Faces

It is always easier to paint from the inside out. Therefore, unless I am painting figures with metal armour, I always paint the flesh first. This sequence shows how I go about it.

I will deal with armour later and the reason for that inside-out exception.

First I simply paint the skin areas with a pale flesh colour. Coat d'arms 213 Flesh works well. I then apply Games Workshop's Flesh Wash. This really brings the face to life.

You can see the difference the wash makes on the right hand figure. The left hand figure has not yet had the wash.

Then, using a very fine brush I put a dab of dark brown in the eye sockets and a line of red-brown over the lips.

I never paint eye whites. Even with 28mm miniatures as it gives a ghostly state. When you view a person from a distance eyes are dark. You only see the whites of the eyes close up and we view our miniatures on the table from a distance.

Finally I highlight the forehead, cheekbones, nose and chin with a pale flesh using the basic flesh colour with a bit of white added. If the figure is clean shaven I also put some pale flesh with a bit of red added on the cheeks to give them a bit more colour.

Do not worry if the contrast seems a bit extreme at this stage it will all be fixed with the final raw umber wash. In any case, on smaller scale figures you need quite a bit of contrast or the details will fade at the normal viewing distance.