Hey everyone! This tutorial will go over how to paint both lighter and darker human flesh-tones. I'll be using a mixture of layering and glazing for this tutorial, as well as a combination of Citadel and Reaper paints. These techniques and colors can be modified to give you a quick table-top quality figure all the way to a display piece, depending on the time you invest into your blends.
I'll begin with the darker flesh tone. As you can see, the model was primed in a zenithal method, meaning I started with a black primer, then used a white primer from downward angles to create shadows from an artificial "sun."
We can use this technique to our advantage when painting., which I will show you shortly. Begin by painting Rhinox Hide into the shaded areas left beneath the white primer.
Next we move onto Doombull Brown. This will cover the majority of the model's skin. Be sure to leave the Rhinox Hide showing in the recesses. Glazing the Doombull Brown up from the Rhinox Hide helps create a smooth transition of color.
After we've got a good base of Doombull Brown down, we can begin highlighting with Squig Orange. I mixed a little Doombull Brown in with the Squig Orange to cut down on the harshness of the color transition. Focus this along the crests or top parts of the different muscle groups. This includes the top of the individual abs, along the crest of the shoulders, as well as the crest of the biceps. For the chest, highlight the outside edge of the pectoral muscle, as well as the middle of the chest, near the sternum. Along the back of the model, focus along the top edge of the triceps, as well as the top crest of all the muscles in the back.
Once we have the first highlight down, we can highlight the model with a mix of Squid Orange and Rosy Shadow. This will be focused along the same spots of the first highlight, but focusing a smaller area along the edges of them muscle groups. Be sure to leave some of the first highlight behind.
After the second highlight, you can now do an edge highlight with Rosy Shadow to create a more defined bright line near the crests of all the muscle groups. As you can see from the pictures, use this defining line to butt up to the deepest shadows to get the most contrast with your figure. If your model gets de-saturated during highlighting, glaze thin layers of Doombull Brown back onto the mid-tones to bring the color back.
Once the highlights are complete, we can redefine the shadows of the model with black. I glazed Pure Black into the deep recesses of the model to help push the contrast up, and make all them muscle groups pop.
Voila! You now have a nice scheme to use in order to paint darker human flesh tones on models. Now, onto the lighter skin tone.
Begin by base-coating the figure with Bugman's Flesh.
Once you've got a solid base-coat, you can shade the muscle groups using Reaper's Ashen Brown. This color has a nice purple hue to it, that helps make the skin look realistic. You will want to focus on the deepest recesses of the muscles with this color. Shade around the abdominal muscles, shoulders, biceps, as well as the neck. You will want to also paint this color in between the fingers of the model, as well as parts of the palm that are blocked by light. Additionally, on the face will want to shade the underside of your models cheek, as well as their jawline. Along the back of the figure I used this color to shade the muscles along the spine, as well as the underside of the model's head. Any deep recess that you can see in the pictures ended up getting Ashen Brown.
From here we can move onto painting the first highlight, Cadian Fleshtone. You will want to start focusing on all the high spots of the muscles. The thought process here is to hit all the areas you just shaded with Ashen Brown, but instead focus on the parts that would be hit the most by sunlight. This means the tops of abdominal muscles, the tops of the shoulders, biceps, back, fingers, etc. Additionally, on the face you will want to focus on the top of the cheek bone, the tops of lips, the nose, as well as the brow-line of the figure. Because my model is bald, I also began highlighting the top of the head with this color.
Once we've gotten that layer down, we can move onto painting the next highlight of Kislev Flesh. This color will be applied to the same spots as the Cadian Fleshtone, but will be used more sparingly. Be sure to hit the "peaks" of the muscles (abs, biceps, shoulders, etc.), and leave some Cadian Fleshtone behind to help create a gradient. This color will also be sued on the face in the same way, hitting the tops of the cheeks, lips, and brow-line. For the models hands, focus more towards to knuckles and tips of fingers. For bald miniatures, focus on the peak of their head with this step.
Once we have our second highlight down, we can move onto edge highlighting with Fair Skin from Reaper. This step will really add contrast to the figure, and help all our shading and highlighting really pop. This step must be done with care, as you will essentially be defining the muscles groups with a "sharp" line. This will be done along the very top of abdominal muscles, along the edges of the shoulders and biceps, as well as the peaks of the back muscles and triceps. I've tried to provide you with some close up pictures of this step. The key is to paint along the edge of the muscle group that will "catch" light. This is usually directly against the darkest recesses, and is how you will achieve the most contrast and pop with your figure.
And there you have it! Two different recipes for some realistic looking flesh tones for your figures. Thanks for reading through the tutorial! I hope you've gotten some useful information out of this. Stay tuned for more tutorials in the coming days!
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