He's Got a Knife: Now in Color

Ok, so I have a modeled monster and man, both sculpted and sanded to a point where they actually look like a monster and a man. Next up? Fun stuff.

1. The Bits.

I sculpted the monster's teeth and eyeballs separate from the beast. These were very basic chunks of Super Sculpey, modeled into crooked cones for the teeth and unevenly squashed spheres for the eyes. I'll add these to the whole later.

2. The Paint.

Let's bring this thing to life with some color. If I had an airbrush, I may have given that a shot. I don't have and airbrush (nor do I know how to use one) but that still left me with plenty of options.

I went with my Liquitex Artists Acrylic paints. Acrylic paints are easy to use, easy to mix, easy to clean, and can be used in a surprisingly number of various ways. It also dries really fast. This can be a mixed blessing in some cases but worked really well for the sculpture as it required frequent handling and turning.

I started by painting the guy. I kept him pretty basic and didn't do much color mixing. Actually, I painted the guy's skin using Testors model paint as I already had a flesh-toned color. everything else is in acrylic. The little man's horseshoe-bald head and goatee were painted using basic black paint and a drybrush technique to keep it loose.

Painting the monster was a lot more fun. The bulk of the body is painted in a dark green that's a mix of various colors that I really can't remember. I started with one of my greens, added Bronze Yellow (a gold-ish, rich tan), some blue, and maybe some other colors until I got something I liked. The tan-ish sections are a standard Bronze Yellow. The acrylic spread and colored easily so a thin coat was plenty to cover the beast.

I drybrushed some Bronze Yellow and some black over the creature, especially on the ends of the scales to add some detail and depth. This also kept him from looking like he was just one, flat color and not a swamp beast that just pulled himself from the muck.

The gills were touched with some red paint that had been thinned with water.

Acrylics...is there anything they can't do?

Next up...let's finish this thing already.