Another easy way to paint faces

Transcript

Yesterday vs today

Last night we did the tryhard speed mode — underpaint, then glaze. Today the approach is even simpler: I just base-coated Sunny Skin Tone (the color we glazed with in the last video) straight on the face. Now I’m going to wash it down and call it done.

The wash

Army Painter Dark Tone — black, not the brown — well-shaken. On this box art the face is actually pretty dark, like they just paneled it in. So black works.

A little too much paint on the brush is fine. The trick is the thumb: I pull paint from the palette onto my thumb first, then take it from my thumb onto the model. That way the amount is always controlled. If there’s too much, I just blot it back off on my thumb. It keeps the wash from flooding into the eyes or pooling on the bridge of the nose. I’m being careful around both.

The wash does the major work for me. Already, just from this, the face has way more definition. Even on the box art there’s not a lot going on with the face — most of the work is around the eyes and the ears.

The hair palette

If you’re curious, the hair is Foul Green plus Thunderbird Blue, airbrushed over a blue-green base. I should probably make a proper tutorial on this guy. I couldn’t find anything online about how to paint him. I’m probably about to be the only person on the internet who’s painted this model.

Speaking of: I don’t even know his name. I’m not well-versed in Infinity outside the faction I play, and by “play” I mean would like to play. I think I played three games of the newest edition of Infinity. I’ve followed Infinity since N2 and I’ve always wanted to play Combined. I finally found a local scene I could play regularly, and then my life kind of fell apart shortly after. I’m still putting it back together. But I love this game. I think Infinity is the coolest game out right now. Deep, hard, full of rules to remember.

Teeth

These teeth look metallic to me on the box art. I’ve still got the black wash on the palette, so I jam on that for the recesses between the teeth, then come in with gray on the teeth themselves and leave the black around the outline. Boom. Easy-mode teeth.

Solid black eyes with two white dots

The eyes on this guy are actually solid black with two tiny white dots — not a regular eye with a black iris like I did yesterday. Different look.

I grab Tenebris for the black (the blue-black I’ve completely fallen in love with) and push it into the socket. Wipe the brush. Pure white, just a tiny amount. Two dots.

Fixing a botched eye

The other eye went bad. Too much water on the brush, I think — paint wouldn’t dry in the socket. I dab black back over to reset, redraw the pupils. It’s not as clean as the first one, but it’s fine. Eyes are always hard. You can paint a million eyes and every single one is still going to suck a little.

A tiny glint of white at the end is what was missing. There it goes.

Wrap

There he is, next to the box art. Still need to lighten the hair around the face, but he’s basically done. Ten minutes total. Three colors plus a wash — a wash, the black, and the white. Plus the eyebrows, because why not.

Thanks for watching. I’ll see you tomorrow.