Painting face a step by step tutorial

February 21, 2008 by fellowshadow · Filed Under Painting

How do you paint face?” is another most asked question in my list. Therefore I put together a short tutorial on how I paint face. For this tutorial I’m using Sir William Peacemaker from Reaper: Dark Heaven line.

Color
Colors used are Vallejo Model Color, Reaper and GW.
Basecoat: Light Brown (929)
1st highlight: Basic Skin Tone (815)
2nd highlight: Ivory
Shade: Vallejo Red Leather
Eyes: Reaper Ice Blue
Pupil: GW Regal Blue
Eyebrows + Hair: Vallejo Black Brown

1: Priming
The figure is primed white, using GW White primer.

2: Basecoat
I mix Light Brown with water (3 part water, 1 part paint) and start basecoating the face.

3: 1st Highlight
I mix Light Brown + Basic Skintone (50:50) to highlight the face. continue with 100% Basic Skintone (mix with water 3:1). I only highlighted the forehead, tip of the nose, and top part of the cheekbone.

4: Eyes & Eyebrows, 2nd Highlight and shading
I paint the eyes with Reaper Ice Blue and put a fine dot of GW Regal Blue for the pupils. Eyebrows were painted using Vallejo Black Brown.
Finally, final highlight is applied by mixing Basic Skintone + Ivory (50:50). This time I only highlighted the forehead, tip of the nose, and top part of the cheekbone with only fine dot and lines. I also shade the bottom part of the cheekbone with watered down Light Brown + a small amount of Vallejo Red Leather wash (5 part water, 1 part paint)