Re: Abe Sapien Sculpt/Mold (first thread ever!)
Excellent sculpt.
I have two suggestions for you though to maximize the impact of your paint on your sculpting efforts ( assuming your not trying to make him look fresh out of the water )
It looks like based on your photos and lighting that the sculpt was finished in one sheen only, so your loosing a lot of depth, detail and draw because each section is blending into the other.
1. By varying the finishes on his eyes, gills and skin you'll make each are pop so there are multiple things catching light and of course your eye.
So his eyes and gills should have the highest sheen when compared to the rest of the sculpt. On the eyes, by brushing your clear on thick, in 2-3 layers you can achieve the wet lenses look the original eyes have.
His skin would be satin clear, much like real human skin. Again this only applies if he isn't fresh out of the tank. lol
You can use high gloss to highlight some of the edges inside the mouth, and nostril edges.
You can use flat and satin to soften some of the high sheen in the gills giving them maximum depth and detail.
2. The original had many many layers of speckling, which is very much the norm in painting anything creature or human because it levels out the highs and lows and adds layers of depth.
If you do a little bit of googling you can find some great reference for him,
if you come up short, message me and I'll share some photos with you that are
This is such a common shortfall in both the hobby and the industry. Yes it takes countless more effort and time to do multiple layers of finish (base, wash, highlight, detail, speckles, fine detail)
These two main things will help bring your work more in line with the original paint job (done by Tim Gore and Steve Wang)
doing the rest of things I mentioned will bring the paint up to the respect that the sculpt deserves.
and its ok if you can't do it, because sculptors sculpt, molders mold, runners run and painters paint, its super super rare that one person can do it all, and on top of that do it well
so your sculpting is really good, and you obviously did well on the matrix molding, and running resin isn't to tuff when you have a great mold..... so if painting is the only thing that leaves room for improvement, well 3 outta 4 aint bad~
So you did an amazing job, and its one of the best hobby Abe's that I've ever seen, getting closer in sculpt to the original than every one else, so with a little bit more attention to the paint, you could have the absolute next best thing to the original, and since the original was foam that won't last, well you can get better than original on this one.
Thanks for sharing your work.