painting beard stuble and shaved heads,

[Show Case Studio]

can anyone please tell me any good ways to paint stuble and shaved heads, or are there anygood links for me to get help with this,

 

[Bloodhowl]

Jen Haley recommends using a glaze of black or brown mixed into your flesh shadow color:

http://www.paintrix-miniatures.com/articles.php?&art=7&page=4

 

[Einion]

Before you get to painting start by lining up good photographs (use your mirror as well if you have appropriate areas on your own body) so you have good references of the right colours to aim for, and work from there. This will help in knowing the right shapes to paint also, best not to go from memory here unless you're a keen observer.

Basic colour guide would be something like medium flesh mix + hair colour (you'll usually need much less of the second colour than you think; for black or dark brown one brush tip in a drop of flesh might be enough. Rule of thumb here is if it looks about right on the palette it'll be too dark on the figure!

In terms of method, all you have to do then is paint it like you would most other things - thin layers building to the final colour.

Einion

P.S. If your painting style requires it you then shade this new colour appropriately - blend the basic mix with a light flesh colour for the highlight areas, with a dark flesh colour and/or a little extra of the base hair colour for the shadowing.

 

[Bailey03]

Einion is, as always, correct. I like to mix a little of the hair color into my flesh mix and then shade/highlight as normal. Be very careful... too much of the hair color and it will just look dirty, like your figure has mud or chocolate smeared all over his face.

For dark hair, I mix in a dark brown. I have not tried stuble for blond or red hair, so looking at some reference photos would be very important if you're going that route. I would imagine just mixing in yellow with the skin tone would not work for blonde stuble. You'd probably want to go with the hair's shadow tone for the mix in... but do a little photo research first.

Here are two examples I've done for stuble and shaved heads
Stuble (from way back in the day)
Shaved head (scroll down a little)
And remember, a little dark brown goes a long way when mixed in with your skin tone

 

[Milosh]

Another approach is to make the beard color cooler by adding in a blue grey to your flesh mix. Apply the mix in very thin filters, it won't take many passes to create the effect.

 

[Einion]

Cooler *gack*

I'd recommend being very careful using blue for this. Blueing will happen anyway if you add black (or a simple grey) into the flesh colour, no need to actually have any blue in the mix; with blue present it could easily shift the colour too far in that direction - it should look blue, not be blue.

As is probably obvious, tattoo colour is something that can be approached very similarly and here you do sometimes want to use blue because tattoos can become blue (very dull blue) over time. Beard shadow on the other hand generally only looks blue.

Einion

 

[Dragonsreach]

I'd recommend being very careful using blue for this. Blueing will happen anyway if you add black (or a simple grey) into the flesh colour, no need to actually have any blue in the mix; with blue present it could easily shift the colour too far in that direction - it should look blue, not be blue.
As is probably obvious, tattoo colour is something that can be approached very similarly and here you do sometimes want to use blue because tattoos can become blue (very dull blue) over time. Beard shadow on the other hand generally only looks blue.

Einion

Except..........mines white now.

Age affects hair colour and beard colour as well. It's alright painting someone young with a full head hair shadow line, but if you take the Hasslefree Wolf figure that's a man well in his 30's. It'd be appropriate to have a receeded hairline or even a "Hole in the Haircut" showing in the shaved head.

 

[Pygmalion]

Cooler *gack*

I'd recommend being very careful using blue for this. Blueing will happen anyway if you add black (or a simple grey) into the flesh colour, no need to actually have any blue in the mix; with blue present it could easily shift the colour too far in that direction - it should look blue, not be blue.

As is probably obvious, tattoo colour is something that can be approached very similarly and here you do sometimes want to use blue because tattoos can become blue (very dull blue) over time. Beard shadow on the other hand generally only looks blue.

Einion

I second this. In classical painting you can get an effect the eye thinks of as blue with a simple mix of black and white, particularly if it's adjacent to a more reddish color like flesh tone. In a painting using the approach commonly used from the Renaissance to the Impressionists (which is not the same sort of thing as a mini, and I apologise it this isn't quite appropriate) one would get that effect by painting a dark grey on the stubble area, then glazing a thin flesh tone over it.

The use of a color containing a lot of white painted translucently over a dark color visually shifts that dark color towards the blue.

 

[Einion]

Except..........mines white now.

That referred only to the ones that look blue, i.e. very dark brown and black hair. Obviously completely different for lighter hair colours. Very blond men have very little in the way of visible shave-shadow, particularly on the face when they're younger (light hair + sparse growth).

My beard is practically snow white too BTW!

It's alright painting someone young with a full head hair shadow line, but if you take the Hasslefree Wolf figure that's a man well in his 30's. It'd be appropriate to have a receeded hairline or even a "Hole in the Haircut" showing in the shaved head.

Right on. Amazing how infrequently this is taken into account - even the hairline tends to be very generic or standard, very little in the way of M-heads (widow's peak) or male-pattern baldness even on historical miniatures.

I second this. In classical painting you can get an effect the eye thinks of as blue with a simple mix of black and white...

This does yield a blue - nearly all black + white mixtures give dull blues.

Einion

 

[10 ball]

Another approach is to make the beard color cooler by adding in a blue grey to your flesh mix. Apply the mix in very thin filters, it won't take many passes to create the effect.

I've used this method with a blue shadow grey - works great.

 

[Avelorn]

Of course you can use blues... depends if you're striving for realism! Or perhaps what reality you want to portray.

I use greys and browns plain and simple. With some very faint blues and greens in shadows. More exaggerated if I want to go the more impressionistic road.

 

[Wyrmypops]

I just apply a glaze. A watered down ink gives me the subtlety I enjoy. Dries fast when it's a thin coat, so multiple layers dont' take too long. By default I go with a brown ink, sometimes adding or switching to black for the more hairy areas of a beard. For a hirsute blonde I'd pull out a chestnut, light brown ink.

 

[Show Case Studio]

thanks guys lots of ways for me to try, and have fun with, youve all been a great help