Wow. I am in at long last!!!! :emperor
Almost can't believe it... I made it!
Forgive my being a bit surprised as this is my first ever post here...
I have tried to get in so long that I have NO idea what I did right this time. :chew
So....yeah...
Anakin head repaint...
(Stay on target...stay on target....
Quell excitement and post... )
First...
THANKS GUYS! I am so very honored to be here, much less to get the kinds of comments you fine fellows have to say about my work. VERY appreciated.
Quick notes about what I did:
Shaved (with a #11 exacto blade) the lower left chin and then sanded it smooth first with a medium grit sanding pad to blend it down, and then with a fine 150 grit sanding pad. On the second one I did, I also added a small amount of squadron white putty to smooth the area between the brows so as to make him not so posed angry, although either way works I guess.
I sanded it a bit with 150 grit, then began by priming with a flesh colored prime of water based acrylic enamel. I only ever use Model Master Acryls as they are the only paints I have been happy with on toy plastic, other than those noxious racing car paints I used to use...
I then repaint using a blend (and I always paint by hand...NO AIRBRUSHES! Why? Why not! Just don't like 'em...).
I never use any color straight from any bottle, which makes any of my paint recipes normally hard to explain. I blend by eye and account for that paint darkening element in acrylics, and with Anakin, went with a much darker tone that I normally do. I noted in Episode II that Hayden had on a lot of skin darkening lotion since he was a Canadian and had to be tanned to look like he was from a desert planet. (read that somewhere) He was dark in Ep III as well, which affected the whites of his eyes and make them much brighter than normal. He is not so much tan, as he is a deep fleshtone.
I keep it simple so I mixed my two base colors, skin tone warm tint, and the lighter creamy base tone, then after a full coat of that, I do a wash of that mixed with burnt sienna to get the eye areas darker and then the mouth and rim the hairline (this has to be repeated after repainting the hair).
I mix some insignia red with the same fleshtones again and do the lips and rim the eyes. Some goes in the ears for shading.
Eyes. Long story that.
I evolved from painting the whites first and rimming etc., to painting all fleshtones and then going back in and painting in very clean eyewhites with a very fine brush, and then re-rimming and trimming and even doing eyelids and shading and eyelashes etc., BEFORE I do the almighty irises and the hated PUPIL of despair! For Ani I mix the light fleshtone cream color with a pure dark blue, and some burnt umber. I "set" the eye with the darkest tone, then do my "bullseye" techinque that sets in the lighter tones, one on top of another, all accounting for placement and lighting. I always add a smidge of white in to the lightest blue in the lower iris area to account for light catching the lower, inner iris. I NEVER USE THE DREADED WHITE DOT OF SHAME!!!! Hate that! Let the gloss-coat do that...with light...DUH!
I then, add in the Pupil of despair, as I call it, because one small misstep and you all know...back to the iris drawing board...many bad words later...it is placed. Oh, and that is the ONLY use of pure black I ever use.
Then I add some glosscoat and extra drops on the iris for a lens. Tricky, but well worth it!!!! Try this. Add a lens to the eye. Makes it pop out real, and reflect light as it should. No White dot of shame needed! This is not Anime!
(Sorry..I hate that white dot like Palpatine hates Jedi! :emperor )
So...then, paint up his hair...blend in some deep colors where needed to smooth the hairline... then seal coat with dullcoat...and...VOILA!
YUR DUN!
Hope this helps you fellas not spend $50 extraneously. Yes, it's skill and time, but from what I have seen, most of you guys have both, so get to it!
And thanks again for all the very kind words.
You fellas all rock! :chew
j/k!
