I HATE painting skin on miniatures! Here's what happened when I tried

[@notnubilous3804]

"Many of us might have friends and family that are...human." Dana don't call me out like this.

[@DanaHowl]

Its for ur own good u gotta face the truth!

[@GoobertownHobbies]

some of us mostly have friends who are cats tho.

[@Born_Stellar]

@@GoobertownHobbies furry friends are best friends

[@warcraftdude13]

My family is my baby yoda

[@danielwilliams8183]

I heard that line, had to pause to laugh, and then immediately saw this comment. A+ Dana

[@GoobertownHobbies]

awww yeahhh, these look sweet!

[@DanaHowl]

Thanks Brent ✨

[@jjmatthews008]

Yeah

[@malloc7108]

This is why I convert all my Eldar minis to be Harlequins - easier to literally cut off a face and fuse on a mask than deal with human(oid) skin. I believe this was shown in the classic painting tutorial Face Off, with Nick Cage.

[@DanaHowl]

Yeah that's an old classic!!!!

[@Miscast]

Thanks for the lovely mention Dana! The format of this vid was super fun and engaging! Can't wait for the next!

[@DanaHowl]

Thanks so much Trent! Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for making such inspirational content!

[@cole445]

"Imagun Not Paintin' All ya Boyz Green" Dis wuz made by Ork gang

[@ToaLevoris]

I wasn't expecting to see a BIonicle in a painting tutorial

[@daleicious1528]

His name is Kopaka!

[@daviddickson412]

Who remembers throwbots?

[@ToaLevoris]

@@daviddickson412 stop I can only handle so much nostalgia from one video!

[@daviddickson412]

@@ToaLevoris Ikr... I saw that and wept as my Lego collection was stolen from my storage unit due to the next unit overs user not locking up and the walls not going to the top of the building. Sorry to vent, but the feels.... Do you remember what where the ones called that where bikes that came in canisters?

[@ToaLevoris]

@@daviddickson412 i believe they where called Roboriders

[@BlackCoyote66]

"The closer a thing looks to ourselves, the more unsettling it can look if we get it wrong." That's why I never look in the mirror, it's way too unsettling.

[@rumblin_cynth_rampo374]

Ive returned to figure painting after a 10 year break. I normally work on historical large scale figures and work in oils. At the moment there are half a dozen figures sitting ready for paint. I always start with the face and other flesh parts. I have been procrastinating about starting. This video made me realise I am now terrified of painting flesh. So it is "nice" to know that other people have the same terror. Time to grab the brush put some paint on a palette and get started,

[@diehexenmaus185]

this was IMMENSELY useful for getting past a block i've been having re: skin. thanks!

[@matheusdiniz6444]

loviing the army scheme and the dead looking skin on the flagellants!

[@DanaHowl]

Thanks Matheus! Yeah I just kinda went wild with it, anything looks good on that kind of skin!

[@52Miniatures]

Hey! Thank you humbly for the mention, I really appreciate it. And you nailed it, skin is scary - but then kind of fun - wishing there was more, kind of fun. Those Flagellants(?) look lovely and the weird human machine thingy utterly terrifying - in a good way (sorry, terribly out of my waters with 40k). Happy New Year Dana, looking forward to 2021.

[@DanaHowl]

Happy New Year to you too! Hope the mention brings more views to your amazing channel!!!

[@52Miniatures]

@@DanaHowl very much so, trying to keep up with all the comments :)

[@DanaHowl]

@@52Miniatures OH that's great!!!! Happy to hear it!

[@bitzbox]

These all came out really nice. Thank you for sharing them, I especially liked the Arco Flagellants

[@bryal7811]

Yeah, my brother's a clown too.

[@DanaHowl]

whats a clown?

[@charles_wipman]

I always used several brown washes diluted and soft drybrushing with a range of clear tones up to white sometimes, on the edges, and always "separated" the skin from the clothes, armor or elements with a slim line of black wash; but was hard to get it right. Have a happy new year

[@alphaleigpyne]

This may help me some of the models I'm stuck with and paint my bigger models with skin flesh. Thanks for showing me and happy new year!

[@DanaHowl]

Glad it was helpful!!!! Happy new year!!!!

[@Ceefaproductions]

The purple-y flagellant almost makes me wince a bit. It actually looks like bruised, callused skin and very painful. That's really impressive!

[@Uncle_Anthoni]

Absolutely incredible paint job Dana. Easily one of my favorite mini painter on youtube.

[@GlittervoidGamecraft]

“I try to pay attention to those things that seem scary or difficult to me, because those are probably the things I need to be working on.” I feel personally attacked. 😝

[@DavidHurstCanada]

Ok...those two suggestions for other uTubers has been awesome fun! I have burned 4 hours watching them and I love the dry humour from the 52 miniature guy. My wife thinks I am crazy snickering here in the corner of the living room while she works on her puzzle. Thanks for the suggestion. Also, you mentioned a few videos ago that you were going to make the videos you wanted to make and have fun with the hobbies of working with miniatures and making videos. It shows you are having fun and your work is more enjoyable to watch these days...not that your humour was lost before, it is just apparent that you are enjoying this more now. Thanks for being true to yourself.

[@RedHandedDaniel]

thank you for all your work this year Dana!

[@ltjosh9584]

The change in style of the video was really natural, but I don't think anyone will grumble with a new Dana video!

[@SWolffang]

Thanks for taking the time to make these videos!

[@northd6840]

Great vid...the new style is very calm....Miscast is great I really like his casual approach (no stressors). I haven't seen the other creators stuff (52), I'll have to check it out. Have a great 2021!

[@axtmann]

I really appreciate you demonstrating a broad range of skin tones. This looks very helpful!

[@josephattridge5153]

Amazing stuff as usual Dana, I am absolutely now spending my New years eve painting some minis I have been avoiding. Have a Happy New Year!

[@TheOneTheyCallJack]

Have a great new year Dana and thank you for all the videos in what has been a bit of a trash fire of a year

[@Humatra]

Great video Dana. Skin looks great and very helpful information. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to seeing your videos in 2021

[@pfatpixel]

I am the same, human skin is scary to paint compared to metal armor or alien flesh...

[@R3dS0ulSnak3]

Your army is so unique and aaaamaaazing! This was a breath of freah air for painting skin. Thank you Dana!

[@morriganmoore753]

What a great video! Very similar attitude here. Recently raided my bitz box and got out all the heads I'm unlikely to use. So I'm painting 70 or so faces and trying to get them looking right.

[@jonathanstevens2601]

Inspiring! (I've some nurgle skin-patches in an amalgamation of metal that can use some similar treatment) Keep up the great content, Dana; looking forward to seeing where this development for skintones will take your channel! :D

[@peterabilodeau]

Skin tones have been a bane of my painting and this layered approach, based on the blood zenithal, makes sense to me. I can’t wait to try it out. Also, I think it’ll help me get my niece’s witch to look like her dark skin tone, more than any of my previous attempts.

[@thinnedpaints6503]

These are stunning, great work as always!

[@tonylusardi5767]

Ever since the contrast paints from GW came out, I've become a convert of doing my human skin with thinned down contrast like its a glaze. Over a n off-white or ligyt pink undercoat.

[@chucklamb3496]

Thanks Dana, just the video I was looking for.

[@MrHuntersnapp]

thanks Dana! i just picked up a bunch of Fyreslayers for AoS and this could not have come at a better time!

[@Sadhow6]

Thanks for the video and especially the idea with the main-skin-tone-glaze as a grounding element. Gonna try that. And yeah, Reikland Flesh is a saviour

[@andrewbaranyai463]

Cool video, recently I have been using a mix of washes, glazed and inks for flesh (pretty similar to the video here) and it works pretty well. I have also found the gw contrast flesh tones to be very good if you just want to do a quick job and a bit of highlighting works wonders with them

[@pytle]

Have an awesome new year! Thanks for the tutorials!

[@DanaHowl]

You too!!! Always happy to make tutorials!

[@ckreger1984]

I really enjoy the dry humor in your videos. It makes me laugh every time

[@LangJones]

I really appreciate this video. Nice to know even the painters/youtubers I admire are working things out. Great work!

[@craigconner1466]

Cheers Dana, I too have always struggled with painting good skin tones, but I think this video will inspire me to do better. Happy Hogmanay to you and yours!

[@Pholhis]

Nice tutorial for more usage of the glazing approach you use.

[@witchapparatus]

Loving this new format!

[@danhowarth8784]

This was a really good video and just what I needed. I painted a repentia unit recently and the skin was pretty bad, added a highlight layer and it looked like clown make-up. Have some Argo-flagellants to paint and going to try what you did here, so thanks!

[@TheShadow4152]

Awesome video, right in this second I was looking for videos about skin and painting faces, 'cause I'm painting a Celestine box and I'm currently on the geminae superia and idk how proceed with the skin and the eyes, thank you for this video Dana!

The video I expected for so many months without daring to ask. And it appears just in time so I can watch it before starting Eve's meal. It is official now: Dana Howl saved the year !!!

[@jamesash2394]

Thank you for the bionicle

[@Berserkerworks]

Love the inclusion of Inquisitor references, and the new shots and editing are awesome!

[@DanaHowl]

Thanks so much!!! I wanted to try out some new types of shots to keep things fresh

[@angerworm]

If I could go back and give my younger painter-self advice it would be to be fearless with colors. Formulas help people get standard results, but I've come to think they hold new painters back in the long run. You teach some important stuff in this one.

[@tristanlee8495]

I agree with your opinion of Kopaka.

[@DanaHowl]

best boi

[@tristanlee8495]

@@DanaHowl *Walks away without responding*

[@M2Mil7er]

1:26 For a moment I was utterly convinced, through the magic of editing, that you'd make your disembodied head bounce around the edges of the screen like the DVD logo, Not sure why, but the thought of it tickled me. Maybe trying to distract myself from your excellent advice there haha.

[@DanaHowl]

NOW I GOTTA LEARN HOW TO DO THAT!!! thanks for the idea!

[@M2Mil7er]

@@DanaHowl I thought you'd like that! Cool!

[@rotwang2000]

I struggled to find the right combo for years, but I settled on using the paint triads by Wargames Factory. They have a wide range of skintones, European, African, Asian, etc.

[@PitMaster-x1p]

Awesome! Very natural look.

[@maxbrandt6]

Vallejo's Sunny Skintone makes for a great highlight color with nearly every color you could use.

[@tassiasmith]

Human skin is actually one of my favourite things to paint (along with more fantastical skin) because it's translucent and you can get a lot of interesting tones to it. I like how you talked about tackling things that scare you; you're right, those are often the areas we need to improve in the most... and once you get started, even if you end up failing horribly, you learn it seemed scarier than it actually was. Once you get over that block, maybe it's easy or maybe it's not, but you can at least prove to yourself that the image you had built up on your mind is worse than the reality. Wonderful video as usual.

[@wolfenhalo]

Oof the army is looking stellar!!! Amazing work

[@Marcusstratus]

Great video! Thanks for sharing this process

[@arx1381]

When I started in 1996 I avoided any model with a face. So Space Marine and Chaos Marine models with no skin. Now I love it. My Indomitus Marines are from an own chapter who have a leathery tan. I use Baneblade brown and then Reikland Fleshshade or Agrax Earthshade on the skin so they are not identical and then Baneblade Brown again as a first highlight and then add a little Rakarth Flesh to that for the lighter areas.

[@just_derek007]

Awesome video! Thank you very much!!

[@seanmorgan2257]

wow Dana that was excellent as always happy new year

[@cookieofdestruction]

A nice video to end the year on.

[@DanaHowl]

Thanks! I thought so tooooo!

[@wesh3338]

nice video! ben komets did an interesting video on skin tones a couple months ago but a lot of times i find his techniques a bit beyond my abilities

[@darrendempsey3190]

Red zenithal highlight, great tip thanks!

[@lt.branwulfram4794]

Which is why I chose Raven Guard Space Marines to paint. It is said their geneseed mutation has caused their Melanchromic Organ to give them all a pale complexion devoid of colour or nourishment, not too dissimilar to a corpse. It has also made it so that their hair and eyes are permanently a pure ebon colour. That, combined with their constant watchful, vigilant and stoic nature, makes a battle brother of the Raven Guard chapter all the more unsettling to be around. So, Pallid Wych Flesh with a bit of thinned down Reikland Fleshshade.

[@loltwest9423]

Wish I can say "subbed for being a Bionicle fan," but apparently I already did. xD Also, this whole video's a vibe. I didn't put any bare heads on my Space Marines and even kitbashed to avoid painting their faces. Also, it didn't make sense to me why they would go on the battlefield without helmets if they had the best helmets in the Imperium (barring Custodes). But eventually, when they finally did the range refresh on my favorite army (Sisters of Battle), I too had to confront my fears of painting skin.

[@LogicIsFail4100]

You got me with the rogal Dorn burn.

[@joshbecka6110]

I think I stumbled my way through this process for myself earlier this month. Without the red/blood zenithal step. I will keep that in mind for Sgrt. “Ripper” Jackson though.

[@DanaHowl]

yaaa i dunno if it makes a difference it was just an experiment!!!

[@joshbecka6110]

@@DanaHowl adding pinks and reds to the faces I did, did change the look from a flat brown to a believable skin tone and the flesh shade was also big. But I think you are on to something with the red underneath.

[@guadalupemunoz1767]

Love this almost as much as I love the original skin theory video

[@noxstarfox5830]

I was initially pretty excited by the Sororitas battle box but I've found the new aesthetic a little off putting and, admittedly, human skin a little intimidating. Thanks for the inspiration to pull the Sisters back out and give it another go.

[@r.a.fgattaiguy845]

if you hate paiting skin for this reason try to paint death guard more often, Poxwalkers and Nurgle Daemons are fun to paint because ou don´t have to worry about any of this when it comes to skin

[@speedysavant]

I find painting skin to be wonderful and relaxing and I'm glad you had fun with it too. I am sort of sad though, not a single horse :c May your 2021 be full of ponies

[@RossBobbie]

I'm just now getting into figures with human skin to paint. Definitely most challenging thing I've done so far, but also the most fun.

[@zakhunt]

Great stuff Dana!

[@SalemGamorrah]

I love how real you are.

[@DanaHowl]

same I am 100% not a robot dont even worry about it!

[@gatall91]

Hell yeah girl. Those models look awesome. I've got some arco flagellents for my Iron Warriors and I'm gonna try using these tips

[@ratri4969]

Wow, the skin looks amazing.

[@LupsakkaLeo]

When I started to paint my House Escher gang for Necromunda I was also intimidated by the ammount of skin to paint. Not to mention that I've only painted Orcs/Orks, Necrons and zombies prior to that, never human or actual female figurines. I decided to paint them into a black metal theme, with pale skin/white grease paint, corpse masks and the stuff from all the generic black metal band paint-ups. Really scary project after the 12 years pause I had from my last army. But after the first few minis I found out that the skin was propably the most fun part of painting them! Most of them turned out good, few not so great, but a couple turned out really great! I know doing the skin a bit stylized was easier than real skin tones, but getting the right shadows on white skin was still a challenge enough for me. Also I wish there would be a bit more tutorials on how to paint face paintings or corpse masks, but doing them freeballing was really fun!

[@Rae_Crow]

Hi Dana, greetings from the UK. My partner showed me your channel and I'm loving the way you approach your craft. I started collecting last year. I was wondering what brushes you use?

[@patrickobrien2068]

Hi, thanks for the vid! I'm painting a plastic pilot figure for a radio control plane. My only experience with painting was 20 years ago on a canvas in night classes. But my question is, when painting a 3D figure, can you paint the object to some extent without thought to changes in shade, and just allow the natural light hitting the object create the shadows?

[@CJmonkee]

Don’t think we didn’t see those jelly beans, yo!

[@cordial001]

Your introduction had me laughing very hard. Your Sisters army is the most Blanchitsu thing I've ever seen, in a really good way.

[@Finkeldinken]

Ooooooh, she's painting bravely! Watch out, we got a fellow ba-dass over here!

[@julielane3073]

My local craft store only has testers paints. Are these ok to use as a beginner until I can order some other paint brands online? I have some random minis I am going to paint til I get better and then paint some minis for my games like Sword & Sorcery.

[@eloimcutillasvalles5750]

I love your content as a painter, but i think that the work you put editing and scripting is even better, congrats! :D

[@evanlindsey1100]

In Japan they use a shade of orange as a base for skin tones on pvc figures. Just thought I'd toss that out here.

[@TheBobbytables]

Poor Garfield, getting subbed out for Dorn.

[@omgitsbees]

I am glad to hear that I am not the only person who just tries their best to avoid skin. Especially faces.

[@karalas]

I have decent luck the few times I have tried to make flesh tones by layering tones. Best success was on my lord of contagion's cloak which I was really going for a fresh heavy rotted human hide look layering things layers of a purple a red and a necrotic flesh.

[@louaysulaiman5446]

happy new years and happy birthday jesus to you. thanks for this video. i use KMFDM's Nihil album cover to give me an idea of where to put shadows etc... on light skin tones. although a bit extreme, but it helps. what photos do you use? also any chance you cant paint non GW minis. I think your style would look amazing with Infinity models. I'm trying to emulate some of your techniques with my Yu-Jing faction.

[@maloryfunction2260]

You look extra adorable in this video! Living for it

[@johnnycooper7019]

Dear Dana, Excellent tutorial and video. Wishing you and your Family a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2021.

[@DanaHowl]

Thanks Johnny! To you as well!!!!!!

[@benweinberg3819]

BONKLE Great video as always!

[@JakeDogg-RIP]

Thanks Dana! Ur good at skin! 😁

[@NMahon]

I mostly only have a problem with caucasian or pale skin tones. Dealing with whites and pinks can be difficult when trying to be clean and smooth as with skin. But luckily for me there is a whole spectrum of darker skin tones that allow me to avoid this entirely! (Assuming I'm painting a human and not some green or purple creature)

[@thyrus16]

Glad to hear I'm not the only person who picks helmeted figures since I hate faces. Skin and eyes are tough

[@daviddickson412]

So hung over😨 But this was chill, and made my head ache less. Happy new year!

[@theevillemon]

I use kieslav flesh and then flayed one flesh. I feel like it works for my Flesh tearers because all sons of Sanguinius are meant to be pale? I dunno

[@theevillemon]

I'm mainly a nid player so skin tones isn't a big issue haha

[@Novasky2007]

I always use the rule of thumb to start more paie than you think

[@The_DorkLord]

Something that I read a while ago was that for darker skin tones you should use a more purple shade. I've found it to be very effective.