Some Zombie Skin Advice?

[Chris '75]

So, I'm about to have a go at my first bust, a $3 Zombie Clown I found at a show a few years back and I'm really having a hard time getting the flesh tone right (I'm practicing on a toy figure before I hit the bust). My plan is to do the face as a zombie, seal it, then paint the clown face and pull off the clown "make up" a bit like you would a white wash for an armor winter camouflage.

But, the skin tone... can anybody suggest a technique far as base, wash, highlights etc... I know I'm looking for a grayish flesh, maybe a bit of blue or green, but despite each test patch I'm just not getting anything I'm confident to put on the real deal. Or if someone knows of a SBS they can point me to... I've tried searching here and there and mostly come up with small scale gaming figure solutions.

I know this is probably a bad/tough subject for a first bust, but for 3 bucks you cant go wrong....

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Oh, I did find the a tutorial on the Verlinden zombie bust, but I'm looking for something a little more fleshy. ;-)

 

[Einion]

(I'm practicing on a toy figure before I hit the bust)

Obviously there are dozens of ways you can approach this kind of thing, just on the base colour alone you could go in many different directions so it's a bit difficult to know what to suggest except to suggest something that you can at least start from.

General point first, if you want anything truly greyish one of the easiest ways to go is simply to start with greys and tint them, it literally can be as simple as that!

So for a very simple base mix you could try a light blue-grey mixed from white and black and then add a little orange, red or a red earth. On top of that you could try all sorts of glazes of reds, greens or near-greens, even blues and greys, depending on the effect you want and how heavily coloured you want to go.

If you want to go a totally different way, you could start with a regular flesh mix and work over that with various beiges and other dull colours until the skin colour is veiled, that could look good (this is in essence how zombie makeup is usually done).

I know this is probably a bad/tough subject for a first bust...

Don't know about that, a lot more forgiving than a Native American or a Napoleonic!

Einion

 

[housecarl]

http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/painting-zombies-tutorial.html
Hope these help.
Carl.