Back before Christmas I very sensibly booked tomorrow off in case I needed to finish off projects before the deadline (Friday 6am for us in the UK). That means I still have some free time to paint a few more figures. Again, you'll have to wait and see. I will throw out a couple of teasers though. Thus far I haven't painted any females (OK, the NSL Panzergrenadiers did have some female figures in the mix, but I'm not counting those) so I'll need to paint at least one to be eligible for Sarah's Choice. I also haven't done any mickey-taking entries. However, I have found a way to combine the two - I'll leave you in suspenders.
But you guys and gals want some pictures of painted figures to drool over. So on with the post.
Entry 23 - My "Curtgeld" Antihero Figure
Afficionados of Sin City will have recognised the quote I've used as a post title. It's delivered by Marv whilst driving and holding a victim's face against the road.
When I saw the theme for this year's Curtgeld (as we Challengers refer to the entry fee figure w e paint up and send to Curt) was "Antiheroes" my original idea was to paint up an Elf figure as Elric. I found the perfect figure by Hasslefree, but it was out of stock. I was also getting some figures for my 3rd Blogday giveaway (which may now be combined with my birthday) and for myself and saw the perfect antihero figure. So much so, that I wanted one for myself. So I bought two.
The only downside of choosing Marv as my antihero was that to do the figure justice I would have to take a journey into the mad and scary world of painting in greyscale. I'd been putting it off and off for weeks and finally mustered the courage, took the anti-psychotic meds and dived in on Saturday. It turns out that I didn't need the courage or meds; it was actually quite easy once I got going.
But that's enough blurbiness, here's Marv:
Yes, I did paint some red blood spatter onto the vest in homage to the graphic novels and films. It sets off the greyscale quite nicely.
Oh, and here's Marv again:
The second figure was posed differently and I realised it would look a bit of an odd pose, then hit on the idea of him stepping across a victim's body. The victim is a Dixon gangster casualty. I'm assuming he's one of Senator Roark's minions.
Oh my dog! There's two of them!
Curt had a choice of which one he wanted as the Curtgeld - he's decided to take Marv and Victim.
I'll leave you with some Marv quotes from the 2005 film:
Priest: ...ask yourself if that corpse of a slut is worth dying for.
Marv: Worth dying for.
[shoots priest]
Marv: Worth killing for.
[shoots him again]
Marv: Worth going to hell for.
[shoots him again]
Marv: Amen.
Marv: I love hitmen. No matter what you do to them, you don't feel bad.
Cardinal Roark: Kevin? Is that you?
Marv: [holding up Kevin's severed head] What's left of him, anyway. The dog ate the rest.
Cardinal Roark: What the hell do you know...
Marv: I know it's pretty damn weird to eat people.
Marv: I check the list. Rubber tubing, gas, saw, gloves, cuffs, razor wire, hatchet, Gladys, and my mitts.
Marv: [Marv is walking in the back door to Kadie's]
[voiceover]
Marv: Walk down the right back alley in Sin City...
Bouncer: [the bouncer throws someone out the door] Leave your hands off Nancy!
Marv: [voiceover] ... and you could find anything.
[Marv steps over the man on the ground and walks right up to the bouncer]
Bouncer: That coat looks like Baghdad. So does your face. Take off!
[Marv jabs his thumbs into the bouncer's eyes and walks him backwards through the door]
Bouncer: Urrrghh... aaahhhhh! Ahhh!
[Marv throws him into a corner booth]
Maeve: [watching the whole thing] He's new here, Marv, he didn't know.
[Marv's last line, blood pouring from his mouth, after the first shock from the electric chair]
Marv: Is that the best you can do, you pansies?
[They shock him again]
And one more which sums up the figures:
Marv: That there is one damn fine coat you're wearin'.
Toodle-pip!
Great stuff Tamsin. I'd just to say that your daily postings have been an absolute joy throughout this Challenge, and an inspiration as I've toiled towards my meagre 500pt goal. Many thanks indeed and keep those postings coming :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat rendition of the Mickey Rourke character, Tamsin. Are you someday going to do that creepy Harry Potter lookalike villain (Elijah Wood's character)? :)
ReplyDeleteLove the blood splatters.
ReplyDeleteAnd very cool on the extra day.
DeleteExcellent work and congrats on surpassing 2500 points - that's a huge achievement given the high quality you consistently produce!
ReplyDeleteYou've pulled off the greyscaling very effectively -congrats.
ReplyDeleteCongratualtions to having your revised total in sight, intrigued by the mickey-taking woman, but then again there are so many candidates !
Very cool choice. Not attempted black and grey as yet. It looks tricky. cheers
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing especially Marv stepping over victim.
ReplyDeleteTaking the day off??? Now that's dedication! Great figure of Marv, a perfect anti-hero!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how he would look like when painted in a pure Frank Miller black and white without any shades of gray in between? It would take some doing to get the clothes right at least :) http://bravenewworldscomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/marv1.bmp
ReplyDelete@ Blax - cheers! My posts haven't quite been daily, but I'm glad they spurred you on. It's been great seeing your output in the Challenge :)
ReplyDelete@ Dean - thanks! Hmmm, now you've got me wanting to do a search for a "Kevin" figure ;)
@ Whisk - thanks, but I didn't have time to boogie-boogie yesterday. Now it's done I have time though :) x
@ Miles - thank you! That's very kind, but in terms of quality and quantity, you five ahead of me on the table are even more impressive :)
@ Joe - thanks! I was scared going in, but it was nowhere near as difficult as I'd expected. As for the mickey-taking ladies, see today's post for the link :)
@ Brendon - cheers! Greyscale wasn't that bad to do - the tricky bit is selecting the right grey shades to use (and whites and blacks). Once you've got those sorted, it's no different to painting in colour. :)
@ Robert - that version of the figure was fun to do and I'm not surprised Curt chose that one for his Curtgeld :)
@ Ray - well, it had to be done. When I booked the day off, I had no idea if I'd actually need it. I could (as it turns out) have got away without it, but wouldn't have been able to do the extra bits for my 25th entry. :)
@ Mikko - I did consider that, but ruled it out as beyond my capabilities.
You have to bear in mind that Frank Miller draws the cartoons much larger than they end up in the graphic novels and those images are mostly larger than this figure.
It might be possible to give an impression of that style, using some greys as well as the black and white. :)