When something as beautiful as this arrives on your workbench you know that there is a project ahead of you, where you will enjoy every moment ...




This is not a common step by step
that guides you through color recipes to copy a result by another painter. It is more an insight into my brain process and explains how I arrived at the vision I had at the end for this beautiful sculpt.

In the meantime I can not even give you precise color recipes as I am painting absolutely freely from these. I mix all the colors I want mainly from primary paints from various artist acrylics. I work mainly with Schmincke Primeacryl, but in the meantime grab some Scale75 Artist Colors, Jo Sonja's and Lascaux's. Of course I pick one hobby paint here and there, but the name nor brand do not really matter to me. It is mainly about the color itself, so I quit wasting memory energy on their names. Uncommon I know and some of our readers will say that they do not like these sorts of articles as they do not explain how to copy something exactly.

Well, back to the old lady, shall we :)

The vision
To be honest usually I do have a certain vision that I want to paint from the beginning. I often have a story I see in the figure, that tells me what the character is actually doing in the moment I am painting it. This vision goes from color choices, choice of sorrounding atmosphere that influances my color choices for shadows and highlights and also some certain details I want to create in my paintjob to make it as unique as it is in the end.

I did not know that in this case. 
I just wanted to paint her. 

In the last couple of years my job as a miniature painter turned more and more into becoming a hands on teacher. Less comissions, more time spent with my students in seminars. It was one of these seminars where I did start to paint her for technical explanations on how to handle paint.

If I am unsure about my vision I tend to start my colors I pick desaturated. I can always change something in the color and it is easy to bring in saturation. The other way around is hard path.

This is how the old lady looked with a little painting time ...
far from the final look, eh?


Very far if you ask me ...



Well, there comes the first issue I do not allow myself to take hold:

To be unsecure what I paint there because I do not know the outcome. How can I know the outcome?
Sure, if I plan properly and follow this plan of my vision strictly, but what if you want to paint something up and do not have a straight plan for it? Start painting flexibel and trust in your skills. You always can change something on the way. So the way is the key, not the plan. At least for me, sometimes.

Still absolutely unsure about the colors I am placing I contine to work on the following aspects:

• Contrast in dark/bright
• Placing all basic colors to see the full image
• Including textures

These are all technical aspects that can be followed, no matter the color you are placing. Like I said if you keep it desaturated you will always have the option to bring back saturation.


Finding the character
After a while, after some painting sessions I start to search for the character. Very often with busts I do paint the eyes to see the character in front of me and its 'soul'. I slowly bring in colors that I want to see, for example the owl's eyes are important for me, so I pick them out of the pool of desaturation.

While doing so I called that grandma the 'Hydra of Owls' as there were so many appearing everywhere :D


Sometimes I paint a small detail
and focus on it, because I just like how the sculptor sculpted it. For example with the bottle over there. As you can see I was still unusre about the farbrics. On the upper part I created fabric texture already to at least understand the material that I want to paint. Still desaturated. On the other hand I did mostly nothing to the purple dress beneath.


Making decisions
It is important in life and in painting to make decisions.
I was not able to continue my path of desatoration without knowing where this would go. I was happy and self-confident until then, but slowly felt I need a vision to it ...

I imagined the hag standing in her hut.
In a dark hut filled with a lot of things a witch fills her hut with.
She was cooking a spell in a big massive witch bowl while her owls went nuts around her.
I decided to give to fluid in her bowl the color green.

With this decision in hand I went all in and used the airbrush and sprayed a medium olive from below into the figure. Everything I so far did got touched by the green. Nice effect of pulling everything together.

Her dark purple dress invited me to paint some grandma clothing pattern on it. So I did. 






I wanted her hair to stand out really strong so I increased the contrast in the hair to almost pure white in this stage, while other areas lacked behind such an intense contrast. I do what I want to see and what I need will be painted so I got to ask myself all the time:

• what am I missing right now?
  
  • what do I want to change?
  • what is there that I do not like?
  • how can I change it to like it more?

These are the main questions I always ask myself to find a way through a project to call it done in the end. Questions everyone can ask himself. It does help, believe me.


Now I wanted to have the pool glow more powerful, so it was time to bring in more saturation in the greens. So I did with glazes.



And even more ... now adding a flouroscent green to the mix. This stage helps me define areas that are hit from the light below (genital light)  and helps me to guide my eyes on the areas I have to work from the top (zenital light).

In this stage I also rebuild textures I lost and continue in pushing contrast in both direction.



After several painting sessions I found my vision, even I started so way off from it.
Still it is not finished yet.


Detail work
It was time for focusing on the details that I so far ignored. Darklining, texture improvement, contrast, painting the little demon ...

That demon :D
Hiding in an owl costume :D
So ridicolous :D


I now also went for the 'hydra of owls' and tackled the birdies. Feathers recieved structure and contrast and all got eyes, but not without checking back with references on owl eyes.


In the final stage I went in for extra details.
That means a brushstroke here, another one there. A correction here, another one there. Always asking myself my certain questions. Playing with skin variation here, repairing a highlight, adding a stronger shadow here. This procedure is always the same until you say to yourself: It is finished!

Yes, I wanted tattoos or some kind of trival henna that she did put to her body. Or was it the litte demon?

I was also including the plinth and added a strong area of green there to make my final vision more easy to understand.


Summary
Well, well, well ...
Did you expect the outcome when you saw the first work in progress photo?
If your answer is 'no' than I am happy. With this article I wanted to show you that you can arrive everywhere you want with your project if you do not limit yourself in techniques and trained on process. They are important, no discussion, but after a time of copying a recipe over and over again you might feel a foul stench arriving in your painting spirit. This is a way to break this up! Do what you like, follow a vision, create one on the way, change where you want to see change, push it as far as you want to.

Do not stay limited in your creativity. Sculptor's don't, why should we painters when bringing a sculpt to life with paint?

Here are some final photos of Mamabúho







She found a new home with a private collector a while back and I am grateful for your support in my art, passion and work! Many thanks!

Keep on happy painting!
Yours
Roman