Painting Flesh with Oils

[jimias]

Painting Flesh with Oils (SBS)

Hello friends of the Planet. Two days ago i recieved the long awaited kit from Romeo Models Calico Jack & Anne Bonny sculpted by Mr Bruno. I gotta say that this is probably the best kit i ever had. Insane sculpting and excellent casting. Anyway i started painting right away and then got to the point of the flesh parts, when i thoughted to do and sbs on painting flesh with oils. I dont claim to be an expert on the subject but i wanna share my approach with you all. So here it goes....

First step base coat the figure with acrylics. I prefer doing that with the old formula Andrea colors cause they seem to have a greater oil absorbent capacity that Vellejo. Another way is to use enamels.

 

[jimias]

second step is to mix your own oils flesh colors. As you can see the palette i use is quite simple with titanium white, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, burnt umber and cadium red deep. Get your basic color and then split it in half. Add some sienna and ochre to one half to have your first shadows. You dont need great contrast between your first two mixies though.

 

[jimias]

Next step
Very important!!! Place a lamp over the figure and note the places of greatest shadows. For the face for example it whould be under the nose, under the eyelids and so on. Now use some pure sienna quite dilluted and gently preshade those areas. For even deeper shadows like between the finger use a mix of sienna and umber. For the eyes i use the abovementioned mix to cover up the hole eyeball.

 

[jimias]

Step No 4
Applying the first lights and shadows. The technique i use includes applying lights and shadows from the very start instead of first basecoating with the flesh color and so on. So here is where the time you took looking the figure under the light will come to pay. So have your color in an milky-like consistency and apply the lights, then the shadows. Then very gently blend them. At this point you might think that there is no contrast, but trust me its better than to start to harsh hard to get rid off color transitions. Another thing, especially in later stages is to have to seperate blending brushes one for the lights and one for the shadows. After you complete this step is not a bad idea to sit back and relax or paint some other part of the figure. This will give time to your oil paint to set and to you acrulic base to absorb any excess oil.

 

[jimias]

Moving to step No 5 we wanna mix some titanium white to the basic mix and make a mix of sienna nad ochre for the second shadows. After applying second lights and shadows the first results start to show!!!

 

[megroot]

Great SBS.
I think it is always welcome a SBS specially for the starters in figurepainting.

Marc

 

[jimias]

Marc that was excactly my thought. I remember the days when i first bought a figure and asked my self now what? Just hope that this thread in conjuction with some other great aticles that are around will help oil paint first timers.

 

[jimias]

For the next steps i keep mixing more white to my base color for the highs and i start mixing some umber and cadmium red to my shadow mix. After some applications and carefull blending the result is something like that. What is important is that when you work wet on wet as we do the further you go the more wet paint accumulates so in later stages is a good idea to leave you highs or shadows for about 1-2 mins to set before blending them. Otherwise you ll end up wiping the paint you have applied.

 

[Ferris]

Hi Dimitrios,

Nice initiative your SBS, thanks. It's very instructive.

I have a question: you said "So have your color in an milky-like consistency and apply the lights, then the shadows. Then very gently blend them."
About the consistency: Do you thin your mix to get that consistency?
If not, how do you keep the oil layer thin enough?

And one more: What's the white stuff on which you mix your paints? Does it help to absorb some of the oils?

Thanks for you help.

I'll be following this thread!

Cheers, Adrian

 

[jimias]

Hi Adriann,
Thank you for your feedback. I m glad you find the thread helpfull. As for the consistency i use "White Spirit" to thin the paint. I have tried similar products like "W&N Sans Oudor" but i find no diference between them except from the smell and the price. White spirit smells alot but cost almost nothing. Refering to the milky consistency i have to say that this is what i ve read in many articles but the truth is that you can adjust the paints consistency to your needs. For example little dillution= greater coverage vs greater dillution layering effect. The white paper is the paper that we use in cooking. I dont know the word in english but is non absorbent and non sticking. So i just use it as a cheap single use palette. Although sometimes when dealing with dark colors(especially Blue) i leave the paint on an absorbent paper overnight to get rid of the excess oil. Hope that helps. Feel free to shoot any other question. Thank you again for looking.

 

[housecarl]

Thanks for the informative SBS Dimitrios. I take it you mix on greaseproof paper?
Carl.

 

[jimias]

Thanks for the informative SBS Dimitrios. I take it you mix on greaseproof paper?
Carl.

So thats the name for it! i was trying to describe it to adriann before but couldnt find the word. Cheap, single use and plenty of it in the house. The perfect palette!!

 

[geaugan]

In the U.S. it's called parchment paper and found in the baking section of the grocery store. It also works great in an acrylics wet palette.

 

[megroot]

I use tearoff palette for oilpaints.
For let the oil soaking out of the paint( specially blue's) i use indexcart. Almost for nothing here in the hospital (it isn't in use anymore).
For thinning the paint i also use WhiteSpirit. But it is hard to get it in the Netherlands.
It's always terpentine.

marc

 

[jimias]

Extreme Highlights
So after leaving the figure to dry overnight we are ready to paint again. The oils should have dried quite flat by now showing the real contrast we have achieved so far.

 

[jimias]

Now its time for some extreme lights and deep shadows, as well as painting the eyebals. For the eyeball use white with a bit of your base color to get an off white tone. Then carefully apply leaving a dark line around showing. For the extreme highs first use your last used lights. Now that the paint is dry it will have a stronger highlighting effect. At this point there is no real blending per se. We just want to tap the borders of the highlight to get a smooth transition. For deep shadows i use a mix of umber and cadmium red quite dilluted. I aslo made a mix of sienna, ochre and a bit of red very dilluted and used it as glaze under the bonecheaks to make it more lively.

 

[JGREEN]

Nice SBS Dimitrios! I really like the color of the trousers - would you mind sharing the mix? Thanks.

Jason

 

[jimias]

Hi Jason. Thank your for your comments. As for the trousers i used:
Basic mix Golden Brown + Tan Yellow ratio 1:2.
For highs more Tan to the mix later on some biege and for extremes some white.
Shadows 1: Golden Brown
Shadows 2: Golden Brown + English uniform
Shadows 3: English Uniform
All colors Vallejo Acrylics
Hope this helps.

 

[kansas kid]

Appreciate all this effort, Dimitrois

I know this kind of very detailed SBS effort is rather time consuming and
takes away time from actually painting figures, Dimitrois, but like you I think
it is so helpful for those who are not at the expert level. So I personally thank
you for the effort. Well done.

I will say that here in America, the term you use "White Spirts" is usually
called Mineral Spirits. And I use it the say way you do, especially with my
oil painting on canvas.

I don't know where I was when this figure was released. But wow, what a
killer figure. The sculpting of all the folds that meet at the belt buckle is so
fine. I am eager to see more of your SBS and ulltimately the finished figure.
Congrats,

Jayhawker

 

[jimias]

Dear Rick the truth is also though doing this sbs whould be much more difficult than it turned out to be due to the mobile phone camera. I know the pics are not high quality but its fast and i can shoot at my bench. So after some touch ups here and there here is the final result except the iris of the eye. I m leaving that for the time of assembly of the vignette. Hope you found something intresting in this thread. Thank you all for your time to look and comment.