"Sir Francis Drake"

Alexandros Models' Sir Francis Drake. A wonderful sculpture. A ton of detail. A joy to paint. The sculptor, Angel Terol, did a brilliant job. His attention to detail is eye poping...and straining. Just when I thought I was finished paining an area on the piece, I go back over and find MORE to paint. I cursed him, yet praised him at the same time for his sculpting talents. Painted with acrylics.

Dutch Admiral Ruyter Painted-Part 2

I knew this piece called for something other than a static figure pose. I originally was going to place this painting, of his flagship the Zevin Provincien (seven Provinces), in a gilt frame, but thought that a gilt frame may be too much of a distraction. I'm sure there are some that say the painting alone is too much already...I don't, to me the subject calls for it. So, I decided on a textured base. I stippled modeling paste to the plastic card and lightly sanded when dried. Toned the white down with grey acrylic and went to transfering the image using simple tranfer paper (I also used this technique with my JFK portrait some projects ago). I wasn't sure how the textured background would look with color, but the more detail I put into it the texture seemed to fade more and more. When finished, a couple coats of satin varnish.

Ruyter Painted

I gave this particular figure a little more "pop" than the typical pieces I do. The tile work went easier than I thought. I drew a grid pattern, then gently went over the lines with an Exacto knife. This etching gave the brush tip a stopping point. As for the painted background, I wanted something that would help set the figure off. Ruyter, being a pretty big name in his day, needed something to tell his story or give the viewer an idea of what he's about. More on the ship later.

Dutch Naval Hero Michiel de Ruyter

This project just shows how easily inspired I can get. I know nothing to very little of naval warfare, let alone 17th century naval warfare. I picked up this book at a local flea market/antique mall about the history of 17th century life/politics, etc...It had some cool pictures. Anyway, there was this caption (small) on this man. I was intrigued, so I "googled" him and learned he was a big deal back in his day. More on Ruyter