Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I looked around and I may have over looked the thread but figured I would start out by asking What is every ones favorite trick or paint combination to painting flesh tones on models?

Since I started this thread Ima go ahead and throw out the way Ive come to find painting a semi realistic flesh tone on Imperial Guard, its times like this I wish I had some of the old ones still lying around but here goes.

After basing the model in a skull white finish I take a bronzed flesh and dry brush several light coats onto the areas that are to be the flesh.

Once dried Go back over the skin with several light coats of dwarf flesh to add a little pinkish tint to the skin while still keeping the darker areas like creases in the skin the bronzed flesh color.

Highlight any raised areas with a 50/50 mix of skull white and dwarf flesh.

Finally a quick brush over extremely lightly with the residue of skull white on a dry brush.

Not a very hard technique and fairly quick in that each layer is light and dries fast.
Go back and do detail work of the eyes and mouth and complete for at least gaming standards

Any pictures ?

I use a dark brown as base coat after priming black. let dry then take a dark flesh and lightly dry brush on. Let dry and use a lighter flesh to highlight fore head nose and cheeks and chin.
Simple and fast.

RB

gretar wrote:Any pictures ?

+1

Nothing too specific - I do find that whatever color I base with will have a huge effect on hue and tone. Greens, blues, browns, reds all have dramatic effects when you drybrush over them on the character of the model.

Chaos Black undercoat, Elf Flesh basecoat, Bleached Bone highlights, Baal Red wash, thinned-down Bleached Bone, Ogryn Flesh.

Notice how his face is a little flushed? Here's why:

Washing it in red, covering it in a thin layer of much lighter skin tone, and adding a pigment to darken the skin will give you a nice tone as it simulates the way real human skin gets its colour; you recreate the bright reddish pink of the dermis and then add the pale epidermis; the Ogryn Flesh wash fills in the details and gives him a healthy tan.

I use Dark Flesh, Ogryn Flesh wash (I want to find something darker, though), then mix Dark Flesh with some Dwarf Flesh and drybrush, mix in a bit more Dwarf Flesh, drybrush again, a little MORE Dwarf Flesh and drybrush again, then do a bit of highlight detail with straight Dwarf Flesh. It makes a very nice (in my opinion) dark skin tone that's not all pale-faced.

no pictures up yet, im working on some guard heads right now as we speak though to get them posted up.

Hopefully will have em up by the end of the week if everything goes according to plan.

My own tutorial for how I have been painting caucasian human skin tones lately - how to paint flesh on miniatures

Some example pics:



Everyone has their own approach and preferences, personally I'm not a fan of most flesh tone paints (dwarf flesh, bronzed flesh, elf flesh etc) as they are too pink or orange to simulate actual human flesh. I prefer to start with a beige (dheneb stone is my preference) and then shade and tone then highlight. In my eyes it looks far more natural.

Cheers,

Dante

Just posted in the P&M section asking about how to paing dark skin tones. I'm no amateur when it comes to painting, but would much rather have some advice before i start painting my BB Amazons.

I'm thinking of starting off with scorched brown, then adding bleached bone a little at a time into the mix. Maybe finishing off with a red/pink glaze.

Any ideas?

CMDante wrote:My own tutorial for how I have been painting caucasian human skin tones lately - how to paint flesh on miniatures

Everyone has their own approach and preferences, personally I'm not a fan of most flesh tone paints (dwarf flesh, bronzed flesh, elf flesh etc) as they are too pink or orange to simulate actual human flesh. I prefer to start with a beige (dheneb stone is my preference) and then shade and tone then highlight. In my eyes it looks far more natural.

Cheers,

Dante

Heah Dante,

Love your work by the way . Anyways, in your tutorial on painting skin, you talk about adding tones. Are these tones applied as a wash or a glaze over the whole face? Or are they applied as spot colors in the hollows or crevaces of the fase?

I'm totally new to painting flesh, never done it before, but I'm happy with my results on my guard army...

I follow the "layout" shown in this guide, I don't use the same colours but I think it's an awesome demonstration of how one should paint a human face.

Please bear in mind that I paint with a pretty limited range, so this may not sound too impressive...

Chaos Black undercoat
Tallarn Flesh basecoat
Ogryn Flesh wash, so the face looks pretty red afterward
50/50 tallarn flesh and elf flesh on the raised areas... Cheeks, nose brow, chin, forehead... leaving areas like the recesses around the mouth, bags under the eyes.
Final elf flesh highlight: Tip of the nose, on the chin, on the cheeks (just under the eyes' bags) and following the brow, like in the guide I've linked.

I colour in teeth with bleached bone.

I then go ahead and dot on little white eyes (I'm still trying to find a method I like tbh, I've tried most that people recommend and I get mixed results... I've had to repaint eyes quite a few times) and then add the pupils with a watered down brush tip.

I'll have pics up soonish... but I am very happy with the results, my friend claims they look like "store quality" but I dunno, on close inspection under light you can see a few mistakes, but they're a huge leap up from my marines...

Simple Smooth Caucasian Skin
Prime Black
Undercoat Tanned Flesh
Basecoat Dwarf Flesh
Highlight by mixing Dwarf and Elf Flesh, gradually mixing in more Elf Flesh
Wash with thinned Dwarf Flesh to smooth highlights
Wash with thinned Tanned flesh in recesses.
Extreme highlight nose tips, knuckles, etc. thin Pallid Flesh

The key to smoothness is thinning your paints and working in layers. Thin washes help draw the layers back together. Always let washes dry completely before adding another.

I often add secondary tones by mixing other colors in wash steps. For example, a little dark olive in the tanned flesh makes a good shadow color. A little purple or magenta is good for a bruised effect or around boils and cuts.

WOW! so detailed! that first pic lis amazing!

i go for the simple way out and paint the skin area snakebite leather, then vomit brown. but it works fine for someone at my skill level [low]

but you guys must be really serious painters, so skilled!!!!

I wanted a pale, alabaster like tone for my eldar, one that didn't look quite human and lacked any pink in it.

I used basecoat of dheneb stone.
Thinned wash of devlin mud, focusing on creases and shadow areas and trying to stop it getting too dark in areas (washes have minds of their own, edges of biceps are not meant to be darker than deep crevasses you stupid liquid...)
Midtone back up with dheneb stone.
Highlight with a mix of dheneb stone and bleached bone (done to appearance, don't know ratios)
Highlight with bleached bone.

wyomingfox wrote:Heah Dante,

Love your work by the way . Anyways, in your tutorial on painting skin, you talk about adding tones. Are these tones applied as a wash or a glaze over the whole face? Or are they applied as spot colors in the hollows or crevaces of the fase?

I'm curious about that, too. And do you apply it to just the face or all skin?

wyomingfox wrote:

Heah Dante,

Love your work by the way . Anyways, in your tutorial on painting skin, you talk about adding tones. Are these tones applied as a wash or a glaze over the whole face? Or are they applied as spot colors in the hollows or crevaces of the fase?

Sidstyler wrote:

I'm curious about that, too. And do you apply it to just the face or all skin?

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply.

The tones are applied like glazes over the skin. I mix the chosen tone (for example, baal red wash mixed with devlan mud and a little hormaguant purple) with some vallejo matte medium and then thin it with a bit of water until the paint moves easily, then apply. Don't worry about being too neat, just try to cover the whole of the skin with it. Once its dry, neaten up with some highlighting.

I find that applying specifically as spot colours ends up creating a bit of an un-natural mottled effect. The glazed tones avoid this and are also easier too.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Dante

CMDante wrote:The tones are applied like glazes over the skin.

CMDante:

Thanks for the clarification . Another question, do you apply the tone glaze immediately after shading or do you apply it after highlighting as a final step?

Thanks

A bit of both really. Typically before highlighting but you can also do a thinner tone glaze to pull things together again after highlighting if the highlights look a bit too bright and overpowering.

Cheers,

Dante

What you guys say is a good skin tone for Dark Eldar? Im thinking a more greyish-skin tone, to show the corruption...
Any ideas on how topaint a dead skin grey face?

DaPlaugedOrk wrote:What you guys say is a good skin tone for Dark Eldar? Im thinking a more greyish-skin tone, to show the corruption...
Any ideas on how topaint a dead skin grey face?

On my Death Guard I acchived a "dead grey" look buy starting with a Charadon Granite foundation (over a black base),followed by drybrushing on codex grey,I the washed the area with Devilin mud (watered down chestnut ink for the earlier minis),followed by a light drybrush of a codex grey/bleached bone mix 2:1, I then used a very watred down wash of purple ink,followed by anothe super light drybrush of more codex grey/Bleached bone mix and finished with a highlight of codex grey/skull white.

I know reaper makes a paint called Dark elf flesh and its a great deep purple/ grey color ( that what i used on my DE.
For my Death Guard Reaper also makes a paint called Ghouls Flesh( a pale greenish/gry) which i used for the flesh tones for them( and there armour was the darker base color and washed with a flesh mixture i made( orange, red, brown, yellow, white and some blue)

Awesome, thanks to both of you.

HI like you I start with bronze flesh then 50/50 dwarf flesh then I add small amount off elf flesh until desired effect is achieved you could add flesh wash and add very small amount of pallid flesh to finish