Restoring a Vintage Sea Captain Statue

I think he has seen better days! This ceramic statue is vintage from the 1970s, according to the information I found on auction cites. He is 21″ tall and slightly hollow.

The Old Man and the Sea is from the Holland Mold Company, now called Holland Mold Inc. I have seen him painted in different color variations, but the majority of them show him with a grey or blue naval jacket and a yellow turtleneck.

I was given full autonomy for the design idea. One thing that I absolutely wanted to get rid of was the yellow turtleneck!

When I researched some color schemes for the statue, I came across these Lighthouse Man statues. I loved the combination of cream pants, a striped shirt, and a dark navy jacket. I observed the dark creases in the pants and decided to give my statue a weathered look, but with a lot of detail and layers of color.

I also decided to give him my grandfather’s likeness: dark skin and peppered hair. He’s also going to have a thick beard like my dad.

Originally, I was going to give my old man a striped sweater, but then I found this sea captain and his knit turtleneck.

I loved the v-shaped stockinette stitch of the sweater, and decided to use a similar pattern. I love the look of variegated hand painted yarn, so I used several variations of brown and cream to create texture and color.

The colors of the sweater are inspired by the natural colors of some wool: cream, brown, red, and moorit.

I used acrylic paint to restore my old sea captain. I decided to begin with his face first and applied several layers of burnt umber, raw sienna, with dabs of crimson and cadmium yellow. When necessary, I used a pin sized amount of mars black.

For those who struggle with dark skin tones, it helps to utilize cadmium yellow and crimson to create a rich orange color, then add burnt sienna and/or raw umber to darken it. Black paint can be too strong and often makes colors look ashy, so only use a pin size amount if absolutely necessary.

The base of his beard is grey, but I go over this with dabs of titanium white and mars black using a small detail brush.

I painted quite a few layers of hand mixed cream and navy to brighten up his hat, shirt, pants, and jacket. There are also layers of colors to add dimension to his turtleneck, jacket, and pants.

The creases in the clothing are amplified using darkened variations of the main colors. My secret for making natural shadows was to mix raw umber with the base colors. If you look closely at his blazer, the raw umber helps to make the collar pop.

I painted in his eyes and gave him light brown lips. At first, I was concerned that the pink I added to his lips would make him look… uncomfortably like a Sambo doll. Thankfully, it worked out and made him look more realistic.

The sweater was the most detailed part of the statue, but it was also the most fun to paint.

I almost felt like I was knitting, and I was trying to resist the urge to begin knitting a new sweater (this would be a terrible idea since I still have three in the making).

The yarn in the sweater remind me of those precious hand painted yarns you can find at craft fairs.

To complete his look, I added additional layers of paint to his pants, brightened up his hat and buttons with bronze and gold paint, repainted his peg leg and boot, and the wooden piling.

To protect the paint job, I sprayed him down with an acrylic sealant. It added some nice sheen!

If anyone knows of an excellent non-toxic sealant for art projects, please let me know in the comments section! I generally do not like using acrylic based sprays.

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