Monday, July 22, 2013

Rydia Circlet

The circlet was one of my most and least favorite pieces.

I am really proud of the paint job, which was done using an airbrush.  A base coat of black airbrush paint was applied first.  Then, I watered down Martha Stewart's pearl acrylic craft paints to bring the piece to life.  By using the black base coat, this enabled me to get a shadow effect in the crevices.  And, it made for richer colors from the acrylics; the gunmetal color would have otherwise come out as a lighter silvery color.


Rydia of Mist cosplay FF4 final fantasy iv circlet headpiece by Elathera

The rest of this piece was largely unsatisfying.  I would have preferred to use some sort of gem or bead in the center rather than painting this section in.  However, I did not find one that was 100% satisfactory.

After having success using Instamorph moldable plastic on part of the belt, I decided to use it on the circlet as well.  Because the headpiece is very thin, however, I found it difficult to get an even length on the band.  It was also frustrating to attach and/or mold some of the details, which sticks out quite obviously in the photo above.  This would have been alleviated somewhat had I sanded it.

Lessons learned:
  1. Moldable plastic is good for large pieces; it is hard to shape nicely for thin pieces.
  2. Don't be lazy! Applying a base coat color can really enhance your paint job.

No comments:

Post a Comment