Painting human flesh

D

Dan11

New member
I\'ve always had trouble with painting realistic human flesh, past the point of the basic basecoat and shade/highlight.

I\'ve only got GW colours to work with (e.g. Dwarf flesh, tanned flesh, dark flesh, elf flesh). Along with inks and other colours which I could mix with the other colours.

Can anyone help me please?...
 
G

generulpoleaxe

New member
add an olive green to the dwarf flesh (only enough to get rid of the bright pink look) then use bleach bone to create the highlights.

beasty brown to shade, add a touch of red then green.

tweek shadows with blue.
tweek highlights with a white that has a tiny amount of yellow added.

that\'s the basic principles.
 
CreganTur

CreganTur

Member
Personally I use this recipe:

Basecoat with Dwarf Flesh
Wash recessed areas with Devlan Mud to pick out shadows
highlight with 70:30 mix of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh
Shade with 70:30 mix of Dwarf Flesh and Dark Flesh
Highlight with 50:50 mix of Dwarf and Elf
Shade with 50:50 mix of Dwarf and Dark
Higlight extreme points on skin with slightly diluted Elf flesh
If extreme shadows are needed, use slightly diluted Dark flesh
 
freakinacage

freakinacage

Well-known member
oooh cool

edit - i find tallarn flesh a nice one to start with. highlight with offwhites, as genrule said and shade as genrule said. red and yellow can be used to tint the skin as appropriate
 
BPI

BPI

New member
Just in case it helps (see my WIP thread to see if you like),

white undercoat, Scab Red wash, paint eyes, Scab Red around eyes to neaten, Dwarf Flesh thinly over allowing red to show through where appropriate, Elf Flesh highlight, thin wash of Blue, next wash Ogre/Purple/Red/Sepia as appropriate to tone of figure but only in recesses where desired.

I\'m a slow painter but with the red & 2 flesh colours on the pallette, the stage from eye completion to the face being done is fairly quick.

I should have checked your gallery before typing this I realise, in case your work is so far ahead of mine that I\'m wasting my time! lol Oh well. B.
 
D

Drengi

New member
Haven\'t done flesh in a while. Haven\'t painted in a while (man thats starting to get old :) )

What I do is. Dwarf flesh for base coat. Mixed in Snakebite leather with the Dwarf Flesh with small bit of bloodred to shade. Then to highlight I would use Dwarf Flesh mixed with some Elf Flesh and a little Bloodred. Then maybe finish with adding some white to the mix. For areas around the eyes and around jewelry I would use some brown ink to give more depth and to make certain colours stand out a little more. ie golds and slivers

But from reading generulpoleaxe post I\'m going to give that ago. Sounds soooo much better.

Love this forum so much info.
 
Einion

Einion

New member
Originally posted by Dan11
I\'ve always had trouble with painting realistic human flesh, past the point of the basic basecoat and shade/highlight.
Click to expand...
What trouble? If you can try to identify the specific problems you\'re having it can help with tips.

Painting skin is not easy - most painters have trouble with it at some point - but with minis you have a lot of leeway on what you can do and still have it \'work\', including colours that are nothing like reality!

For a basic technique, if you have one colour that you like as a basecoat try some simple mix experiments that you could use for making a range from light highlight through to dark shadow (aiming for maybe five shades, with the basecoat in the middle).

Get the basecoat colour and check what it looks like with just white added; if it looks wrong in some way try to see which way - too dull, too pinkish or whatever - and compensate (add a dot of orange, add a dot of yellow respectively).

Now try the same thing with a good dark flesh colour and see if the intermediate mix works okay.

Einion
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back To Top
Top