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Hello again!

I got a lot of e-mails asking how I painted my recent Terminator Lord Face. So I grabbed the same head and decided to go through the process for you.


I made the faces really big in the tutorial so you can see where I painted. I admit it's not appealing that close but holding it in your hand Looks like the picture above.


LETS GET STARTED!




OPTIONAL: I use Liquitex Matte Medium as a flow assistant. You don't need it for this tutorial but I do say, buy some, you'll love it




PAINT MIX Notes:

I used : 1:1:1 color, matte medium, water

DILUTE, DILUTE, DILUTE. By how much? 1:1 is where I start. I used that rule for this tutorial as the effect is dramatic and less of a gradient and more on the lines of extreme highlights.

ACCURATE MEASURING of Mixes. I transferred all my GW paint to Vallejo dropper bottles just for this purpose. Much easier to count drops and write it down for later mixes.

BELOW IS YOUR COLOR GUIDE:

note: I used more Regal Blue in this tutorial for the 2nd Shadow Color for visual purposes. Original mix is 2:2:1:1 Codex Grey, Dwarf Flesh, Regal Blue, Scorched Brown.



Step One: Here we just want to trace all the deep areas of the face also paying attention to where the shadows will be darkest. Under the brow line, under the nose, upper lip just under the nose.



Step Two: This is the color that will pull all the flesh tones together. It also controls the boundaries of where you can highlight. In this step you want to concentrate on upper areas but also pay attention to the 90 degree angles like the side of the head. You will highlight only half way down those areas. Always brush toward the highlight area.



Step Three: Same thing here but reduce your highlight area 3/4 of what you did previously. You will not touch the 90 degree angles the rest of this tutorial. Only the edges. We also start bringing out the center of the forehead with this color.



Step Four: Same as before but you will reduce your highlight area 1/2. This is a warm color and the model starts to show some life.



Step Five: Sharp highlight time. 1/4 of your highlight area and concentrate on the parts of the face that get direct, overhead light. FINISHED!



BELOW IS FOR STEADY HANDS!! To get even more contrast I added some highlights using pure Skull White.




NOW GO PAINT!!!!

Damn fine work man. I second the addition of Matte Medium to any painters tool kit.

2 questions :

i take it that the matte medium works as a paint thinner?
Where did you get those nice dropper bottles?

Great tutorial!

ChaoticFlanagan wrote:2 questions :

i take it that the matte medium works as a paint thinner?
Where did you get those nice dropper bottles?

Great tutorial!

1. Yes
2. Vallego dropper bottles

corpsesarefun wrote:

ChaoticFlanagan wrote:2 questions :

i take it that the matte medium works as a paint thinner?
Where did you get those nice dropper bottles?

Great tutorial!

1. Yes
2. Vallego dropper bottles

Thanks i wasn't aware that vallejo sold their dropper bottles separately.

Yeah they're nice to have. Here's where I get mine. http://www.thewarstore.com/paintbrushesemptybottles.html

LBursley wrote:Yeah they're nice to have. Here's where I get mine. http://www.thewarstore.com/paintbrushesemptybottles.html

Thanks a lot

Nice one LB, I would never have thought to put a blue into the shadows of a flesh area. It looks great though.

That is pretty awesome. I always knew that blue would be a better color for shadows, because black is unnatural, but I was afraid to try it until now!

StubbyGB wrote:Nice one LB, I would never have thought to put a blue into the shadows of a flesh area. It looks great though.

Blue or purple works well as the eye tends to associate cold/ blue tones with being further away than warm.

The old GW purple ink was one of the nicest things to mix to shadow colors.

While I personally would use a brown instead of blue, the skill in which it was applied is spot on. I've been checking out your blog and you've improved quite a bit over a seemingly short time. Good work, keep it up!

Would'nt that blue effect work real good if you were painting, say, a librarian and wanted the glow of his hood to catch the lines in his face? Thanks for the tips! You got serious skills.

I could see that. Like I said in the tutorial, the blue mixed used in the WIP pictures was just to emphasize where to put the shading. I used a brown in the mix for the original in the title picture and it looks more natural.

However if you DO like the blue and find a use for it, GO FOR IT!

Glad you enjoyed the tutorial.

I always appreciate someone good at picking shadow and highlight colors. I'm an art major myself, so using blue as a flesh tone shadow is something I'm very used to, but never see when I'm on Dakkadakka. Great work, sir.

I wanted to let you know that I used your tutorial as a guideline when painting the faces of my exodite warlocks, using a dark brown as my base shade and working up to Reaper's Rosy Highlight/Golden Highlight mixed equal parts for the lightest highlights. My brush control isn't as developed as your own, but it was good exercise for those fine highlights.

I think I need a smaller brush though - I used a 00 and should have probably switched to 000 after the first two steps. Any advice on brush sizes for faces?

Don't worry how small the brush is but rather how sharp the tip is. I use an Army Painter Base coating brush which is about the same size as my kolinsky 0 for 99% of my model. If you go too small the bristles will fail as a reservoir for the paint and usually dry before you can put the paint on the mini. Even with all the additives I put in I still had that problem. When you buy brushes don't worry about the price or brand, just look at tips. Of coarse this is desired so the best tips are usually the more pricey ones. For faces I usually use a jewelers visor to magnify which makes detail 800x easier to do.

VISOR
http://www.modelexpo-online.com/product.asp?ITEMNO=ELP550


Reaper Kolinsky 0
http://www.thewarstore.com/product3626.html

I'm using the W&N Kolinski's myself which have a nice fine tip on them so long as I'm cleaning and conditioning them with Master's Soap, but I'm still overlapping my layers a little too much.

This may have more to do with the fact that I'm not using a matte medium per se, but use a transparent acrylic medium (future floor wax) cut with water instead. It's hell on my brushes though, so I'll pick up the Liquitex and give it a try.

I've tried painting under magnification and it gives me killer eye strain. The headaches that are the result have made me lens shy... I imagine that the jeweler's visor makes that kind of detail work much easier though and since it's a bi-optic lens the eyestrain wouldn't be as bad as a single lens. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Video now added.

i just noticed you use the same palette as me but this is great work les, im always watching your tuts and your getting better and better inspiring stuff! great use of blue for the recesses, shodows etc. Would never have considered it myself but works wonders. Im trying all kinds of things now!


Ohhhhh and for anyone doubting matte medium it really is a very worth while investment! love the stuff really gives the paint a great "feel"

I think i might try this, But great job on the lord head!

Thanks

Great tips to take good to great

It's all in the complexity, which is a lot of trial and error, or listening to the greats