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Ciao a tutti,

Has been long time since I've updated my blog.

Many things are happening, the biggest one will be revealed soon.

For the time being I'm painting this splendid bust from JMD, should be a fairly quick painting for my standard.

The sculpture is amazing, particularly the face.

Flesh tones are done, beard as well, maybe some touch up will be done.

Let me know what you think.

Ciao

Giovanni

Ciao a tutti,

I've just finished to paint this little tiny, tiny figure from hasslefree miniatures.

This has been a huge challenge for me, given the microscopic dimension.

Is all painted in oils, I've tried to use a different palette for the skintones, I hope you like it.

Ciao

Giovanni

Ciao a tutti,

I've started to paint this bust sculpted by Romain Van den Bogaert.

He has taken the inspiration from Sharbat Gula the famous Afghan girl photographed by Steve McCurry for National Geographic.

The sculpture is not a perfect portrait of the girl, but is close, I've manage to made few modifications, like hairs, the red cloth an the nose.


Not an easy piece to paint, so far only the face has been painted, and I've not finished yet, few touch ups need to be done.

Paint is still fresh hence the glossy on the lips and the difficulty of taking pictures...

For this reason I've taken a couple of shots with different light and camera settings.


As usual, let me have your comments.


Ciao


Giovanni

Ciao a tutti,

On Thursday I'll be an happy guest of the AMB (Associazione Modellisti Bresciani) we will paint together and share our techniques.

Really looking forward to it!!

I'll be happy to have these happening more often, so, if you are up for it, let me know and we can paint together!

Ciao a tutti

Giovedì avro l'onore di essere ospite dell'AMB e passeremo la serata a dipingere insieme e scambiarci tecniche e consigli.

Non vedo l'ora!!!

Mi piacerebbe fare questi incontri più spesso, se vi va, fatemelo sapere e cerchiamo di organizzarci.

Giovanni

Ciao a tutti,

I can't recall how many times I've read or been asked about the best technique, the best medium to paint or the perfect colour mix.

Well the answer is simple, there is no perfect technique, neither the perfect medium or the right colours mix.

Painting historical miniatures is all about own taste and own abilities.

Look at the miniature I'm painting at the moment, loof at his face and compare to the one that has been painted by Maurizio Di Matteo (aka Mao) and, last but not least, the one from Ernesto Reyes.

All different version, all really well painted (clearly I'm talking about Mao and Ernesto ones..) but different styles, different mediums, different colour mix. You may like one more than the other, but again is your sensibility and taste.

I found all of them fascinating and really well done, I will surely pick up some tricks and effects from them, but I will never be able to paint like them.

I do prefer oils for leathers and flesh tones, because have a satin finish and are easier to blend, while for fabrics I prefer acrylics because of the opaque finish, Ernesto and Mao may prefer acrylics or enamels, doesn't matter!

So which is the perfect way? again, there is no perfect or right way, find your own way! experiment, paint, ENJOY!

Ciao

Giovanni

Il lavoro, mi porta via troppo tempo, ed ultimamente sto andando a rilento e nella pittura e nell'aggiornamento del blog, comunque, eccoci qui, all'incarnato.
Per prima cosa, stendo varie mani molto diluite di un color carne scuro (in questo caso molto scuro, visto che volevo dare un aspetto abbronzato al nostro marine nella guerra del pacifico.
I colori che uso, sono Vallejo e Andrea, uniforme inglese, rosso vermiglio, sunny skintone, una punta di verde e di nero. Dato il fondo al viso ed alle mani, lascio asciugare per qualche ora il tutto, intanto inizio a preparare la tavolozza (un semplice piatto di plastica) con i colori ad olio.

Lately I'm working way to much and I've no time to paint neither to update my blog, anyway, here we are with my way of painting skin tones.
First of all I paint the skin tone parts with several, very diluted layers of acrylic paint mixing Vallejo and Andrea colors, english uniform, vermilion, sunny skintone, a very small amount of green and black; I always make a darker, than final effect wanted, skin tone base, in this case even darker to simulate a tan skin of our marine in the pacific theater.
I will then let the paint dry for several hours, and in the mean time start to prepare my oil colour palette (using a simple plastic plate).


La mia tavolozza colori e' composta da: Nero d'avorio, Terra d'ombra bruciata, Terra di siena bruciata, Giallo di Napoli scuro e Bianco di titanio, al centro aggiungo un rosso di garanza, un viola e a parte il colore per gli occhi, in questo caso un blu cobalto.
Fatto questo, inizio a mischiare i colori tra loro, partendo dal Terra d'ombra fino al bianco e poi al contrario dal terra di siena bruciata al nero. Aggiungo poi i colori centrali, ma e' piu' semplice mostrare la palette che spiegarlo.

My oil colour palette is made of: Ivory black, Burnt umber, Burnt Sienna, Naples's yellow deep, titanium white, in the center, garance red, violet and aside the colour I want to use for the eyes, in this case cobalt blue.
I then mix the colour, left to right from Burnt umber to white and right to left from Burnt sierra to Black, I then add the central colours. But I think is easier to understand from the pics than explain.


Stay tuned!!

Il primo articolo del mio Blog e' dedicato al mio metodo di preparazione e pittura di un soldatino in 54 mm da scatola.
Per prima cosa inizio con il pulire il pezzo, eliminare le linee di fusione, inserire dei perni in acciaio dove necessario, facendo fori con un trapano a mano ed infine incollando quanto piu' possibile i pezzi.
A questo punto, aggiungo sempre qualcosa di personale, per differenziare il soldatino, aggiungendo particolari anche minimi.
In questo caso, una t-shirt sotto la camicia.

My first article on my blog is a SBS on how I prepare and paint a 54mm miniature out of the box.
First of all I clean the parts, file the casting lines; with a manual drill I make holes to insert, where needed, steel plugs and I glue together as many part as possible.
Any piece I made, has to have something personal, in this case I added a t-shirt under the shirt, as seen in many photograph of the period.





Nelle due foto precedenti, potete inoltre notare che il fucile BAR e' ricoperto, per le parti metalliche di una sostanza viola, un mascherante liquido, per evitare che la vernice di fondo attacchi.
Questo accorgimento e' utilizzato perche' per dipingere i metalli uso una tecnica che sfrutta la lucentezza stessa del metallo, una volta spruzzato il primer, basta intervenire con un paio di pinzette ed asportare il liquido mascherante che portera' con se la vernice, come si puo' notare dalle foto seguenti.

In the pictures above you have noticed that the BAR rifle has a purple coats on the metal parts, this is a masking agent to avoid undercoat paint to stick on the metallic parts.
I use this technique because I like to paint metallic parts, using the shine of the bare metal itself.
Once the undercoat is dry, with a pair of pliers, you can easily remove the masking agent, as you can see from the pics below.







A presto con il prossimo capitolo sull'incarnato.

See you soon with the next chapter on painting flesh tone.

Ciao!

Giovanni