discussion Ferdinand of Aragon, Conquerer of the Moors - 1487

[Peter Gillson]

Time for me to get back to sculpting, one will be a Chinese General of around 1500 but first is Ferdinand of Aragon. I found this book at Euro and like the figure on the cover.

View attachment 317501
He is the only portrait I can find of him, as you can see he is a little on the chubby side:
View attachment 317502

To give me a bit of a head start I have decided to use an one of my existing ECW busts as the base for this one.


View attachment 317504
The actual one I am using is a mis-casting whoch would otherwise be thrown away.

The first task will be to remove all of the details.

 

[scottie3158]

Peter,
Will follow this along, I am always jealous of you guys that can sculpt.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hopefully I can get a reasonable likeness.

 

[Guest]

An interesting subject Peter. Looking forward to following along.

 

[Steve Jones]

A Peter sculpt! Definitely up for this one. Good luck

 

[Peter Gillson]

A little progress today - bulked out the face and added the basics of his chain.
View attachment 317591 h

The face needs some more work, especially adding his second chin - makes a change to sculpt a slightly overweight face.

To remove the detaila from the donor bust I used a belt sander with a vacuum hose attached to suc up all of the dust, as well as using a face mask.

 

[wotan]

Peter
Good to see you throwing the clay around again. Watching with interest.

John

 

[Richard48]

Nice subject Peter.
Will grab a pew and watch along with thr gang.Watching with interest.
Richard

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi Guys

Today a little more refinement of the face and a start on the coat.

View attachment 317663

 

[Steve Jones]

Wonderful detailing Peter. Its certainly heading in the right direction. Which one are you enjoying the most - this one or Lawrence??

 

[Peter Gillson]

Thanks for the compliments Steve.

This is definatly the one I prefer. getting a likeness can be hard work, and all of the folds in the headdress of Lawrence is starting to drive me mad!

 

[Mickc1440]

Nice start Peter, look forward to seeing this one progress.

 

[Peter Gillson]

If any ody has been wondering whathas happened to this bust, I ran into a little dely in removing it form the molding rubber - I had to order a new cutting blade.

Here is the finished casting.
View attachment 321255

View attachment 321253

Next will be priming and painting. It should be fun. Having a number of different materials and textures: flesh (obviously), felt hat, chainmail, steel, rich velvety cloth with embroidered pattern and the fur collar.

 

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
Well I missed this - sorry. End result looks good to me. You've caught the guy's chubby character. Look forward to the painting.
Jim

 

[Peter Gillson]

Here is the bust with the acrylic undercoat applied:

View attachment 321798

The next step will be applying the oil to add depth of colour as well as highlights and shading.

 

[Steve Brodie]

Oooo

 

[Peter Gillson]

Here is the first application of oil paints:

View attachment 321876
I have worked the red, both some highlights and a deepening of the shadows. The main work has been the face ,blocking in the main areas of the face, a little bit of the hair just to put the face into the 'context' of the hair colour.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Here is the progress so far.

View attachment 321970

Tonight's aim is work on the face, tidy up the gold braid and work on the fur.

I wish oils dried as fast as acrylics.

Peter

 

[Steve Jones]

When I was at a model show a figure painter told me how he had a specially designed heating compartment which he put his figures in once oiled and it was dry in an hour or so. I couldn't risk it myself in case I melted the model:smiling5:

 

[Peter Gillson]

Sounds a nice idea, but like you I woud be concerned if the figures are plastic. i have used a hairdrier on occasion, but the trusty airing cupboard works. At some point I'll check out the WWW to see if there are any build plans on-line for one, I recall years ago reading that somebody made one using a light bulb as the heat source, probab;y find that modern bulbs don't give off enough heat.

Peter