Simple Human FACES (no more frustration!)

Buy the brushes used in this video: store.artis-opus.com/
We've all been there, feeling lost, not knowing how to paint our important warhammer champion's head... We've got you covered, in just a few steps!
Erik's video on top quality space marine faces here: • How to Paint Space Mar...
#artisopus #paintingminiatures #paintingwarhammer #warhammercommunity #warhammer40k #warhammeraos #newaos #adwip #stormcast #spacemarines #drybrushing #seriesd #seriess
Space Marine tutorials:
Ultramarines (Airbrush + Drybrush + Wash synergy): • How to paint Ultramari...
Dark Angels (high tabletop drybrush armour): • How to paint DARK ANGE...
Salamanders (high tabletop drybrush armour): • How to paint Salamande...
Black Templars (ultra-crisp drybrush+wash armour): • How to Paint BLACK TEM...
Imperial Fists (artistic purple shadow drybrush armour): • INDOMITUS How to paint...
Space Wolves (our take on Space Wolf Grey): • Space Wolves Painting ...
Minis:
Necrons (aged Verdigris scheme): • How to Paint Necrons -...
'Ghostbuster Green' Nighthaunt (Contrast + Washes): • PAINT GHOSTLY MODELS F...
Classic Nighthaunt: • How to Paint Classic N...
Vehicle tutorials:
Space Wolves: • How to Paint Warhammer...
Turquoise Tanks (alpha legion overclocked rhino): • How to Paint a Space M...
Star Wars Legion AAT: • How to paint: AAT Batt...
Large Miniatures:
AMAZING Great unclean one in 3 hours with Drybrushing: • INSANE Great Unclean O...
Fundamental/Basic army level Techniques:
How to Control GW Texture paints (e.g. Agrellan Earth): • GW Texture Paints Unlo...
Black Armour: • PAINT BLACK ARMOUR LIK...
Leather 3 ways: • How to Paint Leather F...
White 3 ways: • Painting white miniatu...
Gold 3 ways (bonus advanced gold): • How to Paint GOLD: FAS...
Yellow 4 ways: • How to Paint Yellow Wa...
Assembling, converting, and painting Forgeworld (Rogue Idol): • Re-posing an Orruk Rog...
Paint Realistic Flames - with DRYBRUSHING!: • How to Paint FLAMES an...
Chipping using AK Interactive Products: • Easy Chipping effects ...
Terrain:
Glowing 40k/SF Terrain: • How to paint 40K terra...
Glowing/firey/endless spells: • Paint all GLOWING Terr...
Dungeons: • Game Changing MODULAR ...
Grey Walls: • How to paint terrain D...
Upgrade those Grey walls with enamel washes in 3 quick steps!: • Upgrade ANY terrain in...
Glowing Green GHOST WALL: • Drybrush Striking Glow...
Synthwave Purple/Pink Wall: • Drybrush Fluorescent G...
Yellow Shipping Container: • PAINTING YELLOW MADE E...
Texture paint (agrellan) Basing Drybrush Scheme tutorials:
Mars/Desert Basing (quick, 'warm' basing): • How to Paint QUICK & E...
Cracked Lava Base: • How to Paint Volcanic/...
Grimdark (cool grey): • How to paint High qual...
Huge bases fast (airbrush, drybrush, wash): • How to Paint Big Bases...
Icy Bases: • How to paint Icy Tundr...
Basing Tutorials:
Metallic Sector Mechanicus 3 ways: • Simple Sci-Fi Industri...
Build a Scenic Base fast (with greenstuff and a rock!): • BUILD a better base fo...
Paint your Scenic Base - Spooky Basing: • How to Paint a Moonlit...
Limestone Basing: • How to base miniatures...
In this video Byron’s using the Artis Opus Brushes!
Series D: These high-quality brushes are perfectly designed for stippling, smudging, drybrushing, buffing, and even edge-highlighting. store.artis-opus.com/collecti...
Series S - The perfect point, the ideal everyday brush: store.artis-opus.com/collecti...
Series M - Shorter heads for precision detailing: store.artis-opus.com/collecti...
Series D Brush set: store.artis-opus.com/collecti...
XL Series D: store.artis-opus.com/collecti...
Accessories (brush racks, cleaner, pallets): store.artis-opus.com/
Music: Bensounds
#ArtisOpus #SeriesD #Drybrushing

[@ArtisOpus]

Buy the brushes used in this video: store.artis-opus.com/ What should we do a tutorial on next? Let us know! Erik's incredible painting (space marine heads): kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXnOo4SdZ5KHgJo

[@weirdhammer]

A while back you did painting NMM with drybrushing. I would like to see this revisited for different flavors of NMM - (gold, silver, copper, brass) and if you can squeeze it into one video, more examples of TMM with fantastical colors, metallic blue, purple, pink - unusual stuff. There's loads of Stormcast in the Skaventide box people will be looking for tutorials on how to paint them!

[@paintingwithmartin]

Will you be on Essen Spiel this year? Would love to see more leather colors!

[@alexH712]

Would love to see how you approach something like battletech - small scale unicast minis.

[@PhilipLeFou]

I’m a figurative and portrait painter who enjoys the enthusiasm of the miniature painting community. Here are my tricks for eyes: before you start painting the face brush a base layer of light grey onto the eye. With a tooth pick select your color for the iris. The perfect circle of the toothpick tip will make a beautiful round iris. As super secret inside, paint the tip of the toothpick half dark blue and half light blue before you press it in your desired location. Take the otherside of the toothpick and whittle it to a very fine point indeed and add white. Place that honed tip into the darkly shaded area of the iris and watch as your miniature comes to life with that little white highlight! Flesh tones are tricky since all flesh shadows take on the ambient light of the surrounding environment, that’s okay. It’s very helpful as it integrates your miniature into the story you’re telling. I’m going to go technical here for a second, apologies, the termination shadow should be the contrasting color of your primary flesh hue ie: violet for yellow, blue for orange, green for red. It will “neutralize” the hue and create a tonal curve into the ambient reflective light from the environment. Heads can benefit from a white primer because the light will pass through paint layers hit the white and bounce off making the skin glow. Good Luck Everyone

[@madMARTYNmarsh1981]

This is an excellent comment. Thank you.

[@armholeeio]

Might have to practice that trick, like many it’s the eyes that tend to screw up my models. Nothing like the grim derp feel with bonk eye on the go

[@salmanhamid9911]

definitely going to try this

[@billdefranza4927]

The easy cheesy in a hurry alternative is to add pupils with tiny sharpies.

[@billdefranza4927]

​​@@madMARTYNmarsh1981I'll second that! I wish I could give this comment two thumbs up.

[@thesherbet]

Good point to note is that most GW sets nowadays come with way more heads than you need, so leave some on the sprue and practice on them first. It's free test materials!

[@ArtisOpus]

Very good point, love it!

[@chrisfowler9987]

I have a few boxes of Wargames Atlantic minis.... Some have 4 times more heads than you need. That's a pretty good practice set ;)

[@Jamesk83]

I have a growing display rack of heads that I paint just to practice them, I then stick them to the front of a shelf

[@jamesclarke5331]

Brilliant idea! Give that man a texture palette and brush set!

[@nacidocoqui]

So best suggestion I've ever gotten that I use is to not worry about the eyes. Go a little heavier with the fleshshade, or even a few drops of a brown (not black) contrast, in the whole eye socket and it'll give a Solid Snake-shadowed eyes look that may seem odd when it's up close or magnified (i.e. when you're working) but looks great at arm's length/on the table. The human eye and brain tends to fill in the details, and you can absolutely take advantage of that!

[@christopherfreitas6510]

My only suggestion is to remember why we are painting in the first place, we're in it for the fun of it! Be adventurous, and not afraid to make some mistakes. Cheers everyone 😊

[@ArtisOpus]

This is a wonderful point, amen :)

[@boheadgundealer]

Paint the eyes first- it's an absolute game changer. You can go back and sort them without risking ruining the rest of the face 😊

[@andybillco2424]

Yes, this! Eyes first. Tidy around them with the base coat. Then paint the face.

[@dodosh9444]

For the same reason many make-up artists start with eyes first,too. Works for mini-faces just as well

[@Bunyip_Studios]

exactly!!

[@cerberusbrig]

Thats how I've been doing faces for years now. Base coat the flesh, shade it and do the eyes. The tidy up and first layer can be done in the same step. Then highlight up in as many stages as you like

[@stujm84]

First thing I came to the comments to say. It makes life so much less stressful when you don't have to worry about screwing up a completed face when putting in the eyes

[@MrNwlucas1984]

One of the best things I was taught when I re-entered the hobby was that when painting the eyes do whichever ever eye is closest to your painting hand first and then when that is done, turn the model upside down. This helps prevent your miniatures from having a cross-eyed appearance. Hope this helps others like it did myself.

[@samhoban2509]

I’m back here for a second time. I’ve been painting minis for years….but consuming mini painting content for even longer. I returned to this vid to thank you. Trying this technique was a major breakthrough for me! Wet blending skin is so much better than layer on layer on layer! Cheers!

[@ArtisOpus]

Thanks buddy :) Glad it's made a difference, our pleasure!

[@crispy_338]

Really appreciate you giving out this incredible knowledge for free. Totally invaluable for newer painters in building up techniques and confidence. Thanks so much

[@ArtisOpus]

My pleasure buddy, we do our best! Quite a lot of people support by making brush purchases, which is always appreciated :)

[@jamiewhiteford8359]

Thanks, its always refreshing to see realistic level Painting. I'm working my way back on my painting motivation, life and stress have sucked my motivation, so having these sorts of videos out there really help. It gives me that boost to start again, those high end level paint jobs are awesome to look at but do nothing for my motivation. Thanks for putting this out in the world.

[@ArtisOpus]

My man, you are so welcome, time to do some painting, relax, and maybe surprise yourself, enjoy!

[@LEF3133]

Medieval Capt Rex looking good!

[@AndrewFraser-s9q]

Dreading faces is a huge understatement. I’ve only used helmets for 8 years until something last week said “use the faces”. I now have 5 new models built ready to paint and your video pops up. See……..building them without helmets was definitely the right time, thank you for an awesome tutorial, I love it’s not perfect until it’s popped back onto its body. Ready, steady, go, let’s get practicing these scary faces until they aren’t scary anymore.

[@ArtisOpus]

You can do ittt! Keep it simple and don't rush, good luck 👍

[@nittneylion84]

You validated why my Shatterpoint Dooku looks so good. This was how I painted his face and beard. I sorted stumbled on to the approach. Then used that technique for other faces. Thanks fir this

[@ancientgraybear]

Great advice, ok now to try it myself.

[@ArtisOpus]

Good luck, buddy!

[@ajemma78]

I love the way you show the details of the steps. Thanks for this one!

[@ArtisOpus]

Our pleasure buddy

[@WaaaghPaint]

Great video as always. I learn so much from you on these (only been doing this 4 months and feel your videos elevated my skills by leaps and bounds!!). I’d love to see a video one day on how to do ork mouths of all things. With the tongue, teeth, gums and lips fading from a more fleshy color to the green skin. I just can’t quite figure that out and I think a whole video could be dedicated to this. Currently building my first 2000 point ork army - so it’s a big request! :)

[@jamfjord]

I love this suggestion and I also think your profile name is probably one of the best I've seen 🙌

[@WaaaghPaint]

@@jamfjord thank you so much!!! 💪

[@theromeog]

I feel called out with the way you keep saying "In the case of BALD head here". LOL - Thanks for the amazing video and creative inspiration !

[@thechunkydrummer]

You’re not the only one! 😅

[@ArtisOpus]

:D whatever makes us memorable! We love those shiny domes

[@mart1n287]

I think the most important suggestion is to not compare yourself to others. Everyone's art journey is unique. Some are faster, some are slower, but everyone will reach the goal they want to reach as long as they keep moving forward.

[@morewarhammer]

I am definitely going to try this mate. Thank you so much

[@ArtisOpus]

Thanks buddy, loving the content! 🥰🥰

[@morewarhammer]

@@ArtisOpus ahh dude thank you so much. This is video is really helpful. We should definitely collab soon.

[@ashes2ashesuk]

Going down the Skaven side of this box, I’d love to see either a tutorial on flesh to fur transitions OR how to paint effective warpstone that is either glassy when inert or glowing sickly

[@ArtisOpus]

One of these may be in planning already ;)

[@brent_the_programmer9108]

Some great tips, thanks. I'm going to have to practice, practice, practice.

[@ArtisOpus]

Absolutely, it never hurts, especially with a simple method!

[@ChuckCanada1]

I have to say you earned a lot of respect for leaving the mistakes in the video. Even for someone such as yourself this isn't always easy to do. I don't even try to do pupils yet. I just do a more simple eye, but I'm also still in my first year of painting. :p But really though thanks for the video, its humbling to see someone who I consider a pro making mistakes like I do. In the end it's just paint. We can just paint over it with more paint :)

[@ArtisOpus]

Exactly! Thanks for the kid words my man 🥰

[@thetacticalrock]

Great video. If I am painting the eyes I will do this first. Being recessed they are sometimes hard to get to. By painting them first I can then cut in with the base colour + a darker tone around the eyes after I have finished them. I then also feel good about the rest of the head and not worry about having to do them!

[@ArtisOpus]

Several people have said this, I'll have to give it a go!

[@EvilChancellorJorge]

This is really probably the best tutorial I have seen for painting faces, which I am horrible at. The most recent technique I've used was using almost entirely drybrushing, which got some good results, but the heads were the bald, wrinkless heads of soulless elves from Warmachine. The best thing was, as soulless, giving them the "soulless eyes of the damned" look was intentional. I look forward to trying this technique with my next faces.

[@ArtisOpus]

You could absolutely take these ideas and drybrush 'at' the light planes of the front/top of the face, the method is flexible. Hope it goes well for you buddy, thanks for the kind words

[@thealleycatuk]

Darren Latham did a tutorial video on faces that massively increased my confidence and ability in painting faces, it also demonstrated different ways of doing it depending how much effort you want to put in. Would absolutely recommend it. What I think it has in common with your video is giving confidence to people in what they're actually trying to execute with faces. Especially as you're looking at a different approach to how a lot of guides are going to teach you how to paint things in a GW style.

[@dounarsena]

Having a dark base and slowly working up to brighter contrast is really important to remember!

[@ArtisOpus]

Never hurts, right, just a little thought in the placement makes a big difference, and that learning is so useful

[@gravballemandendk]

awesome as always!

[@ArtisOpus]

Cheers buddy :)

[@craigcook5121]

As always get tips and love the fact you leave in the mistakes. Helps to show us mere mortals how they happen and how to fix. Now I want to paint a face to 3 cheers

[@ArtisOpus]

[@goblinplaysit2289]

Suggestion: The best advice I got for eyes was to paint them very large and then work them back into shape. I start with the eye color, accurately if I can, but just ensure it covers the middle of the eye top to bottom. Then I work an off-white from the left and right to shape the iris, trying to leave the same size and position in both eyes. Now I have big anime eyes, huge, and I use the flesh tone to shape them. I find it easier to have the brush on the model, and work towards the edge I’m making.

[@PetesPaints]

This is something that helped me a lot and it’s that, you don’t need flesh tones to paint flesh! I’ll often use a mix of mahogany and red as the bases for my Caucasian skin tones and dark reddish browns through orange for my darker skin tones. Mix it up and have fun!

[@ArtisOpus]

100%!

[@nixxy1983]

THANK YOU! I have been planning on practicing painting faces for a while now but got too scared on it coming out like abominations but this video has helped a lot and can not wait till my skaventide set aerrives to practice with the spare heads you get in them

[@ArtisOpus]

Wonderful, 'Fear is the mind killer' - time to go smash it!

[@nixxy1983]

@@ArtisOpus that is the plan! do you have any brush suggestions for beginners? one day I will invest in yours when I get better but wondering if there are better ones than gw to get me started

[@CalAndAly]

1000th like! Love this tutorial and the new music choice!

[@ArtisOpus]

[@Calamityclown09]

Its refreshing to see a content creator have a more realistic approach especially for painting faces. Id love to see you do a quick but effective glow effect video, especially for all the warpstone that im going to be painting haha1

[@197mmCannon]

Best face video I have watched.

[@ArtisOpus]

🥰🥰 thanks, buddy!

[@adamheald1970]

I wish it was that easy to make my bearded face and bald head to look that good! Great video!

[@ArtisOpus]

Time for you to surprise yourself! :)

[@skrdlov]

Great video, and it is so important to practise and not beat yourself up over the eyes. It was a brave move to stick with your first tries without spending ages cleaning up for the video. Also that Erik Swinson (and his others) is a great resource and masterclass for human faces.

[@capt.mannerings8095]

Got some DoK face's to do, I have a feeling this video is going to be watched multiple times. Seriously for people with bad shakes drill press and a pen also will work for the eye.

[@ArtisOpus]

Good call buddy, and good luck with your eye-liner! :D

[@capt.mannerings8095]

@@ArtisOpus Thanks, gotta get that smokey eye in there!

[@toi_techno]

Cool vid The colours on your palette in the background kept making me think of Saturn Devouring His Sons by Goya

[@ArtisOpus]

What a reference! I'll take it

[@shawngibson1092]

Doing the eyes is such a pain!!! I found using a toothpick for the eyes gives me better control and is, in my humble opinion, a little more precise.

[@ArtisOpus]

Whatever works!

[@rosspearse1928]

This head looks amazing :D I would love to see something similar for Tyranids (We have faces too, kind of)

[@madMARTYNmarsh1981]

Wait... you are a Tyranid? Xenos! Burn!! Reject the allure of the Hive Mind!!! 😂

[@verigone2677]

Thanks for the gun show Byron...lol

[@ArtisOpus]

England broke 20degrees, we're not made for this stuff :D

[@travisd2895]

Great work as always. I would like to submit 3 ideas. Gems.....Leather.....and using texture pastes creatively. Like using stirland battlemire and painting it green to resemble moss. Things like that.

[@ArtisOpus]

You may well see one of these appearing soon... a particularly Skaven-y one :)

[@alphaleigpyne]

I like the new tutorial for skin flesh, these are simple method in face painting details involved. It's a good thing I got two Sigvald Burgundy pots, this'll help with the recess. Though I bought one bottle by accident not knowing I already had one hidden in my paint storage draw. 😅

[@alphaleigpyne]

Some of the basecoat I use for pale skin is Gal Vorbak Red before mixing with Ushabti Bone followed by Wraithbone. It works for me when painting the faces for my Battle Sisters.

[@MrCai01]

Really inspiring and helpful video. Will give it a good go but I suspect all my heads are gonna remain toothless and eyeless, but hopefully the rest will look great

[@ArtisOpus]

Even just blocking in the skin like this makes a big difference, go with whatever you are comfortable with :)

[@Slaughter619]

As someone who only JUST painted their first face fairly recently, the first tip given is probably the one you should focus on the hardest, DON'T BE INTIMIDATED! I spent SO much time staring at the head options on so many minis, and just thinking of taking on a bare head made my chest tight, and had me doubting my self and my skills like the steaks were more akin to defusing a bomb, not painting a funny bit of plastic, and inevitably would always psyke my self out and just toss the bare heads in my bits bin. It look a bit of realization that, nothing you put on your plastic is truly permanent, and a need to set a specific model apart from its peirs to finally get me to buckle down, and stick a head on a gator clip stick, and have at it. And i QUICKLY found that what had been holding me back was the intimidation. I got going and I was floored with how many of the tools, mediums and even the paints I had on hand just from being in the hobby felt purpose built for helping with faces, and the techniques I had learned over time applied to the process on just a smaller scale! I learned pretty quickly that once i got past the intimidation, my biggest hurdle was the general quality of my finer brushes, so my next step is to learn how to better maintain my tools. The best advice I think ANY novice painter going into painting faces can receive boils down to these points; take care of your tools, make sure your brushes hold their shape and have a good point. Keep your priming layers smooth because they form the base of any paintjob and you set yourself up for success when you start from a quality base. Break through the intimidation barrier, you aren't painting for golden demon, you are painting for you, and the only thing holding you back from having that barehead model you want IS you. And lastly, rember that your painting skills are like the paintjob it's self, you build them layer by layer, and with every layer, the end result gets closer and closer. Some people might need two thin coats, some might need a dozen, but you'll never see those end results unless you take a seat, break out the brushes and paint, and get that first layer down.

[@billdefranza4927]

One tip I find useful, which I thought of when you washed the eyes with reddish paint and later painted the beard a bluish grey is to map the face color in exactly that way: the top third should get a little tint of yellow(ish) {think sunlight from above}; the middle third, from eyebrows to lips, some reddish tint {as this is the part of the face with the most blood vessels near the surface}; and the lower third (or the jaw and neck) some bluish tint, especially for 5 O'Clock shadow.

[@Piecespatpaints]

great video!

[@ArtisOpus]

Thanks! 🥰

[@howardhautville4208]

Awesome - thank you

[@benjarvis1892]

Whenever I paint faces, I’ll take a picture of my own face/ head using a ring light as the light source positioned in the same direction as I want the light to hit the model. That way I have a constant reference image

[@ArtisOpus]

Reference is so important!

[@blake6629]

I painted a whole blood angels army without painting a single face, I need help lol, glad you shared thankyou 🙏🏼

[@chrismurphy3745]

Thank you 🤩

[@ArtisOpus]

Our pleasure :)

[@123scopee]

Awesome vid mate. Think sometimes we over think methods, rather than listening to experienced information and just accepting sometimes it is as simple as the information provided. This was stupidly easy to follow and understand. Good job mate 👏👍

[@hobbithubby5076]

I’ve become a big fan of base coating with my highlight color then glazing in the mid tone and shadows. It’s so much easier when doing faces, and specially female faces as it results in softer transitions.

[@ArtisOpus]

Noted!

[@billdefranza4927]

Ooh, I've got to try that!

[@Hooverdreng]

I don’t know your entire catalog of videos, so forgive me if you have already done this. I would love a video on army painting with a combination of acrylics and oil. So a focus on a good tabletop standard and how oil and acrylic can be combined to make that happen efficiently.

[@williammaceachern962]

Would love to see you paint up some Skaventide terrain! As always, thanks for the great video it really helps.

[@Raindrgn]

For the next tutorial, how about alternative ambient lighting, such as: sunrise/sunset, dark rooms/halls with minor torch or candle light, glowing pools/cauldrons, etc...

[@frankbongiovanni4028]

Awesome video...just the whole cylinder-dome light concept was really helpful and I'm going to try it out this week for sure. Maybe not so good for the same scale as the model in this video, but a video just about eyes with multiple light sources would be a huge help. thanks again!

[@ArtisOpus]

You'd be surprised what that light point at the front of the forehead (up to hair-line if hairy) does at any scale... can't do anything for those eyes though :D

[@joshuacopsey8757]

Awesome video! Would love to see a video on the darker silver tones of the Ruination Chamber Hallowed Knights, also the blue flame and green stone effects that are in the Skaventide box!

[@ArtisOpus]

[@janpaces2950]

I have two suggestions: - GW Kits usually comes with a lot of spare head bits, I usually pin all of them and use them for practicing. Then pick the best ones to actually put on the models. - What helped me a lot is to paint faces of different scales, starting on the bigger ones and than trying to apply what you've learn on the bigger one the smaller one. Something like a bust, or even SW ShatterPoint has a bit larger scale than GW one does.

[@Ownuout]

Well, you got one thing right, I definitely "doo doo" them. LoL. Couldn't resist, thanks for the video.

[@ArtisOpus]

I certainly doo-doo! :)

[@jgs_minis]

I usually do the eyes just after the initial basecoat of skin. I can go back in with the basecoat color and correct any mistakes. After that, I paint the rest of face as normal, I find it easier to avoid getting additional paint in the completed eyes than I do getting the eyes perfect in one go…

[@ArtisOpus]

Lots have said this, it's a very good point :)

[@samuelsanfratello4617]

Awesome tutorial, Byron! Also noticed that years of Drybrushing is obviously a pretty good workout routine...You go, Dude!

[@ArtisOpus]

😂 It was shaking the villainy inks that did it!

[@MercutioUK2006]

Yes, I dread painting them. You read my mind.

[@ArtisOpus]

You're not alone :)

[@ivanlbc]

It's amazing how 90% of the job it's in the eyes, the smallest part of it all. You can do perfect everywhere, but when you miss the eyes you kinda screw it. Sometimes it's better to just not do the eyes and leave it that way.

[@ArtisOpus]

'Tactical wash' is definitely sometimes a winner, especially for small faces/army batching

[@sixsevenfour]

For eyes, a few helpful tips I've come across are: -paint the whites of the eyes (or the eyes in their entirety) when you are putting down your skin basecoat because it is easier to use the basecoat to correct and slim down the eye areas that have gotten out of control. -an artist marker with a superfine tip and a desk magnifying light can be really useful for a simple pupil dot. Great video!

[@ArtisOpus]

Solid tips, I quite like the dark surround to the eyes for army painting though, exaggerating has a place when there's a lot of stuff being done fast. Artist markers are great, work wonders (you can gloss the eyes so the pupil isn't shiny, too, which can happen from the ink)

[@durzod2052]

Just be careful that any wash or glaze you put around the eyes may make the ink in the pupil run. Depends on the quality of the marker. To be safe, I varnish the eyes as soon as theyre done. I learned this the hard way when an entire squad of Bolt ActionBrits turned into raccoons! Had a fine time fixing them.

[@adammacken3383]

Something I wish someone had told me years ago, especially when it comes to faces, is not to forget the 80/20 rule, and focus your effort where it matters. When I was starting out I almost drove myself crazy trying to paint the eyes of every single rank and file troop in a 2000pt empire army. My most regular opponents complimented me on the eyes of the heroes when I first finished them, but it took almost 3 years (when I was selling them) for anyone to notice that every single eye was painted 😅 could've easily saved myself the effort. Don't get me wrong, I love having nice looking models but there's a point of diminishing returns. So don't feel like every model has to be perfect or you might just end up joining me in the asylum...

[@jonathanprovost7779]

Very cool. Thank you. 😊 I also like to start with a basecoat of dark purple, which helps support the reds and browns used later. And second, I like to use some strong red wash in the corners of the eyes 👀 to help them pop, and help me clean up if I mess the dotting. Cheers 😁

[@ArtisOpus]

Good points! Cheers buddy :)

[@thewisp7447]

I love this video. I hope in the future we get a good video on dark skin tones so we can paint Salmanders

[@darrenj3720]

Great shout. There is a serious lack of different skin tone tutorials.

[@sixsevenfour]

The techniques are generally the same, it's just a different set of paint colors.

[@darrenj3720]

@@sixsevenfour absolutely but sometimes the visual act can be useful for anyone specifically looking for darker tones.

[@MichaelDesign04]

A really good way to get the colours right on different skin tones is to open up a reference photo in something like MS Paint, and then use the dropper tool to pick up the main three or four tones from darkest to lightest. The reference image will also really help when learning how much surface area to cover with each colour (too large an area may make the skin appear lighter than intended).

[@ArtisOpus]

I need to get better at this myself, I tried to follow some steps a while back, which involved a hint of purple... I didn't use a hint, and very soon I was painting what was a passable dark skin tone... in EXTREME drag. I need to follow my own advice and practise more, same with female faces.

[@Tekkaman76]

I am the worst painter ever but Artis videos prove that an old dog can indeed learn new tricks and improve with the right teacher

[@ArtisOpus]

My man, our pleasure 🙏!

[@BunsenB14]

Something I like to do when painting eyes (or other small details) is wetting my brush with Don Surato's "Highlight Sauce" (1 Retarder Medium + 5 Water) before loading my brush with paint. The highlight sauce helps the paint flow off the brush without drying.

[@ArtisOpus]

Interesting, I used to use this in the summer months, but I like licking my brush too much so it was a constant-battle, and licking won :D

[@BunsenB14]

​@@ArtisOpus😂 I stopped brush licking when I started using a 5% flow-improver solution to moisten my brushes. I could probably get away with using straight water, I don't know if the flow-improver helps.

[@sammmmDC]

I think a great video idea would be how to use airbrush to do undertones to enhance shadows/mid tones. Especially on armies!

[@draadhaai]

If you dread faces, make the face your painting part of a character (as in: give him/her a backstory). Helps with focussing and more lore/story behind your models = more better. :)

[@chrisdophl]

If you're struggling with pupil placement I've had some success by painting the whole eyeball brown and adding a dot of off-white to each side. It kind of means you're painting the eye 'backwards' but it's much easier to centre the pupil this way as you can always return to your white dot and move it closer to the centre if you need to reposistion. Much easier than painting a dot and hoping it lands in the right place. Probably not a golden demon winning technique but it's worth trying!

[@mikegrant8031]

Midtone glaze at the end to blend it all together.

[@craigmaxwell8352]

Using a bigger brush is a great tip, I'm always trying to use a tiny one and not have enough paint to apply

[@ArtisOpus]

100%, a good quality one is such a life-saver, tip drying is annoying at the best of times!

[@Bunyip_Studios]

I love painting faces

[@Rob_the_Tool]

Stippling a little gray on the can suggest stubble in areas you don’t want to look 100% bald. Also great for 5 o’clock shadow if the model doesn’t have a beard.

[@ArtisOpus]

Absolutely is, you can mix in a little flesh-colour to make it more forgiving, too, works wonders

[@Streetsam]

Great!

[@weirdhammer]

This is a fantastic painting tutorial. My only suggestion (and I struggle with this too!) is to pull back the camera focal length so everything is in focus (the fingers, background and model) then zoom in to the subject in post. This way you won't be fighting your camera for focal depth on something that's unfairly only a couple of millimeters wide. Helps if you are able to film in 4k and then post in 1080p, this way you don't lose quality in the crop when you zoom in. Love your channel and you do a lot for our beloved hobby. If you are filming with a camera that doesn't have optics (like a phone) then just move it further back and everything will be in focus. Can't hurt to give it a shot!

[@ArtisOpus]

Cheers buddy, thanks for the Byron-safe explanation! No optics and we're close to as far back as is practical, but I'll try pushing it to max and see if it helps, it was a very tiny subject this time round. Mostly I'm just proud with having largely stayed in-frame :D

[@weirdhammer]

@@ArtisOpus Staying in frame is so hard! You did great, those heads are so small!

[@jessicaraine8403]

Don't be afraid to be a little messy with the eyes. You can always go back with the flesh shades and clean up the edges later so paint the pupil a little high and then clean it up so it isn't a perfect circle.

[@TheKulum89]

My suggestion is to try your best on a model, then keep it on a shelf. That way you have a reminder as to your progress in the hobby. I have a photo of my first ever model I painted, I have a long way to go, but I have come so far also.

[@harty1501]

I'll definitely give this a go. I've got some Rumbleslam minis to paint up.

[@ArtisOpus]

Good luck!

[@malfeasant_dino]

If you really struggle with eyes, then the best tip I've ever received is to ditch the paintbrushes! Instead, use an artist white gel pen (e.g. Uniball, Sakura) to fill in the whites of the eye, and then use a Sakura Pigma Micron Fineliner (or equivalent) for the iris and pupils. Use coloured Finliners for the iris, and a very small black Fineliner for the pupil. Then, if you want to be really fancy, use your white gel pen to put a small dot at the top of the Iris to give the impression of light and depth. The firmer tip of pens allows for far more control versus paintbrushes, and - by default - only a small amount of ink will be applied so there will be absolutely zero pooling etc.

[@guilhemgp]

Really good video, help me bring courage to try myself. And the pedagogy and the tips are better and better. Thank you so much :) I'm curious to see you doing the same but at a higher level. Not golden deamon but for those who want to go a step further. Anyway, really thank you, the pro tips are really a good +.

[@ArtisOpus]

Thanks man! That's a good idea, how would you approach the thumb/title to make it appealing (rather than intimidating) for people?

[@SarhcBannitoot]

I personally prefer to do the eyes right away. There’s more room for error when you’re not worried about messing up a perfected skin tone. Start with white or vanilla in the eyes and shape them with black. Do the pupils in your choice of color. Then walk back the black liner with your choice of flash tone. Sorastro has helped me immensely with this. Couldn’t recommend him enough!

[@Birkenhead.Raver_YNWA]

Faces is something I've either got right or hideously bad haha. This tutorial has given me a few things to try. Your right it you dont practice faces you will never get better. I've got a spru with ten faces on and I'm going to use this vid to help me practice Thank you

[@ArtisOpus]

Go at it buddy, I bet #10 is the best, whatever happens you'll have learned something :)

[@Kruudelis]

This tutorial was helpful and all, but the best thing you've given us is that googley-eyed space marine image as the lower bound of your painting range. That needs to be merch. (but seriously this was well done and helpful) (but doubly serious about the space marine)

[@richardebourne6332]

I've gotten a lot better due to more practice. But I used to find plain faces harder. So I added a frosty blue to the lower half as a base for some stubble then glazed up. Suddenly you get more depth. Maybe hair next!?

[@ArtisOpus]

Good idea. With some thought I ak sure we could do a comprehensive guide. Maybe some recipes

[@joegkushner]

Inks. I'd like to see more use of inks. A lot of companies sell them bit it's rare to see them in painting videos.

[@justasuggestion8216]

Wow. The paint for the eyes goes exactly where it's supposed to. Mine goes everywhere else and turns into a mess!

[@ArtisOpus]

Try the 'aiming to not hit them, until you do' - it works wonders!

[@xc_OuMa]

I love using diluted magos purple as a very thin glaze to add "warmth" because i feel like using reds and maroons make it look flat. My top three colors for light skintone are magos purple, medium rust and pale sand.

[@acidfist4572]

If you need to save time. Follow the same lighting rules. Then after your darker base, you can use a similar brush and dry brush downward over the face to catch the raised bits. Then a couple toucb of lighter highlights. It wont look quite as nice but it's definitely faster.

[@zxfdoorfd9565]

I can just swap the beard and face colours for the perfect tau guys. I like being lazy like that. Nice video, now I actually want to paint some heads.

[@ArtisOpus]

Absolutely you can! Thanks man, enjoy :)

[@MentoliptusBanko]

At one point it looked like the face of the Doom guy in the game when it gets hit :D

[@ArtisOpus]

😅😅 I will absolutely take that

[@jamescooper7236]

I struggle with getting the light right on a hoodied or partially covered head, I'd love it if you could do a follow up to this one with how I should approach that 😊

[@argy8141]

Just awesome, I hate heads, the more they are covered up the better 😂. However armed with this, when I next have to do some (2-3 weeks away), I'm going to give this a go.

[@ArtisOpus]

That's what we like to hear! Good luck for when you do :)

[@gregorstamejcic2355]

Green, yellow and bone; Specks of blood glistening like milldew In an Orky dawn.

[@Omegaterrain]

I usually paint darks to lights but for faces (skin in general) I find it easier to paint lights to darks so that I can glaze the darks on the model. It's waaaay harder to glaze with light color hobby paints (regardless of brand).

[@garypatterson2857]

Point of comparison - check out Broken Minis for a very grimy, realistic warrior face. I bookmarked it years ago because he underpaints reds and purples to simulate actual facial features. Every time I see anyone paint faces I remember that channel. There's room for lots of styles, and that's one that really works for some painters. Kind of sad he dropped out of sight.

[@grud8495]

The problem I have is I simply can't see the details on the heads to paint it well enough, and I have a near perfect eye sight.

[@ArtisOpus]

You need a better quality lamp then, buddy