Giant

When I sat down to start the Giant I really tried to be as patient as possible. He was the first of the BIG figures I had to paint (he's about 3" tall) and I wanted him to be as good as I could possibly make him. Overall he took me about 20 hours over 4 days. That doesn't include all the time spent just staring at the figure and trying to imagine what colors will work well together. I often carry the unfinished figure around with me, taking it on walks or to the park so I can ponder it as a Tabula rasa. I find the whole thing very soothing.

Since I still only had flesh colors and three shades of blue in my "good" paints, those are the main colors I used. I still have no idea what that orange circular thing is on the front of his left leg. I considered it for a while... painted it orange with a little circle of dark brown and moved on.

This was also my first attempt to paint eyes. It took me several tries to get a result I was happy with.

I tried really hard to shadow and highlight in appropriate areas. Also, this was my first attempt at "wet blending." This is done by laying down a base coat and then washing and shadowing with a dark color. Then I re-basecoated the non-recessed areas and while that was still wet I simultaneously applied highlights. Because the 2nd round of base coating and highlighting were both wet, I could blend them together in a way that made a better color transition than if I'd waited until one color was dry before starting another.

A before and after shot. I really like comparing the painted with the unpainted versions. Makes me feel like I accomplished something.


And now... a fight to the death!!!