A Face Painting Tutorial

[Ian M]

Will do Ian.

The only trouble is that I find the full size a bit too big and can't seem to edit and format my own pictures. Any tips?

Does the upload not resize them automatically any more?

[Guest]

Si - Hope you can use it. Thanks for looking in.

Ian -No, I don't think it does. Things changed when I got a new computer a year ago and lost the formatting tool I'd been using. The only option I can transfer comes out full page. I was worried here that as there would be so many pictures the thread would run to several pages if I had to post them all full size.

[JR]

Thank you Peter, now we just need to apply the wisdom, and what a treat to be able to print off Steve's adobe file. Thanks Steve.
John.

[wotan]

Peter

Bravo for putting this together. I know it's not easy to stop to photograph the work every 15 minutes or so.
I also agree very much with your appreciation of early portraiture using the grisaile technique. I like to do the same thing when I am painting. By chance I was just working on a copy of one of my favorite portrait painters Hans Holbein the younger. These photos show how useful the grisaile technique is. Of course you can use any colour for the underpainting but the important thing is you are working in monotone so you have much less to think about in the first stages. You only need to consider form and tone and this helps simplify the initial painting process. As a second stage you can add as many coloured glazes as you want, knowing that the basic form is already there. This is an example of what I have been working on in oils.



I see our techniques are very similar even if this is 2D in oils and yours is 3D in acrylic.

John

[SteveH]

Morning Peter

A massive thank you for sharing and apologies for my tardy reply.

My reduced hours return to work has still been overwhelming this week
Today its off to help my son with new apartment DIY, then hopefully some R&R and figure painting over the longer weekend.
I shall share your SBS with a work colleague, after showing him the 4 superb busts, I am proud to own, he wanted to know more about the artist.

Very well done too Peter, I know from dim and distant memory, when you get in the painting "zone", its difficult to keep breaking out to take photos

Have a good day with the paints

Regards

Steve H

[Guest]

John R - A pleasure. I'll do the uniform next.

John B - I thought that was an original Holbein at first. Pretty amazing work there. I know you admire the Flemish renaissance masters, Van der Weyden, Campin, Van Eyck etc, as do I. To think that until fairly recently they used to be known as the 'Northern Primitives'! I can't claim to use their techniques, but I have been influenced by their, and the Italian's colouring.

Steve - I would have thought DIY at your son's was the last thing you needed! Sounds that you've just about survived your first week back though - well done. Don't show the SBS to too many people -I'd hate to be responsible for spreading bad habits. My style isn't popular everywhere, particularly on PF where some consider it 'cartoonish'.

[Andy Belsey]

Peter,
You'll have noticed that I've taken the lazy option just to 'like' this, but I thought I should make the effort to actually say THANK YOU for going to all the effort of putting this together for us. Very helpful!
Andy

[Guest]

Peter
I was taking the lazy option as well but Andrew has put the pressure on so thank you very much.
I've already filed the PDF, thank you Steve.

[Guest]

Andy and Randall - Many thanks, though a like is more than enough. Greatly appreciated.

On to the uniform.

The palette:



This is the complete palette for the rest of the figure. All Vallejo Model Colour. From top left:

1. German Camo Black Brown; 2. Red Leather; 3. Off White; 4. Stone Grey; 5. Flat Flesh; 6. English Uniform; 7. Old Gold; 8.Brass; 9. Bronze.



I noticed that in the photo the shirt appears darker than the tunic so I painted it with English uniform over a base of black brown, with flat flesh added for the highlights. Covering the whole area in black brown establishes the shadows, then it's just a matter of building up the colours on top from light to dark. The tie was picked out in khaki.

Hopefully, the sequence of photos should give some idea of the process I use for drapery. As the tunic is light in colour I mixed in a fairly small amount of black brown with the stone grey and applied a base coat to the area to be worked on. Them, while that was still wet, I worked in some shadows with the black brown and established the base with pure stone grey. By working wet, soft shadows and transitions can be achieved, though the technique only allows for working on small areas at a time. After that, it's a case of building up the highlights by adding increasing amounts of white to the base colour - at this stage there is no need for working wet.

I tend to put the head on towards the end of this process to check how the overall tones are working out. In this case I found that I needed to lighten the shirt colour to make it stand out more against the neck.

As with the face, the direction of the light has to be remembered - highlights tend to sit on top of the folds and butt up against the darkest areas, creating a crisp lighting effect. I tend to use outlines to define pockets, seams etc, in this case done with a darkened stone grey colour. This also gives a tidier finish.

[Guest]

Finishing off the torso:



The cross-belt was painted with mixes of red leather and black brown. I worked wet initially for softer shadows, then built up the highlights by adding flat flesh to the red leather (rather than white, in order to keep the warm tones). It was given a coat of Vallejo matt varnish at the end to give it a soft sheen (it doesn't dry matt, needless to say).

The buttons and insignia were first picked out with bronze, then highlights added with old gold, The final stage was the medal ribbon, which was pretty straightforward.

The last part will be painting the pith helmet.

[Guest]

Today I sat down to read, re-read. and re-read this thread. I want to 1st thank you for your friendship, second your talent and third your willingness to do this SBS for us.
I really like your explanations on your process . Very helpful. what I have got out of this is ,even the shadows are very very dark at 1st the glazes you place over it after time tone them done to an acceptable color. I to often did not take it to that darker shadow 1st and ended up repainting the dark then glaze then repaint the dark.(never ending doing it that way ) and it would end up muddied.

A big thanks to Steve as well for making a Pdf of this to I will copy it with permission.
RICK.

[Guest]

Rick - Very many thanks for your kind response. I'm glad the thing will be of some use.

I did start the helmet today and tried to paint it by dry-brushing. It didn't work, so I've stripped it down and I'll have another go tomorrow.

I've mounted him on a pedestal:



I also spent some time cleaning him up and adding a few more highlights to the jacket. Nearly there.....

[colin m]

Thank you Peter for taking time to produce this excellent tutorial. I've got a couple of 1:32 pilot figures that might just get an inch of dust blown off them. If I'm brave enough.

[Steve Jones]

Those head shots are stunning. A real inspiration to get figure painting. Keep up the great work.

[Guest]

Colin - My pleasure, and if it prompts more people to tackle figures then I'm more than pleased.

Steve - Many thanks - get painting!

I decided to crack on and finish him:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]n[/ATTACH]

I found it hard to make anything of the helmet, but it appears that other people have also - it's not the best part of the kit. I painted the underside of the helmet in a very dark colour to help cast a deeper shadow, and I think it's shaded the face enough for me not to have to make any adjustments to the flesh tones.

Anyway he's done and I'm reasonably happy with the result.

A huge thank you to everyone for following along and for your kind words. I hope that you'll find it of use.

(Phew! I can relax now!).