Thanks all for those comments - I too am quite satisfied with how the pilot turned out.
Here's a sort of step by step account of how the face was painted:
- airbrushed a desert colour over the whole figure, utilized as both a primer and as a base coat for his face
-once dry I applied a fairly thin wash of raw sienna over the whole of the face, this wash is not as strong as one usually uses, really just want it to bring out details like the lips, brows/eyes, etc.
-next are applied the highlights, I mix both Andrea's light and dark flesh together on some plastic card(or glass - whatever is handy) as well as a hint of red until i have the desired tone and apply it like one would use the dry brush technique (but with a very small tipped brush), hitting the following areas: forehead, bridge of nose, upper cheeks, small area just below the eyes, chin
-another wash is made of a shade red/brown and is applied only to the cheeks, lower lip and the end of the nose
-for the finer details, I sharpened up some pencil crayons and very carefully drew in eyes and eyebrows with a dk brown, a lighter red brown for a shadow line that extends from the inside corner of eye to cheek and a dk pink shade for his lower lip
-also added some highlights with lighter coloured pencils
-at this point if I feel it needs more contrast, I will repeat any or all of the above steps
regards,
Jack