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I'm not a very skillful or patient painter. Certainly not the sort who'll paint the whites of my miniatures' eyes, their lips, and everything. I just want faces that don't look like blank voids when you look at them from across the table.

What's the easiest way to put some shading on faces? Can you get the desired effect by using a Contrast skin color (e.g. Darkoath Flesh) over a lighter Base skin color (e.g. Kislev flesh)?

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In the 4th ed rule book, there was a guide to painting some SM Scouts, was a quick tabletop finish where the faces were flesh coloured with a chestnut ink applied, so I suppose you could use a shade and highlight the faces to give them depth

Easiest way is definitely a basic skin tone, and a wash or dip...with similar results from a contrast paint.

My go to is a simple colour, then a dip...it works to varying degrees, but gives me just enough definition that it's fine by my standards. I do not paint to a crazy level or do highlights and fifteen shades or wet-blending, etc.


Worked great on this guy....


A little less so on this guy, but still more than enough for my standards.

Here the page from the rule book

Thanks a lot! This is the effect I'm looking for.

For an easy technique, I'd suggest doing a flesh tone, a drybrush of white or very light fleshtone on the upper parts, then a flesh wash, followed by a dark wash in the eye areas.

White base, guiliman flesh contrast.

The face on this Stormcast is just a Cadian Fleshtone layer and a lightly applied Armypainter Strong Tone wash. Granted, I also painted the eyes in Bone first and then dotted them in black, but just the wash gave lots of details to all the crevasses if that's what you wanted to leave it at.

I would very strongly suggest Guilliman Flesh Contrast.