The Return of the Garden Gnome
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About the Project
Last year, I picked up a large garden gnome and tried to paint it applying miniature painting techniques. The experiment left me wanting for more, so when a Florida storm knocked this other gnome off the deck, breaking it in several parts, I decided to put him back together and paint it with the same techniques as his 'sibling'. This is my path from reassembled to painted.
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Back in the Garden
It had been several month since our gnomish friend had not seen the yard, and today, after two layers of varnish, I placed a broken stone near the foot of the deck stairs, in the ferns, and gave him a new home. His name is Greeny McGee He seems happy about it…
Bringing the Color Back
As I mentioned before, my intention was to print this gnome as it he were a 28mm miniatures, except that I would be using craft paint so as not to spend a fortune on the project.
Thant meant I had to create my flesh color from scratch like the first time around. And it appears it is like riding a bicycle (although I do not really know how to properly ride a bike so this is where that analogy collapses). I added yellow and white to lighten up the skin till I reached highlights. Wet blended red was added to cheeks and nose.
The result was rather good, IMHO. I forgot the hears at first so had to go back and paint and highlight them
The beard was simply achieved with Burnt Sienna, which I let rest in the recesses and worked with ‘in the wet’ to create a some diversity in texture. I used the same color for the paints but, due to the magic of zenithal highlighting, they appear a bit darker.
For the tunique, I chose a green color which I achieved using Forest Green and Sour Apple which were then wet blended on the gnome. Note that the bel is just black with some grey added for highlights and scratches.
Finally, the hat was painted two shades of red and accented with highlights of orange, created by adding yellow to the original color.
The shoes were painted black and highlighted with the same grey used for the belt. As for the base, I used the tunic green base layer and dry brushed the vegetation with the Apple Green. Stones were painted grey and dry brushed in two progressively lighter tones of tan. Finally I used a bouquet I had brought to my wife for the flowers color scheme (see below).
From Broken to Primed
A passing storm knocked out gnome off the deck and I found him lying on the ground in 3 pieces. I felt terrible as I should have brought him inside ahead of the tumultuous weather. My duty was now to fix it.
Once reassembled and the break lines hidden with epoxy, I could not bring myself to leave him in this state of semi decrepitude. This is where I decided to paint it akin to his ‘sibling’ now living happily across the path (see my previous gnome project – https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1811226/).
