Princess Merida [Completed]

Princess Merida of clan DunBroch is one of my favourite animated movie characters. Her willingness to challenge societal norms and not accept a situation as what everybody else says it should be, is hugely refreshing. Though Brave can be trivialised as a movie about a teenager's rebellion against her parents, I believe there is a deeper meaning to the story if you choose to see it. Voices asking why not is often shushed by the status quo's believe one should not to question what one cannot understand while deceitfully side stepping the fact we cannot understand if we do not question. What draws me to Merida is her bravery to ask why not, something most people don't do often enough.

Princess Merida of clan DunBroch

Being a freebie from a local Tesco in-store promotion, Princess Merida's original paint job had flat colours which didn't realise the figurine's potential. Although the sculpture was not entirely true to the character as she is seen in the movie, I still felt there was enough in it to make a repaint worthwhile.

Before and After the repaint process for Princess Merida (front view)

Before and After the repaint process for Princess Merida (back view)

Although the dress sculpture actually calls for a teal dress with yellow trimmings, I adopted a light turquoise (bordering on light sky blue) hue with gold trimmings instead as seen on another dress she had worn in the movie. To me, the latter combination had more oomph, all things considered.

There are those who say ...

... fate is something beyond our command.

That destiny ...

... is not our own, ...

... but I know better.

Our fate lives within us,...

you only have to be ...

... brave enough to see it.

It seems like forever since I last created a base from scratch and painted it. But this time, I didn't let the little fact that I wasn't any good at bases deter me. I needed the green grass to bring out Merida's turquoise dress and fiery red hair. So I kept it simple: took a broken piece of cork, layered on some browns to mimic soil layers, and glued on some grass as well as stones. Not much but enough.   

A base for Merida - the green grass forms one of the three major colours of this piece

Freehand embroidery on Merida's dress fringes was retouched to smoothen out some rough spots

In hindsight, transition between the middle and lower soil layers is too stark ... meh, it'll have to do

Princess Merida has been an extremely fun project. Funny how the best things in life are free. I leave you with this wonderful quote by George Bernard Shaw whose play Pygmalion was adapted into My Fair Lady, a movie dear to my heart. His quote? My apologies for I digressed. Here it is: You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'

Princess Merida [WIP - Freehand embroidery pattern]

While I have had some freehand practice painting up the various noble houses' heraldry in my Game of Thrones project, I haven't actually done any freehand painting of dress patterns or embroidery designs until Princess Merida came along. After spending so much time getting a smooth colour transition on her light sky blue dress, I was reluctant to mess it all up with potentially bad freehand work. But in the end it was a risk that needed taking. The alternative was a horribly bland dress.   

Princess Merida latest work-in-progress: Freehand embroidery pattern on the fringes of her dress

Freehand design was created for it's ease of painting

Doodling a design simple enough for use in the freehand attempt

That this freehand dress pattern was even possible in the first place was due to a Raphael 3/0 Kolinsky Sable paint brush I had acquired a while ago. Put simply, it made all my previous freehand attempts using nylon brushes a complete waste of time. Its ability to consistently maintain a sharp point and yet still be flexible without losing its overall shape (or surface tension) makes the brush ideal for painting delicate freehand designs. Though imperfect, the results I got wouldn't be even remotely possible with a nylon brush; at least not achieved as easily as with the Kolinsky Sable one. 

Closeup of my take on a embroidery pattern on Princess Merida's dress

Pattern comprised light on dark lines to give the illusion of depth

Citadel acrylic colours - Snakebite Leather, Bubonic Brown, Skull White mixed in varying ratios - were used to paint the embroidery design. My intention was to create a 'raised effect' that you would usually see on embroidery. That's was the only way I could think of to replicate such a texture. 

Closeup view of the embroidery pattern from the back

Final design differs from the actual one in the movie Brave 

Princess Merida is now about 95% complete; all that's left are her eyes and shoes. After the mentally exhausting work with her dress' freehand embroidery, I didn't have anything left in the tank to attempt her eyes. Mess that up and all the hard work spent on Merida would have been a waste of time. One thing is for sure, I will definitely be using Kolinsky Sable brushes to paint the princess's eyes.    

Princess Merida [WIP - Dress sans freehand patterns]

For Princess Merida's dress, I finally decided to go with a light turquoise/sky blue dress. It was either that or a dark teal dress which is actually the more accurate hue for the dress design as well as being a colour traditionally associated with the character as per in the movie posters. My decision was made with an eye towards making the miniature retain a more vivid colour scheme overall. Moreover, of all Princess Merida's costumes in the movie Brave, the light turquoise/sky blue one is my favourite.  

Princess Merida, latest progress on her dress and weapons

Decision was made to go with a light turquoise/sky blue dress with a yet-to-be designed freehand pattern

Red hair goes well with the light turquoise/sky blue dress

Each miniature has his or her own favourite paint line that complements their painting style. For me, I love how the Vallejo Model Color series enable me to paint smooth colour transitions and that paint line is fast becoming my favourite. That being said, the Reaper Master Series and Citadel paints come a very close second and third respectively. It's only after some time in the hobby I've come to realise there is no such thing as a 'best and only' paint to use but that it's more a case of using a paint line (or combination of a few) that best suits your own unique style of painting miniatures. So don't be influenced when someone says use only this brand. Instead, try it out first to see if it suits you.

Side view reveals a surprisingly dynamic angle of Merida's dress

Folds on Merida's dress made painting shadows a breeze

Back view of my latest progress on the Princess Merida repaint project

Currently, the dress looks empty and is shouting out for some freehand patterns/designs to spruce it up. Although I will be using the dress patterns seen in the movie as reference, the final design will not be a pure replication of the original patterns. They will have to be modified and to a certain extent simplified in order to enable it to be painted freehand on a miniature. However, the texture and colours of the dress patterns will remain the same i.e. something approximating gold embroidery.

After painting Merida's dress, I've come to appreciate the level of dynamism inherent in the sculpture

Shadows lean towards turquoise while highlights approach light sky blue

In addition to Princess Merida's dress, I also painted up her weapons. Depending on how this repaint job progresses, I might feel confident enough to add some freehand designs to the bow. But for now, I will have to see how the dress freehand patterns/design turns out first. And before I can get started on that front, I will need to come up with some easy to paint patterns as well as watch tutorial videos of expert painters doing freehand painting. Thankfully, doing both should be fun activities for me.

Princess Merida [WIP - Rosy Skin and Red Hair]

With this being the second day of the Lunar New Year holidays, I guess it's appropriate to showcase my progress on Princess Merida so far as she is predominantly swathed in orange hues. After all, this colour has plenty of symbolism and meaning during the new year celebrations. For Merida's repaint project, I am adopting a top-down approach hence the completion of her red hair and rosy skin to date. Irises and pupils on her eyes will be left for last once everything else have been painted up.

Red hair and rosy skin, a fiery combination that reflects Merida's character

Princess Merida, repaint work-in-progress on her hair and skin

Pupils and rises are being left for last as it's the most critical part of the entire repaint process

It's still early stages yet but I feel very good about the start I have made to Princess Merida. Though not perfect, things are still turning out much better than I had anticipated. For one, I am getting much smoother skin tones using the Reaper Master Series paint triads than I had in the past. Add to that much better contrasts in the painting of red hair and I am suitably chuffed to bits with myself. 

Merida's dress offers me a chance to finally attempt painting free-hand dress patterns

A light teal/sky blue and gold/yellow combination will likely be the dress's colour scheme

Side view (left), Princess Merida work-in-progress on skin and hair

One key future milestone in this project would be my first attempt at painting freehand repetitive clothing patterns on Princess Merida's dress. But before doing so I have a lot of research to do on how to effectively paint such patterns. I have always wanted to try my hand at this and I was finally 'pushed over the edge' to do so after being inspired by simple yet cool freehand patterns by Suber. 

Lots of creases on Merida's dress could complicate matters when I attempt the freehand patterns

Back view, Princess Merida work-in-progress on skin and hair

Brightest highlights on Merida's red hair bordered on yellow

This is turning out to be a really fun project, all the more so when considering the miniature was a freebie from the local hypermarket. Despite being a fairly simple sculpt, I feel that this miniature has a lot of potential which can be realised provided I can do it justice with the appropriate paint job.

Side view (right), Princess Merida work-in-progress on skin and hair

A freebie this miniature might be but it has a lot of potential that makes it worthwhile as a repainting project

My apologies if my blog posts have been a bit haphazard with me flitting between projects. Hopefully you will bear with me as I slowly but surely bring all my various projects to completion. Anyway, I would like to belatedly wish health, happiness and prosperity to all of you who are celebrating the Year of the Goat. May the new lunar year see all your dreams and wishes come true!   

Repainting Princess Merida of DunBroch

With the Ringgit dropping like a stone and the introduction of a good sales tax, things look bleak for a miniature hobbyist like me. Having a fairly small 'hobby budget' to begin with as well as having to contend with the fact that most, if not all, of hobby-related stuff being only available outside the country, I have to come to terms that a lot of miniatures and paints are likely to become unaffordable now and in the months ahead. That means working with what I already have in my collection and looking for cheap alternatives to paint. This austerity drive begins with a freebie from my local Tesco store - a figurine from the Disney Pixar movie Brave i.e. Prince Merida of the DunBroch clan.     

Figurine freebie from Tesco, redeemed after collection a certain number of stickers

Princess Merida as she looks straight out of the package

Back view of Merida, before being stripped for a repaint project

First step in the repainting project involved the stripping of existing paint from the plastic figurine. Straight out of the package, Merida had a very simple paint job on her hair, skin, eyes, bow case and shoes. While it wasn't too bad, it was a tad too rudimentary for my liking. I felt the figurine had a lot more potential and could look much better if greater effort was put into her paint job. So in she went into a Dettol bath to have her original paint stripped. I am not too sure if acrylic paints were used to paint her so using Dettol was a gamble on my part, and one which didn't really pay off in the end.

Princess Merida taking a bath in a pool of Dettol

Princess Merida with as much paint as possible stripped from her

Stripping paint from the hair was very difficult

Hindsight as they say is 20/20. If I could do it all over again, I would have skipped the 'paint stripping step' and just go straight into the priming stage. Even after many weeks of being immersed in Dettol, the paint on the figurine didn't come off easily especially from the hair. As you can see from the immediate pair of photos above, a lot of paint remains stuck in the grooves of Princess Merida's hair.

Princess Merida, primed with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer

Back view of Princess Merida after being primed in a light grey colour

As far as I can make out, there are two main colour schemes for Princess Merida. If based strictly on the costume the figurine is wearing, the colour scheme is cottony dark teal fabric with light yellow lacing (see first photo below). Another colour scheme of satiny light teal fabric with gold lacing was seen on a different costume which the princess wore when suitors were fighting among themselves for her hand in marriage (see second photo below). Both look equally nice and    

Princess Merida Colour Scheme A: Cottony dark teal fabric with light yellow lacing

Princess Merida Colour Scheme B: Satiny light teal with gold lacing

Although the sculpt is fairly simple and not very dynamic, there are enough details in it to make repainting Merida worth my while. Moreover, she will allow me to practice and perfect the painting of red hair, light skin tone and fabric texture. I leave you with this beautiful quote from the character ... There are those who say fate is something beyond our command. That destiny is not our own, but I know better. Our fate lives within us, you only have to be brave enough to see it.