SPANISH TEAM

[Weishaupt]

English version... well my english is far from perfect so please tell me about mistakes you see.

Well, with this I believe that the subject of the faces is complete. In this tutorial I group both previous, location of lights and shades, midtones and tones to heighten and to disguise volumes in addition its extended with color palettes and tones for different surroundings, specially focused to the four seasons.

First of all, painting a face is to think about the palette of colors that im going to use. A very common mistake between painters is to be accustomed to a mixture and to use it for all type of skins. They finish doing monotonous and little realistic works when they faces particular circustamces as it can be minis under a strong light, bronzed by the sun or when trying to represent figures of different ethnic groups in the same diorama.

In the figure of below its possible to observe some palettes that I have created for the occasion. One is a generic palette of brown neutral very similar to the one i use for base colors accompanied of other four sets of tones, two primary pallettes (Warm and Cold) and 2 (Mixed) the intention is that mixing the palette of generic with the suitable palette of tones we pruned to give the atmosphere that we wish to surround our miniature.



The first palette of tones is the one that we will call generic.




They are the typical colors meat that have a neutral tone and that we will turn to warm or cold to our election. Andrea´s flesh paint set, basic skintone (VMC) , brown cork, light flesh could be colors of this type.

Later we have the palette of warm colors.




This palette is the ideal to use in a summery atmosphere since the thermal sensation of its colors evokes the summer period. It uses ocher and orange colors for reddish the midtones and brown tones for the zone of shade. Flesh is illuminated as well with a yellowish color that simulates the direct solar illumination.


In the opposite side we have the palette of colds.




This palette would be adapted for a winter typical scene by the temperature of its colors. One is based on pink for midtones and blue or violet for shades. The illumination is made with a greyish color that does not warm up the lights. We can see a compared example of both palettes in this digital painting recreation (miniature painted by computer)





The mixed palettes correspond to mixtures between cold and warm colors. Indeed spring and autumn match in their intermediate temperature so we are able to use indifferently.

The spring palette that I have taken is this.




This composing in its majority by cold colors since my intention is to intone with the intense green color of the leaves at this time. The midtones will be of a pink-orange tone and the shades will go in fucsia. The lights became a little grey applying some greenish tone to the skintone to simulate the dragged pallor of the winter.


Finally the autumn palette, that is the following one.




Composed in its majority by warm colors to intone with the leaves of fall and a cold touch that represents the temperature of the atmosphere. It uses a pink color to simulate the cheeks attacked by autumn cold and the rest ocher and brown colors game with the landscape of withered leaves.

Once selected the color palette to use, another aspect to consider it is that in many occasions the “flesh” colors are colors very saturated to represent the average tones and its better to grey them a little to obtain a greater realism (it is not the case of the miniature that I painted since the gray tone is present as much in average tones as extreme)

Here I put an example to you in a figure of Vincenti (thats realism)




In the miniature where the positioning of lights and shades will be explained (space Marine) I decided to grey all the face and then to heighten the volume giving tones.For the base I used the second base of the Andreas flesh paint set who has an intense orange brown color and I killed the color adding azur that is approximately the complementary color. Once applied the base it is the moment for adding the lights and the shades.
Each face is different but more or less there are certain elements that all have in common. There is zones that always will be in shade and zones which always will be in light and this with some practice you will learn to see it automatically. The light focus is very advisable, for aesthetic reasons, to turn it a little to give more realism and to personalize the face. Its convenient before establishing the incidence of the light to locate the main view of the figure to adecuate the light focus to that view.

It may occur, like it happened to me, that the main view is not the most suitable to locate the light focus (in my case, the points in the forehead of marine, were a hindrance to place the maximun light so I decided to locate it in the opposite side) In this picture you can see more or less the highlights and the shades that could be located in any face. Take a look to what I said about the maximun light spot and the main view.



Once illuminated and shaded the face it has a too uniform aspect to seem real (independently of the used color) Applyin tones we will cause that the face takes realism and in addition we will be able to give depth or to heighten volumes alternating cold colors and warm colors.

The theory is that the warm colors tend to heighten a volume, to say it somehow, to push it towards outside. On the contrary the cold colors give to sensation of depth and/or concavity. If we have this in mind its easy applying glazes of cold and warm colors to heighten the reliefs of the figure. Here you have a small example.



Once learned this its necessary to assimilate what we have learned and not to directly associate prominent parts with warm colors and parts sunk with cold colors. The good thing of this technique is that indeed it helps us to emphasize volumes and to make hollows deeper but also allows the opposite. If we have a volume nonwished we can apply the cold tone to disguise a protuberance and the warm tone to minimize a depression.

The perfect example is the figure of lyssete, 28mm of Reaper miniature. It is a precious miniature that aside from having the typical face of Werner Klocke has a noticeable cheekbone. Ive selected a few photos so that you can see it for yourselves.








The challenge is in clarifying the hard gesture that it has modeled the figure. In order to obtain it in this case I have used the colors oranges (my dear German orange) around cheekbone, that in a normal figure would intone in cold color to remark it. Doing so I have been able to disguise a little the deep hollow that existed.
Later the challenge is in being able to disguise voloumen that it leaves downwards from cheekbone and that it is so ugly in a feminine face. In this case I need to sink the zone but I cannot use blue or green colors since probably they would give a beard sensation. I was decided to use a fucsia to cool it. This tone does the function to me of cold tone and a similar color with the one of a feminine cheek slightly maked up. Being therefore to make up the eyelids will give coherence me to these tones.

Here you can see the result.





Translation of figure.

Above: Warm tones soften the concavity around the cheekbone. An orange tone will give a natural color to the face.
Below: Violet tones soften the prominence under the cheek achieving a smooth volumetric transition.

The mini is still unfinished but I believe that the effect can be seen .
As always all the questions will be welcomes and serve so that everybody understands it better.

[arjay]

Thank you for translating this excellent tutorial into English, it's exactly the type of thing I've been looking for. I'm sure it'll be very helpful to myself and many other people...

~Russell.

[Darkmessiah]

hi, thanks for the great article.

iv just got a few requests/questions.

do you use vallejo paints only or do you use GW paints as well, also wot colours do u use for the different tones (cold/warm/generic)

do you use gray as a base coat for all your flesh work, or does it vay depending on the result you want

how would you apply your technique to other parts of the body? do you use the same technique and colours in the same way, or do you vary it.

Thanks Darkmessiah
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[automaton]

A really excellent article, thank you so much for posting it here in english! SOme very interesting thoughts. It complements banshee's article about his arwen very well.
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