New girl figure in the works...

[Figuremaster Les]

Here's is all I can show of a new female character I am working on. She is an original named Dara, based on a book I have been writing for a long time now.

There will be quite a bit more to show very soon. Til then, here's her face...it's an original paint on a very nice Jakks Pacific girl body. (Those are NICE bodies... ) They are soft and "fleshy" which is great in some ways when you want to show some skin and not want all those joints, but not as posable as say, BBI or Volks or Sideshow bodies.



Hope that suffices til you see some costuming. The hair is down to her butt, so that's why the hair tie...





She will be a cross between a barbarian/viking looking girl and a kind of techno looking costume.

By the way, if you are looking for these kinds of bodies, I got mine at a site called Picket fences or www.picketfenceks.com/
They are really nice and have some SUPER figures there. As well as fudge. ;D Go figure...

[casimir]

Good start. I love the detail on the eyes. (Good work with the make-up!)

C.

[BlackKnight]

WOW! Those are nice bodies! ;D

[Figuremaster Les]

Thanks guys. About the bodies, yeah, tell me about it! It's almost hard to work with them. They distract one...

BTW, they are very rubbery so paint carefully on them. I need a better paint to stay on the surface. Something that will bond better than water based acrylic. Thanks for the makeup comment Cas. I'll try an get a sharper image on soon. My camera can't do closeups very well. Old camera.

[faithfulbutler]

She's purty! ;)I'm really looking forward to seeing the end result on this beauty.

Can you give us a little insight into your Book please?

[Wild Willy]

That is a good looking base figure Les.
Keep us posted with updates.

Will

[martingb]

Nice work as always. I am due to begin work on a TV Batgirl pretty soon along with a Barbara Bain figure from SPACE:1999. I know zip about make-up and stuff so am concerned that I will end up making them look like either clowns or hookers. Any tips from anybody would be appreciated. Good work though mate. Looking forward to further updates.

[Figuremaster Les]

I understand the clowns or hookers thing Marty! Man I do.
When I started drawing females about 30 years ago, it took me years to get to where I didn't have to rely on what the makeup was to define the eyes and mouth etc. Same with painting figures which I really started only about 10 years back.

Same problem all over again, paint based on makeup to define features. All my earliest work looks like a hooker convention.

I still am not totally in charge there.
What I have learned to do nowadays, is to paint them as best I can, then go back in with fleshtones and unmake them up. Painting over the too much makeup parts. Define eyes and mouth etc., then literally go back and lighten it all up. That de-clowns them as best I can.

Doing blush is hardest. Too much, clown. Not enough and it bugs you. They are missing something that makes them more alive. So, I do very light washes. If you use an airbrush, my suggestion is go very, very thin and add in layers. Barely.

It's hard to do. Believe me. So, I would try on some discarded or extra faces before you paint your Batgirl or whoever. Less is more in this case. Learning what's less is the hard part. Now, my challenge is to make the faces look like there is no makeup. Yeah, right! Not quite there yet...

Hope tht helps. Other examples may help. Other ideas will too.

(Andy, as for my book, As you can imagine, it's a bit long and drawn out but, I will post some examples of other characters from it and as I go, maybe I can tell more of the story that way. Suffice it to say, it's kind of a Sci-Fi/ Adventure/Viking story....kinda... sorta... This girl is the main title character, but she's not actually who the story is about... )

[martingb]

Cheers for the advice mate. I have a few heads I can have a try out on. I will also have a good look at the female figures in my collection for tips too. Thanks mate. Always appreciated!

[casimir]

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I thought I'd mention there was a time when I considered pursuing a career in stage and film make-up. I learned way back in high school that make-up application (for stage!) came easy to me, as I used only brushes to apply, and it was just like painting, something I already knew. Needless to say, I was leaps and bounds ahead of the other fellas, and for the next ten years I applied make-up to others as much as my own (for stage!). My point is, it's no different than painting. Only the canvas is a different shape. That's how I think of it, even today with customs.

C.

[Figuremaster Les]

You got it Cas. I was looking at your faces in your logo while I read your last post. You clearly know about faces. (Nice new ones on Ebay I might add...)

And yes, Marty, paint and repaint. Practice. I NEVER get it right the first pass. I very often have to repaint eyes and facial details. Sometimes over and over.

And I hope all you guys here provide a great feedback on this kind of in-progress for me and others. I always appreciate the compliments, but if an eye is off or if something doesn't look just right, always tell me. I can't be as objective of my own work. I know that my work can always be improved. ;D

[aburabusimbutu]

I can only add that your careful work has yielded outstanding results. Also, there is a Krylon paint called Fusion (spray paint) that is made to apply on plastics without primer that works very well from my experience. I assume you could spray it into a cup and use a brush to paint with it. It dries within 15 minutes so it may be a bit cumbersome but it really adheres well.