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Here is a rough tutorial from my blog on how I paint faces using only Tallarn Flesh and Space Wolf Grey.

First, I take the head and clean the mould lines using the edge of a hobby knife with a brand new blade.

Next I undercoat the head in Black.

Now paint the flesh areas with Tallarn Flesh mixed with a little water. This will take 2 coats if you don’t use too much water, to get a solid but smooth colour. I left the recesses on the head with only one coat, so the eyes and around the jaw have a slight shadow to them from the black undercoat coming through.

Now i mix the TF with Space Wolf Grey at about 4:1. I leave the recesses with the base coat and use this mix on the exposed areas, such as the forehead, cheeks ears, jaw and chin.

Nest i add some more SWG to my mix, about 3:1 now. At this stage i am looking at adding highlights to the prominently raised areas on the face, such as the brow, nose, ear, chin, around the mouth and the outer edge of the jaw.

The final highlights are done pretty much by feel alone, but first it is roughly 2:1 TF:SWG to pick out the raised areas around the eyes, nose and mouth.

The last highlight is approx. 1:1 and is used on the tip of each brow, the tip of the cheeks and the tip of the nose.

After the last step I used a fine brush to paint his eye sockets black, followed by bleached bone on the actual eye but being careful to leave a black outer rim for definition. Then it was just a case of adding a couple of dots for pupils and painting the teeth BB too.
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Using the SWG really works well with my army as they have the blue and grey armour, but the technique really works well with nearly any other scheme.

No doubt there are other much better tutorials out there, but this is how i do my faces, so why not give it a try and see how it works out for you?

If like me when i first started, you struggle as to where you need or don’t need to put your highlights, i recommend taking a look on GW's site and their 'Eavy metalpainting faces guide (You need to be logged in to see the article).

*** Painting dark skin tones ***

Using the same technique as above to get dark skin tones and again using SWG to highlight. The pictures are a little dark and grainy im afraid, but they still show what you can acheive.

Using Dark Flesh as a base:


Using Scorched Brown as a base:




I love the way a face can really bring a model to life, as you can see below; although they are not fully painted the painted heads bring the WIP guardsmen to life.













Any C and C on the tutorial would be greatly appreciated, and who knows maybe i will do more or not depending on the feedback ;o)

Stay Frosty,


Jonas/Apoc

Why would anyone look for other better tutorials? this one is excellent! I do mine differently but I'm always looking for other methods and this is a good easy and effective method for painting faces laid out with a good description and photo reference, thanks heaps for this! i'll give it a go next time, would be good if you added more swg and used it for pale skin such as dark eldar or Raven Guard :-)

That looks really good, gives a very good natural colour. I will definately give this a go I'm not a bad painter but I struggle with faces. My biggest problem with faces is the highlight colours running and then I have to touch up the shadows.

@nerdfest09 - Thanks, im glad you like it

@Wazzdig Dagga - practice practice practice is the only answer for that i'm afraid :(

take an evening, some heads and a good film or cd and crack on, thats how i got better (no GD standard yet though!).

Post your results guys, would love to see what you can do

Very nice man. love the way they look. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing.

Really nice tutorial (and man... your faces are really good).

Thanks Eldred Jonas. This one's a keeper! Definitely going to try this.

@Izeya82
@Gitsplitta


Cheers guys, glad you like it

That looks fantastic man, keep up the great work. I better head down to the hobby shop now and pick up some Tallarn Flesh.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Glad you like it, thanks

Will have a think about putting up another tutorial soon

Jonas/Apoc

nice and simple. i like

Very good tutorial, I'll def be trying this tonight.


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Edit: My personal struggle is with pupils...I find they just look dilated and stupid!

Eyes can be a pain, the trick i have found is to have very little paint on the brush and practice alot

i still get weird eyes all the time, but you can always try again if you havn't gone mad on the paint. Just repaint black and start again.

excellent tutorial, keep it up!

Hmm.. I'll have to pick up some SWG next time I'm making a paint run.

Looks excellent!

Very interesting, im definitely gonna give this method a go.

Thanks

Never considered adding Space Wolves Grey to flesh tones. Just another reason to love that color!


I will definately give that a try on my elf prince i am currently painting.

I have been using snakebite leather and dwarf flesh with the snakebite leather acting as the shadow, but like everyone else struggle with the eyes.

I've browsed around a little bit and your faces look great pal! Will have to give it a try (just fell in love with SWG even more)

Solid stuff

I struggle so f---ing badly with faces >.< I'll try this out, though I have no SWG.. I'll use my Reaper equivalent..

It was a long time gone in the past, when I was able to paint and detail faces on my 1/72 scale figures. As I am now a lot older, my vision is dependent on magnifying lenses. I truly enjoy a good flesh tone tutorial. Your work is exceptional to say the least. Waiting to see more of your works.

Excellent face work!!!

Looking forward to using this when I get new paint, and on my Space Marine army

Gonna try this as soon as i get my blood angels out tonite!

tried this on my termie sergeant and it worked great, i already had my own techneque but this is far easier. i did change the recipie a bit, as space marine faces have deeper receses. i added a very watered down wash of ogryn flesh after doing all highlights, and then added the last highlight again. thanks for the tips

OT: I love your sig Tech Guard

thanks mate

Thanks for this tutorial! faces are the biggest problem for me so far, well that and anything yellow.

i like :3

I like it, it looks simplistic and gives off a nice effect. I'll have to give it a try sometime soon.