Painting: Flesh

[Badaab]

Hey folks, here's the first installment of the tutorial I promised, painting flesh, my way. Check back later in the coming week for installment number two, which will build on this little update.

 

Alrighty, since I've been getting a few requests here and there, here's how I paint the faces on my miniatures, and flesh in general.

 

1.) Prep: clean and assemble your models as normal... this is pretty simple here. Prime the model as well. I prefer GW's Skull White primer in the can, but whatever you like will work as well. I recommend white for any miniature sporting a lighter flesh tone, so the tutorial starts out here.

 

Referrence here for the photo of the miniature we'll be working with, at this stage.

 

2.) Basecoat: Here's where things pick up, so take notes or whatever. The colors we'll be using for now are as follows: GW Chaos Black, Scorched Brown, and Dwarf Flesh. Also of note is the Future Floor Finish and water mixture in a dropper bottle (1 part FFF and 4 parts water is my recommended mix).

 

Referrence here for the first stage.

 

Begin by basecoating the desired fleshy areas with your FFF and water mix, some additional water, Dwarf Flesh, and Scorched Brown. Scorched Brown is quite dark, so use it sparingly to save yourself work in the long run. What you're going for here is a base tone, so even coverage will help. Keep your paint fluid!

 

3.) Building shadows: Now, on to washing. For this, mix up some of your FFF and water mix, along with watered down Scorched Brown. Go for a thin, homemade ink here, keeping in mind that the fluid should still be transparent, otherwise things will get too dark too quickly. For additional shading around important non-fleshy objects (ie service studs, cabling, the inside of the mouth, and around the eyes), add in a dot of Chaos Black and wash around these areas.

 

Referrence this photo for how things should look at this stage.

 

4.) Returning the base coat: What you're going for here is the original mixture of Dwarf Flesh, FFF, water, and Scorched Brown. If you still have it around, great. If not, mix it up again, and add in a dab extra of Dwarf Flesh. Cover the flesh areas of the model that aren't crevices (obviously) with the mixture. If there are some regions that are hard lines, leave them with the deep shading. Those areas that are more gradual or a shallow line, use the paint on your brush and coat them over in a THIN layer of paint. The key to this stage is layers of paint, gradually working back to your basecoat color, not slapping it back onto the model.

 

Regions of this photo show the desired effect.

 

5.) Working into the mid-tone: Now, keep that same mixture we've been working with, and add in Dwarf Flesh as desired. What I go for is almost completely Dwarf Flesh, but do what you like for the tone. More highlights will be added later, as will some glazing to reduce the pinkish hue, so don't fret. Again, keep the paint extremely thin and work in layers of paint, gradually building the color towards the areas which need highlighting, and those where light will naturally fall.

 

Have a look here for what it should look like when you're all finished with step five.

 

Alright, that's it for now... I'll give everyone a few days to catch up, read, respond, and maybe have a go at priming a model and following along. Coming up immediately after this will be detailing the face (painting the eyes, mouth cavity, and teeth), and then more highlighting and finally glazing. After that, we'll tackle the hair (in this case, a mohawk).

 

Check back in a few, and good luck.

 

Joe

 

Oh- for those interested, the colors we'll be using in the following stages are: GW Chaos Black, Scorched Brown, Dwarf Flesh, Elf Flesh, Snakebite Leather, Skull White, and the same FFF and water mixture.

[docbp87]

I love your Flesh! It is actually probably some of the most erlaistic flesh I have ever seen. PPl tend to paint flesh with a brown highlighted to bone like color, which in reality is very unrealistic....most Caucasians have a pink tone to their flesh.......(the flow of blood I guess tends to do that to us.....)

[frostclaw222]

Slightly off-topic, maybe, but since you're offering all this advice on painting marine's with their helmets off, maybe it's still within reason...

 

Are you going to follow this up with a tutorial on painting eyes? For those of us who are just starting to develop a little skill with painting, eyes are most likely one of the hardest parts of painting marines, following right on the heels of getting flesh tones right.

 

From the pics, this technique works pretty well. Already called my roomie at the grocery store and had him pick up some FFF. Reckon he'll be surprised when i stick it in my painting area and don't start using it on the kitchen floor....

[Commander Y]

@Frostclaw -- didja READ the article? He mentions that part II will move onto eyes and such... Unless you specifically mean the helmet lenses, which I don't think he'll be covering in a flesh tutorial...

 

If you still have tit around, great.

 

I agree.

 

But perhaps you meant "bit?"

 

Great stuff, Badaab. I'm sure a lot of folks are going to appreciate this. Thanks!

 

 

 

Whaada ya think? 4 days before someone starts a "how do I paint skin?" thread? :P

[RayGun924]

Thanks Joe!

 

~Ray

[dave3555]

I hope he did mean 'bit' commander Y?

 

Nice flesh tutorial. I would also suggest mentioning that you could use the same basic recepie for flesh and addin a small darb of another colour for an alien or un-natural skin tone.

 

Looking froward to seeing the rest of the tutorial.

 

Dave

[griffit]

really cool tutorial Badaab,

 

Just one tiny little question, what is Future Floor Finish? Not being from the US or UK, or AUS for that mater, I don't really know what it is. I gather it is some kind of paint for wooden (?) floors, but is it varnish, paint, ... acrylic based, oil based, ...

 

maybe if someone has a web link?

 

Thnx

Griffit

[Graypaint]

You could probably substitute dishwasher liquid for it.

[makerveli]

Great stuff so far badaab, and a great idea, i've been ahving problems with flesh so far.

 

Maybe he meant "it"....

[Chaplain Desmodus]

If you still have tit around, great.

Hehe, I noticed this part as well, but you guys beat me to it. Ahem, back on-topic. :P

 

Here in Sweden you can't get FFF either. If there is a good and common substitue, I m also interested.

 

But:

 

At the Masterclass weekend at GWUKHQ, Tue Kae showed us that ordinary washing-up liquid works great as well. Remember, the idea is to break the surface-tension of the water. Plain old Fairy (aka 'Yes' in Sweden) will do that. Add a tiny brush-dip into your water-ink mix and see for yourself. :o

[Graypaint]

Unfourtunatley, it makes licking your paint brushes a pain. :P

[Chaplain Lazarus]

At the Masterclass weekend at GWUKHQ, Tue Kae showed us that ordinary washing-up liquid works great as well. Remember, the idea is to break the surface-tension of the water. Plain old Fairy (aka 'Yes' in Sweden) will do that. Add a tiny brush-dip into your water-ink mix and see for yourself. :o

so basically i can use anything that gets my dishes clean, eh?

 

the tutorial is pretty good and easy to follow. keep it up man, we're waiting for the 2nd part :P

 

i kinda noticed that like Doc said i'm one of those people going from brown to bone, too :P

[Badaab]

Actually... I meant 'it.' And 'it' is now fixed, lol. I supposed that's what I get for not proofreading my post first. I spent all my time making sure that the pic links worked, so... oh well.

 

And yes, eyes, facial details, etc., are coming next.

 

Joe

[redrum]

lmao :P TIT!!!!!!

 

very good so far hope i can keep up :o

 

 

R.r.

[Badaab]

Here's installment number 2. This time I'll be proofreading the thing, so hopefully there won't be any silly typos for you all to rag on about. And yes, I know the color balance is a little off in a few pics, but I was working against the clock (and my camera's dwindling battery) to get everything finished. I'm sure you all can get the gist of it anyhow.

 

This section deals with the facial detailing, but no highlighting as of yet. The most important thing I can stress here is patience... after that, if would be to keep your paint nice and fluid. Chaos Black and Skull White are the GW equivalent colors for these steps, but I used Vallejo Game Colors- Skull White and Coal Black.

 

6.)Black details- Basically what you're doing here is painting all the little fiddly bits (eyes, mouth cavity, any little wires or studs) black. I also went ahead and painted the hair black in this stage, as I'll be going with a dark hair color on this model.

 

Have a look

here to see what it should look like. Little mistakes aren't a big deal at this point, so don't worry if you lay the brush down and leave a black dot or two- the highlighting will cover them up.

 

7.) White details- All you're doing here is painting in the whites of the model's eyes, and the teeth, if applicable. Try to leave a thin black line around the white portion of the eye, as this will create depth, and help to improve the overall sharpness of the facial features. Again, if you make a little mistake, its not a big deal, as the highlighting in the next section will cover it up. Oh, and for female models, I like to leave a little bit of a thicker black outline around the white of the eye, as this helps it to look like mascara.

 

This photo shows where you should be after completing this step.

 

8.) Dotting the eyes- Find your smallest brush, water down some black paint, and dot the eyes. Since this model is firing its bolt pistol, I positioned the pupils to look along with the movement of the arm and weapon. If you're having problems making your models look cock-eyed, look at some referrence photos for pupil positioning. Sports pics are great for this, as more often than not the subjects are in action poses.

 

Have a look at This one to get an idea of what it should look like.

 

9.) Scar tissue- This won't necessarily apply to every model you paint, but a large number of Space Marines sport scar tissue or the like. Its relatively easy to make these areas look like scars, rather than just deep lines in the model's head. All you'll need is a deep reddish color (I used GW's Crimson Gore from their previous paint line, but Red Gore or Scab Red will work too), and your basic flesh tone, in this case- Dwarf Flesh. Mix the colors together, making sure to keep it nice and fluid by adding water. I like to go for a mixture of about 30 percent reddish color and 70 percent flesh tone. Then, simply use a thin liner brush and fill in the scarred area. Don't worry about mistakes too much, as highlighting will cover up the serious mistakes.

 

Here's what it should look like.

 

I know its not too drastic from the main flesh tone, but remember, we haven't highlighted the model yet, and the flesh will really glow when things are finished.

 

Check back later in the week for the portion on highlighting and glazing the flesh areas- which will be the conclusion of the first half of the tutorial.

 

Joe

[Badaab]

Alrighty- installment number three, the final segment of this particular face.

 

This part deals with the highlighting and glazing of the flesh, so get your brushes and the like out to have a go... the colors used in this section are GW Dwarf Flesh, Elf Flesh, Warlock Purple (yes, Warlock Purple), Skull White, Snakebite Leather, and that same Future Floor Finish and water mixture.

 

10.) Highlighting, stage one- Take your base flesh tone color, Dwarf Flesh, and mix in a little bit of Elf Flesh. Keep the paint nice and thin, about the consistency of milk, and apply it to the areas where light will be more prominent. In this particular case, the lightsource is from above, so the forehead, tops of the ears, nose, cheeks, and chin will be getting the most amount of light. Apply your highlights there and get ready for the next highlighting stage.

 

This is what it should look like.

 

11.) Highlighting, stage two- Add in a little more Elf Flesh to the mix you used in the previous step, and apply it to the same areas, only in smaller amounts, and more towards your lightsource (the top, in this case). Simple stuff, huh?

 

Here's what yours should look like after this portion.

 

12.) Highlighting, stage three (and final)- Add some Skull White into the same mixture you've been working with. A TINY amount goes a long way, so be careful with how much you add. Again, apply these highlights to the upper most parts of the areas we've been highlighting in the past two steps.

 

This is what everything should look like.

 

You might also notice that at this stage, I applied a pinkish tone to the model's lower lip. This is to add character, and realism... It's a simple procedure, done by mixing Warlock Purple into our base flesh tone, Dwarf Flesh, and applying it to the appropriate areas. Highlight the lip with Dwarf Flesh on its own and you're all set.

 

13.) Glazing- Since the final result of using Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh will leave things a little bit too pink, I like to glaze the flesh tones with a light brown to help even things out and get a more natural look. If you like the effect of the flesh at the end of stage 12, leave it. If you're finding it too pink, follow this step.

 

All we're doing here is mixing a TINY spot of Snakebite Leather into our Future Floor Finish and water mix, and glazing the entire face with it (save the mouth and eyes). Be careful to go light with your use of this mix, otherwise you'll end up with an ultra-shiny end product. I find that two runs over with a very (very, very) thin glaze will do the trick, giving just enough of a brownish tint to add a little more realism to the flesh tone.

 

This is the end product.

 

Now, you're all done! I hope that helps, and answers the questions I've been getting on the subject. I'm planning on doing a second installment of this tutorial, covering fleshtones with a brown tint to them, so keep your eyes peeled.

 

Joe

[docbp87]

OMG that is the best Flesh tutorial ever...er rather face tutorial! Thanx Badaab!

[Chaplain Desmodus]

Thanks, great tutorial. Pinning it for future reference. :lol:

[Chronophague]

Very nice tutorial Badaab.

Cheers

[Badaab]

Thanks folks, I only can hope that this will help some people out.

 

Joe

 

And thanks for the sticky, Des.

[i am osirus]

wonderful tutorial badaab! i've always been a fan of your work and i just know this is going to help alot of people! - i'll even give this a try and see how it compares to my current method of flesh!

 

be sure to tell us when this mini's finished as i'd love to see it!

 

keep up the good work!

 

Regards

 

Si

[redrum]

:P very nice badaab i love it man looks very realistic now if i only had some ffw

 

 

R.r.

[drinker of blood]

great work man

 

 

this has to remain stickyed or put in the archives so that the genuis is not lost!!

[shalashaska]

nice job :D

 

though you missed a spot on the body :P

[drzero]

wow..... WOW!... Awesome. very nice. I learned how to do the scar tissue and how to use the floor wax wash. Can't wait to use those techniques!

 

Thanks!