Mr. Undercroft, part 2 (Patreon)

     ...Sooo, here we have Mr. Undercroft, seemingly pretty much as we saw him last, except for a couple of changes. First, he's got his first coat of primer. In this case, I'm using white acrylic gesso with a bit of black acrylic paint to create a neutral basecoat. I sand after the first coat, but later on I'll leave the gesso "rough", to give the paint as much tooth as possible to cling to. Acrylic can chip off clay pretty easily, so I want as much adhesion as I can get. Secondly, I've added a cloudlike mist around his waist. Because this guy is supposed to be rich, my original idea was that even his base would be ostentatious. But once I got him attached to the base, I realized that it just looked oversized, and more than likely the idea wouldn't translate. So I added the fog, making sure to pre-fit his cane and sculpt around a dowel that held its place. I'm not sure which I like more, the thought that it's smoke from him just having materialized, or a cloud of smoke that just follows him wherever he goes.

     Here he is with his right arm attached. Or attaching, I suppose. I'm using Apoxie Sculpt to attach the arm and fill in the void, so the arm has to be immobile for several hours at least, while it cures. Any movement will result in a loose limb and a join that will eventually fail.

     And his left arm gets the same treatment. This one was insanely difficult, though. I had to connect the arm at the shoulder and make sure the hand was around the cane topper (a silver bird skull, if you're curious) at the same time, and again, without moving the arm at the join. This required a minimum of four hands, so I was forced to wake my ever-patient wife in the middle of the night (my normal work hours) to help. You can also see that I've inserted and epoxied the cane in place. There is a small hole drilled in the base that the cane has to fit into, so everything has to be aligned just right. (You don't think of these things when you're designing a piece; it's all pie-in-the-sky optimism at that point.)

     I forgot to take pictures of the next couple of steps, so let's pretend I intended to jump to this stage, where I've sculpted the top of Undercroft's coat, and I've given the coat it's first, uh, layer of paint. 

     Ditto here. I actually did a few pale glazes on his head awhile back, mostly giving some shape and color to his lips and eyes, and the area where his rotting nose is starting to fall off. You can also see where I've started tinting the inside of his mouth blue-green.

     Now you can really see where I'm going with the color scheme. The violet sets off the teal, and the orange vest makes it all pop.  The suit has also been shaded, using violet to harmonize the color scheme, and the silver buttons add detail.  His face has been further defined, with more shadows and the wrinkles accented. We'll finish up with the next installment, with the mist painted and the base finished. Then we'll go over his companion piece, the second part of this commission. See you there!