Cozy bust

On the 20th of January a bunch of people from the International Tabletop Gaming Club got together for a painting workshop. The idea was to do something completely outside of our comfort zones and push the boundaries, and I have to say that the organizer really managed to do so when he picked the Cozy Bust. I looked at that and thought how the hell am I going to paint it! Where is the chainsaw and the armour?

It was indeed a challenge with all the hair and skin that should be smooth and warm, honestly, in more than 25 years painting, I think I have never painted anything like it. All in all it was a great experience, I managed to cross out something from my to-do list (paint a big scale bust) and I learnt a bunch of things, so I am looking forward for another chance! We spent something like 4 or 5 hours on it, including explanations, and after that I spent like 2-3 hours at home to finish the hair and retouch the skin on the face. I think it would need at least double that time to fix the transitions on the pullover and to smooth out the skin...

You can see below some pictures from the workshop itself including some of the work in progress steps. Pay attention to some of the models, there is one that looks like Ororo and I think it is one of the best if not the best in the whole workshop! You probably will notice that my bust was not done back then, the hair was far from being complete. I have only recently finished it, that is why it took me so long to post here.

After that, I have included a ton of photos of my own bust, now with the hair done. I have tried multiple options for the light, and some simple effects on the pictures, but in the end I gave up as I did not know how to do it properly so I am just showing the raw picture.