How to paint a face and hair

[Anamnesis]

Copy/paste from my post on Heresy 30k forum, but i thought maybe some people find it useful

 

Painting Skin & hair

 

As an introduction, i'm not always using the same colours mostly because i think you should have some difference in skintone in your army and that's why normaly i don't keep track of my skin "recipe".

Skin is also a lot of back and forth the correct slight mistake and stuff.

 

Also keep in mind those photos are big and it mostly look like :cuss this close up, the effect is totally different from arm length

 

1. I start undercoating the face in black then i spray white on top to make a quick mock-up of light and shadow.

 

http://i.imgur.com/iI8dCkJ.jpg

 

2. I apply a even coat of Scale75 Pale skin on all the skin part, and quickly wash the mouth part with a mix of bright red (in this mayhem red form S75) and black 60/40

 

http://i.imgur.com/7o2VNO6.jpg

 

3. I start shading the skin with light glaze of S75 basic flesh pulling the brush from the light part to the darkest part going lower and lower. This will blend the skin smoothly and add a nice gradient. That where you can see i made a mistake and washed the eyes with too much black instead of blue, i will correct this latter.

 

http://i.imgur.com/gBo259F.jpg

 

4. I define the crease of the face with glaze of S75 indian shadow mixed with basic flesh to add more contrast and provide a good lecture of the face, concentrating always on the part i darkened on step 3 going lower and lower again.

 

http://i.imgur.com/AJssN47.jpg

 

5. I mark only the deepest shadow with very light glaze of S75 african shadow.

 

http://i.imgur.com/4UxW3e4.jpg

 

6. I highlight the skin with my Pale flesh reclaiming the zone where i've been to heavy with shadow. I also paint the lower lip with a mix of basic flesh and red 50/50.

 

http://i.imgur.com/QGX1ZYB.jpg

 

7. Highlight the lower lips by adding a bit of white to your mix. And highlighted the skin a tiny bit more on the most exposed part (like tip of the nose) with pale flesh and white mixed.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ax4udV7.jpg

 

8. Adding more white to your mix, trace some verticale lines to highlight the lower lips on last time to make it more life like. I also painted the teeth white before adding fine line of black to mark the limit between teeths. (You better off painting the teeth in offwhite and not pure white like i did, it look more naturel less freedent gum advert...)

 

http://i.imgur.com/6F7JZ1M.jpg

 

9. After blackening the eye socket with black, i painted the globe with vallejo deck tan (offwhite mostly)

 

http://i.imgur.com/SUIVk0y.jpg

 

10. Now paint the pupile with pure black but diluted and try to do a small ball shape. To finish the effect i add a white reflection point in the upper part of the pupile with pure white.

 

http://i.imgur.com/7NrBpnY.jpg

 

11. Now the fun time, to add a bit life to your skin, glaze some navy blue on the lower part of the eyes and some red around the bottom of the nose

 

http://i.imgur.com/0UhMjUA.jpg

 

12. Since i was a bit heavy handed with the blue glaze, i highlighted again the bottom eyelid with my mix of white and pale skin and painted the base colour for the hair (which should follow i couldn't finish this part..)

i painted the hair in a really light yellow Hikey yellow Scale 75

 

http://i.imgur.com/dDKqync.jpg

 

13. Shade the whole air insisting on the darkest part with a mix of yellow and s75 chestnut ink, usually in two or three pass adding always more chestnut ink

 

http://i.imgur.com/gkkHt4O.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DnNAGXy.jpg

 

14. Time to highlight the air with hikey yellow thinking on where you want you highlight (you can have a look at picture or loreal of similar hair product it's quite interesting!)

 

http://i.imgur.com/AkXQYZt.jpg

 

15. Finish the smallest highlight with hikey yellow mixed with white concentrating on very small part and following the hair

 

http://i.imgur.com/WxHbg2C.jpg

 

And you should be done!

 

Cheers,

 

Anamnesis

[Endova]

What brush do you you for doing pupils and individual teeth? My tiniest brush says 1/10 on it and I still can barely manage to not coat the entire eye socket in white when I try to do an eyeball.

[Teetengee]

Yeah, brushes and sourcing said brushes sounds super important for this kind of stuff. Even with my psycho I would struggle on the teeth lines.

[Anamnesis]

@Endova Sorry for the late reply, for eyes and almost everything I use a Windsor serie 7 size 1, with a very good point, sometimes i use size 0 but never less :) Same for the teeth

[Space Truckin]

Just popped in to say that's an insane amount of detail!  Great tutorial.

Seriously painting the lines between teeth.   Very cool! :tu: 

[Doghouse]

Very nice tutorial. :tu:

[MithrilForge]

Awesome, 

this is the perfect tutorial for taking one's face painting to the next level !!

 

Mithril