I have zero experience in figure painting and am about to try my first with Tamiyas’ 1/48 Marder III crewman. I’ve read up Shep Paines’ face painting section again and again so I have a lot of good theory to go by. Problem is, the only decent skin tones I have are Model Masters’ Skin Tone warm tint (a real pinky colour), Light Tint (beige/tan), Shadow Tint and Dark Tint. I bought these paints just the other day thinking I had found what I was looking for only to rediscover that Shep is against “Commercial flesh” (i.e Warm Tint), as he believes it is “invariably too pink”.
My question, what should I use as a base colour for faces and other skin parts - one of the two first tones as stated above or the three-colour mixture Shep swears by in How to Build Dioramas, which is yellow ochre, burnt sienna and white, presumably mixed 1:1:1?
I start with warm tint and darken it with light tint in the bottle. I use that as a base coat and then apply darker colors to highlight it. Light tint out of the bottle is way to pink.
Use the commercial Testor’s ‘flesh’ just for highlights and a base for mixing red + brown in. Remember skin is semi transparent and shows the color of the blood under neath. A embarrassed or person exerting themselves ‘flushes’ due to a blood rush to the surface of the skin. Jaundice is urine in the blood giving the person a yellowish tint, signs of a damaged liver.
Here is a example of a pallet mixed for skin tones. I like to use enamels for a base coat and dry brushed highlights and acrylics for recesses, shadows in a wash mix. Blending can be done with thinned enamels just be quick to not ‘melt through’ to the base coat or worse yet the plastic / resin.
I NEVER use gray primer, use Red Oxide instead as if it bleeds through it is almost a good color for flesh.
Pencil crayons can be used for small details like eye brows & lips. Apply over flat finish as it has more ‘bite’ for the pigments.
Most of all study other modeler’s work, take notes and strive for realism!
Berny - do you mean you lighten warm tint with light tint, apply lighter colours to highlight it and that warm tint out of the bottle is too pink?[^o)][*-)]
Come to think of it I wasn’t very clear. I start with the lightest skin color (which is almost pink) and darken with the next lightest tint. That takes away most of the pink look. I use that as a base color. From there I use darker tints to fill in the recessed areas and slightly lighter tints for highlighting. All of my skin tone paints are mixed in the bottle and labeled. I can’t give you the ratio as I use the TLAR (That Looks About Right) method of mixing.
Whatever is used expect a learning curve.I have been using the Andrea flesh set -6-7 colors that can be mixed and thinned for washes. This is because I am too chicken to use oils on the face’s yet! .Upcoming in the fig section will be a WW1 Tommy , I’ll try to conquer my fears then.
