Tutorial - Painting a face A

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Aloa,

this one is about painting a face on a usual 28 mm figure. I guess there will be much more about this topic someday, faces can be painted in so many ways. This shown here is one of my ways how i paint a face, this must not be your truth, it just shall inspire or help the one or the other.

Before you read further please check this tutorial about light. I will paint this face with a straight light source from above. That helps me set my shadows and lights in the end. The easiest way of painting light through a whole miniature.

Basic colour

After the miniature has been primed, i did start off with the face basic colour and some soft shades in the shadows. I did use bronzed flesh and a tip of bleached bone for the basic colour, brought to the early shadows (think the light from above and paint it). If it helps you hold a flashlight over your head in front of the mirror and take a photo in a dark room ... nah ... if somebody will catch you in that moment it might be really a strange situation, don't do so, but i guess you got what i mean...

Ahh, damm somehow i made a real bad next shot, being true i saved it too small and i am too lazy at the moment to correct that. I hope you may see what i mean, if not, if the picture really is too bad let me know about and drop me a line.

I have intensed the shadows by using some darker glazes beginning at Tanned Flesh. If you ain't got no Tanned Flesh anymore you could mix it from Dwarf Flesh + Warlock Purple + a tip of Schorched Brown + a tiny tip of Red Gore. I went from Tanned Flesh adding a tip of Schorched Brown. After this miy has been applied for the darker areas i have mixed in a tip of Ultramarine blue and a small tip of chaos black into it for the darkest shadows. Don't wonder if the areas around also went further in painting. I have also painted the eyes black, but this will be another single article.

You see the light remaining from the basic colour coming out stronger as only the shadows have being intensed. Light can only exist where shadows lie next, that is what is called contrast. Take care of moving the brush to your shadows and finally with the last shadow get more into detail areas where it is really dark in a small area.

Next step has been going back to the lights over Tanned Flesh + Dwarf Flesh. I am trying to catch the middle tone now. On the step above you mention the areas looking dirty where i have set the shadows. The colour change from dark to bright is too short in its range. Now this colour lies in between those both and is used to be set as a midtone in between. Weirdo talk, i know.

Additional Bronzed Flesh in Dwarf Flesh has been used to go further in the lights, followed by Bleached Bone in that mix.

Next step has been finding some midtones in the shadows again. I have added a bit of greyish blue from my wet palette into it, sorry did forget which colour this has been a while ago. The eyes have been set with pure black. The nose and chin areas have recieved a thing glaze of some Red Gore. I have painted a beard somehow with a colour i also do not know anymore.

After this step the final lights have been set in really small places where the light hits the strongest. Using Bleached Bone followed by Bleached Bone and a tip of Skull white to this.

Face done for that guy.

You can also see how the light rises on the other areas on the miniature, like the west and the shirt. I hope this little tutorial could help, even it is written weird, sorry can't help that at the moment :)

Keep on happy painting!

Regards

Roman