Face Painting Tutorial

[Corporea]

EDITED: I tried to fix the pics since the originals were on photobucket.  Apologies if they're a bit off!

 

 

Ok, face painters!  Have you always wondered how to get nice smooth skin blend?  I'm going to do my best to take you step by step through a face.  I could probably be persuaded to also move on to other skin areas, but let's start simple.  Now, while snapping photos I realized this blending is not going to be as neat and clean as I usually like it because the photoing process did interfere with a few layers.  But, we'll get it smooth in the end!  Are you ready?!

 

First things first: A large model, to better illustrate what we're doing!  And our materials.

We have Yephima, cloud giantess, a W&N #2, and RMS paint!  I used fair skin as my flesh color, and I'm going to shade with porcelain rose and spattered crimson and highlight with pure white.  This should give us a nice warm flesh tone.  I'll also use walnut brown on the eyes.  After snapping this, I also realized I wanted blue eyes- so I added ashen blue for the iris.  Porcelain is a retired color.  You can sub punk rock pink or just mix spattered with white and it'll work just fine.  But I had it, and I like it, and if I keep using it, maybe reaper will bring it back!

 

1. Step 1: basecoat the face with fair skin.

Hey!  My model has a little face blemish!  Oh no!  What can I do to fix  this?  Never fear, face painters!  Just take a little bit of brush-on sealer and cover the blemish with a nice layer, and it will smooth out.  You can then put another layer of basecoat on top.  I did a total of 3 layers of flesh, mainly because I forgot to wash this model and I had some adherence issues on the chest.

 

2. Step 2: The eyes!

Line with walnut.  Doesn't have to be perfect.  You can always touch up with flesh.  Paint the sclera white.   Pure white probably isn't as good as linen or leather white, but I'm trying to limit our palette.  Add the iris- ashen blue, as you can see.  Here's where we pick the direction of gaze and try to make the eye "look" in the same direction.  Takes some practice to figure our what works and what you like.  Again, if paint goes where you don't want it, just touch up.  Hmmn... I could have sworn I took one with just the blue... at any rater, after the blue is down add the walnut brown pupil.  Then dot the pupil with white.  Sorry, that back eye is hard to see.  Usually there's an easy eye and a hard eye.  Some people start with the hard eye.  I start with the easy eye, so at least one will look the way I want!

 

3. Step 3: Breathe.  Don't forget to breath again now that the eyes are done!

 

4. Step 4: Shading.

This is a lot messier because I'm pausing to photo- sorry!  First I lay down a thin glaze of spattered crimson all the way to the edge of the walnut, then clean the brush and just smooth the edge out using a damp brush and some feathering type strokes.  Thin is better.  See how nice and translucent this layer is?  You can easily see the flesh underneath.

 

I went back in with a thin glaze of my flesh to reclaim some of that cheekbone from the shadow.  Then proceeded to put some crimson on the side of the nose and smooth it out.

 

I really tried to catch each specific step.  But- you can see how thin the layer is, then how it smooths with a damp brush.   I usually do a few layers of this and reclaim my flesh with a thin glaze if I feel I have too much shadow tone.  The crimson will mesh nicely with the walnut so that it looks like she has nice intense Maybelline lashes!  Er- probably don't want quite this much contrast with a male face.  If I were doing this on a male model, I'd pick something like ruddy brown to line the eyes.

 

More soon!

Edited August 6, 2017 by Corporea

[Loim]

This is win. 

[ub3r_n3rd]

Really great start to this tutorial Corporea, I love to see how others slop their paint down, especially on things like the skin/eyes. Please keep going as I'm definitely following this thread.

[Corporea]

Ok... continuing on with the shading...

This is almost like a lining process.  I don't usually line, but I will use my shadow color to do a modified lining, where I soften the edge of the line with a damp brush. 

 

I guess there are a few different ways to make smooth blends and I should talk about those.  I tend to combine techniques when I'm painting and do what's easiest at the time, but for this tutorial, I just stuck to glazing to make it easier.  Quite often when i lay down my basecoat, I will do it with my shadow and my flesh at the same time.  So, after I've done a single base coat of flesh, I'll go back and do my next layer like this:  Get some flesh on my brush put is down on say the cheekbone, then rinse my brush quickly, pick up a bit of slightly thinned crimson and blend it into the flesh.  I  thin the shadow color because it's generally more intense than the flesh and will overtake your flesh quickly.  I do this with a single brush, quickly.   If I'm not painting to "super shiny standard" I'll even do this with un-thinned RMS paint, because they do already have some flow improver in them.  Otherwise, I'll thin with tap water.  Our water is not too heavy, but some folks will use distilled water to be safe.  I don't have a ratio, because each color is different, so I do it by "feel."  I know what degree of transparency I want.  Honestly, I don't think this can be imparted via text.  I think it can be demonstrated with video, possibly seen in pictures, but is probably best either learned through trial and error or taught via face to face classes.  I learned it the hard way through practice.

 

Now, here's why I'm less helpful to most painters.

This is my trusty palette.  I put a drop of paint on it, then dip my brush in water, get most of the water off, use what's left to slightly thin the paint on the tip of the brush and apply it to the mini.  There's no ratios involved; I mix my colors on the palette as I'm painting, usually just enough as a time to do the area I want... so I'm horribly unhelpful for any engineers or statisticians out there.  Sorry in advance.  I think I've got a system worked out, so trying a new one might increase my painting time and decrease my skill level until I figure it out...

 

This picture is designed to show 2 things.  First, turn your mini around different angles, to make sure you hit all of the areas you want and don't miss any spots to shade.  Second, there are some places on the face that are always shadowed unless your light source is coming from below.  Such examples are under the nose, under the ears, under the chin, and underneath anything that would be blocking light such as a hood, helm or hair.  So-I've put some crimson under the chin, but only on the left, because of the tilt of the head and because I've arbitrarily chosen the light direction source to be from the top right.  (I'll show a pick of this later when we do highlights.)  But still, messy and we'll clean up later. Again, if I'm not photoing each stage and want it to be "perfect" my layers take a lot more time.  Also- these are just our darkest shadows.  We're going to go back later with the rose for the less intense shadows.  I always line the edge of the face with my darkest shadows, even if I don't keep all of them later, because I want to mimic the way the skin curves away from the light.  It also gives a good contrast for hair, especially if you use a lighter hair color.

 

5. Step 5: lips.

This step can be done at any time.  I've simplified our palette, so have chosen to do the lips in our shadow color (as well as the eyeshadow later on) and since I'm working with crimson now, lips it is!  I paint on a nice un-thinned crimson and make a rosebud shape.  If you get too large a shape, just go back with flesh and touch up.  (I did! )  I'll tackle the highlighting on the lips later.  Sometimes I'll line the lips in a darker color if I'm feeling ambitious or want the vamp look.

 

Break for lunch, back soon!

Edited August 6, 2017 by Corporea

[Corporea]

Ahh!  Life is much better with a few calories.  Moving right along.

 

Quick touch up- put some flesh on the nose to cover our crimson along the bridge.

 

Step 6: Highlighting.

 

*Disclaimer- highlighting with pure white is actually kind of hard.  Um... yeah... probably should of thought of that... sigh.  Ok.  White thins poorly on occasion.  If you're having trouble thinning white, don't panic.  mix it (pulls random ratio out...) 2:1 with something pale like your flesh or use a cream to highlight instead.  Seriously though, as long as you don't get it too thin, it will behave nicely.  It responds poorly to fiddling.  So- set it down, feather the edge and leave it the heck alone until it dries.  Treat it gently.

 

So for this step, we're going to put white down on our areas that we want to be the lightest.  Simply put, that's the tip of the nose, the cheekbones and to a slightly lesser degree the space just above the eyebrows.

 

Thank you, google image volunteer #1:

 

Apply white in a thin layer on the cheekbones, feather the edges with a damp brush, allow to dry.  This is layer #1  I also put a dot of white and blended it on the tip of the nose.

 

Do it again!  And while we're at it, put a bit on the other cheek.  The other cheek is more in shadow, so less highlighting on this side.

 

And I think this was 1 more layer on the cheek and then the forehead first layer.  Sorry to combine, but it was getting hard to take pics in between.  Do as many layers as you want to make it look smooth.

 

Hmmn... hard to do the forehead when i don't have eyebrows to help guide me, isn't it!

Slightly overzealous on the right there, so took some of my flesh to trim them down.  I put them slightly above the forehead ridge, but you can place them wherever you want to help define an expression.  This is a fairly neutral placement, but the slightly higher placement will often open the face up a bit.  Wren told me she usually doesn't paint the eyebrows, but puts a darker shadow right underneath the brow ridge, so there are many ways to do this.

 

Don't neglect the chest area.  Here I've put a bit of white on the chest.  This will probably also be model-dependent.  Some have more cleavage visible, so require more highlighting.  First photo is wet, second is blended then dried.  See how thin the layers are and how very little difference in color each layer makes?  One of the things that really can't be cheated is good thin layers.  Try to put it on too thick and it won't look as smooth.

 

Wow- work got busy and delayed this one... probably more when I get home for the day!

[Corporea]

Whew.  Back to fun.  Now where were we...

 

Another chest layer:  Wet then smoothed and dried.

 

I put one final layer on the chest, glazed a bit of flesh in between the white.

 

Step 7: Mid shadows, aka time for porcelain rose to work it's magic!

Here I've put some porcelain rose on the nasolabial folds and the philtrum (the cool names for the stuff right above the lips)  Then I did the sneaky focus trick to make it look smooth- kidding.  But seriously, sorry about the occasional blurry photo.  All I did was smooth the rose like I did with the shadows.

 

Same thing but with the forehead and cheek- wet then smoothed & dried.

 

Step 8: Back to the lips!

A bit of pink in the center of the bottom lip.  If you look at faces, the top lip will usually be shadowed and the bottom lighter in the center (depending on light, of course, but it's a good general guideline)  next a bit of pure white blended into the center of the pink.  Feel free to fiddle with this step as much as you like.  It usually takes me a few tries to get the blending I want on the lips.

 

 

Step 9: Let there be light!

One way to add interest to a miniature is directional light.  It helps refine your highlights and shadows and adds some depth and realism.  It can also be use to do some cool effects.  Now as you can see, we've done some basic shading and highlighting without a true light source thus far, but in order to keep going, we need to pick one.  I vote top left.  At this time I will not be entertaining other suggestions since the pictures are already all done!  So, as you can see, the whole left side of her face is nicely lit, and the rest in shadow.  This technique of using a bright light can really help you plan where you want highlights and shadows.  If ever you're not sure where to put paint- cheat and use a bright light.

 

So- this means we need more white along left cheek and side of the face.

 

And the forehead.

 

And a bit more on the nose and right cheek.

[Corporea]

And the chin and then the forehead again, then all smoothed and dried!  (Pretty much any glittery picture is wet paint.)

 

One last layer.

 

I then went back and reclaimed some midtone with a glaze of flesh along the forehead and on the cheeks.  This is also a step that can smooth out any irregularities in the glazing/layering process.  If the highlights get to intense, calm them with the midtone.

 

Step 10: don't forget to check other angles.

 

Up until now I've not really smoothed any of the shadows under the chin.  Time to take the rose to the jaw and smooth it out.

I did this in a few layers and also reclaimed a bit of the crimson where the face meets the neck to increase the contrast.

 

And here's where I stopped after just a hour of actual painting time!  Say hello to Giantess Elizabeth Taylor.  As you can see, there were a lot of layers.  More soon!!

[lexomatic]

This thread is amazing. Also, I'm absolutely positive I would not be able to do this on a regular-sized miniature. I just can't see that detail - even with magnification.

[Gatt]

Fantastic tutorial Corporea,  this is really helpful to me as a new painter!

 

Question:  Say I wanted to have her appear to be wearing makeup,  would I line her eyes with say blue or pink instead of walnut?

[Talae]

This thread is AWESOME!

[Corporea]

Thanks all!  I had fun doing it!  For makeup, I'd probably still line the eyes with a dark color.  Reason being- eyelashes tend to be a dark lining around the eyes.  Many women will wear mascara to increase the darkness and intensity of the lashes, especially if they have a lighter hair color.  Also, some women also wear silly  things like eye liner.  The idea behind this is to draw attention to the eyes by increasing the contrast between the skin and eye.  So, while you can paint the eyeshadow on, you're still going to want that contrast.  I think blondes may actually wear brown mascara rather than black, so playing with colors is always cool!  Actually- last night I added some eyeshadow to our giantess, so I'll get those photo's added up soon.

 

For smaller models I don't usually get quite as much detail, never fear!

[Corporea]

Alrighty, face-painters, we're back for more layering!  I took another look at our giantess the next day and decided to tweak a few things.

 

Step 11: More smoothing, aka Nitpicking.

 

This is me smoothing out the layers on the chest on the left and the right.  I used a few thin glazes of rose, then flesh in the center.  Not much of a difference, but it looks better to my actual eye.

 

I put a bit more crimson on the leftmost part of the cheek to darken the edges.  Then I smoothed out the bright spot on the nose with white then more flesh.  I may also have done something else... pictures starting to blur together...  I think I put another glaze of white on the forehead just above the eyebrows.

 

Here I took some rose and added a layer of eyeshadow- it was easier to draw a straight line from this angle.  Then I darkened the area right above the walnut liner with crimson.  You could do any color eyeshadow- I'm just keeping it simple.  Blue or green would probably look cool with these colors.

 

I smoothed out the shading on the right side of the nose with rose and added a hint of crimson to give a bit more shadow. I then touched up the eyebrows where I lost some color to glazing.

 

Did one more layer of white on the chest and reclaimed some shadow between the breasts with rose.

 

And then I got tired of painting this particular face and called it done, aka abandoned!  I went ahead a painted the hair around the face to illustrate what contrasting colors can do to the colors we've already laid down.  I'd recommend painting the basic hair in before finishing a face to this degree just to avoid damaging the face.  However,  a damp brush used immediately will remove any stray brushstrokes.

 

Enjoy!  Feel free to ask questions.  I could probably put in some different eyeshadow colors if that would help the learning process.

[LittleBluberry]

The tutorial is amazing, and I just wanted to emphasize that last tip you mentioned:  "a damp brush used immediately will remove any stray brushstrokes."  This has probably been the best trick I ever figured out, and has saved me a lot of frustration.  Especially since my skill level is not that amazing. 

[CashWiley]

Yes, the old eraser brush move has saved so many hours of touch-ups. One of the most important reflexes you can develop is keeping a second brush as an eraser, or quickly rinsing your painting brush to erase mistakes.

[Mierot]

Excellent tutorial, Corporea! Being a solo painter, I love being able to see how others approach the same problem.

 

I find painting skin to be like adolescence. It starts out kind of awkward and blotchy, then, with care and patience, it smooths out into something beautiful. Hmm...anyway, you get the idea.