My first time painting a 1/35 head

I find that armorama forum is loaded, and this one kind of empty, so I decided to post something here.

This is my 1st head painting:

How is it?
I used an assortment of enamel and water acrylic, and I made it fall on the floor once while the paint was yet to dry…
Edit: I have some question that I want to ask here right the way.
I original planed to use Humbrol 61 flesh matte, but that store is closed and no one use it nowadays so I resorted to some gundam model store with equivalent color. The base flesh I used is the Mr Hobby aqueous, semi-gloss instead of matte. The semi-gloss finish is quite reflective on where ever the highlight should be, and clear shadow where the shadow needed to be. It gives me a hard time to follow online guides, where most used matte base. After a few adjustments, I used a very thin enamel shadow tint (like more than 50% mineral spirit) all over the skin, which reduced the reflection and give a more even shadow.
Can I have any suggestion to improve and adapt? Thanks.

6 Likes

Welcome to the new forum. Your painted head looks pretty good to me. I can’t comment or answer any of the paint questions you have because years ago I switched to oil paints for faces. IMHO, oils are much more forgiving, they blend easier and you have more working time. Sorry I couldn’t help you there but please post some photos when you finish the figure, hear and all
Cheers,
C.

One thing to improve is the orientation of the images :sweat_smile: You could also deepen (darken) shadows under cheekbones and either side of nose. Use lighter skin tones above cheekbones, tip of nose, upper lip, and chin. 1/35 heads are pretty small, and are usually viewed from more than 1 ft., so shading has to be exaggerated slightly and contrasty so that it is visible.
:smiley:

Thanks for the feedback.
My 2nd attempt:

This one I don’t put any shadow nor highlight yet. I just want to show the effect of the base gloss. I would like a step by step commentary if possible.

Looks good so far. Looks like the second head has a mold line along the neck to the ear. Might want to address before moving on.

Not too sure if a gloss base is a good idea. Shading and highlighting are usually best done on a matte base…but if you like the results you are getting, then go for it!
:smiley:


Over an hours of adjusting, not the best, but Im quite satisfied with the current results.

2 Likes

I should have update this more often, but I was kind of busy and really enjoying the new cyberpunk game. I fished this last week, it is so cold here that the paints don’t cure correctly. The paint is more pink than it appears here.

use a dark wash to fill the outlines , creses…then dry brush highpoints with a lighter shade of the same color…for everything. Face painting is so hard I find…you need to learn how to mix different shades…like using oil paint. It is possible to make a face that small…look almost real.

Thanks! I now have more paints than I had a year ago. Though Im getting less figure to paint.