Live painting, update #2: painting the face

I feel like I could use a typing monkey. I am not used to interrupt while painting for taking pictures but somehow it works.

Painting the face (theory): For me, the face of a miniature somehow determines the feeling, the ambiance and the sympathy. Although the face is very small, I think it catches about 50% of the viewers attention, the rest is bonus (what does not mean that you should rush there). A well painted face show good blending skills AND hard lights at the same time. You need very strong lights and shadows on a rather small surface to achieve something that seems individual, that gives the miniature its face. Most important is the T-zone, what I will now explain in detail.

Imagine a "T" right in the middle of the face of your miniature. The horizontal line are the eyebrows, the vertical line is the nose down to the chin. This "T" shows the lightest areas in the face. In addition to that, you have the nasolabial folds, which are very light as well and determine the harshness of the miniature. This "T" and the nasolabial folds are surrounded by the darkest areas in the face. The area under the eyebrows, running down the side of the nose und the point under the lip but above the chin are really, REALLY dark. By putting this contrasts together, you get a well painted face.

Colour choice: Everyone has his own recipe for painting skin, I use Tanned Flesh, Bronzed Flesh, Elf Flesh und Skull White for the basic blending and lights. Shadows and nuances are set with every colour  I like, green, purple, red, blue, grey.....



Basic colours, codex grey for the beard



Base colour is Tanned Flesh + Bronzed Flesh (3:1) - the face is primed quite rough

First lights by adding more Bronzed Flesh, you can hardly see any difference



More Bronzed Flesh has been added, you start to see the "T"-line



Elf Flesh has been added to the mix, the lights are now very clear and you just follow the path





The lights are very strong now, to strong in fact. Don't care about that, you can change that later.

 




The lights are finished, the miniature looks more like a ghost at this stage.





This is quite a huge step in one picture, I glazed the face several times with
the base tone. Then I painted the beard with a mix of Tanned Flesh and
Codex Grey (3:1). Then I painted red under the cheeks, green onto the temple
and several mixtures to darken the area next to the "T"-line.

 
Note that the face still looks rather strange and unfinished. This is because the moustache und the hair is not painted yet. I didn't paint the neck because I will now mask the face and do some airbrush work.


Thanks to Sebastian for encouraging me to go on....

Sleipnir asked wether a banner pole counts towars the size of the wooden base.
> Yes, I think so.


Chris