Little face painting tutorial

[stoessi]

As I had received a few requests to explain how I paint faces like on my US airborne (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=61723.0) and on my Germans (TBD), I have put together a little tutorial which I am happy to share:


Started with a base color that consisted of Basic Flesh, Pink Flesh, Arabic Shadow and Indian Shadow (all from the Scale75 Flesh paint set). Basically it looks like a light brown with a little bit of red in it. In fact, the colors are usually not that important. Any combination of a mid brown, a dark brown, ivory and some reddish tone usually works.
I also started painting the first lights by adding ivory to the base color – don't worry too much about painting these first lights very clean. It is just a rough sketch at this point. Lights go onto the nose, the upper side of the cheeks, the chin and above the upper lip. If there was no helmet, the forehead would get lights as well.


Added burnt umber to the base color and started sketching the shadows: Under the lower lip, right under the eyes, under the nose, and lines running from the sides of the nose down to the sides of the mouth


Now I start blending, so that the sketch isn't all that rough anymore. Use the base color and different variations of it (lighter, darker) to blend the dark and light areas. Your paint has to be really thin for this and you need to work with many layers. Important: Let each layer dry before you apply the next one. I also painted the eyes at this point. Instead of white, I use the lightest skin color and then I use black to paint the pupils.
Once I am done with the eyes, I make sure to paint a very thin light just underneath the shadow of the eye.



I decided that I needed more light in general, so I used a light color (base color + ivory) to lighten up the face in general


Then I started glazing in a reddish brown. I think I used heavily thinned down Ogryn Flesh for this, but you can use every red-brown really.


I give more definition to the shadows by making part so them darker. These dark shadows have to be painted very carefully with really thin lines. Make sure your paints are well thinned for that. I also do darklining on the sides of the face to get a clearer view of the face in general. I also go over the lights again with thinned paints to make the blend smoother.


As I toned the reddish glaze down too much with the above step, I glaze in the reddish tone again. I also glaze a green grey into the lower part of the face.


 * A few small dots with almost pure ivory (thinned down a little of course) and done.

I hope this helps! If you have any questions let me know.

Cheers,
Thomas

[OSHIROmodels]

Excellent 

cheers

James

[Golgotha]

Impressive - great tutorial.

[Blackwolf]

Nice!