Lesson 13 


.

PAINTING THE FACE (3)

Now we have the next step which is quite complicated, but at the same time the most rewarding, as if we do it correctly we will make a face with expression and life. The steps are as follows:

-1 Paint the face and neck again with the same paint used previously.

-2 Again remove the excess paint. Now it does not look like a thin layer of skin.

- 3. Get a 10/0 paint brush and add some of the toasted earth paint to the roots of the hair. You will see a dark line which separates the hair from the face. This line should be reduced to the minimum, so that it just forms a shadow. We will get this result by using a brush 10/10 and joining the toasted earth paint with the upper part of the face. Doing this we will mix the dark colour with the lightest part of the face, but in such a way that there aren't any big jumps in colour, and therefore making it look very natural.

-4. If you place the head under a light you will see which parts of the face have lights and which parts have shadows. You will get this effect by using oil paints. To do this you need to:

-4.1. Add some toasted sienna to the corners of the eyes, to the nose, the inside part of the ears and between the lower lip and the beard. Also in the lines that go down from the nose to both sides of the mouth. From the indicated line to the hair roots - here we also have to blend the colours, so that you can only see a thin shadow.

Now the face has areas which are darker than others.

-4.2. You have to lighten the face, we do this by again placing the face under a light as we have done previously. For the lights, get a 10/0 paintbrush and add the base paint lightened with a lot of white paint. With this mixture, add some dots onto the forehead, nose, upper lip, cheeks and beard. Now blend, in such a way that these areas look clear, and the transition with the darkest colour which we achieved earlier looks soft and natural.

-4.3. Now lighten and darken the face, making sure you always blend the colours, do this until you have a natural looking face, with lights and shadows.

-4.4. Painting the eyes. Leave the head to dry over night. The next day get some white oil paint and paint the interior of the eyes with extreme care, making sure that the paint does not get out of the boarders. If this happens then smudge the paint into the face and carry on. Allow it to dry. A few hours later and being very careful, get a paint brush 10/0 and with it paint a little dot in the middle of the eye to paint the iris (we can use sienna, blue, green, black). What we want is for the dot to be central in both eyes and that the paint does not spread to the outside.

-4.5. Painting the hair. Choose the colour that you want the hair to be (blonde, brown, etc) and we paint the hair, being careful not to paint over the line. Make it lighter in some areas and be sure to blend.

Now allow the figure to dry for a day. The shiny areas that were visible should slowly disappear as the paint dries. We can make the face look even more real by painting a beard (with a amount of grey and then smudging it) or making the cheeks a little red and again smudging. All to your liking. What is important is the colour of the face is in keeping with the soldier's location (the soldier's face should not be very white if he is fighting in the desert) because then those that see the figure will say very nice but the face...and then we will have to give explanations like..he has just arrived in the desert....

A well painted face gives life to our figure. Using an incorrect colour or painting the eyes incorrectly could ruin our figure, because everyone will look at these details. In the following photo you can see the result of my figure, now that I have finished the face, hat and coat. It has life.

.

.