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17-07-2006, 05:15 PM # 1

SilverTabby Member Join Date: Jan 2006Location: East Midlands, UK

How to paint faces, skin and eyes

This is a tutorial on the basics of painting faces, a guide to different types of skin and different ways to paint eyes. Faces Most sculpted humanoid faces have roughly the same structure. They have certain key points which are exaggerated the smaller the scale of the figure. 56mm figures are painted in a much different way to 28mm. This guide focuses on 28-32mm (standard GW 40K/WHF scale). Structure Human faces form the basic shape for all GW’s humanoid faces. This guide can be applied to them all. The parts that are emphasised most are the cheeks, forehead, nose and chin, much more so than on a normal person. Painting them the way you would a normal face doesn’t work very well, the emphasis made in the sculpting needs to be re-enforced in the painting. For those races that stray from the normal human shape, follow the below guide but depending on the effect you want either extend the cheeks to meet in the middle and remove the nose section (best for Tau), or merge the nose and top lip sections (best for Daemonettes). For creatures like Orks where the basic structures are just more exaggerated than on a human, follow the same guidelines as for humans. Making the highlights bolder and wider can make an Ork look more striking, or doing exaggerated line highlights can make them look overly muscular. Painting the Face In this example, the colours used are (all GW Citadel colours): Tanned Flesh, Flesh Wash Ink, Dwarf Flesh, Elf Flesh, Skull White All are watered and applied in at least two layers to ensure the colour is smooth and does not obscure detail. Stage 1: Base colour (Tanned Flesh)

Paint the entire face using the darkest shade you want showing on the skin. This should always be one shade higher than your lining colour. Stage 2: Deep shading (Flesh Wash Ink)

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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes

Using one shade darker than your base colour, apply lines around the eyes and down the sides of the nose. In many cases, this is a good time to colour in the mouth as well. When doing the eyes, be aware that there are two lines around most eyes – the inside of the lids and the outside of the lids. If you are not intending to paint in actual eyes but do the ‘slits’ method, then applying a darker colour to the inside lids now will save you effort later. If you wish to make the figure look older, applying ‘crows feet’ (lines travelling from the edge of the eyes towards the ears) at this stage works. Highlight them in later stages as you would the cheeks. Note – you do not need to be neat when applying this shading. Neatening up afterwards with your base colour is very quick and easy. Stage 3: Main Flesh Colour (Dwarf Flesh)

Using the main colour your skin is going to be, apply the paint to the areas of the face indicated leaving only a small amount of the base colour showing. These are the main focal points of the face: the forehead, the nose, the cheeks and the chin/top lip. Note – at this point you are creating the design for the facial features. The sculpted face exaggerates muscles and bones: you need to bring that out with the shapes you paint. Painting it as you would an actual face won’t give the correct impression when it’s on a gaming table. Think cartoon rather than real life Stage 4: First Highlight (Dwarf/Elf Flesh 50:50 mix)

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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes

Apply a mix of the main colour you want the skin to be and the next shade up in this stage. Paint it on as indicated, leaving a fair amount of the previous colour showing. This is the basis for your highlights, as opposed to an actual highlight. Putting a straight highlight on tends to leave the finished product looking too stark. Note - Leaving more dark colour showing all around the eyes helps to give the figure a more brooding look. Leaving a thin line of dark colour between the eyes and bridge of the nose gives an angry appearance. Stage 5: Second Highlight (Elf Flesh)

This stage is the first ‘proper’ highlight. Apply the colour sparingly, if possible keeping it to a line highlight everywhere except the tops of the cheeks and the nose. The rounded nature of those parts mean the only highlight that is a line on that is the final one. Stage 6: Final Highlight (Skull White)

This is the final highlight, and is one shade higher than you would normally think to go. It

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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes

is applied very sparingly, and is in all cases a line highlight. If it turns out too bright, ‘knocking back’ the face using a very watery solution of the base colour (Tanned Flesh) can make it more natural. Note - 'Knocking back' is a technique whereby you apply the base colour as a very thin glaze across the entire area to soften any highlights back to match the overall tone set by the base colour. Skin Tones There are many differing tones human flesh can take. Below are a few examples, all done using the above method and with the colours used listed beneath. Natural skin colours:

From left to right: White 1: Tanned Flesh 2: Flesh Wash Ink 3: Dwarf Flesh 4: Dwarf/Elf Flesh(*1) 5: Elf Flesh 6: Skull White Tanned 1: Bestial brown 2: Brown Ink 3: Snakebite Leather 4: Snakebite / Bronzed Flesh 5: Bronzed Flesh 6: Bleached Bone Dark (credit to MrChaos for this one) 1: Scorched Brown/Chaos Black 2: Chaos Black 3: Scorched Brown 4: Scorched / Desert Yellow 5: DesertYellow 6: Bleached Bone Unusual skin colours

From left to right:

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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes

Drow Black 1: Chaos Black 2: - 3: Hawk Turquoise / Chaos Black 4: Hawk/Black/Codex Grey 5: Add Fortress Grey 6: Fortress Grey Pallid 1: Dwarf Flesh 2: Red Ink 3: Dwarf/Pallid Flesh (*2) 4: Pallid Flesh 5: Pallid / White 6: Skull White Diseased 1: Catachan Green 2: Red Ink (*3) 3: Catachan / Rotting Flesh 4: More Rotting Flesh 5: Rotting Flesh 6: Bleached Bone (*1) – I tend to use Dwarf/White mixes as well as Dwarf/Elf. The Elf Flesh gives a warmer result. (*2) – Pallid Flesh is no longer readily available, but can be made by mixing Dwarf Flesh, White and a spot of Blood Red. (*3) – Apply this just around the eye/nose junction, for a ‘sore’ look. Edit: Eyes section to follow__________________ There are 2 rules to being a success in life: 1. Never give out all the information.

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