Mural Update!

Two posts in two days? Crazy!

This post is an update on the mural, which due to various personal commitments (job, college etc) its taking forever....which is annoying me a lot. I wish I could finish it faster, for my friends sake.

Anywho! I have updated pictures on how everything's going. The room is starting to look great with all the colour added in. So far I have Simba, Bambi, Thumper and Jiminey completed! I'm working on Iago now, but i was getting tired and he was starting to turn out badly...or maybe I was just starting to drain (I had been painting for over 5 hours) so I decided to stop, and go back to him when my friend comes back from her holidays. She's been helping out too, painting flowers and the butterfly you'll see bellow ^_^ she also painted most of the green and blue in the background.

This is Jiminey, I wasn't too happy with him to begin with...but warming up to him now. He was one of the hardest to find colour referance for. he ranges from a mossy-beige (no other way to describe it) to pea green, like he kinda is here. The greener of the two is the colour of the character in the disney parks, so I figured I'd stick with that....

Next up is thumper, lost in this rather large photo, Very happy with how he turned out, nice blue/pinky/grey coat on him. He still needs some green filled in around him.

And lastly we have Bambi and Simba (who's looking at one of the butterflies my friend painted). Bambi is my favourite by far. I was so happy with how he turned out! It was really scary starting him after the bad luck with Jiminey, but it's amazing what happens if you add a pair of eyes to the characters, they just come alive.

Simbas face is a little off, he looks a lot younger than he should, but it kinda suits the whole baby godson thing. could also be his pose, being crouched down so much...hmmm... still, my godson loved it, even if Simba is being called "TIGGY!!!".

Anywho, that's all for now!

QUACK!

Long break, but I'm back with stuff to show!

A friend of mine loves rubber ducks. She collects them. So I thought a great present for her would be her own custom duck! Official Title: The Paula Duckie.
Sadly, he's not made out of rubber. He'll prob float in water, but I wouldn't recommend regular tub usage. I'm pretty sure my friend keeps hers as ornamental ducks anywho.

This little duck was originally an occupant of my bathroom. He lived near the shower, and when the hot water was put on, he was placed on the landing to remind us to switch it off when we were done. Being the larger of 3 ducks, he was rarely used for that so he's now gotten a full make over!

Made from cheap plastic I sanded down any flash that was being rather unsightly and I started to model up from the plastic. Now, normally I'm a Sculpey person, but Sculpey, followed by oven usage would melt this duck in to a little yellow puddle. Not good. So instead I decided to use Milliput. (For the non Modelmakers out there Milliput is a 2 part epoxy putty, when kneaded together it starts to cure, and you can sculpt with it, leave it, and it sets solid. It's also used for fixing leaks and can set under water. Pretty awesome stuff.) The guy in my local model shop tried to sell me Revells Plasto (filler paste) as a substitute cos he had none in stock. He looked at me like I had 30 heads when I said I wanted it to sculpt up, not fill in model holes.

Anywho, I chose some distinguishing features from my friend, he hair, the fact she wears hoodies, and her new tattoo (the benzene rings of Vit B2 - She's a food scientist)
Here's some pictures I took while waiting for her to set.

It took about 2 coats of white paint for a solid base, then I painted the basic colours. I think next time I do something like this I'll have finer sandpaper, primer (I ran out) and use my airbrush instead. Here's a picture of the basic colours anyway...

Then I added in the detailed bits, shading bits on the hoodie, eyes, texture to the hair, a t-shirt, and the tattoo. I like the eyes, and was really pleased with how the hoodie turned out. The hardest part was the tattoo, done with a 0000 cotman brush which has about 10 hairs in it.

 oh and forgive the quality cos these were originally taken with no flash

you can see the tattoo in this one!

 This last one will be a little confusing, it's the underside of the duck. RJR stands for Rocha, John Rocha. Which is a particular label of clothing Paula used to like, and I hope still does like! I like the pockets the the hem, painted on flat, all the 3D is on the topside.

So that's the Paula Duckie. Really happy with how it turned out, can't wait to give it to her! I don't think she reads this blog so it's prob still a surprise!