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.

And I can't seem to paint lighter skin-tones. Black skin I can do, deeply bronzed skin I can do, but when I try light skin it just looks off, more like leather than living skin. Any tips on painting light fleshtones?

Paints I have include: elf skin, kislev flesh, reaper rosy shadow, reaper tanned skin, bronzed flesh and seraphim sepia.

I also have trouble painting very pale skin. I usually just settle for something in the middle for this reason. Unfortunately I can't offer much help except that you may want to start darker than you think and highlight up to a more pale tone, because just shifting my normal skin painting process up a tone or two doesn't seem to work for me. When I do so, there isn't as much variation and the area looks very flat and samey, is that the kind of problem you are having?

Something you could try.

Paint elf flesh over white, thin, so you can see a bit of the white through the flesh colour on the raised edges.

I’d suggest getting some Reikland Flesh wash. Make a wash of 1 part elf flesh, 3 parts medium and 4 parts water. Add 2 or 3 parts Reikland Flesh to your wash. I usually would use a dropper for this, in a dollar store paint pot.

By mixing some shade into your elf flesh wash, you won’t overpower the pale skin you’re trying to keep. Apply the custom wash over the pale elf flesh. You will hopefully have near-white cheek bones, nose, eyebrow area, and tops of ears.

I paint Kislev Flesh, then glaze with a mix of Kislev, Khorne Red and Lahmian Medium, then highlight with Kislev and add progressively more Screaming Skull. For very stark highlights pure white can be used in dots (flesh tends to have some gloss under strong light sources)

Army Painter Corpse Pale, over Ceramite White.

Druchii Violet wash optional, but encouraged.

Pale skin requires lots of layers to look nice. You don't need lots of colour combos. Take your flesh colour and base, glaze a purple or red into the recesses, and a blue or brown into deep shadows. Then its a case of working your base upto almost pure white using fine brush strokes. My faces usually take at least 10 very fine layers using a fine point brush.

I find that mixing a bit of whichever flesh tone with bone colour paint works well; it lightens without changing the colour as much as white would. Using white primer/base coat also helps.

Example: