Skintones, please give feedback

[Anders Heintz]

Hey Guys!

Im still tinkering and are trying to get this acrylic thing down. Got my hands on the Andrea Painting CD Rom and learned a few things, one of those was the mid tone thing, where you paint a transparent color inbetween the highlights and the shadows. Anyways, here is Andrea's 54mm Mohawk II figure, and I'd like to know what you think of the flesh tones, please be honest, as I want to improve Tell me what you think is good about it and also what is bad and what should be done differently or how to make it better. Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

 

[Anders Heintz]

One More

 

[frank h]

Hi Anders
Looking at your pics I can see you have reached a stage where you find
yourself wondering where can I go from here.

Ok, this is what I do, get hold of some Acrylic inks mainly the following
for skintones
Flesh wash from Citadel (it's like a liquid burnt sienna)
Orange ink, Brown ink, Red ink, Yellow ink, all from Citadel.
Mix up washes of colour eg flesh wash+orange ink+plenty of water
it needs to be really thin so it can be applied in a controlled manner.
this could be a midtone. Add to this yellow ink+a bit of white or beige paint
and you have something of a highlight.Shadow colour is achieved by using
brown ink warmed up with any of the above.
By keeping your washes thin you can control the effects by toning in eg if
a highlight looks a bit glarey put some thinned down midtone on to pull it back.
I hope this helps experiment and above all enjoy.

Frank

 

[Anders Heintz]

Hey Frank!

Thanks! I found out that I was using way to thick paint, and now Im using something very, very dilluted. instead of painting the highlights and shadows, its more like a needle point wash, if you know what I mean. I think that was my biggest problem. I have some citadels, maybe not the ones you said, but 'll experiment and see how it goes

 

[slaj]

Anders , I had a good look at the pics you posted especially the one from the front. This is how I describe it. The bad things about it are very few and the good things are a lot more . Briefly I would describe it as still in the process of. Ok here's what I think. The eyes themselves need more definition and there's a dark shadow under the eye bag that goes way to far out. The entire face is like being painted 2 tone only. that means that you're only half way there. You need to define more the deepest shadows in obvious areas like between the eyes, under the nose, under the lower lip and under the chin. But , I would firstly accentuate more the highest highlights. That way you can adjust the degree of your shadows. The ratio of the paint to water should be approx. 1 to 6 for the h/L and 1 to 8 for the shadows ( at least !! ). This one is only a personal preference but I would have gone for a darker hue of skintone considering the subject. Racial matters should be always kept in mind. Don't know what else. Just ask if you need anything and happy painting


Stephen Mallia

 

[Anders Heintz]

Hey Stephen,

Thanks! Thats exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for Me too have a small concern that the skin is a little to light, although no doubt there were indians that "pale". Maybe if I add some more shadows it would make the skin look darker also. I didnt realize the shadow under the eyes was so long, thanks for pointing this out. I'll play with it some more, and let you guys know how it turns out. Thanks again Stephen, much appreciated.

 

[frank h]

Hi Anders
Just like to draw your attention to Historical Miniatures mags
issues 19 and 20
They contain in my opinion, the very best how to's with acrylics
by Mario Fuentes.

In fact they form the basis of my technique.

Frank

 

[Anders Heintz]

Hey Frank!

Thanks, Ive seen the articles, they are on the web somewhere, dont remember exactly where, maybe the Vallejo website. Its a great place to start. I'll find it and read it again

 

[jitch0t]

it's HERE for your pleasure

 

[Anders Heintz]

Thanks Daniel!!

 

[Guy]

The Article Daniel referred us to, Painting Figures w/Model Color is now in our link section under "References

Thanks Daniel

 

[John Long]

Ironicly, Mario Fuentes paints his flesh using oils. That is a terrific article, and I've used that technique on a couple of figures.

 

[quang]

Anders,

As far as I'm concerned, it's too early to decide whether your skintones are good or bad, too light or too dark, ...

You cannot tell until the ENTIRE figure is painted. I don't mean 'finished' but if you just put on the basic colours, you'll have a clearer view of how the skin should look like.

That RED coat, of all things, would make a tremendous difference. Your current skintones will take on a greenish tinge once the red is laid. So you'll have to adjust the tones in counterbalancing the green with violet, and then some turquoise here and there to tone down the mauve, etc...

A quick study of a portrait done by a master painter will reveal that a myriad of colours are used for the skin alone. So I would stay away from the ready-made formulas and start trusting my eyes. This is also where oils show their superiority over acrylics, being more supple and subtle to get nuances.

I hope I just didn't add up to the confusion!

Merry Christmas.

Quang

 

[John Long]

That's an interesting point Quang. I remember reading an article about painting faces by Phil Kessling in which he basecoated the hair to check the fleshtones before continuing to the next step.

 

[bobparker]

Frank H always paints his figures hair in when face painting to in his words "frame the face" his demos in acrylics at our club are much appreciated,only wish i could grasp it as well as he has.
Bob

 

[quang]

John,

It does make sense.

To me, the 'logical' way to proceed is to cover the entire figure with the base colours (including the groundwork) so that I could have the whole 'picture' and decide of the general mood (grave, joyous, dynamic, serene,...)

All too often, we forget that this whole bidness of painting is just a matter of finding the right BALANCE: balance between the light and the dark, the red and the green, the warm and the cold,... That's the yin-yang of it. Just keep in mind that everything just needs its opposite to exist. Dark wouldn't be 'dark' without a 'light', red will appear 'more red' if there's a green next to it,...

What we're trying to achieve is harmony. Brushmarks (or lack of) are just stones on the road.

Quang