Painting a Mander Wolf - Step By Step

[PredatrHuntr]

This will be a step by step progress in my attempt to paint Pete Mander's latex Wolf head. I have only used an airbrush once before, and it turned out horribly:

The mask (made by Akira Fudou) was fun to paint, but my painting leaves a lot to be desired: bad triangle spots, mouth is too pink, not enough fading, not enough spots, etc. What I did like was the way the quills and teeth turned out. I made them myself with Sculpy and Bake & Bend.

This time I'm ready: I've borrowed a Badger airbrush and compressor, I have my Prosaide and Permawet, and I have my acrylic paints.

Here is the raw mask:

This is after I applied a coat of prosaide to the entire mask with a brush:

(the prosaide goes on white and then turns transparent and becomes tacky to touch)

I am following Scotts advise and I'm going to layer my paint and prosaide. One layer of prosaide, then paint, then prosaide, then paint, etc. That way I don't have to mix the paint and prosaide at the same time and Scott says it has the same effect. I'll be watering my acrylic paints and prosaide down enough so that they can still flow through the airbrush without clogging it up.

Tomorrow I will begin the base color. I'm starting off with the light colors, then adding viens, then moving to the darker colors. There are a lot of you guys who are seasoned with using airbrushes (Scott, Pete, Larry, Lee, etc) and painting heads to look lifelike...feel free to give me any pointers.

First question: when I go to put the next layer of prosaide on, should I just dilute it 75/25 with water and use the airbrush to apply it to the mask? I'm worried that the prosaide will gum up the inside of the airbrush...does that happen?

 

[one and only]

Jason, don't be so hard on yourself - It was your first time and it turned out pretty good, so I'm sure this will be a really good paintup.

 

[Mortal Immortal]

I would fill the cup with small amounts of paint and pros aide mix, when it gums up use hot water to clean and ungum the brush.

 

[Usurper]

I dont see anything wrong with your 1st paint up, its **** loads better than mine ever was ( me shudders at memory )

Well ive never mixed anything with my inks except water , so scott and the other guys who have **** loads more experience than me will be able to help.

Ill just sit back and enjoy the ride as i like watching things come to life

IMO though for what its worth, just take your time and do not try to be perfect, nothing and noone is perfectly patternd or symetrical.

now get painting ya slacker

 

[ssnake66]

Id love to see this work out Im almost starting with my head so im curious what kind of steps u take along the way.

please much photos!!!!!

Thank and good luck with it!


Grts

 

[RacerMachX]

Looking forward to see your progress.
Btw, Your first airbrushed mask looks great.

 

[PredatrHuntr]

Thanks for the comments on the 1st head, but as anyone who is just starting out says, "it looks like crap!" First attempts always do. Even Steve Wangs early work wasn't perfect.

When I painted that one, I had no real concept of how to paint a P1 head, so I incorporated my own ideas. Looking back on it, I hate the triangle spots and the ones on the jaw are way too small. This time around I plan to use more layers and colors. I know what can be done just from looking at Scott and Larry - two of the best airbrush artists out there. They KNOW how a Predator should look and they do a mighty fine job.

I also have a DB P1 2nd gen that I will be painting after the Wolf, so any mistakes I make will hopefully be corrected by the time I get to that one. I only have an hour each night to paint, so I have to acquaint myself with the airbrush, painting techniques and thinning as quickly as possible. Last night I was painting some cardboard and it was ok, but I find the hardest thing is getting the really small spots without the overspray.

Jluck gave me some advice by telling me to use an acrylic airbrushing medium instead of water to thin my acrylic paint. Gonna try to find some here in town.

Everyone on the Lair will be my teacher as I will take any and all advice given...

 

[YAUJA WARRIOR]

horrible??????? no way i think it looks great i want to paint it so too ive never used a air brush is it hard?

 

[PredatrHuntr]

Quick question - I found out that Michaels sells Createx and Liquitex paint.

1. If I understand correctly - Createx airbrush paints are already flexible, right? Does that mean that I still have to treat it like normal acrylic paints and layer/mix prosaide?

2. Is it the same for Liquitex?

I managed to find Golden Mediums Airbrush Medium to reduce the clogging of the airbrush. I'm not quite read to paint yet - I still want to try all the different nozzle types to see which ones work best...

 

[Davros1]

??" who says its crap?" I think you did a great job! Im going to wait to see the rest of this tutorial before I attempt MY first use of an airbrush!! and if mine turns out half as good as your 1st attempt I'll be pleased! Please keep updating this thread!

 

[Usurper]

Any new pics Jason?

cmooooooon

 

[PredatrHuntr]

This is going slowly because I'm taking my sweet time with it! ...plus I only have like an hour every night to paint...

Ok, here is my little area in the garage:

Screwing around with the airbrush:

This is all I managed to get done tonight:

I shaded the two ridges on the left side of the head to make them stand out, and then I lightly airbrushed around the crown. When that was done I put shadows in the acid holes on his head. I wanted to see if I could get inside those holes and give them some depth.

Tomorrow comes the skin color!

 

[Usurper]

Keep us updated Jason, im sure you will do him justice.

 

[Jluck]

great start jason! looking good

 

[Superman7]

looking good ... keep it up

 

[one and only]

Looks great!
I'm sure you'll nail it Jason.

 

[mumbaki]

A very good start!!!!! Good job Jason!!!!

 

[carlart]

It is truly good to see the learning process conveyed in a step by step like this. Glad MI's chiming in. Speaking of which, what's the Pros Aid to water ratio, Scott? I was always under the impression that Pros Aid acted as a sealer, so that it would be sprayed on after each color.
Is this method better than mixing the Pros Aid directly with the paint? Seems so. I'll be taking notes on this one---thanks for posting it J.

 

[fettster]

if your doing the shading that way, then adding transparent colours over it for depth, what will really make it "pop" is if you do your highlights now too, before you add the colour.

that way you will get a real nice depth to the paintjob.

hope that makes sense

 

[PredatrHuntr]

Nope lol! I am used to shading with pencils so this is a whole new ballpark for me.

Here is what I am not understanding:

For the veins and darkened areas (shading) to still show up after I have painted over them, how do I make the top layer of paint "transparent"? Thinning it so that there is more water (or medium) than paint?

...OR do I try to make the veins transparent and paint them on top of the base color?

It can probably be done in different ways, but I have never done it before...

When I use the airbrush, I figured out that I can change the spray by slightly adjusting the amount of paint/air and by how far the tip is from the surface. This is lots o fun! Thanks to all for advice given in chat and PM!!! This is a huge learning process for me....