I just watched Martin Kovac’s latest episode on painting the Hunting Tiger commander. It was pretty interesting.
I think my “first real attempt” in 30 years will be trying to paint the crew for Tamiya’s new Panzer IV F.
Still absorbing videos and reading up on methods.
As others have said, find which medium you are comfortable with. This will take time of course. I used oils about 30 years ago using shep paines book as a guide, then verlindens wet on wet technique and had some success ( I still look through shep’s book for reference as to where to place highlights/ shadows) but switched to Vallejo’s about 15 years ago.
I had alot of trouble with the consistency of the oils and would always wind up with too much paint built up on the surface.
At first the Vallejo’s were difficult to blend but then I got a wet pallet and liqutex slow dry medium and have had great success. Keep in mind it took me a while! You can watch tutorials and go to seminars but you have to practice practice practice! I took a bunch of old Tamiya and dragon figure heads and mounted them on a piece of wood and just painted away til I got the hand of it. If you can make them look good, the resin heads will be easier to paint due to the higher level of detail.
Mike those are outstanding figures by the way- really beautiful !
Another figure painter who uses enamels I believe is Mike Blank I think. I’ve seen his work first hand at MFCA and the Long Island shows along with some of the best figure painters in the world over the years.
I watched that too! “Uncle Night Shift” is talented with a paintbrush. Keep in mind what he said about the figure he used. He said something like “Well sculpted figures almost paint themselves.”
I couldn’t agree more! Your early efforts years ago were on less than helpful subjects. I remember struggling to paint faces on Stadden lead figures. Painting the vague facial sculpting was like decorating an Easter egg.
The last time I was even close to artistry and faces was in junior high school when the task was a pencil drawing of a face. Some exercise to master the proportions of the various parts of a face.
My classmate said that it looked like one of those phantom faces created by police based on witness statements. Even less life like than a zombie …
I quit trying to draw or paint faces right there and then, more than 40 years ago …
This is a wonderful thread. Amazing that I just found it.
There are some outstanding links, especially the video where Mike ( @SdAufKla ) gives a detailed explanation.
It starts going wrong quickly for me too much oil paint etc
My latest “figure attempt”…ended up buried in the litter pan.
I hope this is relevant to the thread, but a while back, I was watching a show on PBS, where the artist used pen & watercolor for her work. I was struck by her comment that “yellow ochre and red make a good skin color”. So if you don’t want to use the pre-mixed “flesh” paints, maybe some experimenting with yellow ochre & red will get a good result.
Tim
The trick with oils is very little goes a long way. Put a few spots in key places and then spread them out with a bigger brush. I personally paint with acrylics to set the basecoat, highlights and shadows, and then blend them together with oils. The oils add the same shade to all colors bringing them together (I use oilbrushers flesh for example) and then you can add red for lips, grey for 5 o’clock shadow… So acrylic basecoat, layer of oil to bring it together, then details in oil blending with the previous layer, and go slow, you can always add more color. Then leave it for 3 days to dry…
