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PAINTING FACES




Some of the most common problems in miniature painting revolve about the face and skin of a figure: getting a natural skin tone, choosing colors for facial details, and painting those infuriatingly tiny eyes. This guide will explain some of the painting methods and technique that I have found to work for me.

The face is an important feature of a miniature, and I feel that a little extra time spent on it is worthwhile. A good expression can make all the difference in competition or in selling your work. The job will be easier if you work on a well-sculpted mini, free of mold lines and casting defects. A great miniature can look very good with just a basic clean paint job, but no amount of skill can really “fix” a figure with tubular limbs, muscles sculpted in the wrong places, or a face that’s been squashed through poor mold making or casting.

Skin Tone

There is a vast palette of skin colors to choose from if you don’t limit yourself to paints specifically marked ‘Flesh’, and if you spend a bit of time in mixing and experimenting. In historical ranges like Vallejo Model Colour, flesh shades which seem too pink or orange straight from the bottle generally are meant to be modulated with other colors. Reaper Master Series paints include a useful range of skin tones. I use, in addition, many tan, brown, and red-brown colors. They can be used alone or mixed with the base flesh.

Keep your miniature’s character in mind when picking a skin tone. Is he or she old? Young? Alive or dead? Pale from a life indoors? Tanned and weathered? What ethnicity? An aged character will look more convincing if you add some grey or blue to the base color. A redhead will seem more natural with pale, pink-toned skin, rather than an olive or yellow shade. Women have been often represented, across many times and cultures, as paler than men of the same ethnic group, and with more strongly defined eyes and mouths.

Good characters are often associated with a healthy color, evil or chaotic ones with unnatural pallor or inhuman shades. Mix some purple, gray, or green into a typical flesh tone for your next vampiric mini. Eye shadow looks more natural on a miniature if the primary color (say, green or violet) is mixed with a little of the flesh color. It can also be applied as a thin glaze and later highlighted. Red browns add ruddiness to skin without looking artificial. Mix them into flesh bases for shading noses and ears, mouths and cheeks, or for wounds and viscera.