Figure Painting Tutorial

[Greif8]

The subject has pretty much dried.  As you can see, even with the less than perfect lighting at my bench the end result is pretty solid.  A good comparison is to look at the subject in the first photo of this installment.  Distance 30 cm.

 

Below is a side by side shot of the first head I painted using the technique that I favor and use almost all the time.  As you can see the second head can hold its own here.  The contrasts between shadows and highlights are stronger than the first subject, but that is not a bad thing and in fact can be desirable in certain dispaly situations.  In the end it comes down to your preference, and how confident you are in your skills. 

 

Another shot with the lighting shining more directly on the subjects.

 

That concludes the tutorial as far as painting figure's faces goes, unless someone wants to see how I struggle using acrylics to paint a face using the layering/glazing technique.  I will be showing the two 1/32 scale heads that I have prepped to be repainted; I plan to do one of each in the two techniques I laid out above, but I don't plan to do a SBS.  There are essentially no differences in the technique of painting a 1/32 or 1/35 scale face.  The eyes are slightly more challenging in 1/32, but the blending is slightly easier so it evens out.   I plan to move along to painting the clothing of figures.   The first SBS will be a regurgitation of the one I did in my SE-5a build thread covering painting leather, but that's for tomorrow or the next day.

 

Ernest

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Greif8

[Greif8]

This update is a very similar to the SBS I did in my SE-5a build thread discussing how I painted the leather coats of the two pilot figures.  I'm going to go into bit more detail of the process I used.

 

The pilot figures are from Kellerkind and Model Cellar, both are well cast and detailed.  The Kellerkind figure will be getting a medium brown leather coat and the Model Cellar figure will have a dark brown coat.

 

The Kellerkind figure assembled, cleaned and ready for priming.

 

And the Model Cellar figure is prepped.

 

Primed in black to provide a warm tone.  I could have used grey to prime as that also works for leather well as an undercoat, giving a slightly colder tone.

 

Acrylic base colors have been airbrushed.  I used Tamiya acrylics thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner.  I always airbrush the base colors for both smoothness and 

to have the option of tonal variation by varying the amount of paint airbrushed.  I always change either the color or tone of a specific color between items such as the flying helmut and coat or boots to add variety to the end result.

 

First I do a wash of the leather items.  Here I have used Abteilung 502 (A502) Shadow Brown, but any dark brown will fo the job.

 

The figures immediately after the wash has been applied, and after I dried them for a couple of minutes with a blow dryer.  One application works well in this 

case, but you can add washes until you are satisfied with the look; drying betten applications.

 

A closer view showing how the oil wash blended as it dried providing a nice subtle transition.  Applying an oil wash to an acrylic base that does not have a gloss coat as I have done here actually stains the paint, much like a filter does.  I always use Tamiya Acrylics thinned with Mr. Color thinner to ensure a bullet proof base for this technique. 

 

Some W&N Burnt Sienna will be applied using a flat brush over the entire area for the coat of the Model Cellar figure.

 

I brushed small quantities on the coat avoiding loading the crevices with paint.

 

Next I mix some warm and cold highlights using the paints shown in the photos added to the base burnt sienna color. Gold Ochre for the warm tone and then, after setting aside some of the warm highlight I added Titanium white to it for the cold tone.

 

First the warm tone is brushed on the high parts of the coat.  Use a very light stroke working from up towards down and keep the amount of paint on the brush very small.

 

Immediately afterwards add the cold highlight.  Here I use a dry brushing technique to ensure I only add the cold tone to the highest points of the coat.

 

I then use a very soft "fluffy" type brush that is completely dry and blend everything by very lightly brushing from top to bottom.  Only 2-3 strokes are neccesary to blend the paint.

 

Below is what to work looks like after drying for several hours.

 

The completed Model Cellar figure.  The technique above resulted in a very nice leather look for the coat, gloves, boots and flying helmet.  I used different color tones to aplly the technique to the different items for contrast.

 

The Kellerkind figure completed.  The shadow areas did not turn out quite as good as those for the Model Cellar figure, but they are more than acceptable.  The highlighted areas blended quite nicely.

 

I couple of guys have asked if I would do an SBS for painting leather using acrylics.  I will look for a figure that has leather clothing and do an SBS in this thread in the neat future.  Hopefully this series is helpful to folks.  I'm not sure if it has really generated wide interest, but that is ok; if two or three of you gain something form what I am posting that is good enough.

 

Ernest 

Edited January 7, 2023 by Greif8

[mozart]

Excellent figures both Ernest, thank you for showing them.

[jeroen_R90S]

Thanks a lot for the effort you put in this thread -hopefully things will quit down a bit here so I have some spare time to try some the techniques. I already have some of the W&N colours you're using.

 

Thanks!

 

jeroen

[Out2gtcha]

Very nicely done!  

[Greif8]

15 hours ago, mozart said:

Excellent figures both Ernest, thank you for showing them.

 

13 hours ago, jeroen_R90S said:

Thanks a lot for the effort you put in this thread -hopefully things will quit down a bit here so I have some spare time to try some the techniques. I already have some of the W&N colours you're using.

 

Thanks!

 

jeroen

 

12 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Very nicely done!  

 

Thank you guys!

 

Max, the two pilot figures will be used in the diorama I have planned for the SE-5a that I am currently building.  The fellow in the dark brown leather coat turned out very well indeed; the figure is about as good as it gets for me.

 

Jeroen, I am sure you well soon be painting figures that you can be proud of.  I am happy to be of help in some small way to enable fellow modellers to enjoy the hobby even more.

 

Brian, thank you very much!  I will do my best to keep the thread going with new techniques.  Hopefully folks will find it useful.

 

Ernest  

[Greif8]

I am considering doing an SBS that highlights the glazing technique with acrylic paint, followed by an SBS that follows the layering technique - if there is interest in those.  I have a figure ready to do a glazing technique SBS from the start ready to go.  I'll hold off starting it to see if I get a few requests for an SBS.  

 

Ernest

[mozart]

22 hours ago, Greif8 said:

I am considering doing an SBS that highlights the glazing technique with acrylic paint, followed by an SBS that follows the layering technique - if there is interest in those.  I have a figure ready to do a glazing technique SBS from the start ready to go.  I'll hold off starting it to see if I get a few requests for an SBS.  

 

Ernest

I’ve never achieved any real degree of success with acrylic glazing, much prefer using wet paints to get the subtle effects that I want, so a step by step would certainly be appreciated by me Ernest. 

[Greif8]

54 minutes ago, mozart said:

I’ve never achieved any real degree of success with acrylic glazing, much prefer using wet paints to get the subtle effects that I want, so a step by step would certainly be appreciated by me Ernest. 

 

Hi Max, I plan to do the glazing SBS in the next couple of weeks.  Some figure painters are good enough to use this technique to paint faces - I am not that good, so I will only do the uniform with the technique.  Thank you for your interest.  I hope that what I am doing proves useful for some of my fellow modellers.  If so, it is worth the time investment to do these SBS's.

 

Ernest  

[Juggernut]

I'm loving these tutorials...thanks for taking the time and your work is pretty damn good if you ask me. 

[Greif8]

2 hours ago, Juggernut said:

I'm loving these tutorials...thanks for taking the time and your work is pretty damn good if you ask me. 

 

Thank you Tim!  You have certainly helped me improve my building techniques with your "In Progress" build reports, so if I can return the favor in some small way I am happy to do so.

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

Hi guys, for those interested, I will start a SBS using the glazing technique to paint a figure today.  I should have the first steps posted this evening Central European Time.  

 

Ernest

[Greif8]

Hey guys, up front I want to apoligize that this installment will be getting off to a slower start than I thought it would.  The materials that I needed for the diorama base for the SE5a build that I recently completed arrived this afternoon.  My 8 year old daughter was excited as I had promised that she could help me with this project, and that we would get right on it when the materials arrived.  Looking at the joy and anticipation on her face, I did not have the heart - or to be honest the inclination - to tell her that our father/daughter project would have to wait a day.  So we spent the late afternoon through early evening hours working together on the diorama scene.  It was time well spent, but that left very little time for the glazing SBS - which would not have been completed today at any rate. 

 

My excuses aside following are both the 1/32 scale faces I said I would do earlier using the same two techniques that I went into detail on above; and the start of the glazing technique SBS.

 

First up the faces.  The photos were shot beginning at 20 cms distance, then 10 cms and finally 30 cms.  It is nearly impossible to tell which technique I used for which face, so again, both give very good results.  You can also get a good appreciation for how well both techniques hold up even when viewed at very close range.

 

Ok, the following glazing technique is one I use on figures that have a lot of folds or other types of relief in their clothing and equipment they are wearing.  I use a slightly different technique for figures whose clothing is not as sharply defined.  Before I go further, I want to be clear that glazing and layering are two similar but different techniques.  I will discuss the layering technique in a later SBS.  The glazing technique uses paints, the vast majority being water based acrylic paints, that have been thinned to the consistency of a wash.  That wash is executed over a base coat that has a matt, or at most satin, finish.  The wash will act very much like a filter in that case, with successive thin coats staining the base color ever darker.  I'll give more details as I go through the steps during the SBS.

 

Below are the materials I use when I do glazing:

 

When executing the glazing technique using acrylic paints a wet palette is a must - for me at least.  As you will be thinning the paint a large amount it will accelerate the already rapid drying time of acrylic paints; a wet palette slows the drying time down a lot.  I use a wet palette by Army Painter, but any brand; or even a homemade wet palette will do just fine.  I don't want to risk offending anyone so I won't go into how a wet palette is used unless someone asks.

 

I use the following size pointer type brushes when glazing.  As you will see near the end of this SBS I also use a couple of different flat or fan type brushes to add any finishing touches; but that is not always required.

 

Finally, I use Lifecolor acrylic paints; however, any good water based acrylic paint will work.  I don't recommend using non-water based acrylic paints such as Tamiya; they are very difficult to get to behave properly for this or the layering technique.  You can also see that I use an acrylic retarder.  While not absolutely required, I find that a couple of drops of retarder, mixed with the paint right on the wet palette, extends drying times even further allowing for very thin coats to be applies.  I also think the retarder helps break up surface tension and allow the paint to flow better.

 

The first two steps that I do when glazing a figure that has lots of folds in its clothing is to airbrush a black or very dark grey primer coat.  The figure below is a 3D printed figure by Reedoak.  It has the perfect type of clothing for this technique.  I have a couple of coats of black primer on him, and that is where today's installment will end.  Tomorrow I will continue with the SBS.

 

Thanks for your interest!

Ernest

Edited January 10, 2023 by Greif8

[Greif8]

Continuing the glazing SBS.  Step 2 to the process is to airbrush the figure with white spraying from directly above the figure so that it looks the below when you are finished spraying with the shadow areas more or less still black.

 

Now you place you first color onto the wet palette.  I always start with the color that comprises the majority of what will be painted, almost always the uniform.  In this case I mixed a shade to match the color of the flight suit that USN aviators wore during WW2.  You want the consistincy to be slightly thicker then a wash as you dont want the paint running into the deeper shaded areas, if those areas need some touching up that can be done later.  The slightly tinted area you can see above the paint is the retarder I put down for this session; I tinted it slightly so that it shows up on the photo.

 

You do not want to load the brush with paint.  The leftmost paint stroke of the three below is about the right amount of paint to have on the brush.  I always dip the brush into the area a put the retarder in first, then the paint.  A quick swipe to make sure there is not too much paint on the brush and its to the figure.

 

 

I always start at the top of the area I am glazing and stroke the brush downwards.  I break the figure into five sections for painting, the legs, the torso and the arms.  Each of those areas are further divided into thirds as it takes 10-15 seconds to work an area about 1/3 the circumference of a leg, arm or the torso, sometimes it takes less time, and if that is the case I'll divide the area to be painted by 1/2.  Glaze the entire part of the figure that is to be painted; in this case it is the uniform.  The first glaze will stain the base colors of white (especially) and black (not much).  The photo below shows the figure after one glaze.

 

After glaze coats two and three.  You can paint pretty quickly as by the time you finish the last section of the figure the first section is dry and ready for the next glaze coat.

 

After the 4th, and final, glaze coat.  I rarely have to paint more than 5 coats.  You can see that the shadow areas have been very slightly over coated - and in the deep shadow areas hardly at all.  This looks very stark at the close range I took the photos at; however, when the figure is viewed at my rule of the thumb 30cm distance with the naked eye things look much better.

 

I now mix a slightly lighter shade of the base color usually adding white, but that depends on the color.  I use either a 0 or 00 brush for this job depending on how large the area I am painting is.  I paint the higher areas of the item I am painting keeping the touch of the brush light.  I find that one pass is usually enough.

 

Intermediate highlights added.  They look fairly subtle and that is what you want, as if they are too stark they and the final highlight will overwhelm the base color.

 

The intermediate highlight is lightened further.  This highlight is very sparingly added, being put only along the very edge of creases or areas that have a lot of light shining on them on any particular figure.

 

In this case I was able to paint the high highlights with an 0 brush.  The slightly bent knee really shows the highlight.  At this point it is a good idea to put the figure at arm's length and carefully look at it  from all sides.  I almost always see spots that need touched up and I do those directly using one of the shades that are already on the wet palette.  The uniform is pretty much done now.

 

Now I am going to paint the shoes, Mae West, and parachute backing using the same process I used for the uniform. The yellow life jacket was easier to paint then you might think given how difficult yellow normally is vis-a-vis coverage.  The reason is that you don't have to worry about getting balanced coverage using the galzing technique.  The highlights and shadows  you air brushed at the start provide a great base that naturally gives colors a nice 3D effect.  Believe it or not, I only laid down three glaze coats of yellow and added only one highlight to it to get the final result you see below.

 

The shot below was taken about 20-25 cms away with the lens zoomed in.  

 

That's it for this installment.  I will finish the figure tomorrow and we will see what it looks like when complete at both close and normal viewing ranges.

 

Ernest

[Stokey Pete]

I’m intrigued to give the glazing technique a go. I usually paint my figures with acrylics, and would like to add a bit more life to them.