Painting Human Maquettes

Sean Thompson

Hi guys, loving Stan Winston School so far... I joined mainly for help with maquette production. I'd love to see a course on assembling and painting a life-like human maquette if possible. I watched the Avatar Character Painting class but it didn't really go into assembly IE: whats best to assemble pre-paint vs post paint, and how to avoid gaps etc in post paint part assembly.. Also after something that deals with real skin tones, including sub-surface effects etc, as this is something I'm really battling with. Ron Mueck's work is the kind of thing I'm trying to work towards, albeit on a smaller scale.

P.S. I realize there's a focus on creatures and the likes so if this is not something Stan Winston School really does I'd be very appreciative of some suggestions on where I might find this sort of material.

Thanks, and keep up the great work!

Chris Ellerby

Hi Sean,

Our Miniature Head Sculpting lesson by Jordu Shell covers some great lifelike painting techniques for maquettes.
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/sculpture-techniques-miniature-head-sculpting-jordu-schell

As far as order of assembly of parts and when to paint before or after assembly, a lot of that changes depending on the specifics of the maquette design you are working with.

Jordu's lesso on Maquette painting techniques may also help:
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/creature-design-painting-techniques

And Tim Martin's lesson on Maquettes covers a lot of great assembly and painting techniques:  
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/monster-maquette-assembly-and-paint


Ron Mueck's work is amazing, been a huge fan of his for years.  We do have a lot of lifelike painting techniques that relate to his style.

This lesson on painting silicone skin may help:
https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/silicone-painting-realistic-flesh-tones-vol-1

Hope that helps!

/Chris