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Thread: How to paint faces, skin and

eyes
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17-07-2006, 05:15 PM # 1
SilverTabby
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: East Midlands, UK

How to paint faces, skin and eyes
This is a tutorial on the basics of painting faces, a guide to different types of skin and
different ways to paint eyes.

Faces

Most sculpted humanoid faces have roughly the same structure. They have certain key
points which are exaggerated the smaller the scale of the figure. 56mm figures are
painted in a much different way to 28mm. This guide focuses on 28-32mm (standard GW
40K/WHF scale).

Structure
Human faces form the basic shape for all GWs humanoid faces. This guide can be applied
to them all. The parts that are emphasised most are the cheeks, forehead, nose and chin,
much more so than on a normal person. Painting them the way you would a normal face
doesnt work very well, the emphasis made in the sculpting needs to be re-enforced in the
painting.
For those races that stray from the normal human shape, follow the below guide but
depending on the effect you want either extend the cheeks to meet in the middle and
remove the nose section (best for Tau), or merge the nose and top lip sections (best for
Daemonettes).
For creatures like Orks where the basic structures are just more exaggerated than on a
human, follow the same guidelines as for humans. Making the highlights bolder and wider
can make an Ork look more striking, or doing exaggerated line highlights can make them
look overly muscular.

Painting the Face
In this example, the colours used are (all GW Citadel colours):
Tanned Flesh, Flesh Wash Ink, Dwarf Flesh, Elf Flesh, Skull White
All are watered and applied in at least two layers to ensure the colour is smooth and does
not obscure detail.

Stage 1: Base colour (Tanned Flesh)

Paint the entire face using the darkest shade you want showing on the skin. This should
always be one shade higher than your lining colour.

Stage 2: Deep shading (Flesh Wash Ink)
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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes

Using one shade darker than your base colour, apply lines around the eyes and down the
sides of the nose. In many cases, this is a good time to colour in the mouth as well. When
doing the eyes, be aware that there are two lines around most eyes the inside of the lids
and the outside of the lids. If you are not intending to paint in actual eyes but do the slits
method, then applying a darker colour to the inside lids now will save you effort later.
If you wish to make the figure look older, applying crows feet (lines travelling from the
edge of the eyes towards the ears) at this stage works. Highlight them in later stages as
you would the cheeks.
Note you do not need to be neat when applying this shading. Neatening up afterwards
with your base colour is very quick and easy.

Stage 3: Main Flesh Colour (Dwarf Flesh)

Using the main colour your skin is going to be, apply the paint to the areas of the face
indicated leaving only a small amount of the base colour showing. These are the main
focal points of the face: the forehead, the nose, the cheeks and the chin/top lip.
Note at this point you are creating the design for the facial features. The sculpted face
exaggerates muscles and bones: you need to bring that out with the shapes you paint.
Painting it as you would an actual face wont give the correct impression when its on a
gaming table. Think cartoon rather than real life

Stage 4: First Highlight (Dwarf/Elf Flesh 50:50 mix)
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Apply a mix of the main colour you want the skin to be and the next shade up in this
stage. Paint it on as indicated, leaving a fair amount of the previous colour showing. This
is the basis for your highlights, as opposed to an actual highlight. Putting a straight
highlight on tends to leave the finished product looking too stark.
Note - Leaving more dark colour showing all around the eyes helps to give the figure a
more brooding look. Leaving a thin line of dark colour between the eyes and bridge of the
nose gives an angry appearance.

Stage 5: Second Highlight (Elf Flesh)

This stage is the first proper highlight. Apply the colour sparingly, if possible keeping it to
a line highlight everywhere except the tops of the cheeks and the nose. The rounded
nature of those parts mean the only highlight that is a line on that is the final one.

Stage 6: Final Highlight (Skull White)

This is the final highlight, and is one shade higher than you would normally think to go. It
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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes
is applied very sparingly, and is in all cases a line highlight. If it turns out too bright,
knocking back the face using a very watery solution of the base colour (Tanned Flesh)
can make it more natural.
Note - 'Knocking back' is a technique whereby you apply the base colour as a very thin
glaze across the entire area to soften any highlights back to match the overall tone set by
the base colour.

Skin Tones
There are many differing tones human flesh can take. Below are a few examples, all done
using the above method and with the colours used listed beneath.

Natural skin colours:

From left to right:
White
1: Tanned Flesh
2: Flesh Wash Ink
3: Dwarf Flesh
4: Dwarf/Elf Flesh(*1)
5: Elf Flesh
6: Skull White

Tanned
1: Bestial brown
2: Brown Ink
3: Snakebite Leather
4: Snakebite / Bronzed Flesh
5: Bronzed Flesh
6: Bleached Bone

Dark (credit to MrChaos for this one)
1: Scorched Brown/Chaos Black
2: Chaos Black
3: Scorched Brown
4: Scorched / Desert Yellow
5: DesertYellow
6: Bleached Bone

Unusual skin colours

From left to right:
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Relic Forums - View Single Post - How to paint faces, skin and eyes
Drow Black
1: Chaos Black
2: -
3: Hawk Turquoise / Chaos Black
4: Hawk/Black/Codex Grey
5: Add Fortress Grey
6: Fortress Grey

Pallid
1: Dwarf Flesh
2: Red Ink
3: Dwarf/Pallid Flesh (*2)
4: Pallid Flesh
5: Pallid / White
6: Skull White

Diseased
1: Catachan Green
2: Red Ink (*3)
3: Catachan / Rotting Flesh
4: More Rotting Flesh
5: Rotting Flesh
6: Bleached Bone

(*1) I tend to use Dwarf/White mixes as well as Dwarf/Elf. The Elf Flesh gives a warmer
result.
(*2) Pallid Flesh is no longer readily available, but can be made by mixing Dwarf Flesh,
White and a spot of Blood Red.
(*3) Apply this just around the eye/nose junction, for a sore look.


Edit: Eyes section to follow
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