Painting Flesh, simple and effective.

[Prince of the Night]

I have seen quite a few tuts on faces and flesh in general and they have all been with specific colors chosen. This is a tut on how to paint flesh simply and very effectively with only using 2 colors. This technique will work with any color combo you choose, so you don't need to spend a lot of time and or $$ on paint and specific colors. I always start with a black undercoat as this helps to achieve instant shading.


The first thing you need is your final color. This will obviously be the highlight color or "emphasis" color you are trying to obtain for your flesh. Remember that this can be any color you want. Next you need to pick a darker color than that of the final color, because you will be mixing these colors for all of the transition stages. Usually only 3 or 4 depending on the detail you are looking for.

These are the colors I have chosen for this example. "a dark eldar face". Although all my examples are faces, the detail on the flesh is going to be the same technique. The paints I am using are all "folk art" paints.
After choosing my colors, I need to make a base color which will cover all of the flesh area, leaving the mouth and eyes black. The reason for mixing the colors to make a base coat as to just using a darker color is to give an easier transformation of blending. When adding a small amount of the final color to your base color, you instantly start with a shade of your final color.


In the picture above is a single coat of the mixed base coat. It is VERY important to get the base coat right, meaning a solid foundation. You will notice that there is still primer black showing through the base coat. Always thin your paints with a little water and cover the surface thoroughly. The next pic shows a proper base coat, in this case it was just 2 thin layers of th mix.


Now that the base coat is done I will continue to add small amounts of my final color to each layer until I feel that I am satisfied with the result. In this case it is only 2 steps.

As stated earlier, this will work with any 2 colors and here are some examples. Again all I did was mix a small amount of my final color to my base color to get my base coat.




Here is one more example.


After the faces were painted using these steps, I went back and added detail like the eyes and teeth, and there you have it. A very easy and effective way of painting flesh. All 3 of these faces took less than one half hour to finish.

[Ides]

Aside from the fact that tau skin is blue, this is a good guide. Though for flesh tones, I'm partial to threeprime colors. Nice work man.

[Prince of the Night]

Originally Posted by Ides

Aside from the fact that tau skin is blue, this is a good guide. Though for flesh tones, I'm partial to threeprime colors. Nice work man.

I am also partial to a different way of painting flesh depending on the final look I want. This guide is nothing more than a very simple way for people that struggle in this area to evolve in their skills as a painter.

I am glad you liked the guide. "the face of the Tau is actually blue, but he just spent too much time in the sun." lol.

[Colonel Marbi Chora]

Oooh, very interesting. I'mma have to try this out!