What am i doing wrong 1/35 Heads

[Rodders154]

No matter how many videos i look at I have bought the ammo flesh tones set I have made a wet palette and I use primer.

 

Whatever I do it looks like Worzel Gummage has painted aunt sally's head 

 

I am at a loss I follow the instructions I blend and still they look rubbish ,They dont have to be perfect just passable.

 

Is it just me

[Dads203]

I moved over to Vallejo for flesh and really thinned them down with water Rodders , it’s all about practicing and finding the colours that work for you mate. Have a look at my M10 thread and you can see my personal frustrations with painting flesh. I’ll find the tutorial that I started to use and post it up later fella. 

 

Here it is, I found this one to be the best. 
 

https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/painting-skin-face-basic-level-sbs.124485/

[JackG]

You shouldn't be blending colours on the model figure like one does with oil paints.  The process with acrylics is to lay down thin layers of paint, each one being lighter in tone than the previous, and slightly smaller in area as well.   What the wet palette allows is to mix these successive colours without having  the paints dry out on your mixing board.

 

regards,

Jack

[Crayons]

9 hours ago, Dads203 said:

I moved over to Vallejo for flesh and really thinned them down with water Rodders , it’s all about practicing and finding the colours that work for you mate. Have a look at my M10 thread and you can see my personal frustrations with painting flesh. I’ll find the tutorial that I started to use and post it up later fella. 

 

Here it is, I found this one to be the best. 
 

https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/painting-skin-face-basic-level-sbs.124485/

A very good tutorial to follow.

[The Great Escape]

@Rodders154 if you don’t mind, could you upload some photos as this might get you focussed feedback.

 

Don’t be shy! I’ve always found folks on here very helpful with criticism.

[Big Dave S]

Whatever paints you use, I agree with points made above.

Subtle changes with each coat, after getting an even finish of flesh base to start with.

I begin light and work down into deep shade; others start darker and add highlights.

Practising on separate head sets might be worthwhile. Letting previous shades dry first helps. Painting in daylight is vital for me (early starts in spring and summer are the norm to get a session before work).

Persevere: you'll get there.

[Rodders154]

On 5/1/2021 at 10:32 AM, The Great Escape said:

@Rodders154 if you don’t mind, could you upload some photos as this might get you focussed feedback.

 

Don’t be shy! I’ve always found folks on here very helpful with criticism.

I will take some photos and post them later  thanks to everyone for the comments.

 

[Niall]

You could also try a wash of very thinned down(1 paint to 10 of thinner) medium brown/flesh tone and a dry brush of a lighter fleshtone

[spruecutter96]

This is possibly not the answer you're looking for, but the only thing that will really push your skills forward will be to keep painting. Even if you are disappointed with your next result, if you learn something from each figure you complete, then the experience will be well worth it. 

 

I wish you the best of luck with improving your figures. Once you've got the hang of painting figures, everything else will seem very easy by comparison. 

 

Good luck, my friend.

 

Chris.   

[Cadman]

On 5/1/2021 at 3:39 AM, Rodders154 said:

No matter how many videos i look at I have bought the ammo flesh tones set I have made a wet palette and I use primer.

 

Whatever I do it looks like Worzel Gummage has painted aunt sally's head 

 

I am at a loss I follow the instructions I blend and still they look rubbish ,They dont have to be perfect just passable.

 

Is it just me

 

Hi Rodders,

 

I'm not familiar with the Ammo flesh tones set you have, but will assume it's acrylic paints and similar to the Vallejo, Andrea and Scale75 sets I use.

Some model painters come up with absolutely stunning miniature painted faces, but you have to bear in mind that these are the results of long experience and practice, and I think a beginner is only going to end up being disappointed by comparing their own results to these kind of masterpieces.

While the SBS article from Planetfigure is an excellent guide; with all due respect it's aimed at painting heads for 120mm busts, which depending on the measurements used, is around 1:16 scale.

Following is simply my opinion, but a modeler who is just starting to paint 1:35 scale heads will rapidly become extremely frustrated trying to emulate an SBS that's meant for far larger scales.

 

I think it would be beneficial if you just keep things simple to suit the far smaller scale that you're painting.

 

I paint with acrylics only, so here's what usually works for me with 1:35 scale figures that are meant for dioramas as opposed to stand-alone display pieces.

First give the face area a coat of basic flesh. Then, as other posters have suggested, it's good practice to build up your colors with successive layers of thinned paint, each layer being slightly lighter in hue and slightly smaller in area until you reach your highlight color. But with 1:35 scale heads you can get away with cutting down the amount of layers required, and three or four color transitions are probably enough -- the eye socket, cheekbones, jaw and nose. Wait until next day when your paint is fully dried and use a very diluted wash of the basic flesh color to soften the transitions; then go back in with a darker wash to define the shadow areas -- touching up the highlights if necessary. 

Remember to offload your brush onto a piece of tissue or an old tee-shirt before putting the brush near the miniature. You want to keep things very controlled and avoid flooding the area where you want the wash to go. In addition, a tiny drop of washing up liquid in your mixing water will break the surface tension and allow the wash to flow a lot easier.

 

Another good point made in another recent thread is don't try to paint the whites of the eyes on 1:35 scale faces. IMO it never looks right in the smaller scales unless you're trying to depict extreme emotion; fear, surprise, etc. Far better just to paint the eye area with a very light flesh tone, then apply a very diluted dark wash in the eye socket and leave it at that until you gain more experience. You can try dotting in the pupil, but I don't believe it's all that necessary in most cases -- the wash ought to be enough to define the eye area.

 

I tend to take a lot of photos while painting my figures as these help me spot the more glaring mistakes I make, and I'd suggest that you might also find this to be a helpful approach -- but something else to bear in mind is that you're looking at highly magnified images -- and from normal viewing distances of 6 to 12 inches away, most painting errors in 1:35 scale are insignificant.

For example, this WIP image of a 1:35 figure is about 2 x actual size, (or rather, it's 2 x actual size on my computer screen), and you can clearly see where it could be improved, especially at the point of his chin. But place it into a diorama and viewed from a reasonable distance, and it starts to look acceptable enough.

 

Don't be discouraged if your initial efforts look poor to you. Most times we're our own worst critics and no-one ever churned out "pieces of fine art" when they first started painting miniature figures. Just take your time, learn from your mistakes, and before you know it you'll have mastered the basic techniques and be ready to take your painting up to the next level.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited May 4, 2021 by Cadman
added a comment and photo

[Rodders154]

14 hours ago, Cadman said:

 

Hi Rodders,

 

I'm not familiar with the Ammo flesh tones set you have, but will assume it's acrylic paints and similar to the Vallejo, Andrea and Scale75 sets I use.

Some model painters come up with absolutely stunning miniature painted faces, but you have to bear in mind that these are the results of long experience and practice, and I think a beginner is only going to end up being disappointed by comparing their own results to these kind of masterpieces.

While the SBS article from Planetfigure is an excellent guide; with all due respect it's aimed at painting heads for 120mm busts, which depending on the measurements used, is around 1:16 scale.

Following is simply my opinion, but a modeler who is just starting to paint 1:35 scale heads will rapidly become extremely frustrated trying to emulate an SBS that's meant for far larger scales.

 

I think it would be beneficial if you just keep things simple to suit the far smaller scale that you're painting.

 

I paint with acrylics only, so here's what usually works for me with 1:35 scale figures that are meant for dioramas as opposed to stand-alone display pieces.

First give the face area a coat of basic flesh. Then, as other posters have suggested, it's good practice to build up your colors with successive layers of thinned paint, each layer being slightly lighter in hue and slightly smaller in area until you reach your highlight color. But with 1:35 scale heads you can get away with cutting down the amount of layers required, and three or four color transitions are probably enough -- the eye socket, cheekbones, jaw and nose. Wait until next day when your paint is fully dried and use a very diluted wash of the basic flesh color to soften the transitions; then go back in with a darker wash to define the shadow areas -- touching up the highlights if necessary. 

Remember to offload your brush onto a piece of tissue or an old tee-shirt before putting the brush near the miniature. You want to keep things very controlled and avoid flooding the area where you want the wash to go. In addition, a tiny drop of washing up liquid in your mixing water will break the surface tension and allow the wash to flow a lot easier.

 

Another good point made in another recent thread is don't try to paint the whites of the eyes on 1:35 scale faces. IMO it never looks right in the smaller scales unless you're trying to depict extreme emotion; fear, surprise, etc. Far better just to paint the eye area with a very light flesh tone, then apply a very diluted dark wash in the eye socket and leave it at that until you gain more experience. You can try dotting in the pupil, but I don't believe it's all that necessary in most cases -- the wash ought to be enough to define the eye area.

 

I tend to take a lot of photos while painting my figures as these help me spot the more glaring mistakes I make, and I'd suggest that you might also find this to be a helpful approach -- but something else to bear in mind is that you're looking at highly magnified images -- and from normal viewing distances of 6 to 12 inches away, most painting errors in 1:35 scale are insignificant.

For example, this WIP image of a 1:35 figure is about 2 x actual size, (or rather, it's 2 x actual size on my computer screen), and you can clearly see where it could be improved, especially at the point of his chin. But place it into a diorama and viewed from a reasonable distance, and it starts to look acceptable enough.

 

Don't be discouraged if your initial efforts look poor to you. Most times we're our own worst critics and no-one ever churned out "pieces of fine art" when they first started painting miniature figures. Just take your time, learn from your mistakes, and before you know it you'll have mastered the basic techniques and be ready to take your painting up to the next level.

 

Hope this helps.

Thank you this helps tremendously.  I am fairly satisfied with normal model painting but heads just drive me crazy. I will give your "tutorial" a go

 

R

[Big Dave S]

4 minutes ago, Rodders154 said:

Thank you this helps tremendously.  I am fairly satisfied with normal model painting but heads just drive me crazy. I will give your "tutorial" a go

 

R

Cadman knows his subject. And his point about photographs emphasising imperfections is correct (photography drives ME nuts).

[Cadman]

19 minutes ago, Rodders154 said:

Thank you this helps tremendously.  I am fairly satisfied with normal model painting but heads just drive me crazy. I will give your "tutorial" a go

 

R

 

Here's some examples that I hope will help you and they were painted using the techniques I've previously explained.

This one is an extreme close-up of a 75mm Demoness figure I painted back in April-2019.

Notice that the contrasts are fairly strong and the color transitions are pretty obvious.

 

However, as you move away from the figure to a more normal viewing distance those contrasts begin to blend together a bit more.

 

I left it alone for a few days, then went back in and refined a few of the details, paying particular attention to her eyes.

Here's a snap of the finished miniature.

 

This next figure is one of my favorite 54mm efforts.

In this case, I kept the contrasts to a minimum as befits a younger lady, but you should still be able to see the color transitions on her face.

I really ought to soften the color transitions on her arms and torso with a very diluted coat of the basic flesh color, but have never got around to it.

All the same, that allows me to show you what still needs to be done. So all is well...😀

 

Finally, this is the first figure I ever painted way back in 2008.

She's 60mm and I did her with cheapo tube acrylics bought from the local Walmart. It's not a great photo, but I'm including it as an example of what you can do with limited resources.

 

The flesh tones were achieved using the highlight/shadow-wash method, while the wings were a combination of washes followed by some drybrushing and I reckoned the results were okay, considering my lack of experience.

So IMO, just keep plugging away and keep it simple for now -- and I'm sure you'll see improvements in your own results fairly soon.

 

Cheers and Good Luck

[Cadman]

51 minutes ago, Big Dave S said:

Cadman knows his subject. And his point about photographs emphasising imperfections is correct (photography drives ME nuts).

 

Same here. 

I'm using a Nikkor 18mm-140mm lens on my D5600 and I struggle to get sharp images with it.

Using an LED lamp in the hot-shoe socket does tend to help though.

[oileanach]

Hi Rodders. Have you tried following along with youtube videos? 

 

Duncan Rhodes is brilliant at explaining things so clearly even I can understand them. linky

 

Darren Latham is one of the top blokes at Games Workshop. His series is very advanced ('Eavy Metal style, if that means anything to you?) but the techniques he uses are very simple. He's just insanely good at applying them! 'nother link

 

Both of those fellahs are working on 28mm minis- approximately 1/58 scale. It should be a little easier to achieve similar results on something almost twice the size. 

 

Emil- 'Squidmar'- is a miniature painter from Sweden who just happens to be a professional photographer. His approach is very different to the Brits, in that he's interested in the way light works, rather than concentrating on how to lay paint down. He likes to talk about 'volumes'. But again, the approach is simple enough, it just takes practice and a little skill to apply. yet another link

 

Good luck. Don't forget to post up pics when you're happy with your progress!