On The Desk - Pumpkin Pirate Part 1 - Preparation and Pumpkin

I've been quiet for a few weeks, I got had a bit of painting burnout and had a mini holiday. I find myself find myself in that awkward position of having several projects on the go but not being able to finish anything. Launcelot is on a break at the moment, he's mostly done but the base just isn't clicking with me yet. I intended to have this next project finished for Halloween but instead it was started on Halloween.

I've been painting for some time but somehow I've never got round to painting a bust! I picked this characterful chap up a few years ago and he's sat in my boxes of shame since then. The bust is made by Spellcrow in Poland, it's called the Dyniaq bust (named after the character, they have several other versions of him at different scales) I like to call him the pumpkin pirate in my head though.

With this bust I wanted to have some strong lighting from below, give him a menacing look. In the absence of owning a lighter I used a lamp to take some shots that I could refer to later (if you do decide to use a lighter be careful not to melt the resin!)

I primed him with black, then gave some white from below to match the reference shot I took. I did a little grey from above and behind as well (he's going to have some moonlight)

I started with the head (in retrospect I should have started with the hat but more on that next week) I mixed GW Troll Slayer Orange with the old Golden Yellow until I had a colour I was happy with. I blended it towards desaturation with green and blue and a little black for the shadows and added more golden yellow to the lower area to get the impression of strong firelight from the bottom left. 

The back was done similarly to the front, I started with the same orange to desaturated blend (although this time the orange was above) then carefully went back in with Fenrisian Grey to add the moonlight reflection. This might be too much, once I've done the rest of the bust I might adjust it, we'll see. This is all pretty new terrain for me so I'm experimenting and learning as I go.

Next week I'll be back with the hat, as always any comments and criticism are appreciated!