The Flesh

After the base coat, which was a mix of P3 Midlund Flesh, P3 Rucksack Tan and GW Fortress Grey, with a touch of P3 Menoth White Highlight, the first step was to begin identifying the shadows. Using a red-orange colour, I painted a series of thin glazes in the shadows, giving the flesh some colour.

Then, I continued the shading, using a darker red-brown colour to further emphasise the volumes. It is important to always keep in mind the direction of the light source – you need to have made a clear decision on the direction from which the light is falling, in order to maintain coherence with your shadows and highlights. In this case, I am using top-down or (‘zenithal’ lighting, which is the most common and the easiest to visualise. Just imagine the light falling onto the figure from directly above, as if someone was shining a torch down onto the figure.

Next, I emphasised the shadows even further, introducing a little dark green-blue into the darkest areas. Because it is applied in thin glazes, the colour does not show up as anything too obvious, but it does add some depth to the overall colour and appearance, in my opinion.

At this point, I started to apply some highlights. First, I neatened any rough-looking areas with some glazes of the original base colour to blur the blending a little. Then, I mixed P3 Menoth White Highlight with the base colour for the first stage of highlighting, and some touches of pure Menoth White Highlight. I also added a touch more of the dark green-blue in the deepest shadows.

The next step was to add a little more colour to the flesh – the colour can sometimes become a little washed out during the shading and highlighting process, and I wanted the flesh to look healthy and vigorous, to suit the blacksmith subject, rather than too pale and wan. To add the extra colour, I applied glazes with a variety of colours, such as orange-brown (GW Bestial Brown), red-brown (GW Dark Flesh), red-purple (P3 Sanguine Base and Sanguine Highlight) and a little blue-green (GW Scaly Green, perhaps mixed with a touch of grey, or VMC Dark Sea Blue, mixed with a little bright aqua). I also painted the tattoo at this stage.

To finish, I applied some final highlights using P3 Menoth White Highlight, with some white, and also some light blue added for the final lightest points. I also painted most of the face at this stage, following the same process as the rest of the flesh, with a little more colour – a bit more of the purple colours, especially.