First steps

I bought this model in 2011 when I was at a foreign

competition. I hadnt painted busts by that time. I
had always a respect to it. There is much skin colour
on the face, everything is large and detailed. I was
scared. It is not just to paint lights and shadows.
There are a lot of colours, warm and cool tones,
expression of the face
I put the model into the box, where it was laying for
five years. Meanwhile, I was improving my painting
skills. I think the time to paint this beautiful bust has
already come.

I opened the box and checked all

parts. There are some large resin
parts and small metal parts in the
box. There was not any piece missing.

I divided the bust into three

parts for better painting; the
head, the cap and the body of
the model, which I glued on the
wood base.

I will describe the preparation

process of the bust in the
following article.

Step by step 1 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

The face

I started with painting the face. First, I used black and white spray. The black spray from
below, and the white spray from above. Thanks this black/white undercoat I can see
some small defects, mould lines which I hadnt seen before.

I used the same process with dark blue and beige. But now I used the airbrush. It
serves me like pre-shading.

I mixed the flesh tone. I usually mix it

from yellow, red and blue. I add a bit of
white and it is done. The face colours
are: White, Burnt Cadmium Red, Flat
Blue and Yellow Ochre.

Step by step 2 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

I used the airbrush for flashing the base tone from below..

I added more white to the skin tone and painted from above with the airbrush.

I repeated it again. I added more white but this time I sprayed it only on the ridge of
the nose and cheekbones.

Step by step 3 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

Here is the palette of oil colours which I
used for painting the face. All other tones
like lips, cheeks etc. are mixed from the
skin tone. The colours are: Terra rossa,
Yellow ochre, Cobalt blue, Titan white,
Neapoli yellow light, Brown madder
elizarine, Umber natural and Burnt
umber, which finally I didnt use.

I apply the colours with two brushes. One

round and one flat cat tongue. Each
colour is thinned by the Quick Drying
Petroleum made by the
LeFrance&Bourgeois comp.

Step by step 4 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

First I applied darker shadows under the chin, under nose, cheekbones, under the
eye curve etc.

The lights were applied on the chin, cheekbones, noseI always try to spread the
colour thoroughly to make the brush strokes invisible. For that reason I focus on
smooth gradations.

For the cheekbones and the tip of the nose I used a very much diluted colour Terra
rossa. It gives lifeto the face and breaks a monotonous surface. As well as the stubble
mixed of the skin tone and Cobalt blue.

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The face often changes when you paint the beard, hair, moustache, eyebrows etc.

I just tried to put the hat on the head.

Step by step 6 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

 It was time to paint the eyes. I have
several rules when painting eyes. I never
paint white of the eye with the pure
white. I always add a bit of another
colour from the palette. This time I
added a little of skin tone. The other
important rule is to find a picture of real
eyes which I want to paint. It helps me to
see the real colour of eyes, reflection in
the eye and a real appearance of the
eye. I painted the iris with the light
brown. I used acryl colours.

I used oil colours for the next step. I

painted the lower part of the eye with
the light brown and the upper part with
the dark brown. The placed a black dot
in the middle of the lens. Finally I
painted the reflection of the eye with the
pure white.

Step by step 7 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

The body

I started to paint the body in the same way like the head. Black and white spray.

The dark blue and beige colour for pre-shading.

As the base colour for the red jacket Pelisse I used the red, blue and green acryl
colours . I applied them with the airbrush. The dark tone from below and the light tone
from above.

Step by step 8 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

 I usually find the inspiration for mixing oil
colours in art books. In this case I used
Cadmium red dark, Terra verde, Kobalt
blue, Cadmium yellow and Titan white.
The lights were red, yellow and white.
Shadows mix of red, green and blue.

I painted the jacket like the face. I shadowed the coat-Pelisse, focusing on smooth
gradations. The sphere principle works perfectly. The dark tones are at the bottom of
the bust and the light tones in the upper part of the bust. Just as if the light was shining
on the sphere from above.

Step by step 9 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

I painted the white bandolier with the airbrush. I covered the surrounding parts of the
bust with the adhesive tape not to damage it with the white colour. I attached the
adhesive tape to my T-shirt several times. The glue is not so strong then and it doesnt
damage the colour on the bust. I airbrushed the bandolier with the light grey and
white. After that I shadowed everything with oil colours.

Colour palette Lamb black, Umber

natural, Titan white, Neapoli yellow light.

When painting the white bandolier I also shadowed the black scarf on the neck. I just
used darker tone of grey.

Step by step 10 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

Gold embroidery
The gold embroidery is usually painted
with the shades of yellow. But I wanted
more. I have learned the method from
the article written by D. Ipperti.

First, I mix oil colours from brown to yellow light. I add the Rembrandt gold colour to
each tone. Rembrandt has two shades of gold colour, dark and light. The dark gold is
for darker shades and light gold for lighter shades. The last step is to add the gold
pigment to this colour palette. The gold pigment creates random gold reflections of the
completed piece. In this case I added the pigment only to three colours. I thinned the
colour with linseed oil for better application. I have to be extremely careful when
working with the pigment. One sneeze and you can start from the zero. Immediately
after finishing my work with the pigment I cleaned the brushes and palette, and I
threw the paper towel in the trash. The gold pigment is really everywhere.

Step by step 11 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

Painting the gold embroidery on the uniform is very lengthy but the result is worth it. I
dont apply the colour as usually but I make it with short lines. I imitate the
embroidery like on the real uniforms. It was done in three hours.

The buttons have been painted and I could start with the bear skin.

I used the same colour palette as on the black scarf. Lamb black, Umber natural and
Neapoli yellow light. I was not still satisfied with the left sleeve of the uniform. I
wanted a matt surface. I used the matt varnish and the airbrush; a very thin layer. Now
it is as I had expected.

Step by step 12 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek

 I mixed the gold pigment and transparent
varnish to paint the buttons. The varnish
fix the pigment at the place. Thanks to it I
dont have fine flakes of the pigment on
the surface of the bust.

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The colback

There was the bearskin turn. I painted

the colback together with the uniform
because they have the same colours.
Thats why I can offer a quick overview
how I painted it.
The red colour has been finished and the
base colour for the gold embroidery as
well.

The gold embroidery has been finished.

The plume and pompo were painted with

the airbrush. Dark red from below and
light red from above. Then I painted the
bearskin with the base colour.

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For the bearskin I used Umber natural, Lamp black and Neapoli yellow light. There was
no reason to let the colback separately. I glued it to the head and added the braids
which I painted black from bellow. For hair, moustache and braids I used oil colours
Umber natural, Umber burn, Yellow ochre and Titan white. I created the name plate for
the wood base. The bust has been finished and I have put it to on display in the
cabinet.

Thank you very much for your attention and your support.

Milan Dufek

Step by step 15 COPYRIGHT Milan TAIKO Dufek