Skin Tone Tutorials: How To Paint Japanese Skin Part One!
January 29, 2015 by elromanozo
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This was perfect. I am working on this box set right now. Very helpful and interesting.
Going to pay close attention to this as I adapt my painting techniques. See massive improvements already from applying thinner coats over light grey primer, with some pre-shading & highlighting.
Skin tones Lesson 1 in a nutshell – don’t start by slapping on a thick coat of anything from a pot labelled “… Flesh”!
btw – I’ve been looking for a good* tutorial on doing Black Armour (in this case for some Infinity Nomad models). Is there one hiding somewhere on backstage?
(* by ‘good’ I mean by Romain)
Wow ! I’m extremely flattered. Thanks ! 🙂
I think there’s a very old one on blueish black armor on a Chaos Terminator I did a while back… That said, it’s OLD. I must do another series on armor soon…
In the meantime, you’re liable to find very useful advice from Lester Bursley on Youtube. he’s done a lot of this… Even if it’s mostly airbrushing.
Thanks Romain. I’ve found a 2-parter of him doing Black templar armour (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDxeZE6Ozds). Not sure why after priming grey he then base coats the shoulder pads black only to take them back to grey and eventually white. I have understood how he chooses a single reference point to identify where to put the highlights as this will be more realistic than the typical GW highlight all edges style. Overall he is highlighting back from the black – I wonder whether people like Angel G and yourself would build up the greys and blacks from a light base leaving the lighter… Read more »
Quite a lot, actually. Airbrushing eliminates the need for this, but this comes from actual picture painting on white background, and painting with transparency in mind to obtain bright colours (something that wasn’t possible until the XXth century or so). Unless you have an airbrush and VERY modern/liquid/thick pigments, highlighting from black is going to be a lot darker than shading from white…
Short but sweet.
I have some Bushido minis to paint soon so this is well timed for me, thanks.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise to learn that we owe the use of yellow to describe east Asians to an Enlightenment-era scholar. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to be precise. He identified five different races and assigned them each a colour. Adam and Eve lived in the Caucasus and were white, then as people spread out from there, they evolved into the other four races dependent upon localised conditions such as diet and climate, becoming the yellow, brown, black, and red races. If they all returned to the Caucasus, they would all return to white.
I guess he didn’t know about the Smurfs back then 😉
He didn’t but to be fair, nothing was published on the Smurfs prior to the Belgian anthropologist Pierre Culliford in 1958, following extensive fieldwork in their mushroom village.
This is superb erudition ! Thank you.
About the Smurfs, one should not forget the work of medieval precursors such as Johann and Pirlouit, whose interactions with the blue people (while severely lacking documentation) had the immense advantage of including a goat.
Of course, I feel Pierre Culliford’s work is far too influenced by his marxist and trotskyst views to be unbiased, but it is still seminal.
[URL=http://s1170.photobucket.com/user/stusidle/media/Gargamel_Comic_Book_zps34bb8375.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1170.photobucket.com/albums/r526/stusidle/Gargamel_Comic_Book_zps34bb8375.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
they may just have got lost and ended up in Scotland mid winter?
If I remember right, Blumenbach didn’t ever really explain why he choose those colors. I had heard a theory once that it was just that he thought of the ” Yellow” emperor, or that a lot of yellow was worn as a sign of wealth. But that was just a theory with no real basis.
Yellow was the imperial colour of China for a long time, as I recall.
Romain, I have been painting minis for 20 plus years now, but never saw anyone else paint or watched any tutorial vids until joining BoW and watching yours. Wet pallet stuff was brand new to me and I have slowly started following some of your techniques. I am loving some of the results. Being the stubborn, hard-headed, ass-hat I am, I think it is your personality and skill that keeps me watching and willing to learn more and change up how I do some things. Thanks.
Oh – wholeheartedly agree – especially when he’s got someone like Justin to act as his b***h.;-)
Thanks ! *blush blush blush*…
I’ll try and do even better ! 🙂
Thanks Romain, Ive been waiting to see these tutorials.
On the subject of miniatures bearing flesh…Ive no problem with that at all. It actually annoys my liberal sensibilities when people object to such, but thats another story.
Verry enjoyable seeing you work and Im looking forward to part two.
I love the timing of this video since I’m getting ready to start painting my JSA sectorial army for Infinity 3rd.
Cannot wait for the rest of the series. @elromanozo id there any chance you will be looking at skin tones of steppe/mongol peoples – trying that effect for my ogres – Fairly happy with results but would be great to see your approach.
You’ll get it, somewhat… I’ve done a “chinese/vietnamese” skintone, and an olive one. They both might work…
Don’t hesitate to modulate and mix, experiment, and so on and so forth…
The first lesson you need is this : be bold ! don’t use a “flesh” paint pot because there’s “flesh” on it, don’t hesitate to use tones you would never intuitively use for flesh (dark blue, red, olive green…) in the shadows and in your mixes. Don’t hesitate to observe nature first. Don’t hesitate to “break” your tones and mix away ! Richer colours are more realistic and more difficult to place.
I’m looking forward to hearing more about Sables, Martens and others in the mustelidae family…. very informative natural history lesson.
The painting was good as well 🙂
Thanks… I’m afraid this was a momentary digression, but I usually do more, on many subjects. I’m very glad this pleased you ! 🙂
Man! Just when we’re about to be allowed to buy the best cigars, we now can’t buy the best brushes. Always something. 🙂
Awesome video. I would be terrified to paint one of these very delicate KD minis.
It’s the building that really slays you. Once they’re up, they’re up…
I don’t think I have the steady hands for such fine detailing?
Oh, you’ll do fine… It comes with experience ! You’ll be surprised how shaky my hands are in “real life”, when I don’t paint !
Ah, nice, I was hoping there would be a new tutorial series by you soon – My prayers have been answered! Good topic, too, really looking forward to it.
Do you already know how many tutorials we can look forward to? – Judging by this episode it will be about 3 episodes per skin type? That times all the nations plus avatar and undead would be quite a series 😀
Thanks !
So far, we’ve got a few natural skintones in store, and a few unnatural ones as well. Then there’s hair. and i’m not done… Next time I’m over, i’ll do more skintones tutorial. This is a virtually inexhaustible subject (but after a while, you’ll get the hang of it and experiment yourself, hopefully… lol).
That’s quite a teaser: A hair tutorial will be much appreciated, I always struggle with black hair 🙂
Btw: have you guys considered to maybe somehow compile these tutorials into a larger video/playlist? – That would make watching the episodes more comfortable. Or maybe a compilation to buy? – I for my part would certainly be willing to spend some bucks on it. But maybe it’s a bit early still. Your series about color theory, the one about the different painting techniques and now this one come to mind.
The episode list and series is available in the 3 Colours Up tag. This should suffice… The entire series would be hours and hours long ! I don’t think there’s a huge demand for that sort of thing, considering how difficult it is to get students to sit and learn for more than one or two hours at a time… Even if you were just listening for the pleasure of my dulcet tones (something humility forbids me to fully accept), I don’t think you could stand it for too long. Even I don’t like teh sound of my own voice… Read more »
Been too long since we had a new tutorial. Welcome back. 🙂 In regards to the brushes…for starters they are creeping back into the USA. Just checked Dick Blick website and you can get almost any size Raphael again…for several months they were totally out of stock. From what I understand the reclassification was an error but, since regulations had to be enforced, it meant that the brushes had to come under additional scrutiny, at least for a while. Brush manufacturers could still get their product imported but had to sign some additional paperwork which caused a bit of confusion.… Read more »
Oh, almost forgot to ask…Romain, what has your impressions been on the Scale75 paints?
They’re excellent !
They are, however, not very surfactant : they will not go into creases unless you push them there. Ideal for display painting with glazes, and for tinting pre-shaded miniatures. Also very good in an airbrush. Not so ideal if you need the quick and dirty “dry brush and wash GW technique”, as they won’t get that opaque when dry, and don’t necessarily do “big sloppy washes” that easily. But that’s an entirely different matter…
I’ve heard excellent things about their metallics…have the bronze set coming in tomorrow so I’ll see what I think of them.
My initial impressions of them weren’t very high as I found them to be too thick…but I’ve improved since then. I paint much more thin coats now so I’ll have to give them another go.
I still use pre-made washes, but I’m thinking they may be a good choice at least for basecoating and highlighting…once they are thinned down well enough of course. Must admit some of those tones look very promising.
I’ve a thread on the PPHW section of the forums I recently posted entitled “Lobo”, which has a photo of a Lobo mini I painted entirely with Scale 75 paints. I’m a mediocre painter so the paintjob isn’t great, but it might give you an idea how they look when used by a mediocre painter.
@redben, I’d love to see your work ! Would you share it here ? I can’t seem to find it on the forums…
This is it – http://www.beastsofwar.com/wp-content/uploads/forumfiles/lobo.jpg
Why do you say mediocre ? The skintone looks quite on par with the comics. Of course, it still needs work on the face (the black “KISS” make-up) and some blending here and there, but it’s already above tabletop.
I mean my skills are mediocre rather than the paintjob. Which is not to say I’m a bad painter, I’m just not a good painter either. The torso is on that sculpt is very forgiving because it’s easy to build the paint up from shade to highlight.
Nonsense. Nothing is easy, and everything is. It’s always hard when you don’t know how, it’s always easy when you do.
I’ll grant youy that it’s a lot easier to work on good sculpts, but that doesn’t make up for what you did… Don’t disparage yourself, just say you’re not as good as you hope to be, and not satisfied with your current level. But mediocre ?
Pah ! I’ve seen truly mediocre, and this is not it ! 🙂
“squirreled away”… HA ! That made me laugh way more than it should have. I own quite a few “petit gris” brushes as well, made from squirrel hair. Lower quality, of course, but interesting for dry-brushing and the big work.
Good news about the Sable situation !
Excellent and extremely entertaining video as always Romain. I am always amazed at how quickly time flies by whenever I spend it watching you display your talents.
I am curious as to your comments on the Kolinsky sable brushes, however. According to the US online retailer I often visit to purchase my brushes, the Raphael 8404 (my go to brushes) are still available and those that are not are scheduled to be back in stock on the 28 of February. Is this a new regulation or something that will be instituted at a later date?
Thanks for the kind words !
The situation I comment on dates back to the time of filming (and even before that), that is to say last summer, or evne earlier than that. As stated above in comments, things have changed slightly… And there was never a shortage : Current stocks were still available for sale.
Very nice beginning Romain, thank you. I am doing some Bolt Action plastic Japanese forces right now and this could not have come at a better time. While I don’t have a problem with the manner/pose in which this miniature is sculpted, I would not buy this or others like it for my young daughter. I do realize that it is a “gaming piece” and has to be gauged in that arena. Being in the states, I have come across the sable problem in trying to replace my brushes. I have had to “settle” for lesser quality brushes, still nice… Read more »
So glad you’re tackling a Kingdom Death model. I have 5 of them sitting on my shelf waiting to be painted, but the detail intimidates me. I want to see how you handle it, hopefully putting my mind at ease.
You shouldn’t be intimidated… It’s easier to work on good miniatures, as you don’t have to camouflage flaws and they’re easier to “read”. you don’t have to create details, only enhance them ! Furthermore, it’s more motivating to paint something you like than paint something you don’t want to paint… Just like in music. You need to play entertaining pieces once in a while, you can’t just do scales and exercises, otherwise what’s the point, right ? 😉
As always, a joy to watch and listen to!
Really looking forward to the rest of this series – I struggle quite badly with achieving realistic looking skin tones, especially on larger surface areas. Means many of the miniatures that I have which are, shall we say, ‘improperly attired for inclement weather’ have been languishing in the ‘to do’ drawer for some time…
Great video, and timed well as I have quite a few samurai and asian miniatures to paint soon.
I’ve been saving this vid for a quiet moment. I finally found one.
When is part 2 coming?
I HAD BRILLIANT AFTERNOON AND EVENING with Roman – painting skin on my Dust – thx Mate!