Pilot Painting

[Grossman56]

Now, the top three are finished, the bottom, Robin Olds figure is not
So, today, I got home and started this head for this thread.
I'm going to use these colors:

Starting with the Prussian Blue, although, it's not as 'black' of a blue as I was used to when oil painting, to me it's more of a Royal Blue, but oh well, paint the dang head Dan!
Yep, he's blue! BTW, I drilled a small hole in the bottom and stuck a toothpick in it for handling You can see the original color of the head and another head in the background. Just a drop of paint and a drop or two of water, one quick coat over everything and over to the hair dryer. Here's the head beside the body: Shades of the French Revolution!
Now, ignore the body, I just slapped some left over paint on it, get to that later. So a watered down version of 'Sunny Skin', one drop of paint and three of water.
Hair dryer, second layer, same wash. Gave it a little extra around the chin and nose, what the Hell. Back to the hair dryer.
Now, lets have some fun. We'll take the Rose color, about two drops water to one of paint and slap that on liberally (BTW, I'm using a #1 flat brush) now, when the paint is on, you wipe the brush clear of the paint and fairly dry,with a paper towel, then go back and remove the paint (with the brush, not the paper towel!) until you can see the under color, like this:
Now, you can start to see the facial colors come through. This is where I stop today, this is just slapping paint, but you can see the results, let her dry and check it out tomorrow. This took me maybe fifteen minutes, including drying it with the hair dryer, which is hanging on a post, I just turn it on and hold the figure up to it. You get what I mean when I say that the 'grass is green sky is blue' theory is wrong! There are many different colors that we just don't see until we look. Don't forget we live in a blue tinted world, put on some orange sun glasses and see what Martians would consider normal. Pictures really help as well, I've taken several pictures of the pilots in progress, in real life, they're not that big, but a picture blows them up along with your mistakes, prime example: Looks like an Egyptian!! Fix that!!! That's just going back over the eyes with the same skin colors and and fading those colors into the background rather than eliminating them. Another fact, we have the best color reference right there in front of our face, have a look: compare the colors of your hands to the color of the face.

Anyway, it's just a matter of trial and error. I was fortunate enough to have had a background in painting portraits and there were some initial disasters that I learned from, first and foremost, there isn't a mistake that can't be fixed. I'll dig through the archives and find a couple of pics from my first attempt at oil portraiture and prove it.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Oh yeah, the bust!!
You can see the bust in the pic of the four paint colors, this is before I slapped some of the Rose color I had left over onto him:
This is after:
using the same method.

And here is a 'lollipop pic of the head


Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Twowingtj]

Nice work Dan!

[jetfool]

Excellent Dan, Keep it coming.

[Elbee]

Grossman56

Danger,

I am pleased you've taken on this commitment/task of peeling back the onion..

Most have thought painting pilots is a "dark art" and your analysis, methodology, and delivery are most helpful.

Keep up the great work, Sir.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys, as I was saying last night, there isn't a mistake that can't be fixed. Here's the prime example of what I was saying.
First off, it pains me to look at this and it was probably a good thing that I had a disaster happen. Shortly after I took this pic of my first attempt at portraiture, I was about to apply a coat of clear glaze over it. I had the glaze (which was oil based) all ready to apply one night, when the power went out, I mean I was literally inches away from touching the canvas with the brush. In a panic, I applied it by flashlight with the results being what you would expect. With a glaze, it tends to dry quickly and by the time I rounded up the flashlight it was already lumpy.
As I said, it's my FIRST attempt! Embarrassing to show but there is a point to be made. I took it to art class and the teacher took turpentine to it and smeared all the paint while removing the lumpy glaze. Color all over the place, but you could still make out the initial drawing. He looked at me and said, "Carry on." and so I did. All plans were thrown out the door and I started in again. The initial mistake I was making was believing that the grass was green and the sky was blue. now I had all these great undertones to work with and started to realize that they were actually all there in real life. The blood, the veins the reflections from light and surrounding colors. Now, believe it or not, THIS is the same painting, same canvas, I didn't start all over with a fresh one, nope, this is a few hours of pressing myself to do better. And I did...


The point I hope, is taken. If you make a mistake on one of these pilots, you can a) wash the paint right off or b) carry on.
Besides, it's more fun to carry on.
Since then, I've worked in several mediums, but the process, whether oils or acrylics is the same. Acrylics dry faster as you'll find, so a bit of water will slow that down, but they are meant for glazing, or washing layer over layer over layer. I've seen some great work where the artist has hundreds of washes to the point where she didn't know how many, she stopped when it 'looked right' god , they looked 3D!
Most demos I've watched start with a black base coat, which is fine, but there's not hard and fast rule about that. A lot of paintings I did had a yellow ochre base color. Purple is great (the color of life) red is HOT!
so don't be afraid to experiment. A lot of demos also show the person spraying a lighter color from the top of the head. I tried that, but it really didn't affect the way I painted the figure. Again, it isn't wrong I just didn't see an advantage to it, you may. I already know that the nose will be light and that there will be a slight reflection of light under the nose as well as the chin. I already know that whatever the color of the outfit is, will be reflected as well, not harshly but subtly. Note the glove on the left hand side as it rounds behind the dress is shaded with the same green.

Anyway, not to bore you with theory, I'll get back into the pilots soon.

Grossman56
(DangerousDan)

[Elbee]

Grossman56

Absolutely beautiful work, Sir.

I do not have that gene.

In fact, I wasn't even in the building when God was handing out that gene.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

A little bit of work on the pilot head. Using the rose and the Sunny skin colors. One drop of paint to one drop of water, I started mapping out the face by blending these two colors. You can see that I mixed them on the side of the tray.
By changing the blend, I can get all kinds of color just from these two, think of it like going from light to dark on a grey scale.

Now remember, this face is about the size of your middle finger nail!! I'm using my magnifying glasses which also com with an LED light which are SOOOO handy!I started with the forehead and liked the tone so drew in the 'seven' on the cheeks, some paint of the chin and down the nose

Altering the color slightly I filled in the cheeks and a bit down the sides of the nose.

Blend Blend Blend. You can use a separate brush or dry brush the paint , experiment around and see what works for you. Notice, I added some color between the upper lip and nose as well as the lower lip.
Brought in the Mahogany Brown and mixed it with the Sunny Skin for the eye area and gave it some definition, again, mixing it on the side of the tray. I did basically the same thing on the bust, here's a picture of it as well. notice the Vallejo bottle beside it, that gives you an idea of the scale of the two pieces
They ain't huge my friends!!
Same with the head
So, that's all done with three colors, Mahogany Brown, Rose and Sunny Skin, mostly two
the Sunny Skin and the Rose.
Let her dry!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

I did a wash of sunny skin on him last night and let it dry until this morning. It was a little too 'orangy' so two light washes of rose got me to where I wanted to be.

The whites of the eyes mapped in, using a 5/0 brush going 90 degrees to the surface, BTW, the paint isn't white, its the basic skin tone from Vallejo, white is too harsh!!

Once they were in, I had to go back and touch up the eye lids to where I was satisfied.

Using the same brush and Prussian blue, I added the eyes, many people make them too small, take a good look at the sides (whites) and see what shape they are as compared to a real eyeball. There was one little area at the bottom of the blue on the right hand side that just wasn't right, so with a small amount of blue, I corrected that, you can see it in the picture.
NOTE: I put the tiniest amount of paint on the brush, just touching the color, finished one side, cleaned the brush with water and a paper towel then loaded paint again and did the second. With brushes this size, and such a small amount of paint (undiluted) it doesn't take it long to dry.

As you can see on the pallet, I didn't use a big amount of paint. Top top right is the rose wash, the bottom colors are sunny skin, basic skin and Prussian blue

mapped in and some eyebrows added using a mahogany brown/rose mix. You can see the blending on the pallet pic.

So there he sits. I'll let it dry and spray it with Krylon colormaxx clear/flat crystal clear to seal in the work thus far.
Then it will be one to some highlights and the helmet.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Danger,

AWESOMENESS


Best, LB

[Grossman56]

So, I gave one of my AOI pilots a base coat of Prussian Blue and red combined with a bit of black, came out this real cool color, so I also used it on the head for the helmet.
Then, I put the head (temporarily)on the body after using the same color mix over the leather jacket which had just a light coat of Mahogany Brown on it. Looked pretty cool.
I also did a bit of darkening the crevices and creases on the flight jacket by adding a bit more black to the color and watering it down. slap it on and wipe with a paper towel plus a little dry brushing.

This particular body doesn't have a base coat, but the boots have the Prussian blue/Mahogany Brown brown mix combined with more black to create something better than plain black. The pants have a coat of Vallejo Air Dark Green. These paints are mixed for the air gun but also make great premixed washes.

Here's the guys all together:


After I took the pics, the Robin Olds bust got its straps painted with a mix of basic skin tone, blue, white and Mahogany brown as well as the neck of the head to start designing a scarf. The eyes of the RAF bust got roughed in. Never expect to get the eyeball white exactly right!! I'm lucky if I get one right and the other needs eyelid touch ups, hey all part of the game!

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

Grossman56

You are on a roll, Brother.

Do I see influences of van Rijn's self-portrait? Maybe...

Great work, Sir.

Best, LB

[Grossman56]

Final touches on the face. I got a new color Vallejo Salmon Rose that I used for a wash to lighten the whole thing up. I washed with one flat brush and pulled and blended with another. One wash over the forehead and the area below the eyes. Here's the three step process pics:

Just too dark! Much better. Remember that these pics are showing the face approx. 2.5 times as big as it really is!

Grossman56
Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Final touches on the face, using the Salmon Rose and Rose, blending the two together to get small color changes, then blending to get a smooth result.

That's him on the body, I did some more washes and filled in the Mae West with British Uniform Green, then blended the same color with some straight up yellow and gave it a coat of that. The pants were washed and wiped with the British Uniform Green as well. At first, I didn't like it, but a thin wash over the existing green gave a good effect. More work to come on the body. BTW, I work from the deepest parts/out. I don't worry about getting paint on the upper parts as you can see on the right strap, it's much easier than trying to dodge the perfect paint job you did on an outer part.

Here's the boys:


The print was a little fuzzy around the nose as you can see on the last pic, you really don't notice it when you look at him in reality and it didn't really show up until I added some paint.

The RAF bust is really coming along and Robin Olds is finished, AOI is starting to get some work on him as well.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[OV10]

Hey my friend, been awhile since I’ve been on the Squawk and saw this recent post of yours so I had to check it out and with great delight got reminded that you had this wonderful talent. Nice artwork Dan

Warbird

[Grossman56]

HEY CHARLIE!!!!!
Great to hear from you, been a while! You might recognize the Robin Olds pilot from my first Avanti, he looks so much better now, just have to find a cockpit to place him in. I just score all the pilots that Dave makes when he's playing around with sizes. I do the buying, he does the printing, pretty sweet deal!
Right now he's printing up R2800 motors from a file I purchased and we'll be playing around with to get it to fit in the P47's and the Corsairs. (You'll have to check out my Corsair on the Corsair thread)
So how did the giant size Tigercat work out??

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[OV10]

The post maiden pic last fall says it all.

[Grossman56]

OMG!!!

I copied that pic and put it in my 'Charlies' warbirds' file. Beautiful, just beautiful!!

My Birdcage Corsair, "Eight Ball/Dangerous Dan"



I've got to get some more up-to-date pics of it this was before she got REAL dirty, new cockpit and new pilot.

My email went screwy and I have a new addy now, I'll PM you.

Great to hear from you buddy, hope it didn't seem like I was blowing you off the last time you phoned, but I'm in bed at 7PM and up at 3:30AM for work, harsh.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Anyway, back to the pilot...

Here he is on the body, I put some initial paint on the straps as you can see. white with a a dot of Prussian blue. The blue is extremely strong and even with just a dot, it was more than needed. I'll give it another coat of white with a touch of brown in it to make it look a little dirty. The flight jacket isn't bad, but I'll blend some red/brown and wash over it. First though, I'll spray it with Krylon Color Maxx flat clear to seal in what's there. then, I'll apply the wash and wipe it off with a paper towel. This is a really effective way of getting a 'leathery' look to the jacket. When I'm satisfied with it, I'll paint it with a semi gloss which adds to the leather look as you can see from the RAF Spitfire pilot, btw, same pilot sculpt.



Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Grossman56]

Getting used to my new Akaso 7000 PRO. The last photo is a bit close for focus as with the top one. The middle was with the trusty Cannon Rebel before I shipped Bob off to Rex after his leave was over. Bob is third from the left, right beside Landers who survived the crack up of Big Beautiful Doll and is currently awaiting reassignment. At the left is Douglas Bader the legless RAF Ace and Clarence 'Andy' Anderson, triple Ace.

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[Elbee]

"We, brothers of the sky, salute you."
Great work and photos.
Best, LB