Astrid, Female Bard: Figure 155 of 265

    This week I painted Astrid, Female Bard from the Klocke Classics Set.  Only one more from this set left to do. (Yay!)  This is an odd figure, seeming almost fifty percent 80's/90s glam rock-star and fifty percent actual fantasy-age  bard.  Having recently seen a trailer for the upcoming live-action Jem and the Holograms movie, I decided to paint her a little more towards the 80's/90's rock star.
     I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish- soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying.   I then glued the figure to a 1" black-primed fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and glued the washer to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of Elmer's White Glue.
     I forgot to take a starter picture of the unpainted figure.   I began painting by giving her a wash with thinned black ink with a tiny pin-point drop of dishsoap added to help it flow into the crevices and help show the sculpting outlines.  When the ink was dry, I painted her outfit, guitar(?), and part of her boots with Apple Barrel "Apple Light Pink".   When that was dry, I gave the pink parts a wash with Iron Wind Metals "Red" ink using a wet brush.  When the ink was dry, I drybrushed the pink parts with the base "Apple Light Pink".  I then painted the front-piece to her outfit, scabbard, and the rest of her boots with Anita's "Violet".

     I then painted her skin with Americana "Mocha".   I next painted the  sword hilt and her backpacks with Americana "Zinc", and the strings on her instrument with Folk Art "Platinum Grey". The scrolls (sheet music?) in the upper backpack I painted with Apple Barrel "Apple Parchment". Her belts and straps I painted with GW "Liche Purple"

     I painted her hair with Folk Art "Dark Brown"; and when everything was good and dry, I gave her skin, hair, and the grey parts a wash with Winsor-Newton "Peat Brown" ink using a wet brush.  I then thinned some of the ink a little and went over the purple parts also.

     When the ink was good and dry, I drybrushed her hair with Americana "Sable Brown".  I realized at this point that I had missed an elvish ear sticking out of the hair, so I painted that with the "Mocha", and when dry put a little of the "Peat Brown" ink on it.  Next, I painted her eyes.  I had wanted to do a big pink or purple star over one of her eyes, but I had had a little trouble doing the eyes in the first place,  and the way her head was tilted down and the hair hung in front of her face, made me decided to stop while I was ahead.  I painted her lips with Americana "Shading Flesh", and then mixed a little White in to do lip highlights.  I then did highlights on all her skin using the base "Mocha", then I added a little white to the"Mocha" and did some finer highlights.  I added a section of purple to the guitar using the "Violet".  I then added some Apple Barrel "Lavender" to the "Violet" and did highlights on all the purple parts.  I used Ceramcoat "Bronze" to paint some of the  smaller instrument parts and some decorations on her sleeves.  I then went back and added highlights to these with Cermacoat "14K Gold".  Lastly, I painted the white base with Ceramcoat "Walnut".
      I let the figure sit overnight, and the next morning I gave it a coat of Ceramcoat "Matte Varnish".  Later that afternoon I flocked the base.   The next day I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcote.

   I'm pleased with how she came out, though I think in general it is a silly figure.  

Figure 155 of 265: Complete