ChaosGerbil Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Now I love painting skin, but I hear a lot of people hate it. What's the problem? Seriously, it can be as simple as throwing on a flesh tone straight from the bottle and a flesh wash. I usually do a quick overbrush highlight of the base tone + a little white too. Darker skin tones are a bit harder to make pop and show good contrast. I often add a little red or yellow to the mix for the raised areas, to give some warmth. Green Ork skin is similar, just with different shades and extra yellow tones in the highlights. Daemon and mutant skin can be really fun, combining a red or purple wash with yellow or orange highlights gives a cool effect. If anyone needs pointers I would be glad to help. Reikland Fleshshade 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swan-of-War Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 I think it takes some finesse to really create definition and highlights properly. I'm a sloppy painter and don't have much luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justjokin Posted September 3, 2015 Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Not so much the skin as the faces!! I've never missed space marine helmets so much as when I started painting Infinity models. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosGerbil Posted September 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2015 Try using just a little tiny bit of paint on the brush, almost to the point of drybrushing. Let the high edges of the miniature help you. Sometimes you have to correct with the base tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McNathanson Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 That's the thing: faces (human female ones especially) often don't have edges or much definition at all to highlight, shade, or pick out. And I think the usual "over-do the contrast" approach to painting, which works so well with most colors, falls down on skin tone, which just looks wrong up close when done with too much contrast. So I agree: human faces and skin in general are really tough compared to most other things. One person who mastered them is that awesome chick who used to do pro work... can't recall her name, A-something? Anyway, she was really really good at painting faces. Neat story huh? :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kremmet Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 One person who mastered them is that awesome chick who used to do pro work... can't recall her name, A-something? Anyway, she was really really good at painting faces. Neat story huh? :) Alexi-Z is probably who you're talking about, but there are plenty of pro level painters who are excellent at skin. In fact I'd say it's one of the bigger indicators of high level miniature painting. As for the topic at hand, skin isn't all that difficult if all you're doing is dry brushing it. That said dry brushing skin is doing a fairly large disservice to it as dry brushing creates a dirtier and more mechanical look to things. With what should be the literal focal point of the model skimping isn't really what you want to do. For quick and easy skin I'd recommend people use black lining and two-brush blending. Definition between features such as hair and eyes makes all the difference in faces while two-brush blending is just a fast way to produce good blends. The rest is just color theory (such as the yellow, red, and blue/green zones of a face) and practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaosGerbil Posted September 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 I'm not saying to drybrush, it's called overbrushing, similar technique but with a smaller brush and more paint loaded up. Here's my go-to method if I'm taking more time: Prime black Paint a "base" brown over the whole face, leaving a little black at the edges if possible Heavy overbrush of "layer" flesh tone, leaving some brown in recesses Wash Light overbrush of flesh tone mixed with white on nose, forehead, cheeks, chin Touchups and final details Faces don't leave a lot of room for standard wet blending, so I don't reccommend it unless you are experienced and doing a character. That being said, a lot of times I will do overbrushing when the layer beneath is still a bit wet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spagunk Posted September 10, 2015 Report Share Posted September 10, 2015 I just use elf flesh from Vallejo and then wash in Ogryn Flesh (Reikland fleshshade now???). Usually does the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justjokin Posted September 14, 2015 Report Share Posted September 14, 2015 She's coming along... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kremmet Posted September 14, 2015 Report Share Posted September 14, 2015 I missed that you said overbrushing, but that still doesn't change what I was talking about. People have problems with faces (and skin in general) because skin is easier to recognize when you're doing it wrong. It's sorta like learning how to draw a proper face/body where every inconsistency is easily picked out by the eye due to how much interaction we have with people each day. I doubt many people are complaining about the results simple techniques such as overbrushing, drybrushing, and dip washing are achieving any more so than they when such things are applied to cloth or mechanical parts. When people complain about skin it tends to be when they want to, consciously or not, take their painting to the next level which involves a lot of color theory and experience with smooth blending such as the wet blending you mentioned. On wet blending I'm not sure if you were just going into the technique as a segue or not, but it is not the same as two brush blending. Two brush blending is just a quick-and-dirty way of creating smoother transitions and the amount of translucency that you'll need to approximate skin. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluger Posted September 14, 2015 Report Share Posted September 14, 2015 Can't we all just get past skin tones and learn to love what's on the inside. 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justjokin Posted July 17, 2017 Report Share Posted July 17, 2017 Yep, painting faces, still sucks. Or I should say, I still suck at painting faces. Even when I've lucked into a good OK outcome, repeating it is a no go. @Kremmet, Looking at your beautiful models makes me feel inferior. :) Keep up the great work! Speed painting. Got it. Check out the "side-eye" the model on the right is giving us... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kremmet Posted July 17, 2017 Report Share Posted July 17, 2017 This is blast from the past.... As for faces, you'll get it. Just like Leila Sharif (girl on the right) gets it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justjokin Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 That's it. nothing but helmets full body armor from now on... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brick Bungalow Posted August 5, 2017 Report Share Posted August 5, 2017 I'm pretty good with fleshtones but I still struggle to get pupils straight and even. Takes me three or four tries on average. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happycamper Posted August 14, 2017 Report Share Posted August 14, 2017 Bugmans glow, cadian flesh, reikland flesh shade, Keivesh flesh highlight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kremmet Posted August 17, 2017 Report Share Posted August 17, 2017 That looks alright from what I can tell, but the ambient yellow light is really murdering those pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.