Josef Bugman - Painting Progress

I've got 4 days, counting the day I wrote this on Monday, to finish the Brewmeister. 3 days from today.

Why the !$?& do I keep doing this to myself?! I mean, seriously, do I hate myself?

Okay, okay...I'm better now. Let's see what I've accomplished in the first 2 days.

I feel I should state that this figure has already been assembled, converted (slightly) and primed last week. I also previously stained the wooden block that will serve as its display plinth two weeks ago. I'll be magnetizing the figure's base to this plinth for ease of judging and display both.

Day 1

The first hour of work on this figure was mostly prep. I decided on a color palette, separated the paints out that I would need for the first two sections I would concentrate on, and got started. The first two sections were to be the flesh and the hair. After all, once the hair is painted on a dwarf, the figure is already half done! Well, maybe not entirely half, but it's close,

I really wanted to make use of the flesh tone techniques I learned from Mathieu Fontaine a couple years ago at Adepticon, so I pulled out Midland Flesh, Ryn Flesh and Sanguine Base from the P3 line of paints. I laid down a base of Midland Flesh, and began slowly working the Sanguine Base into it on my wet palette, layering as I went and keeping in mind where shadows should be. Once I was happy with that, I began working towards my highlights by mixing in the Ryn Flesh with the Midland on my wet palette and moving in thin layers towards my highlights.

Since I still had some time before I had to call it a night, I decided to get started on the hair. After deciding i wanted Bugman to have a ruddy blond hair, I mixed a 50/50 ratio of Menoth White Base to Menoth White Highlight and put down the base color with that. I then applied a thinned wash of Secret Weapon Flesh Tone, and once that was dry, I applied a second thinned wash of SW Flesh Tone mixed with GW's new Flesh Wash. Why did i choose to use washes on the hair? Because I was comfortable doing so, and I knew I could be pleased with the results in the time frame I had to work with. Simple as that. Then I called it a night.

Day 2

I got home fairly late so I knew I wouldn't be able to do much, but I was determined to finish the hair. The washes did their job and gave me a solid base of depth to work from. I took the 50/50 mix that was Preserved on my wet palette from the night before that I used as a base before the washes, thinned it, and pulled of my first layer of paint, working towards the highlights. Once that was done, I layered another highlight of straight Menoth White Highlight, and then finally I pulled very select highlights out with a thinned pure white. Working with a steady hand, thinned paints and a good Kolinski Sable brush, I was able to not only work along the sculpted hair texture, but add faux hair texture to the back of the head where the surface was mostly smooth.

Working on the hair last night gave me some renewed confidence in painting faux wood grain well. I've been dreading that, honestly, and since I am thrilled with the way the hair texture turned out, I can apply the same techniques to the wood grain,

So far so good folks. Anyone else scrambling for Games Day competition entries?

- Tim