My doll of the Master has gone through a few iterations already. He came with a constipated-looking scowl, as shown here:
The thing is — he’s wonderfully sculpted, but he looks like a bad-tempered little shit. My version of the character is generally happier, more playful, and more humorous than that. Therefore I tried to neutralize the expression. My first attempt focused on the brows. As a result, he looked serious, even slightly melancholy, but it was a great improvement over >:[.
In an effort to perk him up, I recently embarked on a resculpt of his mouth into a slight smile. First I filled in the deep nasolabial grooves and let that dry [step not shown]. Then I carved a new mouth line for him and moved his beard out of the way of where his new mouth would go [see picture below].
I sculpted a new bottom lip and let that dry, then did the right side of the mustache. When it had dried slightly, I textured it with a craft knife. After it had dried completely, I did the left side of the mustache. This picture below shows it waiting to stiffen before I add detail and reshape it a bit.
Textured the other side of the facial hair, carved some new nasolabial folds and forehead wrinkles, filled some in, removed eyebrows, sanded top inner orbits a bit.
Mocked up some eyebrows.
Added eyebrows with Liquitex modeling paste gel medium [thick, opaque, matte, paint], started painting.
2 FolkArt Plaid 940 Coffee Bean + 1 DecoArt Americana Warm Beige + 1 dab of [2 Coffee Bean + 1 Warm Beige + 1 FolkArt Plaid 942 Honeycomb] for skin.
1:1 ratio of Coffee Bean and Reeves Mars Black for base hair color on both head and beard.
1:1 ratio of Color Traditions Tomato Red 21140 + Coffee Bean for lips. Shortened and tapered inner edges of eyebrows. Bulked up right mustache. Whited out eyes.
Mostly done. I still need to even out the color on his lips. His complexion is darker than I would have liked, but everything else pleases me greatly. I can tell that I have succeeded in changing his expression because, even in a long shot, I can tell that he’s smiling. He just looks so amused and pleased with himself, which is a much more versatile expression than angry constipation. I purposely went for a more cartoony look by painting his eyes larger and exaggerating the curves of his eyebrows. Roger Delgado has a face perfect for caricaturing, so why not use that to my advantage?
