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I have been asked about this a few times now, so i thought i would put together a little step by step guide as to how i paint faces. Sorry if its been along time coming. I hope it helps.

First off, this technique has been developed from the heavy metals face painting technique, in fact it is almost identical as far as I can remember but its what I find works best.
Before doing anything please remember to keep your paint quite thin, not wash thin, but not straight out the pot. This is because thick paint can easily ruin the detail of a face by filling in the recesses. Because of this I would recommend that thought be taken over the priming of the model, white spay applied in 2 or 3 thin coats is what I find to work the best. But do make sure each coat is completely dry before applying the next.
Now that the basics are out of the way here is how I paint faces and skin.
1. A base coat of Tallarn flesh, one or two thin coats should provide a solid colour.

2. Really thin down Dark flesh and wash over all of the Tallarn flesh making sure it gets right into the detail.

3. Mix Dark flesh, Scorched brown and Chaos black 2:2:1 into a wash, make sure it still looks brown, not black and wash it into the deepest details of the face.

4. Once the washes are completely dry, Mix Tallarn flesh, Fortress grey and Bleached Bone, 2:1:1. Paint this over all the visible skin apart from the recesses.

5. The next layer is a 1:1 mix of Tallarn flesh and Bleached bone. Paint this “nearly” all over the visible skin leaving a little more of the recesses than stage 4.

6. Now paint the raised areas of the face with a 2:1 mix of Bleached bone and Dheneb stone.

7. A 1:1 wash of Bleached bone and Regal blue is then painted under the eyes, this give the mini a little more depth, try not to get wash anywhere else. The Rega blue can be replaced with other colours of your choice to represent the pallor/character of the skin, Liche Purple, Warlock purple, Hormagaunt Purple and Dark angles green can give very interesting effects.

8. Now wash a mix of 1:1 Scab red and Bleached bone to the bottom lip. Again the Scab red can be added to or replaced by other colours to change the character of the face.

9. An equal mix of Bleached bone, Skull white and Dheneb stone is then carefully painted onto the highest raised areas, this defines the “look” of the face.

10. Final high light of pure Skull white very, very carefully applied to he details just to tidy up the expression.

11. Now the eyes, Firstly paint Chaos black extra carefully onto the eyes. You don’t want to slip a splodge black all over the face you have been so expertly painting.

12. Paint Skull white over the black leaving a thin line of black still showing.

13. Finally dot Chaos black in the centre of the white, make sure you paint the pupil overlapping the white to the black outline, or else the mini will look shock or afraid.
You can of course do a thin pupil if shock and/or fear is what your going for. Also, you don’t have to place the pupil dead centre; you could have then to one side, “looking” at something. But make sure they are in the same place on each eye or they will end up looking cross eyed!

14. Now is the time to decide if your mini needs/wants any facial hair or stuble. This is achieved by mixing Scorched brown and/or Codex grey into the flesh tone used in stage 5. I find 2-3 layers from darkest to lightest works well. To lighten the mix i use Dheneb stone.

15. To achieve a natural looking facial hair effect try gently dabbing/stippling the layers on. Also why not search the web for real life reference pics.


Notes*

- If you want dead/rotting looking skin, used Rotting flesh instead of Bleached bone and try lightening the mix with a little more Dheneb stone. Also, why not try subtly mixing in greens, blues or purples into the flesh tones. You could even Use washes to give a dead feel to the face.

-If you want “glowing eyes”, just mix in the light colour of your choice into the skin around the eyes getting lighter towards the eyes. Finishing at white in the dead centre.

-Finally, what ever you do, don’t paint eyebrows on your 28mm miniatures, it just looks stupid. They end up looking like clowns.

Feel free to chance around anything above, and if you have any questions please feel free to email me.

good advice for the most part...
pics might help to illustrate you points and ideas though...

it always puts me off when someone says, "never do this", in regards to painting...
for example, some 28mm minis call for eyebrows...

take a look at how painters like Marike Reimer and Jen Haley paint eyebrows, and tell me that it's not hot...

http://coolminiornot.com/15926

http://coolminiornot.com/145329

other guys, such as Logan Grimnar, have eyebrows sculpted on,and i had fun painting them...

http://coolminiornot.com/237456

i also used eyebrows on my latest chick, and she is TINY...
they turned out fine...

it's just a matter of taste...

it's a lot like telling people never to highlight with white, and shade with black...
there is a time and place for every approach, and technique...

all in all, a nice little article...

cheers
jah

Thanks, Ok, well i should make it a little bit more clear. "Never" isn't the right word, on female miniatures thin eyebrows can and do look very good, and sculpted eyebrows should always get a lick of paint. What was meant is that on "most" small scale miniatures, particularly male miniatures (being 80% of miniature ranges), eyebrows inevitably end up looking stupid, and on the most part they look a bit like bad face paint. The only other exception i can think about at the moment is if you were trying to emphasise the miniatures eyebrows.

But i would love to be proven wrong.

As for shading with black and white, using them correctly can give a great effect. I find working some colours up to white can look brilliant.

Hope that has cleared things up a bit.

Looks good, not to repeat but I wouldn't mind some pics.

Some faces i have done using the technique above.

Good lord that is amazing. I'll be using your technique from now on. It's actually a bit like mine, but I can see several vital things I've not been doing before.

Im glad i could help

I've always found it easier to do the eyes first (quite literally, the eyes and face are the first two things I paint on a mini), and then use the skin basecoat to define the shape of the eyes. If it doesn't come out right, I can strip it back down with no regrets, beacause there is nothing else to ruin in the process!

Only thing about doing eyes first is that any washes you use on the flesh will colour the whites if your not careful. Plus if you do the eyes first, there is a good chance you will paint out the very thin black outline around the whites. Also I find the eyes finshing the faces, so always paint them last. But it's all personal preference. If you get good results doing things differently then stick with it if your happy.

Gonna have to work on my faces. I'm going to go digging for spare heads to practice on. -sigh- I have much to learn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry for reviving

Here another tutorial i have been asked for lately:



Here are a few more examples of what your can do using this technique



I hope this helps!

You are very talented, that autogun looks awesome! The tutorial is great, just I would lack the skills for anything like that.

Thanks man. Have a go, it's the only way to get better. Maybe try something bigger, like a heavy bolter. Just watch out for your fingers.

Hi, your weapons are sick (good), I don't know if you have heard of them but Troll forged miniatures will cast figures up for you and sell them in their store and give you 40% of the profit, with talent like yours i'm sure you could make a fair amount of hobby money if you sent a few sci-fi weapons their way (plus it would be a way to get hold of a lot of them if you wanted to convert a whole unit or something).

Something worth thinking about maybe.

Thanks Maxxev, but i currently sculpt for Chapter House Studios. They treat me well enough, so i don't think id sell to anyone else. Take a look at their site, its got some great stuff (little bit bias, lol). Plus they sell my TRU scale conversions kits via request. You can also pick up a Stormraven extension kit.