Bailey03's WIP
- Thread starter Bailey03
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Zab
New member
Whoa! Hey now, this is a family friendly forum!
TheLost
New member
In regards to your white speaker model...
You have about 10 years of experience on me, but I was wondering how you learned to paint skin like this. This is so amazing that it looks real. Any chance you can share where you learned how to paint skin? I can't for the life of me understand it. Thanks!!
Beautiful piece by the way!!
You have about 10 years of experience on me, but I was wondering how you learned to paint skin like this. This is so amazing that it looks real. Any chance you can share where you learned how to paint skin? I can't for the life of me understand it. Thanks!!
Beautiful piece by the way!!
Last edited:
Bailey03
Well-known member
Thanks, everyone!
TheLost, that's a tough question to answer. I put together a skin painting tutorial some time ago that's a good place to start
http://powellminipainting.blogspot.com/p/painting-skin-tones.html
I share a lot of my mixes there, but they continue to evolve. The first mix of paints in the tutorial as been adjusted a bit. Now it's Mahogany Brown mixed roughly 3 to 1 with Rosy Shadow, Chestnut Brown mixed roughly 3 to 1 with Rosy Shadow, Pure Rosy Shadow, Pure Fair Skin, and Pure Fair Highlight. And then I use various intermediate stages between those so I'm not just jumping from one to the next. On top of that I like to apply red, blue, and purple glazes to get a bit more lifelike color variation. If you're doing a face, add some red to the nose and cheeks, blue on the lower half of the face can make a nice 5 o'clock shadow, and purple to deepen the shadows around the eyes and in the deeper part of the cheeks. On the body I'll add red to the knees and elbows, purple in some of the shadows, and just play around and see what looks good. For the big gladiator I haven't done that step yet but I will when he's a bit further along.
I use a lot of Reaper Master Series paints. I like how they work and they've got a wide variety of skin tones. However I see people do fantastic skin with GW, P3, and Vallejo so you can make any brand work. Skin has a lot of variation, there's no one 'correct' skin shade so while you're welcome to try out the Reaper paints I don't think you need to go out and buy them.
Placement of shadows and highlights along with blending are also very important. When shading you imagine the light source is directly above the figure. It sounds simple but correct placement of light and dark takes a while to figure out. Pay attention to the angle of the surface, the more directly it faces the light source the brighter it will be. You can break the body down into spheres and cylinders to get a better handle on the lighting. The scale of the figure makes a difference. The previous gladiator is 75mm, almost 3 times the size of a standard gaming figure so there's a lot more room to develop color gradations. Below are two other examples. The one on the left is 35mm and the one on the right is 54mm (though with a different mix of skin tones). I did a lot more glazing on that 35mm one to get the blends smooth. Another thing that I feel gets overlooked is variation in the strength of your shadows. Take the gladiator on the right. The shadows directly under his arm are very strong and then get lighter down his side. The shapes on his chest and shoulder are defined more through highlighting. Similarly a lot of shapes on the gladiator on the right's back and shoulder are defined just through highlighting. Use variation in the strength of your shadows to emphasize major features and more subtle shadows for more subtle features.
So yeah, that's a lot of stuff to do. The best advice is don't worry about trying to do everything at once. Start by working on shadow/highlight placement and blending. These skills take time to develop but they will benefit you on every part of your painting. Tutorials on zenithal highlighting can be very helpful. In addition, experiment with some glazing at the end to add a bit more color variation. Whether you're doing human skin, an orc, or an alien this can really add some life to the look. I use GW glazes (though you can make your own with glaze medium). I use roughly 1 part glaze to 1 or 2 parts water. That keeps the effect subtle and let's me build it up slowly.
Hope that helps!
TheLost, that's a tough question to answer. I put together a skin painting tutorial some time ago that's a good place to start
http://powellminipainting.blogspot.com/p/painting-skin-tones.html
I share a lot of my mixes there, but they continue to evolve. The first mix of paints in the tutorial as been adjusted a bit. Now it's Mahogany Brown mixed roughly 3 to 1 with Rosy Shadow, Chestnut Brown mixed roughly 3 to 1 with Rosy Shadow, Pure Rosy Shadow, Pure Fair Skin, and Pure Fair Highlight. And then I use various intermediate stages between those so I'm not just jumping from one to the next. On top of that I like to apply red, blue, and purple glazes to get a bit more lifelike color variation. If you're doing a face, add some red to the nose and cheeks, blue on the lower half of the face can make a nice 5 o'clock shadow, and purple to deepen the shadows around the eyes and in the deeper part of the cheeks. On the body I'll add red to the knees and elbows, purple in some of the shadows, and just play around and see what looks good. For the big gladiator I haven't done that step yet but I will when he's a bit further along.
I use a lot of Reaper Master Series paints. I like how they work and they've got a wide variety of skin tones. However I see people do fantastic skin with GW, P3, and Vallejo so you can make any brand work. Skin has a lot of variation, there's no one 'correct' skin shade so while you're welcome to try out the Reaper paints I don't think you need to go out and buy them.
Placement of shadows and highlights along with blending are also very important. When shading you imagine the light source is directly above the figure. It sounds simple but correct placement of light and dark takes a while to figure out. Pay attention to the angle of the surface, the more directly it faces the light source the brighter it will be. You can break the body down into spheres and cylinders to get a better handle on the lighting. The scale of the figure makes a difference. The previous gladiator is 75mm, almost 3 times the size of a standard gaming figure so there's a lot more room to develop color gradations. Below are two other examples. The one on the left is 35mm and the one on the right is 54mm (though with a different mix of skin tones). I did a lot more glazing on that 35mm one to get the blends smooth. Another thing that I feel gets overlooked is variation in the strength of your shadows. Take the gladiator on the right. The shadows directly under his arm are very strong and then get lighter down his side. The shapes on his chest and shoulder are defined more through highlighting. Similarly a lot of shapes on the gladiator on the right's back and shoulder are defined just through highlighting. Use variation in the strength of your shadows to emphasize major features and more subtle shadows for more subtle features.
So yeah, that's a lot of stuff to do. The best advice is don't worry about trying to do everything at once. Start by working on shadow/highlight placement and blending. These skills take time to develop but they will benefit you on every part of your painting. Tutorials on zenithal highlighting can be very helpful. In addition, experiment with some glazing at the end to add a bit more color variation. Whether you're doing human skin, an orc, or an alien this can really add some life to the look. I use GW glazes (though you can make your own with glaze medium). I use roughly 1 part glaze to 1 or 2 parts water. That keeps the effect subtle and let's me build it up slowly.
Hope that helps!
TheLost
New member
Thanks so much for the great reply. I've been painting on and off for about 5 years, and have to say that my inconsistency with painting has negatively affected my miniatures. A lot of your work, especially your Olfo diorama, are simply inspiring (I can't for the life of me figure out how to see colors that are affected by a light source). If I had half your skill, I'd be content. Again, thank you for your excellent reply, and I hope to see more of your awesome work.
Bailey03
Well-known member
Thanks! That was a fun base to do.
There are a couple tricks you can use to figure out the lighting, at least for zenithal lighting (OSL is tougher). The first is just to place the figure under a strong light and take some reference pictures. Ideally the mini would be primed a single color so it's easier to focus on the light and shadows. Also don't place the light directly above, but above and slightly between you and the figure. Attached below is an example I did for a figure I never got around to painting. Another trick is to spray the figure with black and then white primer. Give is a thorough coating of black and then hit it from above and slightly to the front, sides, and back with white primer. This effectively pre-shades the figure for you. You can also do a three color prime - black, then gray, then white (using grey more directly from the sides) for a more gradual transition.
You'll still want to tweak things, for example even if the face would be in shadow (under a helmet or hat) you still want to highlight it. But this gives you a great starting point. And, once you get the feel for it, you can skip these steps and just go right into the painting.
There are a couple tricks you can use to figure out the lighting, at least for zenithal lighting (OSL is tougher). The first is just to place the figure under a strong light and take some reference pictures. Ideally the mini would be primed a single color so it's easier to focus on the light and shadows. Also don't place the light directly above, but above and slightly between you and the figure. Attached below is an example I did for a figure I never got around to painting. Another trick is to spray the figure with black and then white primer. Give is a thorough coating of black and then hit it from above and slightly to the front, sides, and back with white primer. This effectively pre-shades the figure for you. You can also do a three color prime - black, then gray, then white (using grey more directly from the sides) for a more gradual transition.
You'll still want to tweak things, for example even if the face would be in shadow (under a helmet or hat) you still want to highlight it. But this gives you a great starting point. And, once you get the feel for it, you can skip these steps and just go right into the painting.
fluisterwoud
Active member
Great tutorial on the skin, it's very helpful. Your flesh has nice smooth transitions and a very natural look to it. Also, I never thought to add purple to gold, I'll have to try that out.
Bailey03
Well-known member
This weekend I started yet another figure. I've been jumping from project to project a lot. I've run into some trouble areas on a few figures (the pelt for the gladiator, some historical research on the confederate, the pesky base for the Saxon) and since lately I've needed painted to be my primary stress release dealing with those trouble sections has not been very appealing. So on to a new project. This time it's a 75mm figure from Pegaso, an Officer of the Guide from Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt. While it's a nicely detailed figure, it's also relatively straight forward to paint. I don't see any real trouble areas so I'm hoping this will be a nice quick project. I've also been wanted to move up to a slightly larger scale. From the standpoint of in person impact, the larger kits are just a bit more impressive than the 54's I've been working on recently.
I made a good deal of progress this weekend. The face was done using the same approach described for the Saxon and the Dragoon. I also used the lessons I learned on the Dragoon project to deal with the green on his coat. The red is Reaper's Violet Red shaded with Burgundy Wine (also used to darken the green). The highlights are Fire Red and then just a bit of Fair Skin. The gold lace details will take a bit of experimentation. They used metallic threads so the finish is shiny, but not quite up to that of full metal. I'm going to try a mix of metallic and matte paint to see if I can get the right sort of look.
I also wanted to let people know about a figure kickstarter that will be starting in a few days. It's a series of orc pirates that are 54mm scale, so more display painting then gaming. The level of detail is fantastic, just check out the link below for a project preview. I'm really excited about these figures and hopefully the project will get a lot of backers. I've seen pictures of the stretch goal shaman and the sculpt is amazing.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantasyminiatures/1225316319?token=07dfd455
I made a good deal of progress this weekend. The face was done using the same approach described for the Saxon and the Dragoon. I also used the lessons I learned on the Dragoon project to deal with the green on his coat. The red is Reaper's Violet Red shaded with Burgundy Wine (also used to darken the green). The highlights are Fire Red and then just a bit of Fair Skin. The gold lace details will take a bit of experimentation. They used metallic threads so the finish is shiny, but not quite up to that of full metal. I'm going to try a mix of metallic and matte paint to see if I can get the right sort of look.
I also wanted to let people know about a figure kickstarter that will be starting in a few days. It's a series of orc pirates that are 54mm scale, so more display painting then gaming. The level of detail is fantastic, just check out the link below for a project preview. I'm really excited about these figures and hopefully the project will get a lot of backers. I've seen pictures of the stretch goal shaman and the sculpt is amazing.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fantasyminiatures/1225316319?token=07dfd455
BloodFather of Kharnath
Active member
First, I haven't said anything yet so thanks for the recent support. It is still very painful right now, but your stories helped me get through it in a big way. I love painting too much to let it sideline me though.
So, wow man you are on to a lot of projects right now. I understand this though. There are just parts of a miniature that make you want to be very slow and deliberate about things. No need to jump into something you aren't ready to tackle, especially if the idea is to enjoy yourself and get a good result. While my strategy is not to take on a new project, I tend to spend days asking for advice here and researching tutorials that may help me through the issue. This more than anything turns a 3-4 week project for me into a 2-3 month ordeal. So I get it, playing things cautiously. But like I said, tutorials and real life inspiration can help. I recently ran across a tutorial for painting tiger/leopard pelts on tutofig, under the painting/textures/ fur section. It may be in another language, if I recall correctly, but the pics are helpful. Saw another similar tut in Figure Painter Magazine. All of this of course discovered after I painted my faux Sabre tooth pelt.
With tho the gold type threads, have you looked into metal polishing? Some people actually use tools to polish real metal and give it a shine. Obviously works best with white metals, but if you could do the top edges of the buttons in this manner it might be like edge highlighting with silver. Probably way off on this, and you may not be referring to the buttons, just the threads in between, but still thought I'd offer it up.
Those dr orc pirates are something else man. Never backed a KS. And I just have too many upcoming commitments, but it's hard to not get involved. My sincere hope is that they find their way to stores soon, but know this is wishful thinking. Hmmm.... Maybe this is a good thing to ask Santa for. He does kickstarters, right? Anyway, looking at a few, I am way impressed. So much character. Orcs make the perfect pirates. They are just so damn scallywaggin', ya know? I follow D&D ideals about orcs. They are not just green in skin tone. While most are green, they can have orange-brown skin, gray, brown , black ... Pretty much every naturally subdued color.
I wouldn't be willing to bet on you knocking off the plumage until I knew what you had it based on. A clamp ? A wooden block? Or a cork? This will indicate to me your odds to spilling it over the work bench. I use a cork, but I super glue two quarters to the bottom to keep them from falling over. My sleeping habits are perhaps the greatest threat to my minis-severe insomnia coupled with sleep apnea, sleep paralysis, sleep walking, PTSD induced nightmares. Basically, I am known to fall asleep sitting at the painting table, walking to a random corner if my home and standing there for hours at a time- with miniature in hand. To reduce the risk of sleep walking in the middle of the night and doing damage to my minis, I now store them up very high before bed time. I take all sorts of precautions like this; all of my firearms are located inside of the walls of my apartment. I knocked out holes in the wall, mounted pistols at strategically placed spots, and dry walled over them. If I have an intruder, I punch through the wall and grab the pistol-one in the chamber and on fire-and defend my family. That way, no one gets hurt. Lol- sorry, waaay off topic there, just wanted to share my recent and I think clever solution. But yeah, my lack of sleep was the primary contributing factor in the death of Goliath this weekend (RIP)
Id like to encourage you to tackle on of your "problem" areas this week on one of your many projects. Just dude right in and use your instinct. Often we are just so damn afraid to experiment. I know I am. But I think what is true for the best painters in the world (i.e.,you!!) is that painting becomes less about strict painting recipes, and more about just slowly glazing on different colors and intuitively and gently brushing on colors in an unplanned way. So my main advice for your trouble areas on your numerous projects to to trust in your gut!!! (And your gut may very well tell you to discount this and keep doing what you are doing, )
Finally, looking at your 75mm makes me think that you really should give oils a chance. I have been researching this recently, and I know for example that some undiluted black oil paint in the darkest shadows of his hat would be very effective. Some sienna and burnt umber could be very effective at dirtying up his uniform. Should at least research it a bit, at a minimum to help me when I decide to struggle with this new medium.
Above all my friend, the Napoleon Guide looks damn good. Love the pallet choice.
So, wow man you are on to a lot of projects right now. I understand this though. There are just parts of a miniature that make you want to be very slow and deliberate about things. No need to jump into something you aren't ready to tackle, especially if the idea is to enjoy yourself and get a good result. While my strategy is not to take on a new project, I tend to spend days asking for advice here and researching tutorials that may help me through the issue. This more than anything turns a 3-4 week project for me into a 2-3 month ordeal. So I get it, playing things cautiously. But like I said, tutorials and real life inspiration can help. I recently ran across a tutorial for painting tiger/leopard pelts on tutofig, under the painting/textures/ fur section. It may be in another language, if I recall correctly, but the pics are helpful. Saw another similar tut in Figure Painter Magazine. All of this of course discovered after I painted my faux Sabre tooth pelt.
With tho the gold type threads, have you looked into metal polishing? Some people actually use tools to polish real metal and give it a shine. Obviously works best with white metals, but if you could do the top edges of the buttons in this manner it might be like edge highlighting with silver. Probably way off on this, and you may not be referring to the buttons, just the threads in between, but still thought I'd offer it up.
Those dr orc pirates are something else man. Never backed a KS. And I just have too many upcoming commitments, but it's hard to not get involved. My sincere hope is that they find their way to stores soon, but know this is wishful thinking. Hmmm.... Maybe this is a good thing to ask Santa for. He does kickstarters, right? Anyway, looking at a few, I am way impressed. So much character. Orcs make the perfect pirates. They are just so damn scallywaggin', ya know? I follow D&D ideals about orcs. They are not just green in skin tone. While most are green, they can have orange-brown skin, gray, brown , black ... Pretty much every naturally subdued color.
I wouldn't be willing to bet on you knocking off the plumage until I knew what you had it based on. A clamp ? A wooden block? Or a cork? This will indicate to me your odds to spilling it over the work bench. I use a cork, but I super glue two quarters to the bottom to keep them from falling over. My sleeping habits are perhaps the greatest threat to my minis-severe insomnia coupled with sleep apnea, sleep paralysis, sleep walking, PTSD induced nightmares. Basically, I am known to fall asleep sitting at the painting table, walking to a random corner if my home and standing there for hours at a time- with miniature in hand. To reduce the risk of sleep walking in the middle of the night and doing damage to my minis, I now store them up very high before bed time. I take all sorts of precautions like this; all of my firearms are located inside of the walls of my apartment. I knocked out holes in the wall, mounted pistols at strategically placed spots, and dry walled over them. If I have an intruder, I punch through the wall and grab the pistol-one in the chamber and on fire-and defend my family. That way, no one gets hurt. Lol- sorry, waaay off topic there, just wanted to share my recent and I think clever solution. But yeah, my lack of sleep was the primary contributing factor in the death of Goliath this weekend (RIP)
Id like to encourage you to tackle on of your "problem" areas this week on one of your many projects. Just dude right in and use your instinct. Often we are just so damn afraid to experiment. I know I am. But I think what is true for the best painters in the world (i.e.,you!!) is that painting becomes less about strict painting recipes, and more about just slowly glazing on different colors and intuitively and gently brushing on colors in an unplanned way. So my main advice for your trouble areas on your numerous projects to to trust in your gut!!! (And your gut may very well tell you to discount this and keep doing what you are doing,
)Finally, looking at your 75mm makes me think that you really should give oils a chance. I have been researching this recently, and I know for example that some undiluted black oil paint in the darkest shadows of his hat would be very effective. Some sienna and burnt umber could be very effective at dirtying up his uniform. Should at least research it a bit, at a minimum to help me when I decide to struggle with this new medium.
Above all my friend, the Napoleon Guide looks damn good. Love the pallet choice.
Bailey03
Well-known member
Thanks for the post, BFK! There's a lot to respond to and I'll write more in a private message. But I'll put the more general stuff here...
There's a balance I try to strike between keeping myself on task to finish a project and not trying to push too hard and end up with a bad result. Thanks for reminding me about that fur tutorial, I'd forgotten about that one. I'll definitely give it another look and get back to the gladiator after Thanksgiving. I'm also debating the type of pelt. Apparently tiger would be rare and something like a leopard is more likely. But I like the graphic nature of the tiger better. The leopard pattern is a bit more random while the tiger has at least some structure to the stripes.
This guy is just on his regular groundwork (a small chunk of column). I want to extend it a bit before I mount it on the wood plinth. I'm as big a danger to the piece as it falling over it. I managed to knock of the Arena Rex guy's sword by being clumsy with the brush and the Dragoon's plumage when I tried to put him in the case. I like your tip about the quarters on the bottom of the cork. I use cork for some of my 28mm projects and hadn't thought of adding a weight to the bottom. Thanks for the idea!
Maybe after Adepticon I'll take some time and really give oils a try. I've got a great 75mm mounted Hussar and I can't imagine trying to do that horse with acrylics by hand. So it's either a good project to practice the airbrush or experiment with oils.
There's a balance I try to strike between keeping myself on task to finish a project and not trying to push too hard and end up with a bad result. Thanks for reminding me about that fur tutorial, I'd forgotten about that one. I'll definitely give it another look and get back to the gladiator after Thanksgiving. I'm also debating the type of pelt. Apparently tiger would be rare and something like a leopard is more likely. But I like the graphic nature of the tiger better. The leopard pattern is a bit more random while the tiger has at least some structure to the stripes.
This guy is just on his regular groundwork (a small chunk of column). I want to extend it a bit before I mount it on the wood plinth. I'm as big a danger to the piece as it falling over it. I managed to knock of the Arena Rex guy's sword by being clumsy with the brush and the Dragoon's plumage when I tried to put him in the case. I like your tip about the quarters on the bottom of the cork. I use cork for some of my 28mm projects and hadn't thought of adding a weight to the bottom. Thanks for the idea!
Maybe after Adepticon I'll take some time and really give oils a try. I've got a great 75mm mounted Hussar and I can't imagine trying to do that horse with acrylics by hand. So it's either a good project to practice the airbrush or experiment with oils.
fluisterwoud
Active member
That's a great start to another mini. I really like the color of the jacket.
Demihuman
Active member
Love the Violet Red triad! I am glad you have some lighter-than-red highlights too. As I said before, I don't see what the problem is with a little "Pale Violet". I see a lot of mini's painted where the brightest part of the red is a very saturated red. Then it's shaded down to nearly black. It's a neat effect, but red cloth in the sun highlights to pink.
I struggle with the balance between finishing and handing in less than fantastic work too. In other hobbies, and with this one for that matter, I have had a really hard time finishing things. One of the things that makes me so excited about mini painting is actually being able to finish some projects with results that I am happy about. It's a big deal for me, but maybe not for everyone.
So, speaking of never finishing things, are you going to do a little gold brocade freehand on the pants or waist-coat?
:0)
I struggle with the balance between finishing and handing in less than fantastic work too. In other hobbies, and with this one for that matter, I have had a really hard time finishing things. One of the things that makes me so excited about mini painting is actually being able to finish some projects with results that I am happy about. It's a big deal for me, but maybe not for everyone.
So, speaking of never finishing things, are you going to do a little gold brocade freehand on the pants or waist-coat?
:0)
Bailey03
Well-known member
Thanks, guys! Demi, that's an interesting idea. I've seen people add some freehand embellishments to the sculpted detail on Napoleonic uniforms and I've been meaning to try some. I might give it a go here. Zab, just wait until see what I end up doing with Lord Fancy Pants' fancy pants!
