Revisited: SpongeBob & Patrick, fully-painted vinyl figurines now in a video

 Time off in my hometown had reminded me of a project that originated from a similar visit ages ago. All those years ago had seen me acquire a vinyl figurine of the iconic duo of SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star as a miniature painting project. Seeing that I was having an enforced downtime in which not much new was being done hobby-wise, I thought to do a mini video of the duo to try and showcase the painted miniatures in greater detail. I hope you like this SpongeBob and Patrick project as much as I had enjoyed painting them way back then.

 Below then is a video of the SpongeBob and Patrick miniature painting project revisited that I had recently uploaded to my YouTube Channel, FourEyedMonster Miniatures.

 So as the new year fast approaches, and the holiday season before us, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you Happy Holidays and a belated Merry Christmas. May the holidays be a time of happiness after a very trying few years due to the pandemic. Stay safe, be well, and be happy! 

SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star [Nickelodeon Best Friends Diorama - COMPLETED]

What better way to celebrate the return of sunny blue skies after a haze-free week then to complete perhaps the most cheerful pair of figurines in my collection. And who else better exemplifies such a happy and optimistic outlook than both SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. Back in the day, when my son was a preschooler and I had less whites in my hair, our first SpongeBob episode together was one that revolved around bad breath. It was disgusting enough to make me wonder what SpongeBob's appeal to kids was. But in the end I got it. Now I wish more people have SpongeBob's innocent goodness in his heart than the Squidward Tentacles we have all become.        

Patrick Star (left) and SpongeBob SquarePants (right)

Shading for this mini-diorama looks deceptively simple but it actually took a lot of layering as well as wet-on-wet blending to achieve the smooth transitions you see, especially on Patrick. Less shading work was done on SpongeBob, partly to balance out the fact that he had more details than Patrick. 

Nickelodeon Best Friends mini-diorama featuring SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star

Having more details meant SpongeBob warranted less shadows/highlights transition work compared to Patrick

Side view (left) highlighting SpongeBob's nose

Olive green shadows on SpongeBob could easily have been shaded olive brown instead

One thing that could have been done differently was the olive green shadows on SpongeBob. An alternate choice would be to use olive brown instead. However, I chose the former to brighten up SpongeBob's colour scheme and hence the overall look of the piece. Meanwhile, my son cheekily suggested that Patrick's belly button should contain more shading (if memory serves me right, there was an episode showing Patrick's fascination with the contents of his belly button .... ewww ?) to reflect the contents of Patrick's innie. I passed on that! There is a case for too much realism.

Back view of the Nickelodeon Best Friends mini-diorama featuring SpongeBob and Patrick

Hands on back shoulders, the classic best friends pose

Side view (right) highlighting Patrick's tummy

Patrick had more shadows/highlights transition work done on him to compensate for lesser details

Living in a pineapple under the sea means the base has to be a sandy beach. It's a no-brainer. To accurately simulate such a texture, I used a combination of three old Citadel acrylic paints i.e. Bestial Brown, Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone. Dry-brushing the latter two hues on top of the the initial basecoat colour created a sense of depth on the already nicely sculpted beach. But one challenge the base threw up was the difficulty in getting paints to penetrate the tiny ubiquitous pockmarks. To solve this problem, I mixed Citadel Lahmian Medium into the basecoat colour of Bestial Brown to reduce surface tension of the paints. This then allowed the basecoat paint to penetrate the pockmarks.

Base comprises three layers of dry-brushed paint to simulate depth in a sandy beach 

It has been a slow couple of weeks hobby-wise. I must be suffering some form of burnout as my productivity seems to have nosedived drastically. Even my plan to draw at least one portrait a month has been effectively curtailed. Try as I might, I can't quite put my finger on what's ailing me. If I don't get a handle on this soon, I might just find my painting or drawing activities come to a complete standstill. And that can't be a good thing if the law of inertia is anything to go by.

Nickelodeon Best Friends [WIP - SpongeBob Skin Tone]

Having to continuously paint miniatures with many small details can be mentally exhausting at times. That's one reason why I always try to vary the type of miniatures in my project pipeline. It can be very liberating to not worry about incorporating freehand designs into your work, or about bringing out the details on a miniature through fine detail painting. Sometimes I just want to apply layer after boring layer of paint (of a single hue) with minor considerations towards shadows and highlights. There is something to be said for the repetitive nature of applying stroke after stroke of thin (and diluted) layers of acrylic paint onto a miniature which has both a calming and de-stressing effect.

SpongeBob SquarePants, work-in-progress on his skin tone

Baaa Baaa Baaaaa ... a laugh to end all laughs

One of the best models I have for this purpose is the Nickelodeon Best Friends kit comprising SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star, of which the latter has been completed thus far. After a lengthy seven months in cold storage, this mini-diorama was pulled out and dusted off for work to continue, starting with SpongeBob's skin tone. At first glance, it does seem as if not much work has been done. Nothing could be further from the truth. Believe you me, many hours were spent patiently applying ever lighter hues of yellow to create a smooth texture on his skin. Yellow is a notoriously difficult colour to work with especially when armed with only a normal brush of the 'non-air' variety. 

Light yellow highlights on all edges of the sponge

Olive green shadows inside the sponge holes

After obtaining a fairly smooth semi-flat yellow on the body, both shadows and highlights were subtly applied to create more depth while maintaining the flat cartoon look of the TV show in the Nickelodeon channel. Bright yellow was mixed with white to form the highlight colour which was then applied to all edges found on SpongeBob. Meanwhile, a short gradation of olive green was used as shadows in the sponge holes. Olive green was preferable to brown because it looked less dull.  

Nickelodeon Best Friends Diorama, work-in-progress with Patrick completed ...

... and SpongeBob with only his skin tone done so far

Sadly, I don't have many figures of this ilk in my collection. Don't  get me wrong. I still love painting miniatures with wonderfully sculpted details. But there are times when one needs to enjoy the simpler forms of the hobby and the Nickelodeon mini-diorama was the perfect go-to piece in this case. I'm loving how this piece is coming together and hopefully will be able to finish it before the year-end. Now if only someone could get SpongeBob's high pitched laugh out of my head. Baaaaaaaaaaa ...

Nickelodeon Best Friends Diorama [WIP - Patrick Star]

Painting Patrick Star, the other half of the famous SpongeBob SquarePants duo was one of those rare times when everything that could go right did. For one, I managed to get a good approximation of Patrick's official colour scheme without having to resort to too much paint mixing. In addition, paint layers were quite smooth especially Patrick's skin tone while my attempt at painting freehand patterns on his pants went off without a hitch. I guess it's about time a bit of good luck went my way. 

Patrick Star, work-in-progress of the Nickelodeon Best Friends Diorama

To obtain a smooth layer of paint on such a large surface area using just a brush, a fairly small one at that i.e. a size zero, I used mainly Vallejo Model Color (VMC) paints for Patrick. Acrylic paints used were VMC Pink, Old Rose, Salmon Rose and a smattering of Rose Brown (for the skin tone); VMC German Camouflage Bright Green, Lime Green and Yellow Green (for the pants); VMC Purple, Violet and Blue Violet (for the flower patterns on the pants); VMC White, Black and Reaper Master Series Leather White (for the eyes). So the colour schemes generally revolved around paint triads.

Nickelodeon Best Friends miniature diorama, with Patrick Star completed

Subtle shadows and highlights on Patrick Star were needed for a 'cartoon style' paint job

Pink-Green-Purple colour combo looks good on Patrick

For some 'research', I caught the latest SpongeBob SquarePants movie Sponge Out of Water with the missus and son. For me the movie was a mixed bag of nuts (no Sandy puns intended). If you are a regular viewer of the TV shows, nothing in the movie is truly groundbreaking save perhaps for the superheroes bit where the whole cast of main characters turned into an Avengers-style team to combat a villainous pirate gamely portrayed by Antonio Banderas. (Previous superhero moments were largely restricted to just SpongeBob and Patrick.) Yet there were 'giggle-out-loud' moments in which the characters lived up to their silly over-the-top reputations. This makes the movie worth seeing especially if you are a fan. After all, there is knock-knock joke awaiting you inside the show.       

Simple patterns on Patrick Star's pants meant they were easy to paint freehand

Back view of the Nickelodeon Best Friends miniature diorama, with Patrick Star completed

SpongeBob is expected to be tougher to paint

Colour transitions from shadows to light were done in a subtle manner as I wanted to retain the cartoonish look that you see on the TV animation series. Meanwhile, patterns on Patrick's pants were simple in design hence easy to paint freehand. In fact, they were so easy to do that I finished them in under an hour complete with some subtle shadings on the purple hues of the flowery pattern.

Every part of Patrick has a colour transition (shadows-highlights) even his eyes

Up next is SpongeBob SquarePants which will provide me with a tougher challenge. But I've been encouraged by positive results on Patrick Star that should give me the confidence to give it a real go. All I need is the proper music accompaniment to put me in the right mood to paint that yellow, absorbent and porous nautical hero. Now where did I put that SpongeBob's Greatest Hits album?   

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?

SpongeBob SquarePants! Even when I was on a short holiday in Penang earlier this month, I couldn't entirely divest myself of all miniature hobby related activities. While taking refuge from the hot island sun in a local mall (Gurney Paragon Mall), the family and I visited the 'biggest' SpongeBob SquarePants event in Malaysia this year. Although all the activities were mainly meant for young children, my son and I still managed to get something out of the event that was age-appropriate. 

SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star in miniature form

Back view of SpongeBob and Patrick in a 'best friends' pose

Each figurine set came with a SpongeBob SquarePants Activity Pass

Purchase of a SpongeBob and Patrick 'best friends' figurine (see above) or any other figurine on sale at the event entitled one to an Activity Pass. My son headed to the Mini Theatre to catch SpongeBob episodes on the big screen while I went to the Figurine World exhibition where I managed to take some photographs of a selection of miniatures on display. Below are some of my favourites.  

It's a SpongeBob SquarePants Figurine World at Penang's Gurney Paragon Mall

Marvel and DC has nothing on these superheroes

Houston, we have a problem

Happy belated Halloween anyone?

Love what you do, SpongeBob certainly does

Sheldon J. Plankton in his quest for Mr. Krabs's krabby patty formula

Money puts a big grin on Eugene H. Krabs

 One of the weirder figurines on display - SpongeBob in a Patrick suit next to Sandy

Wanna share?

A finger up his nose and outta his work clothes, is this your after-work routine too? 

My favourite of the lot ... SpongeBob gets ready for bed time

Coming back to the figurine that I got for my painting projects, it measured about 100-mm in height so it is a rather large miniature to paint. I believe the material the figurine is made out of is PVC but I can't say for sure. I hope to begin prep work on SpongeBob and Patrick soon beginning with the removal of a few minor mould lines. Then I will have to decide on what primer to use as I am not too sure if the Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (TFSP) will work on PVC. Well, if all else fails I guess I could use the Citadel Skull White acrylic paint 'primer'. But I think I will gamble on the TFSP first. If you have any experience with using TFSP on PVC, I would appreciate any help in the comments below.

'Best Friends' figurine stands at roughly 10 mm in height

Meanwhile, with the colour scheme for both SpongeBob and Patrick set in stone, all I need to decide on is if I will paint them in completely flat colours or apply some shading to the colours. Guess I will have to watch some SpongeBob Squarepants episodes for research. The things we do for the hobby we love. Until next time, as SpongeBob would likely say ... may you have the best day ever!