orc flesh question

[JohnDSD2]

For my non-green orcs, I use Black undercoat and a dark brown dry brush, to give a Tolkien look (I think!)

[Diablo Jon]

I have to say my favourite orc skin tones are the ones painted by LAF member Cubs I don't now how he does it but I find his skin tones real appealing mix of greens, browns and even flesh but done in such way it looks really natural

[Cubs]

I have to say my favourite orc skin tones are the ones painted by LAF member Cubs

Thanks Mum, cheque's in the post.

The way I see it, Orcs look good with unhealthy skin, no matter the colour, so I always try to get a bit of variety in there. If it's dark skin, I like to give them raw-looking pale patches on the eyes, nose, mouth and ears; if it's pale skin, I try to get darker patches. It's the contrast of 'natural' human skin shades with unnatural orc colours that seems to work. Look at the last orc with grey skin and purplish patches - neither are natural, but it works somehow (I completely swiped the idea from a wonderful Paul Bonner illustration). Anything that contrasts to make them look like they have patchy pigmentation or a generally poor skincare regime is effective and it can be achieved simply with washes, inks or diluted paint, or if you want it to be a bit fancier you can literally blend the one shade into another with gentle highlighting.

[Cubs]

This dude's obviously a troll, not an orc, but the bigger area here nicely illustrates the same principle, of blending the pinker, raw shades into the green skin colour.

[Diablo Jon]

Thanks for that Cubs. I just impulse purchased a bunch of citadel C series Orcs and was looking around the internet , for inspiration, when I found your lovely chaps.

 I don't mind green Orks ( I mean in Warhammer they are called greenskins) but I didn't want masses of monotone goblin green so your examples were perfect. Let's just say my first attempt at stealing your ideas painting a homage to your work didn't go great last night 

[Patrice]

I didn't mention Goblins, but for them I went for a totally different colour. I followed the old AD&D Monster Manual which said that their skin can be ochre yellow to brick red. I think it gives them an interesting aspect, especially brick red.

[Elk101]

Fantastic orcs Cubs. Those old C15 orcs are full of character.

[Hobgoblin]

Cubs is an impossible act to follow!

Nevertheless, here's a scheme I developed for a batch of orcs last year in an attempt to match Tolkien's "swart" and "sallow" and come across as reasonably subterranean-looking. It's mid-sea grey washed in sepia and then highlighted in grey again, then buff (for sallowness) and finally pale flesh. It does look slightly greenish, but no green paint was involved!



Those are Essex, but these Citadel and Minifigs fellows are in the same scheme. I based these ones and lots more on 25s for Oathmark, but I really must rebase them on 20mm squares (for the smaller ones at least):

[Garanhir]

I tend to go for washed-out skin tones, either a parchment-like cream, or greyish, "dead" flesh colour.  I find you can get some interesting effects by mixing varying amounts of grey into human skin shades if you don't have a go-to dead flesh.

A mix of brown and green washes give this base colour a greyish or greenish cast according to taste.

[Fitz]

I've never been a great fan of the GW bright green "greenskin" trope, but I thought I'd do something with a greenish hue anyway, and chose this Reaper ettin to try it out.

Vallejo do a paint in their ModelColor range called "Japan Uniform" (I don't remember the number) which I used for the base colour for its skin. It suited my intention pretty well, being perceptibly green-hued, but not garish.

[FramFramson]

I'll do a green or grey green with pinkish fleshy highlights. This fellow is fairly green by my standards, but haven't painted any other orcs in ages.

[blacksmith]

Here are mine.
This one is painted with Vallejo Russian uniform:


This one is painted with Vallejo SS Orange Camo.


This one with Vallejo Japanese uniform:


And here are some Orcs in brown and green, perhaps closer to GW. The thing is that any colour goes for goblinoids IMHO:


Cheers,