Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Once and Future King Part 3

After wrapping up the knight and Saxon figures, I returned to my 4th piece for the Crystal Brush Competition, Arthur.  I painted this figure back in December but was stuck on the base.  The figure represents a young Arthur right after he has pulled the sword out of the stone, so I wanted the base to fit that scene.  I checked out some reference material and I also looked up pictures from the Disney movie (why not?).  The main element of the scene would be the stone and anvil, but I wanted a little more to fill up the space.  So I decided to include a banner as well.

These aren't especially tough things to sculpt/create, but my sculpting skills are near zero so it was challenging for me.  To make the anvil I began with some blocks of balsa wood for the basic shape and then used milliput to fill it out and add the rounded shapes.  Same with the stone, a larger block of wood for the volume and then a thin covering of milliput for the rounded edges and some texture.  I took a few attempts on the banner.  The first try was milliput, but I had trouble getting it smooth enough without falling apart.  I also tried cutting it out of plasticard and then using heat for some waves.  But that didn't quite work for me either.  In the end I used some thin brass sheet that would retain its shape when bent.

To paint the banner I went with a red and white color scheme.  In part because it matches colors from the figure, but also because of a story regarding Merlin and a red and white dragon.  So I worked the dragons into the banner along with a sword.  I intentionally kept the details to a minimum so the banner would not draw the eye too much and the figure would remain the focus of the scene.


I initially had the rear of the banner as just a plain white and red... but that seemed a little too boring.  So I added an image of the sword in the stone/anvil and the main quote about the sword.

1 comment:

  1. Very sharp. I think the composition delivers.

    I really like the graphic you came up with for the rear of the banner (for the front, too, for that matter!). And, of course, the colors and freehand on the shield are a great eye-catcher, especially for the back of the piece.

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