Painting Eyes: A Quick Walkthrough

You know those times when you get so ambitious on a project you end up doing way more than is necessary? That is definitely me with this garage kit right now. Because I'm feeling slightly insane and want to put off the nervousness from starting my job on Monday I decided to create a little WIP on how I paint eyes. I know I did one before in my GK Compendium series but it's always fun to take a bunch of photos and see everything step-by-step. So for those who are seasoned pros and curious or for those who are just scared of hand-painting eyes this is for you!

*Note: These eyes are approximately 0.5cm in height and length. You CAN paint those tiny eyes as long as you have thin paintbrushes ;)

I started out by painting the schlera a nice off-white. I'm a huge fan of the acrylic paint "Seashell White" by Delta Ceramcoat and use it for pretty much everything since regular white paint is a little too bright for me. Make an outline in pencil where you want to paint your iris and make sure they are facing the same direction.

Paint the lightest color of your eye in thin coats. The consistency of your paint is very important here. If it's too runny paint will run all over your eyeball but if it's too thick you'll end up with streaky lines. Try to stay within the lines you created with pencil. Make sure both eyes have around the same size iris or you'll get a weird looking crazy eye lol.

Apply the next color onto your eye. It's up to you how you do this but generally try to paint one to two shades darker on top of your lightest color - this will ensure that the contrast on your eye isn't too striking (in a bad way lol). I like to paint in a U-shape that ends around halfway on the eyeball.

The next few steps can be done in any order and I've mixed it up before so it just depends on your mood. ^^ In this case I decided to paint her eyelashes. On some kits you're lucky and the eyelids are already sculpted for you but sometimes you have to paint onto a flat surface. The key to painting eyelashes is sharp lines - notice how the ends of my eyelashes are very pointy. There are thousands of different eye styles but almost all of them have an angle somewhere in there. Get confident with painting angles! At this point I also added an upper eye crease with a 0.005 brown micron pen.

Oh also you can paint the eyelashes whatever color you want, it depends on the colors of your kit I guess. I usually paint my eyelashes black but in this case it was way too harsh so I mixed two different colors of brown together (it's still pretty dark though haha).

Not much has changed in this step except I decided to outline her eye with a 0.05mm mechanical pencil.

Lastly I added the classic anime eye shine (white dot) and her pupil. This also varies from character to character but I was going for more of a striking cat eye slit.

And here's another tiny thing I did just to show you how much of a difference a simple change in lines can entirely change the kit's appearance. Notice how the iris in the picture above is rounded compared to the picture below where the iris is pointed at the ends. Feels more like a feline, right?

I also added her markings and shaded a little bit above on her eyelid.

At this point I had already finished my kit but did a couple of other things like making her freckles a little larger and adding some more shading on her face. You can't see it in this photo but I also added Pledge Future FloorCare to her eyes to make them super shiny. I did this on my Nostradamus kit as well and it really makes them stand out ^^

EH CLOSE ENOUGH. I just realized how blue my kit's hair looks though...I didn't even use blue idk how that happened LOL

There are countless ways you can paint your eyes whether it's changing the color of the iris, the shape of the eyelashes or where you put that classic anime shine. I find it helpful to experiment with different eye types by drawing them on paper as well. I generally add two to three colors on my eyes to create a gradient but it depends how ambitious and/or comfortable you are with your kit. Also helpful is how big the eyes on your kit are - the bigger your eye generally the more detail you can add.

And also for the love of god PLEASE do not forget to paint eyebrows on your kit. I have an obsession thing for strong eyebrow game and every time I see a kit without eyebrows I silently weep for the poor character whose eyebrows were singed off in a horrible accident. 

Stay tuned tomorrow (well technically today now) for the finished product and thanks for reading ^^

Third Time's the Charm

Hello friends, GK builders and everyone in-between! I realized it's been over a month already with no updates so I figured it's time for another post.

I haven't been completely lazy on the GK front as you'll see in a moment but I have been doing other stuff as well. As some of you probably know I graduated with a bachelor's degree back in December but what you might not have known was that I wasn't having much luck in the job front. I began volunteering last month for fun and had been applying for jobs pretty regularly online but nothing was coming from it. However thanks to networking I am happy to say that after a little over four months that has changed and in two weeks I'll be officially employed in a real job in my field! I am very lucky but just want to say to anyone looking for a job be professional, don't get discouraged, make those connections and use them to your advantage. Anyway having that job means that I will have less time online but hopefully I won't be too exhausted to do anything.

Because of this new situation I am giving myself a deadline to finish this Mage figure by next Sunday. I WILL DO IT! I'm pretty much almost done but her cape is giving me so much trouble -_- Here are some pics:

I like the somewhat messy worn-in leather look which is why the boots are kinda different colors

Her skirt thing is shiny!

Here's where the real trouble starts. So I initially didn't tape this cape at all and just went to town painting the squares a dark red. I didn't like it at all though and the red wouldn't go on evenly so I decided forget it! I'll strip the paint and try masking tape like a real builder cause I'm a pro

Hahaha bad idea :( The pink went on nicely but the red was ugly and parts of it were stripped off. Red is a really hard color to paint evenly! I also painted too many layers which screwed things up; it's kind of hard to explain but the more layers you paint the more paint gets built up so when you take off the masking tape you can sometimes be left with thick paint that doesn't match up with the rest of the areas you didn't mask (wow that made zero sense). Anyway I figured out that the deep red was not what I wanted at all a little too late. I wish I took a before picture but the pink I used for those little ribbon things looked even worse contrasting against these colors. Ughughgugh

SO I PRIMED IT AGAIN! Notice that you can still see the red in some spots and some areas are a little rough. I was too lazy to fix this since her cape is in the back anyway and you won't really be able to notice it unless you really look.

Paint in progress. I decided against the masking tape, I will deal with the excess paint somehow (probably Windex and a Q-tip lol). Instead of a deep red this time I think I'm just going to go with a deeper, redder pink but not quite burgundy.

More parts without shading or details which I think came out really cute. The pink looks sooooo much better than the dark red I wish I took more pictures. It especially goes well against her little orange collar and the greens of her skirt thing.

That's all the pictures I have now but I will try to take a couple more before I finish up this kit. I've got a lot of work to do on it this week since I have to finish painting all the parts, add details, add shading, glue it all together, build a small book for her to hold, and build a custom base. Most of those shouldn't be to hard and I am definitely up for the challenge now that I have a goal ^^

I just feel like I don't want today to end, have you ever had a day like that? Take care everyone.

GK Ques Q Chibi Remilia Update (Pt. 2)

Hello my fellow GK builders! It's been a little while since I've posted and I have some pretty exciting news so I figured its about time for another update.

I started using my airbrush!!! Yup, THAT'S the exciting news lol. It's the start of a new year and I was tired of letting all my supplies gather in the corner so I decided it's a good time to reach my goal of finishing TWO garage kits (wow big dreams guys) by learning how to use my supplies. I don't have too many pictures but there is one thing I realized...it is really quite difficult to get work-in-progress pictures when you are in the zone and the paint comes out so quickly. x_x There are many things I'm still learning while getting into this aspect of the hobby and there are countless tutorials available so if you are looking to get into airbrushing don't be overwhelmed either! If you are a reader like me and like to know what you're getting into I found this guide very helpful: Airbrush Basics It gets more into the technicality of using your airbrush but the guide is still very easy to understand so I really recommend it. Youtube videos are also very helpful especially if you have a certain brand of airbrush or if you're just looking up basic techniques on how to use it.

Stuff I recommend before actually painting a figure that I've learned:

• Take your airbrush apart beforehand so you will know how to clean it between changing colors! Once you start touching your airbrush and learning where the parts go it becomes a lot less scary. For example, I was really worried about bending the tip of the needle in my airbrush since it is supposedly very fragile but the whole piece is sturdy metal so as long as you are careful with it you should have no problem.
• Practice with food coloring and water so you can get an idea of what pressure works best and how the trigger works. This was really important on my end since I started out with Tamiya flat blue acrylic (see some of the pics below) and it was coming out all spotty. When I practiced with water and food coloring I realized that I wasn't thinning my paint enough. It has to be really, REALLY thin to work properly.

My madman scribbles before any painting even occurred

• Do NOT forget to wear a good mask and keep your area ventilated! I had a mask on when spraying paint and alcohol so obviously I didn't smell anything but after I took that mask off...well my room smelled like a chemistry lab even with my window wide open and I know that because I have had experience in chemistry labs lol
• Save yourself some work and buy a tabletop cleaning station. They are designed where you put your airbrush in a little hole and spray into it to clear out excess paint or to spray alcohol/water through it to clean your airbrush (see below). This allows you to keep all of your waste in one spot and dispose of it safely later.

And now more for the fun part :p Here are some work-in-progress pictures of Remilia and my airbrush:

I use an Iwata HP-CS airbrush and an Iwata Smart Jet compressor. I will be using Tamiya acrylic paints for Remilia. I thin them roughly 1:1 with 91% isopropyl alcohol. I tried 70% isopropyl alcohol at first because I had it on-hand but it doesn't dry fast enough. I have also read that you can use Windex safely and effectively.

Another thing I realized that is so different from hand-brushing...the paint goes on so thin! I know that sounds like common sense but you really have to make sure your paints are highly pigmented because they can come out completely different on a figure vs. in the bottle. 

To get this color I added in a bunch of Tamiya Red and a little Yellow

After like 1 coat?

It came out SO bright orange! I don't get it since the color is so red in the cup D: It's what I wanted but still lol

Not sure if I like this color...I mixed some Tamiya Red and one drop of Black and then covered it with Tamiya Clear Red

Another small kind of 'duh' moment I had was using different color primers. I have only ever really used grey Tamiya primer since I could hand-brush many coats of paint over it but now I'm realizing with an airbrush that isn't possible. Now I have to strip the primer off of Remilia's skin and re-prime it in white so I can spray flesh tone on it...>_>

Anyway that's all the pictures that I have right now. I recently came back to my apartment so I have to get everything set up again so it may be a little bit before I finish this kit. Using an airbrush is much easier than I thought though, you just have to make sure that your paints are thinned appropriately and you understand how color mixing works since that will really help you. I hope that posting this inspires some of you to try airbrushing if you're a little scared too. Until next time!

Life + Ques Q Chibi Remilia Updates

Hi everyone! It's been quite a while since my last post but I have received a couple of messages either on MFC or on other forums asking about my blog so I figured (HAH) I should show a little bit of what I've been working on and how life is going.

I am graduating in about two weeks and while I couldn't be happier it's kind of overwhelming and I'm not really sure how to handle it. I purchased my cap and gown today and it's just really weird hearing everyone tell me congratulations :S I still have an exam on Wednesday and finals next week and then it's time for the job hunt...but at least I'll have more time to work on GKs!

Other life stuff: my cute dog fractured both bones in his front left leg a couple of weeks ago and is going in for x-rays on Wednesday so I'm hoping that it is mending well. He acts like it's mending well and tries to run everywhere and jump on the furniture so I'm hoping that's a good sign. I also remember posting about making some life changes in my diet and they are working really well! I'm down ~20 lbs. so far and have less than 10 lbs. to go to reach what I think is my goal weight (think bc it's been a long time since I have been that weight >_>). For the first time in a long time I'm now in the "normal" BMI category so that is really exciting for me :D The bad part is that I haven't been working out that much so I need to start toning up lol.

And as promised I thought I would show what I've been working on. I actually haven't been working on the Mage from 7th Dragon. Instead I got in a huge Halloween mood and ended up almost completely finishing a kit of Remilia Scarlet from Touhou Project by Ques Q. I say almost because I finished priming and she is now sitting in a box waiting to be sprayed by my airbrush >_> I wanted to finish this kit before Halloween but as always school got in the way and I couldn't finish her in time. Soooo I would say look forward to this kit probably in mid-to-late January after I get back from my winter vacation and have some time to sit down and ponder my life decisions OTL

ANYWAY like I mentioned this kit is from Ques Q, the same people who make a lot of PVC figures. As far as I am aware the original circle that produced this kit was Gate River and then Ques Q picked the cast up and made a PVC of her along with a little pumpkin Flandre. Both of them are based off of an illustration by Yuge Sasatarou. You can view her (?) blog here if this art style appeals to you: Yuge Sasatarou's Blog

The PVC versions of these figures are also really cute but I decided to skip out because I already had the resin version of Remilia and I was not as big of a fan of Flandre.

Cute but also their bases ended up being black squares :/ On the right is the Gate River official pic.

The PVC figures just aren't doing it for me because I wanted to change the color scheme a little bit and make Remilia's colors a little darker. She's a really cute kit but the PVC version is a little too bright and it looks like Halloween candy colors to me...that sounds weird haha.

So I actually found this kit on Mandarake and got a pretty good deal on her but if you are interested in this kit or ANY of Ques Q's kits actually I recommend you check out their website. If you use a proxy you can buy the kits directly from them here. The cast quality is excellent as I'll show you shortly and the price is reasonable for an original GK (about the same as their PVC figures) so I recommend you check it out!

The box is 14cm x 10cm x 7cm so it's pretty small. I didn't measure how tall the kit was once I stuck her together but it is pretty much the same as the PVC (about 110mm). The parts sheet is pretty standard as usual and just tells you where to put the tiny details. I like how they put the DON'T RECAST in English as well as Japanese. Seriously guys if you can buy a great cast from Ques Q for a decent price don't settle for recast quality :(

Thanks Ques Q!

And now onto the pics of the actual product! I unfortunately don't have too many pictures of the building process for this kit mainly because it is a really nice cast. There were a number of air bubbles I had to fill in but I don't think I got any pictures of those. As always if you would like to see a higher quality photo simply right click and the photo in a new tab. The resin actually is that white. I didn't do any Photoshopping to enhance the colors which really says something about how clean the quality is. Unfortunately the Ques Q cast did not include a little resin base like the original Gate River cast. I have a ton of acrylic square bases though so I think that I can get Remi to fit on one.

Here are all of the parts. The details on the wings and the flowers are cast in a very fine sheet of resin that was easy to pull apart.

The head pieces fit in perfectly

Seriously this stuff was like paper thin

It took quite a while to shave off all that stuff but it's looking good now! The key to getting seamlines off of fine pieces is a sharp X-acto knife.

Getting a spooky bath

Having guidelines for the eyes is really nice, it's like that Girls the Gathering kit I had that's one of my favorites.

That's all the pictures that I have so far! There's still a couple more things I have to do before painting like making sure the pins still fit well, finishing filling in some air bubbles and then re-priming but other than that she's ready for some real enamel paints :B Thanks for taking the time to read this far and if I don't post before the New Year have a Happy Holiday season and a great New Years!

7th Dragon Mage - Sanding and Test-fitting

Hello everyone! I meant to post this before school started but lost the motivation halfway through and had a half-completed blog post for almost a month...well today I'm feeling really motivated for some reason so I decided to post what kit I've been up to and what is now sitting in pieces on my desk

This cute kit was painted by an artist named Ken - and on the other side is the official artwork

More pictures and details under the gap since they are quite large and lag my main page ↓

Nostradamus and Other Updates

Hello! I realized it's been quite a few months since I've posted but I have been busy painting and with life. Probably the biggest reason why I've been busy is because of this little guy below:

His name is Missile and he is almost five months old ^^

I could just write on and on about Missile...he's a Pomeranian/Japanese Chin mix and every day seems like it's something new/exciting/awful lol. I've owned dogs in the past but I've never raised one up from puppyhood (we've owned him since he was 8 weeks) so it's a big adjustment to my lifestyle (no more late nights, socks on feet, etc.). The pros far outweigh the cons though and he's a big light in my life.

I've also been working more on myself since I was dealing with what I'd like to think is a little depression this past semester. I just felt so unhappy with everything even though I thought I was pushing myself pretty hard (maybe that's why?) so I've decided to make some personal changes to my health. I often struggled to eat or drink anything during the day because I was flying from getting up early in the morning 4-6am --> bus --> meetings/class --> sometimes working --> more class --> more working? --> bus --> and getting home at 6-7pm and then heading to bed unless I had to study in which case I would stay up until like midnight and then wake up at 4-6 again. This is also why I don't have time to build during the semester -_- So I've basically been forcing myself to eat a certain number of calories and to exercise more and I think it's making a little bit of a difference. I don't feel as tired walking around places and cardio isn't bad and I've dropped a couple of pounds since I started so I just hope it's a good sign. Other than that I am putting off the job search because I'm being lazy and terrible and I'm not sure what the future has in store since the SO has some pretty major plans he wants to put in action. We'll see I guess.

Enough about me though since I haven't been totally useless! It seems like the last time I posted I was working on a Remilia kit but like all GK builders we often switch from project to project without finishing anything...so I started working on one of my favorite kits recently, Nostradamus from Windflower  ^^

This is a lovely kit that was first sold at WF2012S. I am a big fan of Oyari Ashito's art style and the sculptor in this circle Chikai did a terrific job translating Nostradamus into 3D. As much as I love this kit though I am not a fan of the color scheme...I get that it's supposed to be very roughly based off the 16th century and prophecies and stars and stuff but it's a little too whitewashed for me. So since she is a GK and I don't feel any attachment to the character I decided to reinvent the color scheme!

The colors are a little muted here and the scribbles are a mess but drawing the figure out like this helps me figure out what I want to do early on so I don't go in blindly painting lol. I am actually ~95% done with this kit now since all the pieces are painted and I'm just shading her so I expect to take pictures in a couple of days and then do a full post about her. Here are a couple of WIP photos.

 

Lol I didn't stress too bad on the eyebrows this time since you can't even see them with her hairpiece...

Plus a bonus! Here is my mess of a work space. It's actually cleaner here than usual haha...

Thanks for reading as always and keep an eye out soon for this completed kit!