The decision, to scrape it all.
I figured it could be better and it's only 1 session of work and it was quite fun to be honest, so why not do it all over again.
This time I won't prime.
And here's another attempt.
This time I didn't make as much mistake and paint over so the wrinkles are preserved, the hand is more invisible this time, and I am able to do washing.
Although the previous attempt followed how the sculptor intended the expression to be, it is only visible from a really low angle. After putting it in the helmet, I could see only the red spots from a flat angle.
I compared the size of the iris with the Ashura Temple, they are about the same size, it would be fine if I paint the Vatshu's iris the same. Also looked at some waist angle shots of Barber's, the size of his iris is fine, the issue appeared to be the yellow parts.
This time, I only paint the yellow slightly outside the iris, and covered the rest with red.
Since the red now share the same section with the yellow, the grey is also being pushed back, it used to have 2 rims of grey, now it is just one.
Slightly lower angles. It is now not as menacing as the WSC display. But it's similar to the Ashura, I opted for more viewing angles, while the expression can still be related to the manga appearance.
I want to have this shot again when it is finished, with the eyes visible.
Here is a zoom to the pixels maximized. From the inside it was black, then mahogany, a black line wash, then yellow.
What a fulfilling day. After several failed attempts, I thought I have it, about to wrap things up, took a photo, then found one of the eye is smaller.
Repainted the left eye. I put brown on top of the yellow, then black inside for the iris.
Tried to make some color variations on the red, ended up looking like dirty but I guess it is better than cartoon looking.
I guess this is how it is supposed to be colored. Now it looks watery, debating if I should flat coat it. I couldn't do panel wash but maybe if I flat coat it I could, kind of.
The face is a bit tilted in this pic, the eyes are fine in terms of symmetry, I guess.
I used Tan color and Brown(Tea) color to mix with yellow for the eyes.
While I was at it, I thought about last time the orange turned green is probably the gray I used is a sort of blue color. I was given a tip about black color, that they always have cool or warm tone, when mixed with yellow it will immediately show.
I also tried to mix another bottle of orange, this time I mixed it with Tea color and a bit yellow.
The new mix of orange is painted on both end of the spoon, it still looks sharp in this photo but in person it's been desaturated by quite a bit, no longer fluorescent looking. The middle is the first mixture, and I painted some 59 orange out of the bottle in those 2 rectangles in between.
The problem with the first mix, it is more yellow than it is desaturated, and it is very light, has too much contrast with the red and black.
Also still testing and observing the main black, I'm on the third bottle now, I had it, then I messed it up, by wearing a green t-shirt while doing it. After so many spoon painting, I also familiarize myself with the paint thickness, air pressure, paint flow using the PS290.
Contrast of first mixture of orange
I can't work with the previous bottle of paint anymore as it now has too much tonal impurity in it. I mixed another bottle of main black, this time I begun with a mixture of 67 Purple and 80 Cobalt Blue to set the tone, then in a separate bottle I mixed them with gray. Now this color if placed against white background it will look too vibrant, but when I set it in the shelf behind the glass, on hand, or on photo it looks about right, similar to Wave and the line art. I'm still debating if I want to lighten it, now it doesn't seem to have harmony with the red and orange. I haven't tested it on a large round surface like it would be on the shield, on the arm parts and skirt it seem alright, but not sure about the legs, shoulders, shield.
More testing, again in the morning, as I had doubt with almost all of the colors.
The black, looks too purple and black at the same time, I tested it on an optional armor part, I hated it, the surface details were so hidden under its semi-gloss finish, I added quite a bit of white to lighten it, it's only a bit lighter but the difference is quite huge. Yet under my room's lighting, you would still look at it and say it is a type of black. The amount of purple in it is now very subtle I guess, at a first glance it would appear just grey, after looking at it for a while the purple starts to show a little, maybe too little now?! I reckon it is better to have it subtle than overdone.
Clock-wise from the red, I masked off the spoons to paint only the tip, so you see the the difference with the old mixes.
The scan from the Designs 3 has a lot of contrast an brightness in it. I also referenced to the Knight Flags.
The red is more dark and desaturated, but since there are some highlight of red on the forehead and chest in the line art, I did some adjustment and this is the color I think it is supposed to be according to the image in my head.
I can't find a way to desaturate orange, it would turn green for some reason, so I only added a bit more Gundam Yellow.
Purple for the sword handle isn't changed.
I added about 30% of brown to the light grey for the under armor, the patterns on the underside are rectangles so I thought a brown-ish gray would revok the padding under armors。
The color in the line art supposedly shown how it would look under sunlight, I used the lower part of the page for reference which is darker. My color is even a bit darker than that, and less blue。
The frame gray has been lighten by a lot, to have more contrast with the main color(my black is darker, and my frame is lighter compared to the drawing)。I hated how it had a little green and blue so I added just a bit of brown。
I tested it on the optional parts, I should prep these part as well, they will come in handy in the future builds. Now they looked ugly due to them being not sanded.
