Kikimalou's Cosmetic surgery practice: May 18, the procrastination is over !

Over the past few months, my body has sent me some very clear warnings: Either I slow down my pace of life or it's going to end badly! Of course one day it's going to end badly but I'm not in such a hurry so for once I agreed to listen.
I'm not good at yoga but I can paint a few figures, it should work just as well.
I took out my Milliput paste, I bought a few tubes of paint and brushes.
From now on I will make you benefit from my daubs right here, so I give appointment to all those who have a strong heart.

Let's start today with the first story: The Cyclops, the Black Unicorn and the Mountain Goat.

Once upon a time there was a collector… who liked to browse the web in search of very unknown, very beautiful or very poetic figurines. He particularly loves Indian rhinoceros figurines and precisely that day he came across a Unicorn rhinoceros, dark of dress, which reminded a bit the Lineol IV Black rhino, less realistic but with a very soft and beautiful eyes.
The guy is me of course, I buy the rhino and I finally get the package. And there, Holy molly, that's what I find inside  
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My long-awaited little rhino was destroyed. I was all the more disgusted because it was the only one of its kind that I had ever encountered.
There was one solution left: try to restore this poor Dark Unicorn.

I may not have the talent of Ana or Caracal, but I can try to have the courage of Lucky Luke who produces a whole flock of birds every year and for whom I have great admiration.

My problem is that I am a cyclops, I was electrified about 20 years ago and I lost central vision in my left eye. It doesn't bother me too much in everyday life, but on the other hand I've lost perspective and when it comes to play table tennis or paint something in three dimensions, it's quite a handicap. I only know if my brush has touched the model when it has touched the model, I no longer know how to assess the distance.

I thought about the Pfeiffer Malayan tapir I had restored a few months ago, but with this one I only had to touch up a bit the damaged parts, this time we went to a much higher level.

When I doubt, when I hesitate in front of something that seems insurmountable, I always go to visit the Mountain goat because it always gives me the necessary impetus to get going.

It's the photo below, every time I look at it I tell myself that many impossible things are possible if you try.
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So I picked up the scattered pieces, put together all I could and got this
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The Rhino had regained some semblance of life but it was still very damaged.
So I went to ”Operation Milliput plus sanding” to get that.
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At this point, I was still not satisfied. I would have had to finish with a small portable grinder to make the traces of the surgery disappear. I gave it up, I was afraid of doing worse than better.
So I went to paint and there, further disaster, my paints had aged badly, not only did they refuse to mix properly but some had changed colors. It was a bit like peeling a hard-boiled egg only to find that the yolk is blue.
A little rescue message to Ana, a visit to the store and courage!

As for the Tapir, my objective is a "minimum" restoration. I don't want to repaint everything but on the contrary leave as many of the original parts intact. It's even more difficult, at least for me: Finding shades close to the original with modern paintings is a very good (and painful) exercise in painting.

Now let's talk about the Rhino itself. This toy is far from perfect, it is even twisted. The front of the body leans clearly to the right because it has a shorter leg, the horn is also offset to the right and the eyes are not at all at the same level. We are closer to Quasimodo than to Casanova.
And yet I find him a mad charm...
Finally I must say that I am very proud of what I have done, not because of the result of course, I am far from perfection. I'm just proud to have taken up the challenge and it's already not so bad.
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That's a very successful operation! The rhino looks lovely, and very charming You matched the colors perfectly and gave him new life after what seemed impossible to repair, great job! Bringing a decapitated unicorn back to life is indeed a legendary achievement And an amazing story for Thursday morning

Thank you Anna for your kind words.
I had no idea how hard Milliput gets when it's dry. I had a lot of trouble sanding to make the seam lines disappear and, to tell the truth, I didn't succeed. It's not too visible to the eye but it's obvious in the pictures. If I have to live again such an ordeal I will be more meticulous before drying.

Seeing the condition that the unicorn has arrived in, it is natural for me to think that this was a cyclopean work.
You're certainly a resilient person and it is inspiring to read it crossed with the successful story of the restoration of a unicorn.

Thank you Rogério, I hope it is the beggining of a new adventure for me

This was a fantastic story to enjoy this morning. Superb work on a sadly deformed figure. I can 100% see his charm though, and you pulled Humpty-Dumpty back together after all! Wonderful job Christophe!

This indian rhino is born again!

thank you Paige, Andreas and Alain

the rhino looks wonderful Christophe! and very charming indeed, which suits his old world demeanour!

the colours looked matched perfectly. Well done on your rescue mission!

i can hardly look at the photo of the mountain goat without my heart rate escalating! I hope there were pillows underneath him?

I'm so glad you decided to try to restore him and not give up on him, it's really a fantastic piece and has lost none of its charm for having gone through surgery. In its way, it is even more unique now than ever--singular to your collection, and very individual, with a resurrection story. Amazing work getting that really shattered head back together!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Thank you for him Annette, I can't look at the picture of the mountain goat without being captivated

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] I'm glad I did too.
This Rhino has done a lot for me, it has forced me out of my comfort zone and I am considering opening a small plastic surgery hospital.
Putting that head back together was the real ordeal, how do you not ruin it? It was terrible.

A loooong time ago Andrew aka Elephas-maximus made some fantastic elephants and Javan rhinos on shapeways. I bought the Javan rhino bull, thinking I would paint it and buy the female later. I never paint it and never bought the female because prices on shapeways reached the sky and Andrew finally closed his shop.

Fortunately all the problems I've had to overcome over the last few years and the intervention of fairy Anna with her "Painting Month" in May have convinced me to stop procrastinating and to finally repaint the piles of pale animals that have settled on my shelves.
Of course I still have to find a satisfactory solution for the tail hair but otherwise my rhino will stay like this.
I hope you'll like it a bit and of course all comments are welcome.

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So many and subbtle shades!

Oh, this rhino is gorgeous! Fantastic paintwork with beautiful subtle shading, you created a very special piece to your collection! I'm so happy to hear that our little forum event is a sparkle of sorts for such creative fire
Cheers and congratulations for painting this beautiful rhino, Kikimalou!

Kiki, all your work is simply stunning! Really, I am impressed.

Superb paint job! As others already said, the shading is fantastic. How did you do that? It's a beautiful sculpt too.

Thank you Alain, Anna, Paige and Roger, I'm very happy you enjoy it

Yes, our little forum has been a kind of spark for me a number of times.
This time it has changed the way I look at my collection and ultimately my life.
I'm starting to feel a bit more confident than I did at the beginning of May when I painted the cobra, the level of torture is much less intense and this custom activity now gives me some much needed serenity.
So not only is this not the last animal I'll present to you here, but I'm also going to fix up my office-studio photo-museum to make it my painting workshop and I'm going to equip myself for the rest of my adventures.

After a too dark grey base, I repainted the figure almost entirely with a mixture of grey and raw umber. The head got a lighter shade.
Then I washed the figure with raw umber and added a little black to accentuate the hollows. Finally I did several dry brushes of neutral grey, yellow ochre and burnt sienna with a tiny touch of vermillion. These light brushes are sometimes separated, sometimes accentuated and of course they also overlap. Then I applied a mixture of raw umber and vermillion for the eyes and a touch of black for the pupils. Finally I painted the nails lightly with raw umber.

I find that rhino figurines are often too grey. I'm not a specialist but all the Indian Rhinos I had the pleasure to meet were much darker and reddish brown. I know what I wanted to do with this wonderful sculpture.

Oh, such a sophisticated and rich painting in a figure that apparently uses to be colored in a boring way, I mean rhinos, not this species in particular.
That's the next level Christophe, it is hard for me to see such subtle shading but your description, great pictures and the realistic effect of the final result as a whole show how deep you got into it.