Friday Quick Tip: Ork Skin Video

I have really taken to filming my painting sessions.  It's given me a nice new outlet to share tips and tricks with.  It's also a great way to learn how to edit video!  Today I bring a tip from my latest footage, painting Ork skin.

To preface, I never approach a models skin the same way twice.  I've made mention of my love of variety with skin tones before, and have made more headway in that effort with my Orks.  With each boy, nob and warboss, I've played around with the colors on a whim, never really bothering to remember or write down just how I got to a finished skin tone.  But with that in mind, I thought it would be a good way to show the process by filming as I painted my latest Ork model. 

They're set at double speed, with queues for colors used, so it shouldn't be too hard to follow!  With that in mind, give the videos a watch! 









You might notice that at one point I go to using a watered down Bleached Bone, though I found it to be a little too strong for where I was at with the model.  I ended up using a 50/50 mix of Bleached Bone/Goblin Green instead and did a final highlight of pure bleached bone.  It worked out better, and faster, than it would have had I not used the mix. 

The matt varnish is used to knock out some of the shine.  I still think he could go for another hit of it, but will wait until the model is finished and do a complete spray of the model with the airbrush instead of painting it on.  Using washes will leave you with a lot of shine, so be prepared to kill it off.

I really dig some of the music I'm finding on youtube!  I hope you enjoyed the videos and here's to it helping a few of you out there!  I'd love some feedback as well, let me know what you think!

On The Table: Beastman WIP

It's not much of an update for him, but I think it's appropriate considering the direction I've decided to take.  Don't pay much attention to anything but the base and the skin right now.  Everything else is just blocking out color to get an idea.  But the skin and the base are two major breaks from the norm for me. 

With the base I've gone with a much more elaborate set up and far more dramatic coloring than I've ever used in the past.  I've yet some more work to do still though, mainly in the variation in the vegetation that will be achieved with some paint washes.  There will also be some additional flora added to drive home the look I am going for. 

The skin is within keeping of the hues established with the basing.  I'm also making a concerted effort to keep away from black for shading, using various colors to add depth to the model.  In the case of the skin, I'm going with a very deep blue with some red mixed in for a dark violet that will contrast nicely.  In the finished model this will end up looking much darker along side of everything else, but right now it still feels very blue.  If that's the case later, I'll add a little brown to the depths to punch the contrast up even more.   All of this with an eye toward the lighting I've predetermined earlier in the paint!

It's going to be a long project I think.  Hopefully you all don't mind coming along for the ride!

Friday Quick Tip: Faces and Stubble

I'm finally getting down to really painting my Novamarines from the Badab Campaign (yes, that was several months ago) so I've been hitting the net searching for Marine tips. Monstrous faces from the GW site was nice, but I've been searching a lot for a good stubble technique. Here's a great Friday Quick Tip Video from LBursley on Space Marine faces and getting that great shaved-head stubble effect.

Here's the materials list:

Vallejo Game Color Bone White 72034/GW Bleached Bone

Vallejo Game Color Elf Sintone 72004/GW Elf Flesh

Vallejo Game Color Dwarf Skin 72041/GW Dwarf Flesh

Vallejo Game Color Hexed Lichen 72015/GW Liche Purple

Vallejo Game Color Cold Grey 72050/GW Codex Grey

Additionally LBursley's dilution mix: 10 parts water to 1 part Liquitex Flow Aid. Use this mix to dilute the paint; the video gives you a good idea of the consistency needed.

The key to good stubble appears to be the dilution of the paint and stippling the paint on instead of painting a defined area. On to the video!

Be sure to check out Les' YouTube page with dozens more video tutorials.

How do you do you faces? And eyes? I'm firmly in the no eyes camp, so let's hear it on eyes or not.

Field Report: Painting Monstrous Faces

Image from Games Workshop

The good, old mothership recently released a great article on painting monstrous faces. The first two parts of the series are archived (so that means you have to login), but the third is still in the wild. Several great color schemes with step-by-step instructions are shown; I don't think I've seen this high-density painting How-To from GW in a while.

Have you posted an article to your own site recently? Read something amazing you think others should check out? Have an old link in your Bookmarks that you've been saving for a rainy day? We want to see em! Send your suggestions to ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com and we'll get the word out!

Field Report: Masterclass Faces from GW

Can't say I've ever seen this before. It's a PDF I found linked by The Viridis Crusade on skin tones. Be sure to check it out.

Got a great link you'd like to see put up? Send it to us at ThePaintingCorps@gmail.com. Just be sure it has something a bit more useful than a pretty picture! It's all about learning folks!

Varied Skin Tones

Most folks just pick one single skin tone for an entire army. I personally have always found this completely off keel with what I've come to expect from a group as large as an army. Line up any squad in todays US Army and I'll show you different shades and colors all over the place.

So today I had my mind set to get the faces of my Imperial Guard Storm Trooper squad painted up. I knew this was going to take a while since I had my heart set on changing the skin tones for each individual trooper. All said and done, I think I did an alright job considering the sculpts and the colors I've got available right now (I'm in desperate need of a restock, some new Vallejo stuff would be nice...).

Here's a quick collage I put together to help showcase the variety you can get even with a limited palette of colors:



In the future I plan to go even deeper with different wash colors and the like. But for now, with this tabletop squad, this satisfies my need to try something different!