Painting Skulls

[Dan11]

I\'m a showcase painter.

has anyone ever come across a decent tutorial for painting skulls. i want to be able to do them well, obviously above tabletop standard. Clearly I want to produce the best minis I can and I feel my skulls are really letting the iverall mini down.

A NMM tutorial even?....

 

[green stuff]

Message original : Dan11
A NMM tutorial even?....

You might want to have a look here :

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Dan11
I\'m a showcase painter.

has anyone ever come across a decent tutorial for painting skulls.
A NMM tutorial even?....

Ok two markedly differing questions here.

Skulls are relatively easy, but you can make them look exceptional by using differing techniques to achieve differing end result.
Start with using a mix of Kommando Khaki and Bleached bone as the overall base colour. Highlight by adding Bleached bone to mix until using Bleached bone alone.
Stop painting and use extreme diluted wash of Graveyard Earth.
Mix Graveyard Earth wash with Vallejo German Camoflage Black Brown as a dilute wash and brush into temple areas of skull. (And if painting a mound of skulls over the lower levels of skulls).
On some skulls use use very dilute glaze of Catachan Green in areas such as eye sockets, Jaws.
Re-highlight key raised points of skull with dilute Bleached Bone, add Skull White to Bleached Bone an increase highlight levels with smaller highlights.

For variations in Skull Colour I suggest you look up some reference pictures of Archeology digs where Remains have been found and look at how some mineral deposits affect bone colour by absorbtion.

As for NMM as far as I am concerned there are so many ways to achieve it and so many differing paint colours that you may well be better off starting Here that will give you an idea on colour usage as for the rest of NMM theory start by observing matals in real life.

 

[Einion]

My own favourite method for painting skulls is something I just arrived at by accident, trying something to see how it would work (lots to be said for doing this sort of thing, seeing what works for you).

Undercoat in a mid-grey or light stone colour, then glaze very thinly with straight white. You apply it smoothly and carefully (use the largest brush you can to help prevent tide marks) concentrating on the areas you want to eventually be white. Then maybe use a dark brown or even black on the very darkest spots like inside the nasal cavity and the underside of the eye socket itself.

If you want to get an aged-bone look you can glaze over this with the appropriate ochre and brown colours.

Einion

 

[mattsterbenz]

My favorite recipe starts out with a basecoat of 50/50 Chaos Black and Scorched Brown. Lighten this up a tiny bit with Snakebite Leather (this makes the first few highlights a dark neutral green color, really cool on skulls), then add Graveyard Earth, and then add Bleached Bone in for highlights. I like to keep the highlights limited to small sections of the skull, it keeps them looking very dark and nasty.

Here\'s a shot of what they look like:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/197161
(the skull in her hand and the ones on the base were painted this way, as well as the bones on the back of the dress).

-Matt

 

[demonherald]

Originally posted by mattsterbenz
My favorite recipe starts out with a basecoat of 50/50 Chaos Black and Scorched Brown. Lighten this up a tiny bit with Snakebite Leather (this makes the first few highlights a dark neutral green color, really cool on skulls), then add Graveyard Earth, and then add Bleached Bone in for highlights. I like to keep the highlights limited to small sections of the skull, it keeps them looking very dark and nasty.

Here\'s a shot of what they look like:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/197161
(the skull in her hand and the ones on the base were painted this way, as well as the bones on the back of the dress).

-Matt

snap.........

 

[Dribble Joy]

Mine\'s something similar.

Scorched Brown, Snakebite Leather, Bubonic Brown, Bleached Bone and then Skull white.

This and a variety of modifications (lighter base coat or less top coats) seen here.

 

[cheeserman]

i usually basecoat with khermi brown, wash with ogrin flesh, layer with mixes of khermi brown and bleached bone until you are almost at bleached bone, then highlight with bleached bone and a 2:1 mix of bleached bone and skull white
(this is mainly on bigger skulls)
once i get a better camera ill post some pictures of my work and ill give you a link to some of my skulls

 

[Einion]

Hey mate, this thread is from 2008 in case you didn't notice :doh:

Einion

 

[mattsterbenz]

Maybe he's making use of the search tool and bumping an old thread rather than make a new one.

And I was just about to reply with a recipe... but realized I already had two years ago... lol

-Matt

 

[Torn blue sky]

Gah that vamp woman you linked has a real ugly/horrible face, Matt.

 

[mattsterbenz]

yeah, tell me about it. I hate that model simply because of the face.

-Matt

 

[Torn blue sky]

The model itself is actually pretty neat, it really is that face that lets it down completely though.

 

[No Such Agency]

Come on, she's a vampire. A walking corpse*. A blood sucker. They can't all be the sexy variety.

* like this thread

 

[JesterzUSMC]

not every vampire can be an "Edward", LMAO!

 

[IdofEntity]

not every vampire can be an "Edward", LMAO!

(I can't help myself. Tis too enticing.)

Well now that you say that I'm seeing the similarities.
The disembodied skull makes a great Bella. It doesn't need to do or say anything important. I was convinced she didn't have a spine though.