Seeking Critique for first repaint ("China" Dog)

Yesterday I found a bin of those really cheap badly painted animal figures you find at places like Walmart at the craft store Michael's. They had the usual safari animals there but they also had a dog oddly enough.

The engraved marks on it claim its a Collie...but it certainly looks nothing like one. It is however, a very nice sculpture for a Husky or other Spitz type breed. The painting on this originally was horrible,bright orange with very bad eyes.

So, I bought it with the intention of repainting it. Originally I was just going to make it a white husky but over time I turned it into something of Karelian Bear dog, or perhaps a mix of one and a Husky? Let me know what you guys think it looks like!

I've never done a repaint before and my hands aren't very steady,but let me know what you guys think. This was done with acrylic paint except for a bit of gloss varnish on the eyes,claws and nose.



Note: The tongue and paw pads were done with a form of metallic paint.

Larger versions of the photos are on my flickr account:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/46289055@N06/

Finishing question: Should I finish the entire figure with the gloss varnish? Or should I try to buy a semi gloss or matte coat varnish to finish it? I like glossy figurines but I don't want it to look too tacky to others.

Nice work!

I would suggest for your next one to sand off the seams and remove the stamp on the belly. Makes the model look much cleaner.

Most definitely finish in matte. Gloss finish will almost always come out literally tacky, as in sticky. You can try spraying very thin layers at a time and letting it dry for several hours in between each coat, but I've never had luck with gloss.

LeeAnn wrote:

Nice work!

I would suggest for your next one to sand off the seams and remove the stamp on the belly. Makes the model look much cleaner.

Most definitely finish in matte. Gloss finish will almost always come out literally tacky, as in sticky. You can try spraying very thin layers at a time and letting it dry for several hours in between each coat, but I've never had luck with gloss.

I don't know how to do that. Do I have to use sandpaper or something? This figure is hollow so i'd be more worried about destroying it in the process.

And hm,okay. This particular gloss is paint on so you can make the coat very thin, i've used it on wood and other surfaces before and it didn't become sticky.

I use needle files, but sandpaper works fine. You can use cheapo nail files from the dollar store too.

Really? I've never seen paint on gloss sealer It's something with the plastic that makes it tacky for some reason, which is why it's fine on other materials. You can try it of course and see what happens!

Great for the first time, I think
But you have one strong mistake: dogs and wolves have FIVE fingers on the forepaws and FOUR on the hind legs. So why did you paint just three toes?
I think this big black spot on the shoulders is too direct, isn't it?
And please, please, NO gloss! It looks not naturally
But I like your job at all: you did it very accurate

Anasta SchwarzeWölfin wrote:

Great for the first time, I think
But you have one strong mistake: dogs and wolves have FIVE fingers on the forepaws and FOUR on the hind legs. So why did you paint just three toes?
I think this big black spot on the shoulders is too direct, isn't it?
And please, please, NO gloss! It looks not naturally
But I like your job at all: you did it very accurate

There are four on each paw,it was sculpted as such. I just added a nail for each sculpted digit. There is one visable dewclaw on the one front leg. As for the paw pads, I just thought it looked cuter that way. I didn't want it to look overly splotchy.

What do you mean too direct? It wasn't meant to be based off a certain dog its just a design I came up with so I do not really understand.

But thank you.

shadoweon wrote:

Anasta SchwarzeWölfin wrote:

Great for the first time, I think
But you have one strong mistake: dogs and wolves have FIVE fingers on the forepaws and FOUR on the hind legs. So why did you paint just three toes?
I think this big black spot on the shoulders is too direct, isn't it?
And please, please, NO gloss! It looks not naturally
But I like your job at all: you did it very accurate

There are four on each paw,it was sculpted as such. I just added a nail for each sculpted digit. There is one visable dewclaw on the one front leg. As for the paw pads, I just thought it looked cuter that way. I didn't want it to look overly splotchy.

What do you mean too direct? It wasn't meant to be based off a certain dog its just a design I came up with so I do not really understand.

But thank you.

Sorry if my comment sounds too rough, I didn't want hurt you.
I just think that we need to adhere to some rules of anatomy, especialy if we make/paint natural, not cartoonish animals. So I would paint each toe.
I mean that maybe you need to do some penumbras or not such direct edge in that big black spot? I don't imply any certain dog, I just would like to do so