build is pretty straight forward. There is nothing hard or complicated about this kit, so I am going to skip the boring parts like sanding and puttying. Here comes the fan part - painting.

I am using acrylic paints (as usual) and Model Master sealers (stuff in the cans). Usually I start with painting the skin first, but I decided to change my order on this kit. I painted the shirt first, added some highlights and shadows and sealed it. The reason I started from shirt is that its all white and I didn't wanted to repaint all that white tone. It never comes out as clean as I want it to.
Next came the skin. First the base lite color, added some shadows, sealed it, pastel shadows, sealed it, lite-lite mist of base skin color to blend it all in, seal it, and some highlights, seal it.
Next I attacked the stockings. In the original art work, her stockings are purple, but I decided to change her colors a little. I painted her legs with skin color, even the part that have stockings. Masked the thigh part :) and used some brown color diluted with Future Floor Finish (no water). The Future Finish makes paint transparent and gives it a very nice glossy finish. I haven't made many stockings, so I was very satisfied with the results.
And this is how she looks after I assembled some of the parts together. Of course she didn't look like that for too long. When I was gluing the legs together ( I used 2 min epoxy glue) the leg shifted a little bit and it created a small hair thin line between the joints. It was bugging me too much, so I had to fix it. As expected, while trying to fix it, I manage to make it worse. So now she is all wrapped in the tape and her thighs are primed and ready to paint again. I hope I will have more luck the ( 1..2..3.. ) the third time :)
While I was waiting for some stuff to dry and fixing the leg problem, I painted the hair and her eyes. I tried to make her look as human as possible, plus I just hate painting lips, it never comes out the right way. After some struggling, this is what I got. Not too bad, if you ask me :) Now the only problem is that half of her face is going to be hidden behind the bangs and her glasses.
So this is as far as I got. Hopefully I will get more time to finish her up. Wish me luck on fixing her legs.