Turcopole - Memorial Bust Monreale 2013

Hello Guys

This is the last piece that with a lot of pleasure I had in my hands.

I don't want repeat what my colleagues already wrote, but I can only say you have to got it in your hand, the signature of Mariano Numitone style is simply amazing!

The piece is really enjoyable to paint and despite the "simplicity" it leaves much space for hundred interpretations.

Talking about my version, I started doing a bit of research and in the end I opted to try a middle eastern skintone keeping it enough on warm and brown tones.

I did a bit of effort, being the first attempt on it, but I'm quite happy about the result.

For the cloak and turban I chose black colour, where I overdid the lights with grey to give the impression of sunburned fabric, and at the end I gave a slight haze of yellow ink to increase this effect.

For the "scarf " around the face, the choice fell on a cold color (turquoise ) to frame the face and at the same time to enhance the warm skintone. For the light I deliberately desaturated enough just because I just want it as neutral element of the bust, so favoring the face.

On the jacket I used as a mid tone a brown colour, lightened with ivory colour on the lights and darkened with black colour on shadows. At the end I gave some washing of Sepia and burnt sienna ink by pelikan to saturate it a bit.

Thanks for your attention.

Here's the link to:

- Putty &Paint

for those who want to support me by voting and commenting .

See you with the next job.

Andrea "R.I.P." Nicolini

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Marcomannic warrior

Hello everyone

This is the last piece that I finished a few weeks ago, and was the first after I had surgery on my hand, so I didn' t try anything new, strange or different, I just focused more to come back to manual and mainly have fun.

Before painting it, I tried to find a bit of informations about the Marcomanni in the web, but I admit I found a few little tables and some other already painted miniatures.

Then I got carried away by the free imagination trying to keep the very natural tone, not overdo it with lights and shadows or oversaturate colors.

I wanted also that the character himself would give the idea of an bleak autumn/winter environment, so I made a cool skin tone, while trying to stay on a pale tone that reflected his red hair that I deliberately oversaturated to frame as better as possible the face.

About the Freehand on the shield I absolutely don't think that is "historically correct", but I wanted to do the same.

The reason is simple and a bit funny, this miniature was given to me years ago by a friend of mine and it was the first historian piece to arrive in my hands,

For a long time it was long in the cabinet mounted, filled and primered but being a gift that I cherish a lot, I've been waiting to get to a worthy level before painting it.

Meanwhile (we are talking about few years ago) one evening I was scribbling out this freehand in a little piece of sheet and I thought there would have been good on the marcomannic warrior's shield. So after I preserved this piece of paper for years and managed not to lose it in 2 movings it was really a matter of principle to use that drawing for the Freehand.

The ambience is intentionally very simple just because I cannot see the historical pieces in “photographic” poses with too complex environments, also wanted a really bleak and barren environment.

I admit that here I could also put a bit of snow, but then I didn't want to overdo for fear of to load too much this piece, that the skintone coat and jacket got already cold tones.

Here's the link to:

- Putty &Paint

for those who want to support me by voting and commenting .

Guys, I hope that you like and see u in the next piece!

Andrea "R.I.P." Nicolini

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Octopus

Ciao Guys!

What I'm introducing is a beautiful bust by JMD, that I find out really funny to paint.

The color palette I used was very different and quite unusual for me and it was as follows:

- Green overseas Allegro

- Bluette Allegro

- Bordeaux Allegro

- Bright green Allegro

- Yellow Allegro

- Orange Allegro

- Yellow green Vallejo model color

- Dheneb stone Games workshop

I used also this following 5 ink by Pelikan 

- Light green

- Vermillion

- Yellow

- Ultramarine

- Sepia

For this model as well as the "strange" palette, I wanted to try a different technique, esactly the " wet blending", which involves the use of color very diluted so as to mix it directly on the model , thus creating extremely soft shades.

I started with a base of Green overseas Allegro throughout the piece, and then I worked on individual sections, trying to blend by bordeaux to yellow through bright green, blue and orange, and trying to maintain at the same moment a cold effect on the pieces.

My idea behind it was to try to recreate an iridescent color that recalls the great mimicry skintone of a real octopus.

For the tentacles lower parts I chose a warm color fading from red to yellow to contrast as well the skin tone and to create a better frame around the face.

After that, (except for the details like eyes, suckers  and plaques on the top of the head) I painted the whole piece with pelikan inks trying to create a better blend with underlying colors , this is just because Allegro colors finishing is very dull and I wanted a extremely glossy skintone.

The head plaques effects are made almost entirely with pelikan ink, on an acrylic base of GW Dheneb stone I really stippled the Sepia ink focusing most of the color in the shadows zone and once dry the first layer of ink I spreaded the inks Ultramarine and Light green and at the end I passed a gloss lack to increase the glossy effect

In conclusion, I have to admit that is good get out of the "own safe zone" to try new techniques and colors rarely used and , in addition to being fun , the changing improves ourself and evolves own techniques.

Here's the link to:

- Putty &Paint

for those who want to support me by voting and commenting .

I hope that this little explaination of my techniques will be useful.

Guys see u in the next piece!

Andrea "R.I.P." Nicolini

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Throgg the troll king

Hello Guys

Today what I'm showing you is one of my latest works,
It's a collaboration with the talented sculptor and friend Carmine "Thor" Giuliani who oversaw just all part of the sculpture and editing.
The subject is taken from a book illustration of "warriors of chaos" warhammer fantasy or rather "Throgg the troll king" that Carmine decided to add a troll in a dog version to emphasize its status of superiority towards common trolls.

After assembling the scene, I decided that I would have opted for a very thin and rocky terrain.
So I started giving to airbrush the bases of the two pieces and a first draft of lights and shadows, the idea is to make more light the "little dog" and much darker Throgg ...

Throughout the painting process I only used Allegro colors.
For Throgg I used the dark green to which I added both to the lights for the shadows of cool colors
While on the "Dog" I prefer to use a mixture of different green with warm tones.
So that the two subjects are different not only for a game of light/dark, but also for a warm/cold tones.
To accentuate this warm/cold effect, because I was not really satisfied, I made a further washing with pelikan inks, on Throgg I used a purplish blue, instead on the dog a yellow-orange ink by pellikan.
(You can do this operation without making the typical glossy effect by inks due to the fact that "Allegro" colors are really very opaque)

At the end, for the ambience, I chose very simple colors so that it simply meant that it's a background for the two subjects..

The piece was a real challenge for me but at the same time it's a great satisfaction to be able to put the brush on a "unique" piece like this one especially if the work of sculpture has got a so high quality

Andrea "R.I.P." Nicolini

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