So the weekend before last I had the chance to hang out with my good friend Peter over in Reutlingin, near Stuttgart Germany for a weekend of painting and beers..
A much needed weekend for the both of us as things have been quite busy and hectic, and this was a nice downtime for the both of us. Where we could refocus on painting and pushing ourselves to try new projects ( or in Peter's case a project that has eluded him for many years! ).
For me this was the Brom the Dwarf bust from Enigma. I had picked it up in a bargin bin or random shopping experience sometime in the last year. Probably to go with the ill-fated Dwarf Project that I had lined up this year ( which is failing hard btw! ).
But now with a 2 tone coloring happening, I was ready to get started on the piece.
Random skintones from the Scale75 skin tone sets here. Quite pastel looking, and rough still, but a good direction already.
Here is a random quick shot ( that is out of focus ) of our projects. As you can see Peter's piece was already quite a bit further along than my own, but it was only really base colors cause there would be a ton of work to be done on it from Peter's side before long.
I can say as soon as I applied this thinned tank hull color for the beard and hair, my motivation for the piece jumped massively! The intensity of it to me at that point was just jumping out at me and I was really liking the direction it was taking already!
The blue/green bandana was just an idea to go with. And honestly came out better than I expected, while giving the direction of Brom being more of a Glam Rocker Dwarf maybe :)
We were not sure on the tunic color, and I did go with purple. Not the best color maybe, but it was tying into his skintones a bit more, and also expanded upon the glam rocker look :)
The wooden shoulder pad would go through a few iterations before I would get it sorted. And maybe layers of ink, washes, paint, texture colors, etc....
Things were coming together, but the shoulder pads were throwing me off.. So they would get reworked many times over..
Also around this time my wrist was bothering me like something fierce. Seems the damage from boxing last year is beginning to take its toll :( So more beers are consumed instead of painting at this time.
After many beers and some rest, I did get back at it though. The back metal sections needs more work to tidy up the rust, but the shoulder pads came a long ways forward here.
But the wood came a long way forward for me, and I am really enjoying how it turned out. But looking at this photo I can see I need to fix the interior rust on the other one as well :D Still much to do it seems lol..
But the final product of where I left it from Germany is looking good. And I have to say that it is pretty much one of my best pieces I have painted in a long time. And sitting on my shelf at home I can see why it stands out so much, and need to work on replicating this further!
Anyways.. hopefully I have the nerve to pick him up again and finish him off in time for Euro and the rest of the shows. He won't be getting any golds but I think he might get past the first cut at the very least :D
Enjoy the day folks!