Painting Flesh/Faces Help

[darkmessiah]

am lookin to improve myself after the GDUK went by and one of the main areas i have always struggled with is painting realistic flesh, i picked up a few tutorials from creafigs and iv been working on this sister of sigmar for a few hrs. now am after a bit of critque, how can i make improve this face and make it more realistic?

[eldintux]

Now I'm no expert & I'm sure someone will come up with some better ideas than myself. But if this was my figure I'd want to smooth out the blends a little. Probably with a VERY thin brown wash - 2 or 3 layers. Then re-highlight if necessary, but again with very thin colour. Have you highlighted al the way up to white? I probably wouldn't, but I know others that do - and very successfully. Getting the eyes in (even if the skin isn't quite right) can also help as it adds character & you can see the overal finished product.

Ok I've just found your gallery on CMoN and feel a little foolish trying to offer you some help. You obviously know what you're talking about, although I did notice a certain lack of flesh colours in your top ranking models.

[zapoteke]

one small tiny little thing I know: darken the upper lip, just the lower part should be high lighted.

the same I think would go for the eye-lids (is it called that?) brighter on the under and the brow should be darker, but then again not dark but lighter than the lower... get me?

I usally look at pictures, movies n stuff to get to know "faces" - I concentrate on the shadows n stuff, just to learn

[Tim C]

The face is looking good, darken under the chin and under the top lip, add a little red into the flesh tone for the bottom lip and then highlight that, the facial highlights are usually lighter towards the upper part of the cheeks, I have experimented with some success adding very thin glazes of either red or a mild purple into the lower parts of the face to add some tonal difference.

[jabberwocky]

Some good bit of advice rendered already DM. I would agree with what everyone has mentioned. Most folks when doing overhead lighting on the face will do a "cross" on the face--Highlight the forehead, tip of the nose and chin vertically and the tops of the cheeks horizontally. Eldin makes a good point about blends (most all of us need help with that), but you have provided us with a VERY close pic of the mini, which tends to exaggerate flaws--I am sure at regular distance the blending would look good.

[darkmessiah]

right guys update! sorry about the delay guys, lazyness restricted me from gettin my photo stuff out :lol:

thanks for the help guys, iv made quite a few changes, a little pink on the lips, made the face darker by working with purples and blues and iv repainted the eyes, very difficult to get a crisp reflective dot, moved the highlights up on the cheeks so their parralel with the eyes and iv reduced the highlights on the upper lip and eye lids, and i added a stronger highlight on the right cheek because its slightly raised

Eldin, all advice is appreciated, so keep it coming

[jabberwocky]

You've made the proper adjustment, Dark--I think you have done a fine job!