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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!  

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

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

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

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

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

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;

(c) Midtones: a mix of 70.941 Burnt Umber and 70.873 US Field Drab;

(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

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

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

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

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

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-32

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-32

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-32

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

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, 1/160sec, 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!  

No looking back, just ahead

 Usually around this time I would be looking back on the year just past, to determine what projects have been completed so as to showcase images of finished artwork. But with 2021 being what it is, I won't be doing anything of the sort. It'll all be about looking ahead aka my hobby resolutions for 2022. With the wise words of a six-year-old boy (see below) ringing in my head, here's then is my 'plan' ...

 Most importantly, my photography workflow needs an urgent revamp. Another wise but much older person once said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Widely attributed to Einstein, this oft quoted witticism applies itself readily to my attempts at capturing good photos of my work-in-progress and finished miniature/scale model kit projects. Long story short, for years I had inadvertently posted photos with white balance as well as color issues - the worse saw images marred with an ugly green tint. While I had somewhat mitigated this over the past two years, photo quality suffered greatly. The use of software that can process RAW image formats (vs just JPEG) should give me greater white balance and color control without sacrificing image quality. 

 So going forward, I plan to shoot future projects as well as retake photos of past projects - both in the RAW format - and rectify white balance/color issues using Adobe Lightroom (Lr) and Photoshop (Ps). I do so in the hope of properly showcasing the projects as close as to how I see them in real life. Couched in a pseudo-hobby resolution, this means future blog content will alternate between new projects and the re-posting of older ones but this time with more color-accurate images. I'll be using Lr and Ps partly because of their ability to properly interpret the Apple iPhone ProRAW format, partly for the cloud ecosystem they both operate in, and partly for Lr's database management system. 

 And then there are movies of projects that I would like to incorporate as additional blog content. This I plan to do using the Corel video editing software (see above) I had gotten in an online charity bundle. While I would love to use Adobe Premiere Pro instead, adding it to my basic Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan increases the monthly subscription fee significantly. As it is, it had taken close to nine years of hesitation before I finally took the plunge into Adobe's subscription-based model. Baby steps is all I'm willing to take for now as I can't quite justify the extra monthly expense, not yet.   

 As mentioned in an earlier post, my go-to video and photography tools are my old-and-trusted Canon EOS650D and the fairly new iPhone 13 Pro Max. The former will mainly be used for photography and the latter for recording video. But both equipment will switch roles if need be. So the die is cast, and the path ahead is clear. My creative mojo is back and I can't wait to resume painting soon. So I hope to start adding creative content soon. Until next time, dear reader, stay safe and be well. 

With 2021 being a near-complete write off hobby-wise, here's hoping 2022 will be a fresh new start

This year, of which there is a single day remaining, has been a near-total write off in terms of what I have achieved hobby-wise. Most of very little work done this year has comprised assembling, priming, and some basecoating. Personally, it was a miserable year for content creation.

 Will 2022 signal a fresh start for my hobby exploits? I hope so. I really do. And with the new year soon to be upon us, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy New Year. More importantly, may you and yours be blessed with good health in the year to come. Cheers!

Reorganizing my Vallejo paint collection, and deciding which colors to use for the Girl's Rider figurine

As the holiday mood slowly sinks its talons into my already snail-paced hobby schedule, it's safe to things are basically at a standstill. With things in the real world similarly in a perpetual pandemic induced semi-lockdown, I guess it's fitting this whole year has been a write off hobby-wise. But a bit of good news on the vaccination front for the missus and me. We finally got our Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots to complement the rapidly ineffectual Sinovac-Coronavac shots we were given earlier. With the Omicron variant already at our shores, it's a timely booster (pun unintended) for the family to grasp at a semblance of 'normal' life or should I say a new normal. But I digress ... this post is about colors.   

Reorganizing my Vallejo paint collection was a task that was a long time coming 

 Previously my entire collection of Vallejo acrylic paints was placed in plastic boxes of varying sizes and located in different sections of the house. So every time I wanted to paint something, a lot of time was needlessly expended on locating the specific colors I needed for a scheme. And at the missus's behest amidst one of her Marie Kondo-like spring cleaning sessions, I had to finally organize my paints. It helped that she took the time to source an appropriately-sized shelf to store my Vallejo paints. The image below shows how the paint bottles are now so much more easily accessible.      

Seeing all the colors organized in one place is a truly heart warming experience 

Finally my paint bottles are readily accessible within the hobby area 

 As for the colors I'll need for the 1/12 scale Girl's Rider figurine, I've so far narrowed it down to about 22 colors with a view to add or subtract from this total as I progress along the project timeline. Having selected acrylic colors for the next stage of the painting process, it means that I have chosen painting-by-hand as opposed to air brushing as my primary technique going forward for the Girl's Rider figurine. Apart from some mild application of oil paints it won't be practical to use more 'aggressive' paint types such lacquer, which is largely applied via air brushing, atop the acrylic paint layers.  

Colors that have been selected for the Girl's Rider figurine project

 After nearly five years of faithful service, it was time to retire my old iPhone 7 Plus. Replacing it, hopefully for the next five years, is the new iPhone 13 Pro Max from Apple. Among the criteria for my new mobile phone was that it has to be future-proofed (the lighting port technology notwithstanding) and it had to have an excellent camera system. With my 10-year-old DSLR camera not being particularly suited for video recording, the new iPhone will function as the de facto video recorder, as well as an occasional go-to photography tool to complement the DSLR camera.     

Macro shots with the iPhone 13 Pro Max is pretty good for a non-DSLR camera system

 How can this new macro function in the 13 Phone Pro Max help in the painting process, you might wonder. Well now I can easily and quickly take macro shots without fumbling with a bulky DSLR and tripod. While the quality might not reach the levels of a DSLR camera with a dedicated macro lens, the images are good enough that I can quickly spot mistakes I had made during the painting process itself and fix the errors without too much disruption to my workflow. What do I mean by this?

Extreme closeup of the Vallejo Model Color paint bottles using the latest iPhone camera system

 Well, the workflow might go something like: paint > notice possible error > take a quick hand-held macro shot > visually isolate and clarify specifics of the error > clean up said error > take another quick macro shot to see result > so on and so forth. This is essential for me because I find it difficult to paint in real-time with the help of any form of artificial magnification such as lenses. In future posts, I'll try to explain why the macro shots taken by the iPhone 13 Pro camera system still cannot rival those taken by a DSLR camera with a dedicated macro lens. But it's good enough as a painting tool and for a mobile phone, the iPhone 13 Pro Max takes a pretty decent macro shot. On that note I'm off to explore the video and photography possibilities of the 13 Pro Max. Cheers, stay safe, and be well.