Monday, March 25, 2013

WIP- 1/8 Sailors Uranus and Neptune, Pt. 2

Hi-o!  I have finally returned with a bit more on my latest commission set

I would also like to welcome you to  Murphy's System of Laws 101.  Here today you will learn of the practical application of this unique set of rules and regulations as they govern this little section of the universe. If you have no clue what I'm talking about, just keep reading .

Well this isn't going to be much of an update for two reasons.  1) I've had some setbacks with painting due to some stupidity on my part (more on that in a minute ), and 2) Sometimes I get "in the zone" and forget to take progress pictures ( I have a lot on my plate as far as figures go lately between these ladies and my three contest kits so been forgetting to take the time to take pics).

But anyways, here's what's going on now.  First off, with the last bit of prepwork.  Sanded all those nasty seams all over the place, then decided to work a bit further on Uranus's face.  My customer requested a not so angry look for her, which if you've seen most of the Uranus figures, you know that is natural state of things for her (she isn't the most warm and fuzzy Senshi out there and is a bit of a badass)So I worked on softening her expression a tad bit by adjusting the shape of her mouth very slightly.  You probably can't tell unless you put it beside the original head but it's enough to give her a more light-hearted look.



Yep, basically turned the anime yelling face into more of an anime open mouthed smile.  It'll look more obvious once it's painted I guess. 

Finally got around to priming them last week, only to run into another problem:  pinholes.  In case you don't know, they are little microscopic air bubbles that are near impossible to see without an opaque paint on top.  Neptune was FULL of them !  So another round of putty and primer was in order (no pics of that, would prefer not to remember that incident ).

Well after all the pain in butt prepwork, they are FINALLY ready for some paint.  Here are the specifics that my customer wanted:

     *Little to no shading:  This includes skin shading.  My customer says she prefers things pretty simple in that regard.  Now, I'll admit this is a bit weird for me, I've never done a figure with no skin shading before.  I keep looking at it like "it's not done" then remember "oh yeah, yes it is".   But whatever makes my customer happy, makes me completely and totally ECSTATIC, so I can live with it .  She is allowing me to do shading in their hair and white parts of their outfits though, so long as I keep it subtle.  I can do that, contrary to popular belief...

     *Metallic/Pearl outfits:  It was either pearl paints or candy effect for the outfits, she chose pearls.  WOOT!!  I LOVE SHINY AND SPARKLY COLORS  !!!

Color palette was sent to her a couple of weeks ago and she approved.  Now onto the painting!   

I started with the hair.  Painted the base color of Neptune's hair, did some shading, then misted back over it to blend it in.



It's so subtle the camera barely picks it up, which is what I'm going for really.  Next onto Uranus's hair.  Same story: a base color, some shading, then misting the base color again to blend in.





Coming along nicely I think .  Next I did the flesh tone on Uranus, but I didn't get to take pics, you'll see why in a minute.  While it was drying I went ahead and painted some of the metallic parts.  I had to mix up both of their main outfit colors because I didn't have any that would match otherwise.  So first I painted Neptune's skirt and collar a green with a slight blue tint:



Then I painted her back bow blue.



Next I painted Uranus's skirt, collar, and back bow a navy blue.




Sooo shiiiinyyyy ...

Now we run into the stupidity I mentioned earlier.  I somehow got distracted and lost my train of thought with what I was doing (think I had to answer the phone or something).  I came back to work, saw one of Uranus's legs laying in front of me and thought, "oh this must be what I was doing."  Started to spray another coat of fleshtone, only to discover it wasn't flesh tone in my airbrush...it was navy pearl paint .

And that boys and girls, is why smart people test to see what's in their airbrush before spraying .

So one leg had to be stripped and  repainted.  Went to seal the rest of the fleshtone, only to discover I was out of matte sealer.  I can't win I swear .

Congratulations, you have now graduated from Murphy's System of Laws 101Please review the following for your final exam on the practicalities and applications as it applies to you.



That's about as far as I have pictures for though at the moment.  Next update will be the last, and will have details about their eyes and bases.

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