A Note on Skin Tones

When I first started to write some of these posts, the entire idea was to keep track of what I was painting and how I was painting it. The how is particularly important when painting up an army: I want to replicate the style across all miniatures in an army to make it look cohesive. The how is also important in learning new techniques, painting theory, etc: I can look into what I've done before and make certain tweaks the next time around. It's this last point that has prompted today's post.

No photos today, apologies, but the camera is being packed away in preparation for holidays.

I'm painting a 3d printed model just for something different, at 75mm scale (whatever that really means!). There's a good deal of skin showing, being the exact reason I chose the model. I wanted to practice skin tones and how lighting works across a body. This is something rarely done with Games Workshop miniatures, which normally show faces, hands, sometimes some of the arms. Exploring more of a whole body on a larger scale will hopefully transfer that knowledge into the smaller scale and improve my painting overall. So that's the intent.

This new model didn't work as I wanted, but then I should never have expected it to. I've learned a lot, and that's what counts. The number one issue is lack of colour variation. I really need to exaggerate the lighting and shadows to give more visual interest, which other than subjectively making it look more pleasing also adds information that more immediately identifies the shape and form of the model. I tend to go with subtle, and subtle gets lost with any sort of distance and ambient lighting.

Particularly across larger models with organic shapes, smooth blending everywhere is hard and takes a lot of time. I've been trying to rush this model, so spending days on a single finger wasn't an option and I relied heavily on the airbrush instead. The colours used:

• Dryad Bark across the entire model.
• Barak-Nar Burgundy (normal brush) in some shadowed areas. Ultimately this was lost in the later layer noise (more on this in a moment).
• Thondia Brown for a general mid tone over most of the model.
• Mix Deathclaw Brown into the pot, about 1:1 with the previous step and an equal amount of thinner, for initial colouring.
• Mix more Deathclaw Brown and thinner to add more blended highlights.
• Mix Cadian Fleshtone and thinner, concentrating on the upper facing surfaces only.
• Mix Kislev Flesh and thinner, mostly around the face and larger surfaces.

The final skin tone I quite like. The colours themselves make for a tone that I could explore more. The thinner used is also critical: I really got the feeling of building up translucent layers that blend together nicely. This is really something to keep in mind - thin, smooth layers are possible with an airbrush with a little care.

The problem really is that the end result looks very flat. I have tried to go back in and add some shading, add some extra highlights (Baneblade Brown has worked well for that), but it would have given more contrast had I done more of that with the airbrush. Burgundy shadows for example, they were completely covered and very little showed through by the end. I have some plans on how to adjust this approach in future:

• After the mid tone step, add the shadows more strongly with the airbrush. The shading can also be done with a paintbrush without much thought to blending. Later stages or reapplication of the mid tone can soften shadow edges.
• The stronger the underlying shadow, the more it will show through later. Very thin airbrush layers will help to keep control of this.
• Use more colour variation. Even in basic ambient lighting there are subtle reflections off the surrounding environment, and artistically exaggerating this on a miniature often gives a far more pleasing result.
• Following all of the above, more exploration of pressure on body parts can help too. Crossed legs, hands resting on the face, etc, all can potentially impact blood flow, colour, shape, of those areas. Drawing attention to that gives subconscious visual clues that make the viewer read the entire model far more easily.

Also, headset magnifying lenses with a nice pointy brush is a really great combination.

With that, it's likely to be a month until my next post due to holidays & travel. I'm not taking paints with me, that's far too much hassle. There are terminators, jetbikes, NMM, and more waiting when I'm back; I've not forgotten about any works in progress.

-- silly painter.