CJ – Grand Theft Auto 1:4 Scale Bust – Paint Project

Straight off the workbench!

For anyone who has played the classic GTA games and in fact this was my last GTA game that I played, we know and love CJ. So when I saw this print I knew I had to bring him to life.

Read ahead here if you are a fellow enjoyer of the painting hobby as I explain how I got this end result. I hope in the future to make videos going over this a lot more for each print that I paint.

It was actually a bit of a challenge for me because I had never painted brown skin tones before. There were a few ways I researched on how to do this. Some who went with a more bright zenithal highlight poppy way start with more of a red or pinkish base. I however like to really work more natural and then layer up to show a semi-realistic version of the character. Perhaps with the cartoon/animated styled characters I plan to work on soon I will play with more poppy zenithal highlighted styles!

The biggest thing with going from brown I found was trying to balance the depth whilst also ensure you get the right amount of brightness but keeping that brown still in the color of the skin without making it to pinkish or redish. However in saying that with the Scale 75 paints that I used I was able to achieve that pretty easily.

Skin Tones

Base: Black Primer

Layers (Air brushed)

Chochlate Brown

50/50 Choch Brown + Bosh Chestnut

Cygor Brown into the recesses for depth

~15-20 Blackert Brown / Bosh Chestnut Wider zenithal

~50/50 Above Zenithal

75/10 Above Zenithal

Hair + Facial Hair(Brush)

I wanted the hair to pop because plain flat blacks of game color or even model color (which is flatter) wouldn’t make it stand out against brown

I used cygor brown around the edges washed down to blend skin and hair as its not flowy hair and is a close crop shave hair so you want some of the tones of the skin to kinda show through like it does with our own hair in the light.

Then main parts of hair I used True Metallic Black, and did 2 layers with brush.

I then did moustache similar but did layer first and then washed it with some cygor brown and fixed up anything that went over with a hand painted mix of the the 50/50 zenithal since I wanted to a bit of darkness around the hair to keep depth. In the goatee I was a bit heavier with the cygor brown to give the effect or stubble.

Eyes

Game color black

Deck Tan layered with Cygor brown for the eye pupil

Singlet

Base: Grey Primer

Layered and Zenithal use Monument Paints White to give depth to the shadows of his singlet.

Plinth/Base

Primer: Black

Letters: Monument White several layers until consistent and smooth

Stars: Monument Rich Gold + Bright Gold highlights

Finish – 50/50 Satin and Gloss coat x2 over 48hrs