WIP: Freebooter LE Xmas 2006 Mini - Skin Tones

Here we go with my first "stretch my skills with something different" mini. I had the same question as you when I first got her: WTF? Where's her power armour?! I'll be doing the run down on this lady as I go so you can get a sense of my process...

Here is the color palette for her. I'm reigning myself in on this one :p

The following colors were used to basecoat her skin...

3 thin layers of the first color, 1 highlight layer of the middle color and 1 wash in the recesses and shadows with the last color gave me the starting point for the skin you see below.

The colors below were mixed together in various combinations on a 1 cent wet palette for some super fun wet blending. Kind of like what James Wappel does, but much more rudimentary.

 There was no real process I can explain here it was just: apply the colors where I thought they would work well with the shadows and to add definition to parts of her skin - it was super fun! The wet palette is now a favorite of mine. I highly recommend giving it a go :)

 Next were the mid tones. I used the following colors and the wet palette again.

 I mixed up various color combinations and just went to town wet blending where it "felt" right.

Final highlights were done using the wet palette and these colors.

 I slowly built up the colors with various combinations in thin layers.

The last part of the skin was a final shade with a heavily thinned wash of the color below.

It brought back some of the warmth to her skin which was looking a little corpse-y.

I stopped here with the skin.  It has an unhealthy pallor - which is deliberate. Much like Hannibal, I have a plan.  Some of the warmth will come back in when you see her dress next week though. I have never tackled this much skin on a mini before so it was a real thrill for me and it turned out WAY better than I expected. If you are going to try out skin tones, but aren't sure where to start; Corvus has a great tutorial that I used for inspiration. I did a bunch of research too before I started, maybe about 1-2 hrs spread out over the weeks as I prepped the mini. A lot came from C'MON articles and forums. Plus a few from Chest of Colors. It doesn't take much to find what you need out there for reference, that's for sure :)

Next post: WIP of her dress. Do you like the format of the run down? I'll likely forward it to the folks at DFH to add to "The Hub" - which is also a great resource in itself. As always question, comments and critiques are more than welcome! Thanks for surfing by and remember; you can't spell paint without a little pain.