Remastering Ninja Girl: Last update!

[UPDATE 4]
:bademoticon: Ok, the previous journal entry was already old, so we started another with new developments in the painting of this Ninja.  

In this release we show the results to retouch the textures of all knives and swords. 
We use the same technique of very diluted acrylic paint with water, to go slowly leaving color pigments on the paper surface (just as does the printer).
Many will be surprised with the application of watered paint especially with paper so thin (90g), but in this way we can restore the colors because the original textures serve as a guide. In simple words is to color over the original textures (but only in simple words... it is hard work and is quite slow ).



You may wonder why not just reprint the template again to enhance the colors of the print? Because even if the printer simulates metallic tones, this can't recreate metallic or pearly reflections, that is the main reason to use paint (plus we didn't want to reassemble everything again ).
Already before we had used this technique with good results, for example, Charizard, snake Salome, and Saber's armor.



Just be careful that the paper doesn't too wet  or figure may wrinkle. So you have to apply the paint in small sections and allowed to dry between coats. 


And so we begin to recreate the textures of body  

1. This is how the textures of both weapons as the girl looked the last time.
2.  The print textures seemed to have a color palette in blue tones,so we started to darken parts of the suit with a dark gray color, but always following the textures base.
3.  We started experimenting with pearly paint to give other reflections. 
4.  We applied very dilute silver colored paint to highlight the clear parts of the suite (this is supposed to be an armor mesh).
5. You can see that the color is almost transparent  , which makes it able to see the original textures.
6.  Here you can see that if the paint isn't much diluted it can cover original textures, which can be quite annoying to recreate  .
7.  Finally, you can get a closer look the little changes that were made. You can also see the main reason to recolor the textures: Color change in flesh tones!  

I'm no expert on the field of painting, and much of what I do is trial and error, so you can say I'm more a self-taught papercrafter. 

See you in a new development.


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[UPDATE 5]
More paint advances!



1-2  This became a challenge In this step because practically, we begin to recreate the textures completely , we apply several more layers of metallic paint and we add the golden parts. Here we realized that it wasn't only cover the original textures, but had to recreate them for optimal effect was obtained.
3 -  Here you can also see that we begin to unify skin tone, although I learned the hard way that the acrylic paint is very difficult to make gradients and shadows  (plus I only use brushes to paint).


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[UPDATE 6]

Hello papercrafters and Ninja Lovers  , continuation of skin textures .


1-2 Here we learned a bad way to recreate the textures, never apply the dark tones first, because the light colors may not cover evenly .
3-4  So we went back to completely cover with clear tone and then apply the shadows with dark tone.
5-6  Finally we unify all skin tones, to make more subtle shades and to avoid variations in tone between the different parts of the skin.

All this took a long time between the application of one layer to another, because it is only 90 gr paper (we could not let this become wet with paint too).

When the skin textures were ready we started to detail the armor textures.


1-2-3  The textures of these parts give the enhancement effect as if they were pieces of armor. Here the very diluted paint was very useful to gradually recreate those shadows and highlights.
4-5-6  Similarly improvements were made in the armor of the right leg.

Every time I see closer the end  to show the final finish of this beautiful Ninja .

See you! 


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[UPDATE 7]

Welcome back papercrafters!:bademoticon: 

After making improvements in armor, we started to clean all the details for a final paint finish.


 1-2) Here you can see the final restoration of a boot (left) compared to the one in progress (right).
 3) On the back she had details that seemed to be 3D, but these were also textures  . To recreate this part, we use up to 4 different shades of silver, to give depth (quite slow if you ask me...). The worst thing is that in the end, this part is almost covered by katana sheath .
 4) We only missing retouch hair colors , so we used very dilute red pearlescent paint to make shiny hair, eyebrows and lips (although the lips were too red ).
 5) To give a better view to textures, we outline with black all color changes to give depth to the textures. In this step you can see that this delineated gives much life to textures and defines all of these different parts. 

Then was time to work the parts of the lower torso and arms textures.


 1-2) Here we begin to play with colors to try to give depth to the textures and lighting  .
 3-4-5-6) You can also see how we recreate wrinkles and highlights of the arms, they look more like fabric because they have many wrinkles. 

We just need one more advance to show the final photos of this heartbreaker and kick-ass Ninja  . You'll not to be missed.

Bye, bye! 


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[LAST UPDATE]

One more to go! 

Last update, next time will come the final photos.  



Once we finished recreating the textures of the arms and lower torso, we outline all changes color to highlight the parts of the armor and simulate depth. This process is very slow because much hand pulse and patience is needed  . Even more because there's no much margin for error.
Only missed show more highlights on the golden parts and small details of reflections in the armor, but we skip that step to show finish result. 

You will need to have some popcorn on hand for next time because I think it will be several photos.

See you!