 Butz wrote: |
| ![Sign - Ditto [#ditto]](/emoticons/icon_smile_sign_ditto.gif) Well done and I am sure your friend appreciated it!! What a kewl Christmas gift!!
What technique did you use for the skin tones, especially for the face? Flaps up, Mike Rangers Lead The Way |
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Thanks for the compliments and yes he did like it ![Big Smile [:D]](/emoticons/icon_smile_big.gif)
In answer to your question, when I paint and this goes for anything from 5mm figures all the way up to 1:3 scale, it is always with a brush and VERY wet paints. What I mean by this is that I take a puddle of the darkest color I plan to use and a puddle of the lightest color I plan to use. I put a few drops of water between them and start to drag them together, just a little. I'll lay the darkest on first (definitely hitting all of the recessed areas) and while it is still wet I'll start to lighten the dark color up with the light color painting into the same recesses but not all the way to their max depth. My paint is usually very thin because of the water and each coat goes on pretty transparent. I continue this process until I have made it to the highest edges of the area being covered and the lightest color I have. The face in this example took me 15 minutes to do the flesh tones.
At that point I had to move on to the lips. I'll always use the darkest color plus a little dark red and a little brown. I mix it until I am satisfied with the shade. The shades will vary depending upon how light or dark skinned the figure is, but those colors almost always work just fine. Next I move onto the 5 o'clock shadow. I'll also use the darkest flesh tone I started with and mix a little black ink in with it. This goes for any figure with any hair color because an army figure may have blonde 5 o'clock shadow, but most stubble always stats out dark until the sun bleaches it anyway. Not to mention in field grime too. I'll also apply this as a very transparent color and may actually do 2-3 coats depending upon how much I think it needs.
To finish up the flesh areas, I will go back with a slightly darkened version of the lightest color and apply it to those areas where hair does not grow. Look at the face picture again and you'll notice around the lips, there is bare skin as well as just below the edges of the mouth. Generally hair does not grow in those areas and will look cleaner.
Finally the eyes. If asked, most people would respond to the question of color in the eyes and say white and XX, where XX is green, blue or brown or something. The fact is that the "white" area of the eye is not white at all. It is a very light fleshy color, so I choose to do mine the same way. Then I add the iris color if needed but in this case since the figure is squinting, his irises would appear much darker, hence them just being black. One final thing about eyes, is that if you look at eyes, the pupil is almost always half covered by the upper eye lid. Placing your eye color in this fashion will almost always look the most presentable on a normal figure. Normal meaning a figure that isn't frightened or something and his eyes are wide open.
Without sounding like a braggart, If you guys do have interest in more of the way I paint, I certainly would be more than willing to share with you. I had always planned to do articles on specific areas of the body along with graphic representations. If it's something you might be interested in just say so here and I'll put something together.
JigSawMan