Tips on Painting Flesh?

[BloodBeast]

Hey guys I have a flesh base coat colour that I'm really happy with - Beast Hide from P3. The problem I'm having is when I add any shading to it and then redo the base coat it looks messy and not right. I've tried watering down various browns and even the GW Reikland wash and nothing seems to be working. 

Does anyone have any tips or tutorials they can point me to? 

Thanks. 

[Ademo]

The first thing would be how many layers of the paint are you doing after the wash? Often you will need 2 or more to stop the washed base layer showing through - particularly when watering down. 

[RuneBrush]

Thin your wash/shadow colour with lahmian medium and only apply it (in thin layers) to the areas you wish to shade rather than all over the flesh.  This way you won't need to build up your base flesh as much (just neatening a few patches).  I'm not a fan of using washes on flesh as I never like the finish, I have done it on my Bloodbound purely for speed.

If you can pop a picture of a model that doesn't look right, we can probably be a bit more specific

[BloodBeast]

26 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

Thin your wash/shadow colour with lahmian medium and only apply it (in thin layers) to the areas you wish to shade rather than all over the flesh.  This way you won't need to build up your base flesh as much (just neatening a few patches).  I'm not a fan of using washes on flesh as I never like the finish, I have done it on my Bloodbound purely for speed.

If you can pop a picture of a model that doesn't look right, we can probably be a bit more specific

I'll have another go at it tomorrow and post the results. In a fit of frustration I've rebase coated all the flesh on the models I'm working on. 

[BloodBeast]

 

On 17 August 2016 at 11:45 PM, RuneBrush said:

Thin your wash/shadow colour with lahmian medium and only apply it (in thin layers) to the areas you wish to shade rather than all over the flesh.  This way you won't need to build up your base flesh as much (just neatening a few patches).  I'm not a fan of using washes on flesh as I never like the finish, I have done it on my Bloodbound purely for speed.

If you can pop a picture of a model that doesn't look right, we can probably be a bit more specific

So here's the base coat, shade and base coat touch up. I use P3 Beast Hide for the base and thinned P3 Umbral Umber +  Thamar Black for the shade. Still got highlighting to do.

 

I followed RuneBrush's advice and just painted the shade into the recesses, and read up on the links in @Ben's Golden Demon thread just for general painting method advice. 

Any criticism and feedback would be really welcome! Thanks heaps. I'm aiming for a high level of tabletop standard with this Bloodbound army, so any thoughts that will help me get there would be really great. 

[Lokhe]

I think you've got the shadows looking good now and the lighter parts are even. Looking at a model up close and on a table is a different thing entirely though as you surely know.

For the model to truly pop out from some distance away, I think you will need additional highlights

Good work!

[cb_rex]

For army painting, even to a high tabletop standard you're probably going to want more of a one pot shading solution to save time and get a consistent look.  I'm going to reiterate what Runebrush said and going by your picture recommend using a 1:1 mix of Agrax Earthshade to Lahmian Medium, (make a pot of it) slosh this over the skin allowing to pool slightly in the recesses, when its dry add a bit more to the deepest recesses (between fingers and armpits).  

The high transparency of this mix should mean you can get away without reapplying the base layer and if there is still some bits that don't look right you should be able to fix them with the highlight colour in that phase.  

The only other thing I'd say is don't judge the skin until you've added the highlights as they can make a massive difference to the way it looks, making the shading look darker.

[BloodBeast]

Thanks guys! I'll post some more pics in a couple of days when the highlights are done. Cheers for the encouragement. I'll look at making a shade mix to make the whole process a lot easier, the new bloodbound models have a lot of flesh to paint.