144Artist Tries His Hand at Painting a Halfling Bust

I got the NMM on his gold ear rings finished and I’m mostly happy with them.  The shadow on the face is reaching a much better color balance.  I’ve finished all the base coats at this time so now it is all about the highlights and details now.  The ferret has his base color but will be much lighter over all except the legs and face as I am going for a Black Footed Ferret look.

I’ve got a a base shade on the ferret so I will be building up details soon.  It really helps to have reference when dealing with natural animals.  Here are a few images I found of Black Footed Ferrets.

The shirt received some touch up and I began painting in the fine lines of a grid pattern and started painting the buttons.  I’m still working on the cloak and the jacket as well. I don’t think they show a sense of lighting yet.  The halfling’s hair is in a similar state.  I’ve also begun laying down color on the ferret but there’s still a lot more work left on the furry fellow.  Oh, and the buckle got some greenish brown which I hope makes a good dark end of the NMM.

I have continued to add details and layer thin color.  The shadows are starting to read and I like how the ferret is coming out. A lot of tiny bits and things still to do and I only have a couple weeks left.  I hope I make it because life has really gotten in the way lately.

Time to seal this fellow.  I know I will go back and do some touch ups but for now he has reached the stage of needing sealant.  The next stage is to attach the bottom of the model as well as a post with which to attach him to his plinth.  I do like how the ferret has come out and my Non-Metalic Metal is coming along though still not where I want to be.

I got the bottom glued onto the figure after packing a lump of green stuff into the top of the head.  That was to hold the brass rod in place that would attach to the wooden plinth.  I added a thick tube around the rod to add thickness and drilled a hole in the plinth.  After the glue had dries I painted the base and rod black. Once that had dried I glued him in place.

I must admit, I’m rather pleased with how he has come out.  As I stated in the beginning, out of my comfort zone but I learned a great deal.  I believe he is one of the best pieces I have done to date and look forward to showing him next week at KublaCon’s Painting Exhibition.

I arrived at KublaCon (the Khan of Cons!) in Burlingame, California Friday afternoon and immediately dived into Speed Painting and Minis Painting classes.  One of them (We Drink and We Paint Things) was set up for us to bring a project to fine tune or fix.  I brought this fellow as I wanted to fix a few things I was still not happy with.  Saturday morning I headed down to the Paint and Take area as they had good lighting and worked a couple more hours on detailing, specifically the hair an fur in the shadowed areas as well as the halfling’s face.  This was my third year entering Masters Class (showing with the pros) and I earned a certificate of achievement last year so I was really hoping for a Bronze to show my growth.  Won’t lie, when the last Bronze trophy was awarded and my name hadn’t been called, my stomach dropped but true to his roguish nature, my halfling bust had snuck into the Silvers!  I earned a Silver in Masters Class!

I’m excited and shocked at the same time.  Put a great deal of work into him and learned a lot of new techniques along the way which really paid off.  Now I have to figure out where to go next. For now I am just enjoying a tiny victory in what has been a very difficult month.