This is an impressive piece; from when I opened the box, ‘till I had it proudly displayed in my figure cabinet…VLS has produced a tremendous bust that represents the passion, spirit and legend of the pirate “The Devil, Incarnate,” Blackbeard. VLS masterfully produced this bust in 5 resin pieces, the torso, head, hat, pistol and stand. Each piece is exceptionally cast and with although the hat had a sizable resin carrier attached. VLS wisely chose to place the carrier on the back of the hat, but one must take care when removing the resin carrier on the hat; otherwise you will have to fill the void left from the flash.
After washing the pieces, and letting them air dry, I was ready to start painting in less than an hour. I am a huge fan of the Andrea range of acrylic paints. With the exception of the flesh tones, I used Andrea throughout the bust. I started with the flesh tones, since to me, once I get a “feel” for the face, and its passion, the rest of the figure and colors seem to fall right into place. I started my flesh tones with a white acrylic base then when dried, followed that with an application of Luiquid-tex Israeli Desert pink. While the flesh base was drying, I attached the pistol and holster, and then applied the white acrylic base to the rest of the bust. I don’t really apply a lot of the acrylic white base; just enough to cover the bust, and give the Andrea paints something to “bite” onto.
My flesh tones are mixed with Winsor-Newton Artist oils…I use oils only for the flesh tones, since I like the flexibility the wet-in technique gives as I shade and shadow the flesh tones. My flesh mixture is burnt sienna, titanium white, yellow ochre, and medium red. Highlights are achieved by adding yellow ochre to white (“yellowing the white”) with just a dab from the base color. Shadows come from the base color with a dab of raw umber for depth. I can’t tell you how many parts of this and of that, it becomes a “feel” for me once I decide on whether the figure is going to be cold, wet, warm, or dry… I lay in the base oil color directly, without the use of thinner, rather thinly like a stain. Once the base color is in, then I take a lint free rag, and wipe away the “stain” and what I am left with is a very thin layer of the base coat on the highlights.
I now can see where the highlights need to go, and much depth to give to the shadows. I start on the shadows and work out to the highlights; getting successively whiter with each application of highlights. Once I am satisfied with the flesh tone, highlights and the shadows, I bake the face in a crock-pot set on low for about 20mins. This way, the oils dry flat, and can touch up shadows and highlights without the sheen of oils. As the face is baking, I applied a coat of Napoleonic Red to the coat, a black wash to the chain mail (hidden from view, under the beard). I gave the coat three applications of the Napoleonic Red to get the rich color. I added a dab of yellow ochre to the red (a shade of orange) for the highlights, and then added wood to the base for the shadows. I used Prussian blue on the shirt color; mixed a dab of pearl white for the highlights, and a dab of black to the base blue color for the shadows. I mixed leather brown and black for the two belts and holster then highlighted with a mixture of the base color and wood. I applied a 50-50 mix of gloss and matt finish to get the leather look on the belts. The pistol got three coats of yellow ochre and wood. Gold and silver were applied to the metal finishes. The shoulder boards were given a base of yellow ochre followed by an application of gold, then highlighted with silver printers ink and gold.
Shadows were achieved from the darkness of the yellow ochre. I used the same technique on the gold lace on the hat, too. Once I had the base bust completed that too was baked in the crock-pot for 20mins on low while I painted the beard, hair and scarf. I used black with a touch a dark brown for all the hair; that was highlighted with a touch of Prussian blue. The beard leather twists were painted with the same mixture as the belts, but given a coat of gloss to represent the oil used to hold the ties in place, and I applied the same base coat of red for the beard ribbons. I highlighted the ribbons with the same mix as the coat. For the handkerchief on his head, I started with a base of Prussian blue and then faded out to a medium blue; I used ivory white for the dots. Highlights for the handkerchief were achieved by applying a dab of white to the medium blue. The trademark pirate hat was primed using the acrylic base, and then used black with a touch of Prussian blue. The lace trim was achieved by using yellow ochre and gold. This is an awesome figure and truly stands out in the figure case. VLS has sculpted a timeless piece that captures the passion of the man, and his spirit of the life style that made him infamous. This is the fifth VLS bust I have done, and will in a heartbeat buy another