Easy(ish) Way to paint Flesh

Here's a little step by step tutorial, an easy way to paint flesh tones. These are northern, ruddy tones, ideal for humans like vikings or any northern Europeans. It's also suitable for non-humans, including the ruddiest dudes out there, the dwarfs. 

Step 1: Base coat in a pale colour. I am using Citadel base wraithbone, but any pale colour with a warm tint will do. White is too stark, and a cool tone like a light blue or grey will make the figure look cold. If you were painting a dark elf that could be a good idea, but not here for a cheery little fella like this. This is, by the way, a Marauder dwarf thunderer, from around 1992. Allow this step to fully dry.

Step 2: Make a glaze of a ruddy flesh colour. I am (very aptly) using Citadel base Bugman's Glow. To mix up the glaze I take a brush full of paint, add a drop of flow enhancer and a smudge of matt medium. It's impossible to give exact quantities, it needs to be fluid enough to settle into the creases. Load up your brush and apply this once, starting in the deeper areas like the eyes and mouth. As it dries you will have to decide if one coat is enough, or if a second coat is required. If it goes on too thick, remove it by using a clean damp brush to suck up the excess. I do this anyway to remove areas that I want to keep light, like knuckles, bridge of nose, any area that is a light tone. These two steps give a very good base that would be fine for gaming figures - you could add a brown wash for the eyes and leave it at that.

Step 3: The dreaded step - paint the eyes. The easiest way is to wash the eye socket with a dark brown, for gaming it will look fine on the tabletop. For magnified photos on a blog, it looks like a brown line, so if you want to take it further, here's my procedure. You need steady hands, good lighting, a very fine brush and paints of the correct consistency. If you can get all those, and with plenty of practise, you might be able to get it right first time. 

Paint the eyeball with an off white, light grey even. Then dot in the pupil, make the dot bigger at the top of the eye, so in effect draw a semi circle rather than a dot. Now thin the black a little and draw a line across the top of the eyeball, to separate the white from the flesh colour (and avoid staring eye syndrome). Finally, mix a little black into your ruddy flesh colour and paint the lower eye - the bag under the eye. You would also use this colour in the mouth and on the lip if the figure had these. And that's it if you are painting humans/historicals, but the dwarfs get an extra rosy step.

Step 4: This optional step adds more ruddy features to the figure. I have used a Coat D'Arms paint for this stage, any warm/dusky pink/red will be good. Thin it down to a glaze and add to the tip of the nose, under eyes, on the knuckles and backs of hands, around joints like knees or elbows if visible. This step amps up the ruddy effect and can be a bit cartoonish if over done, so keep a light touch with thinned paint and build it up. If you overdo it, use a clean damp brush to remove the glaze and start again.

And that's all there is to it! It seems like a lot of steps and layers, but it's mostly glazing, apart from the eyes. Note there is no layering or highlighting involved, which is why I class it as an easy(ish) method. Have a go. And let me know how you get on.