STS Model Painting Month 2022 - post your FINISHED works here

It's a nice giraffe, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] And a very inventive technique!

I finished my blue merle dog.

For painting it I've tried too many techniques and, sadly, it shows. It ended up looking too messy. But I like some fragments and I've learned something again. I'm quite happy with his face.
Techniques I used were: blending wet paints (slow-drying acrylics), drybrush (not visible anymore, didn't like it), hair by hair painting, pastels (after all not very useful here), and colored pencils (worked ok but not great).

If I could start again, I would only use slow-drying acrylics for blending the base colors (the lighter tones) and then hair by hair painting and maybe colored pencils for markings.

Anyway, meet Silver
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That dog is a stunner. Very nice job!

Ah, silver is such a sweety. I like the contrast in the colours and the tiny dots on his face. And it's nice that you tried out different techniques!

Talking about techniques: I really like seeing how you tried to recreated the spots on the giraffe. I can understand that you are disappointed in how they turned out, but I think they are not that bad. If you could find a way to round of the harsh corners on the spots they would not be far off from the real pattern I think. But I hope you can take what you learned form this and use it for giraffe version 2.0 :)

I also like the 'impressionist' dapple grey. It's nice that you chose something challenging to paint and you are indeed not the only one who took close up photo's of small repaints and saw all the little imperfections that aren't visible in real life. But I agree with you that thumbnail photo look really convincing and represent the colour really well. But I do also enjoy the more artistic look of the close-up.

Burgerenby's megaloceros looks really cool as well. It's an interesting mix of realism and fantasy. The small details are really well done, but so is the general blending and colour choice!

and then lastly the tiger family. They turned out really lovely! I also like the last photo, it makes me smile :)

Here are the pictures of my finished Maltese tiger  
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I'm happy with the results. I'm glad I got to make the eyes blue and was able to put in some pinks for the nose and mouth to give it more colour. Otherwise it would be a bit monochrome.

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Here is is meeting my other tigers      

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All I can say is that it is simply gorgeous! Very nice work, its like seeing this rare animal in person.

Wow, your tiger looks gorgeous! Beautiful, amazing work A-J! Huge congrats

The grey is an eye catcher! Such lovely shades of grey! Congratulations on finishing it!

The Giraffe looks very nice! The result of this technique is very interesting I wouldn't repaint it, it is a trophy of this years STS Painting month!

Thanks everyone for your comments. The elk, hyena, sheltie, horse, tiger look fantastic.

Thanks everyone for your kind words!

Ana wrote:

He turned out wonderful, Jill! What a lovely horse! He has a ton of character, I love his face, looks like he could tell us something funny
It's quite incredible how much nice paintwork can change a regular toy horse into such a storyteller

I'm glad he comes across with personality! I think that's a big part of the charm of the funrise sculpts, so it's nice to enhance rather than muddle that.

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

He looks great Jill! I have not attempted a dapple yet, so I admire your work and dedication! Especially on such a small guy...

I would love to see more horses from you.   I don't know if a recommend dapple gray or not, however.  

Burgerenby wrote:

Looking at the photos of the original Funrise toy, I am baffled how you managed to make it look so natural, glasses or not, your repaint improved the figure to a great degree, especially the face, but I also love the different shades that are blending on the sides of the body.
I also like that you gave the hooves some colour variation with the keratin.

Thank you so much! I was hoping to give these little figures that I like so much a next level of representation that their original rather sorry paint jobs just don't do. They will never be really elegant or fine sculpts, but I wanted to know what they could have been like, perhaps how the original artist imagined them.

sunny wrote:

your horse is wonderful Jill, he catches the light splendidly!
and yes I understand what you mean about the small size and looking better from afar, because when I was painting my small models - in any photos I took you could clearly see the smudges and astray brush lines! however, it is all about perspective I suppose ?
even the greatest painters had to look at their paintings from a certain distance to fully appreciate them perhaps it is the same case with these little models ? though, I personally love his close up pics and his coat. There is a lot of light moving about on him

That's true, we always laughed in art class and said we would name our paintings whatever distance we wanted the viewer to stand from it. My dad calls it "a ten-footer" when you make something that looks better from a distance.  

A-J wrote:

I also like the 'impressionist' dapple grey. It's nice that you chose something challenging to paint and you are indeed not the only one who took close up photo's of small repaints and saw all the little imperfections that aren't visible in real life. But I agree with you that thumbnail photo look really convincing and represent the colour really well. But I do also enjoy the more artistic look of the close-up.

Seeing the close ups was almost shocking. I probably should have taken some photos before declaring him done, but that's another lesson learned.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] that's a really ingenious idea for painting spots! I do think it could be very effective, so I hope if you try again you share it with us.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] gorgeous merle coat, wow!! I know you can see flaws in it as the artist but I am entirely unable to spot any, haha. Beautiful soft color and wonderful details, especially how the markings follow the coat and the texture on the face.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I absolutely adore your tiger, it came out so wonderful. Your interpretation feels real and very believable, plus just beautiful! Other maltese tiger interpretations I have seen felt more fantasy or just less likely, but this one feels very grounded in real animal colors. Nice work handling the stripes and all the color variation within the "blue." Stunning blue eyes, too.

Thank you, everyone, for participating in our Second STS Painting Month! It's been a joy to see all the lovely animal models coming to life with the new colors!  
I hope you enjoyed it and that you're happy with your creations!

I hope I'll be able to find time for creating a collage of all our works very soon, not later than the coming weekend

Congratulations to us! Cheers!

Ana wrote:

Congratulations to us! Cheers!

I was able to finish the blue jay during May (my local time, anyway).  I’m really glad I was able to complete something after all- I almost didn’t start anything after the okapi mishap, but I worked hard at the last moments and I think it turned out well! I’ll have to post the original and process pics after this, as I didn’t get a chance earlier.

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Wow, it turned out beautiful! Fantastic work, Andy! The new paintwork is just perfect and I also love the photos!
I'm really glad to hear that you were able to finish it before the end of May as it means I can add this bird to our final collage! And I will do that happily!
Congrats!!

A beautiful bird! Very nicely done!

That's very pretty Andy I love all the shades of blue and I'm glad you were able to finish it in time

Beautiful bird, it looks absolutely alive! The details on the wings feathers clearly took a lot of patience. I love how bright the blue is on the wings as well.

I missed this topic, I was working throughout the holiday weekend. These are just stunning! I love the dog Anna, it’s gorgeous!

That blue tiger came out so well! It would be very cool to see one in real life, the shading and stripes look perfect.

Safaris toob blue jay is a great model, your paintwork made it stunning! So many details and I love the photos of it in the flowers.

So many talented artists on this forum

Beautiful Bluejay!

Oh wow, this bird looks fantastic!!! So much details, so realistic!! Wonderful!
This was a wonderful event this year, hopefully it will be the second in a roll of many to come!

Thanks to each of you for the nice comments on the blue jay. The lighting was not ideal for pictures but I wanted to get them made and posted. I will try to take some pictures in natural light at some point.

I felt a bit bad I couldn’t follow everyone’s posts more closely the last couple weeks, but I wanted to leave some comments now after seeing the results:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : You did a beautiful job on this deer. The colors are convincing and the fur looks real, especially the blending of colors/texture along its back. It looks very at-home in the photoshoot environment you used.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : The fox turned out lovely. It is even smaller than I thought but you managed to shade it realistically- even the inside of the ears look furry! I love the pictures with the mossy ground, and the tiny chickens.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : The knock-off hyena looks quite happy that you rescued it with a paint job that is a unique pattern, but still unmistakably a spotted hyena. The Schleich version is so dark, it’s great to see how you used a more cheerful orangey tone, nicely blended for this one’s coat!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : The shapes and placement for those tiny tiger stripes looks challenging, but they turned out perfect. It’s nice that you created a whole family with matching colors- the cubs look quite playful/alive and almost seem like they’re moving around in the photos despite being attached to a base. (Also, I never thought of using nail art brushes before- I should look into those!)

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : Really fun to see your different take on the Megaloceros (also your other versions!). The details on the feet and antlers are quite interesting, and I like the side stripe dividing the darker and paler colors. I considered getting this model to repaint, and now feel more inspired to do so after seeing your interpretations and George’s. The texture on the sculpture seems to work well with many different painting techniques.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : I think your horse turned out quite artistic- you say it looks blotchy up close, but like an impressionist painting, what we process through our eyes is different from zooming in on individual paint strokes. The coat pattern has a lot of depth to it, the hooves as well. I also like the front view, with the fine wisps of mane and the blended texture going down the face. Again, I’m happy to see a Funrise horse given a new life with painting.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : That was an interesting technique to try on the giraffe- the effect is decorative and enjoyable to see. If you do make changes, I’m sure we will all be looking forward to the result. It sounds like we may both be working on Britains-style giraffids yet, if you revisit this one and I restart the okapi.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : Silver is really transformed from the figure you started with! It seems like a challenging coat pattern and the results look professional. Its face is lovely with lots of personality and I like the way the eyes are looking up. Interesting to hear about the techniques, I think this event provided learning opportunities for all of us with our models. Out of curiosity, which slow-drying acrylics did you use? My typical painting concern is not mixing enough of a color and trying to keep it from drying if I work too slowly.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : Your tiger looks quite convincing with its unusual coat color. The fine striping blends nicely with the rest of the shading, and the highlights around the head plus the colors on the face do work well to bring it to life. It looks so different from the other tigers, but your painting makes it look just as natural.

Thanks again this year to everyone for doing this event, which provided encouragement to get more painting done, and congratulations to everyone on your work.

I’m a little late here and didn’t post a “before” photo (there is a photo on my New Additions page, though), but here is my Schleich Peregrine Bat Falcon.
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Another very nice bird!

It's a very nice bird indeed Great repaint!
May I ask when did you finish painting it?

Well done for getting your dappled grey done in time after thinking you wouldn't, Jill. I can only echo the others in saying the impressionist dappling is the kind of thing which looks like a deliberate artistic choice rather than a flawed finish, that from a distance it's really effective with the light and dark and contrast all in the right places. Close-ups are never flattering, for all but the top star-of-the-hobby painters with professional-level airbrush equipment and an art studio and unlimited budget to create perfection, that the rest of us can't even dream of recreating even if we got in there and had a go with all their stuff, let alone at home with paint on a brush

Silver looks fantastic finished, we wouldn't know you'd had difficulties and frustrations with the paintwork, even though you'll always be able to see where you feel the technique was failing you, from our outside point of view he looks beautifully finished and coherent. I love his face, and the way the hair texturing affects his markings, so they're sharper where the fur is shorter, and more feathered and soft where the coat is long and fluffy.

The Maltese Tiger (that sounds like a film title ) also looks beautiful finished, I agree with Jill this feels like a very real interpretation, not remotely like a fantasy creature like the photoshopped blue tiger versions, or what we call a decorator paintjob in model horses, where they use bright unnatural colours on purpose for the sake of being pretty. I love the last photo where all the standard orange tigers are facing up to him!

The Blue Jay is absolutely spectacular, the finished colouration is so intricate and detailed, and adding the right colours to the various shapes of feather really highlights how neat and accurate the sculpting is, it'd be hard to replicate the detailing and pattern if the mould hadn't got the feathering so right. His colour's so clear and jewel-like, I bet they're very exciting to see in the wild (we don't have them here, our native jays are still one of my favourites but they're much plainer, with brown and cream bodies and only one tiny flash of barred blue on the wing)

And finally the Bat Falcon, a very nice transformation and good to fill a gap in your collection with a custom figure if no company's made one yet. I like how you've given some blending and marbling effect on the wings so they don't look too plain and flat, and the barring for the chest and tail is very effectively applied, too.

Congratulations to all