Art and Musings of a Miniature Hobbyist: January 2022

Monday 31 January 2022

Girl's Rider [Work-in-Progress: White T-Shirt] - Hasegawa 1/12 scale miniature figurine

In what technically should be the most boring post about the Girl's Rider miniature figurine's painting process, I am showcasing the whites of her form-hugging t-shirt. Even as I was typing out the preceding sentence, I could already feel - space time continuum be damned - the boredom oozing out of the future self of you, my dear readers. But please bear with me as we get through this slight bump in my series of work-in-progress photos of the Hasegawa 1/12 scale miniature figurine.

Girl's Rider work-in-progress: painting the whites of a tight-fitting t-shirt

Shadows were strategically placed at limited areas of the white t-shirt ...

... such as on the wrinkles around the bottom of her breasts ...

... on the small of her back as well as the spine indentation ...

... (oops, a white spot on the shadows of her back will need to be corrected) ...

... on the wrinkles found on both her shoulder region ...

... on the wrinkles located on the left half of her midriff ...

... and on the wrinkles beneath the bust area of the Girl's Rider figurine.

Photos taken at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with a 90mm macro lens

For quite some time now, my go-to colors for painting white has strictly followed the Vallejo Model Color formula comprising Deck Tan (70.986), German Camouflage Beige WWII (70.821), Neutral Gray (70.992), Ivory (70.918), and White (70.951). It's a color scheme I'm somewhat familiar with since I almost always choose white when I'm painting the clothes of female figurines. To me at least, white is an extremely sexy color when paired with the appropriate garments and female figurine.

Acrylic paints that were used to create the whites of the figurine's t-shirt

Photos of the white t-shirt were also taken against an azure-like background, purely just to showcase the t-shirt against a less stark background. I think the t-shirt looks more striking against a black background, which offers it the highest possible level of contrast. When the entire miniature figurine is finished, the best choice of background color won't be so cut and dried. For example, her jeans will be painted a dark blue, and subsequently it may perhaps look better against a lighter background. In the future I'll probably test out three types of photography background i.e. black, azure, and white.

White t-shirt of the Girl's Rider figurine against an azure-like background

In the case of the Girl's Rider figurine, the wrinkles on her t-shirt are ...

... a result of the said clothing item being an extremely tight-fitting one ...

... which results in the t-shirt closely hugging her form ...

... thus accentuating the natural s-curves of her upper body ...

... especially around the small of her back and back shoulder blades ...

... around her midriff, more on the right half because she is leaning inwards towards her right ...

... and around the sides as well as the lower half of both her breasts.

DSLR camera and lens used: Canon EOS 650D with Tamron 90mm macro lens

Next up is arguable the second hardest part of the Girl's Rider figurine to paint (after her face/skin tone) i.e. the denim jeans. As mentioned earlier, the denim will be a dark blue hue with lighter blue patches on areas such as the knees, thighs, wrinkles, and buttocks. So far I've been maintaining a fairly consistent pace of a blog post a week - the most I've done in over a year. With the Lunar New Year celebration beginning this Tuesday, it'll be a challenge to not falter pace-wise so early into the year. But que será, será, I'll just face every week as it comes and hope to continue posting regularly after the debacle that was 2021. As always, thanks for reading, stay safe, and be well.

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Sunday 23 January 2022

Girl's Rider [Work-in-Progress: East Asian Female Skin Tone] - Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine

As weird as this sounds, the one main thing that makes me fall in love with miniature figurine painting again and again is the opportunity to paint skin tones in a three dimensional form. Regardless of shade and color, I find skin tones to be infinitely fascinating. In the case of the Girl's Rider figurine, it was the first time I had attempted to paint extensively using acrylics over a lacquer basecoat. That being the case, I had approached this stage of the painting process with a fair bit of apprehension. So it was with great relief to find that the results turned out to be pretty okay for a first try.

Girl's Rider work-in-progress: East Asian female skin tone

Based on a whim I had decided to change the color scheme I normally use to paint an East Asian female skin tone. I had removed two of the darkest shadow colors I usually use i.e. Vallejo Oxford Blue and Vallejo Medium Flesh Tone and instead added a new underlying color into the mix. All will be revealed later on this blog post. Suffice to say it's a game changer for me in how I will use acrylics to paint skin tone. I'm glad to still be discovering new things more than 10 years into this hobby.

Canon EOS 650D at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with Tamron 90mm macro lens

Previously when I took images of skin tone against an azure-like background I had noticed a warmer tint to the images. I believe now that this was likely caused by white balance issues affecting the DSLR camera. Now with Adobe's post-processing power in my hands, I can correct such issues and present a more accurate image that reflects what is seen in reality by the naked eye (see below).

Canon EOS 650D at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with Tamron 90mm macro lens

When painting skin tones, I have always known there was a critical element missing especially with the usage of acrylic paints. While I knew exactly what was missing, especially on East Asian female skin tones, I had always thought I could only apply such color effects via oil painting. As mentioned earlier, I had decided to try adding the said element using acrylic paints based solely on a whim. What is this critical element for East Asian female skin tones? It's the color of green veins showing through the skin. After much trial and error, I found the Vallejo Model Color 70.808 Blue Green to be the best hue for the aforementioned purpose. I feel it adds a greater level of realism to the skin tone.

Colors used to create a fair East Asian female skin tone

A quick macro shot taken with the 13 Pro Max to gauge the face whilst painting

Most of the photos you see above were taken using the Canon 650D DSLR, except for the final two images above, and all those below. The latter photos were taken with the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Some like the one immediately above, was shot quickly whilst in the midst of a painting session in order to gauge the accuracy of my brush strokes. Because I no longer use magnifying lenses to paint, I now rely on such macro images to help me see the figurine more clearly compared to the naked eye.

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/100sec, ISO-40

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/25sec, ISO-250

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/17sec, ISO-320

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/25sec, ISO-250

Of course the face is far from finished. The most obvious omission is her unfinished eyes while the less obvious ones are her eyebrows and highlights on her lips. These I'll leave for last after I've finished the rest of the figurine. It has been more than a year since I felt this happy and excited just from painting miniatures alone. A sense of relief also comes to mind, relief that I haven't lost my love for the hobby. I'll leave you on that joyful note, and wish you well. Oh yes, and stay safe, always!

Monday 17 January 2022

Girl's Rider - Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine [Hair early phase: Painting the tresses in isolation]

Working my way from the top of the figurine, the painting process for the Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine known as Girl's Rider thus begins with her long brown tresses. It's still considered early phase because the hair was painted in isolation without knowing how the final skin tone is going turn out. As such, I'll most likely need to revisit the hair to see how bright hair highlights need to be in order to complement a fully painted face. For the moment, the brown hues on the figurine's hair are a bit on the dark side so there is room for brighter highlights if need be.

Canon EOS 650D settings: f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with Tamron 90mm macro lens

Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints were used to paint the hair, with the process as follows:

(a) Basecoat: a mix of 70.950 Black and 70.822 German Camouflage Black Brown;

(b) Shadows: a mix of 70.822 German Camouflage Black Brown and 70.941 Burnt Umber;

(d) Hightlights: 70.873 US Field Drab. [used sparingly for now]

Canon EOS 650D settings: f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with Tamron 90mm macro lens

All the photos shown above were taken using the Canon EOS650D camera with a Tamron 90 mm macro lens. They were shot in RAW format so that I had sufficient image data in order to produce the necessary white balance, exposure, and color correction edits. Having the means to do so meant that not all was lost if I happened to have photos that were not properly exposed or were taken under wrong white balance settings. All edits were done in Adobe Lightroom Classic.

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/100sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/100sec, ISO-25

Meanwhile photos with the white background were taken using the iPhone 13 Pro Max, also in RAW image format using the mobile Lightroom app's camera function. Even with a 10-year-old DSLR technology, the the Canon 650D's image quality still exceeds that of the latest iPhone, especially in macro/product photography. This is to be expected as the Canon 650D has a bigger sensor as well as utilizes a bigger lens, which in this case was the Tamron 90 mm macro lens. That being said, mobile photography has come a long way and image quality is fairly decent as you can see here.

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/140sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/180sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/150sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/160sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/180sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/200sec, ISO-32

iPhone 13 Pro Max wide lens at f/1.5, 1/180sec, ISO-32

Rather than painting the hair in broad swathes of shadows and highlights, I focused on creating pseudo-individual strands of varying hue values. As it stands, the figurine's hair should be able to accommodate more highlights without being too bright overall. While I am aiming for a black brown or brunette look, brighter highlights may be needed to create contrast and prevent the hair from looking too dull and flat. The nuances of how I'm going to further tackle the hair aside, I'm simply glad I'm actually painting at the start of the year instead of just assembling and priming. For just that reason alone, I'm happy, more so that I still enjoy and haven't yet given up on this hobby yet. Cheers!

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Monday 31 January 2022

Girl's Rider [Work-in-Progress: White T-Shirt] - Hasegawa 1/12 scale miniature figurine

Sunday 23 January 2022

Girl's Rider [Work-in-Progress: East Asian Female Skin Tone] - Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine

Monday 17 January 2022

Girl's Rider - Hasegawa 1/12 scale resin figurine [Hair early phase: Painting the tresses in isolation]