Cheating at painting faces
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Contrast or blending?
One of the most regular questions I get asked in store is around the subject of painting faces. The process of layering and blending, careful glazing… It’s a hard set of skills to learn, especially when you’re working on an area only a few millimetres high.
Which is why I usually suggest a much simpler method. Guilliman Flesh Contrast paint is my go-to for ANY flesh that I need to paint now.
Tips for use
Contrast paints can take a little getting used to, if you let them pool for too long because you’ve put down too much paint it will leave “tide marks” that are hard to fix. Because of this having a clean brush to suck up any excess quickly is advised. Once you’ve got the hang of them though, they make painting faces and flesh an absolute doddle.
The Method
For this Witch Aelf I first based it with Colour Forge Ghoul Grey spray.
Once dry I applied a layer of Guilliman Flesh, ensuring I covered all areas without too much paint pooling in the recesses.
And here it is dried!
Going further
One other aspect I’ve found is that it makes painting non-caucasian skin a breeze. Using two or three coats can achieve a much darker skin tone in a fraction of the time it would take to layer and blend with standard paints.
It’s also worth pointing out that traditional painting methods can be used alongside Contrast paints, allowing you to use Contrast as a template of sorts. By following the shade and highlight produced by a Contrast paint, you can learn how best to achieve the same result with standard paints. You can also layer standard paints over Contrast, to help enhance the effect, add new aspects (such as where I’ve painted lipstick), or to tidy up any excess shading.
On a final note, the keen eyed among you may have realised that with the exception of the Adeptus Custodes painted in the traditional manner at the top of this post, none of these models have had their eyes painted.
I’ve found that the shading achieved by this method does a fantastic job of inferring eyes without me needing to go in and ruin it attempting to paint perfect, nanometer scale eyes!
Let us know how you’ve got on with the Contrast paints, and if you know any way to paint eyes!
