How to speed paint faces

Transcript

The starting point

Let’s get some quick painting done. The face on this Infinity vampire already has a base on it from a while ago — very watered-down Bad Bruise purple, with the super-dark recesses filled in by some Tenebris leftover on my palette.

The goal today: get this face to look good, fast. And I want a specific effect — alive but undead. At first glance they look human, but the longer you look, the more uncanny it gets.

Sketching in the highlights

I’ve been playing with Vallejo Model Color Sunny Skin Tone on these Infinity models. Very warm, very peachy, very orange-white. It’s much brighter than where the face currently is, and brighter than where it needs to end up. That’s the point — I’m using it to sketch in only the very brightest hits.

Straight from the pot. Hit the absolute tips of the ears, the top of the bald head, the brow, the very point of the nose, the eyes, the cheeks, the lips, that sharp jawline. Not the whole nose. Just the tip. I’m just sketching values. The jaw on this side is in shadow, so it stays darker.

A second pass on the brightest spots, because as it dries it gets noticeably less bright. The brush is starting to curl on me — it’s earning a real Masters treatment after this.

One glaze to blend it all

Wash the brush. Pull a lot of water out of the cup. Then a tiny dot of the same Sunny Skin from the palette. Goes thick on the pot but very watery on the hand.

I glaze the whole face, working up from the shadows to the high points. I’m watching where the paint pools — don’t want a beard from too much pooling under the jaw, and I don’t want to glaze the recesses too dark or it’ll read like a 5 o’clock shadow. I avoid letting the Tenebris pull where I don’t want it.

Already in the camera the head looks pretty good from just that. The trick is deposit, don’t drown. And I have to stop now or I’ll start tearing paint off the model.

Build back up

Let it dry. Come back in and build the cheeks, nose, and chin a little more. A tiny bit more under the chin. The ears are good.

Eye sockets and the tiny white dots

Bad Bruise watered down to almost nothing, just to push the eye sockets darker. Mostly water on the brush. Press in to deposit the shadow.

Eyes are hard. There’s no ifs, ands, or butts about it. I’m working with a size 1 sable that’s seen better days, but the tip is still usable. Load it with white, work it into the bristles. You need more paint on the brush than you think you do, and you need to keep the paint working in the bristles or it’ll dry on you mid-eye.

Poke a white dot into each eye. Don’t fill the whole socket — hit the outsides and leave a dark center to suggest the iris is in there. Halfway is fine. This is infantry. If I were doing a warcaster I’d push it harder.

Vampire lips

A little red on the lips at the end. They’re vampires. It had to happen.

Wrap

I did some painting. I have remembered how to paint. Very creepy. Very uncanny valley. Exactly what we wanted. See you tomorrow.