Skin Tone Tutorials: How To Paint Japanese Skin Part Three!
February 19, 2015 by dignity
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
Hi Romain, you are a great painter and I love your extensive musings on the intricacies of painting. However, your tutorials are a bit too long-winded for my taste. GW, apart from all their other shortcomings, do a really great series of painting tutorials these days that are very simple to follow and nicely step-by-step. Couldn’t you make some tutorials in that vein, just telling us what colours we need to paint, what steps we have to do and show us how to do them. I know some people might like it a bit more elongated but my attention span is terribly short and bearing through you painting all the layers in real time is too tedious a task for me. Please see this as a request not as a criticism, your painting is great but I watched three parts now and still don’t fully know how to paint Japanese flesh, please keep us impatient people in mind 😉
Hi Bastian,
Thanks for the kind words ! And about the less kind ones, well, I’m fully aware that I can’t please everyone. Some people like it longer than others, I guess… 😉
Sorry about your attention span, it must be terrible not to be able to focus for 15 to 20 minutes (the length of a lot of tutorials out there), or even an hour… Do you manage daily life well ? ADHD is a very real and terrible ailment, I know several people who unfortunately have it, including some in the BoW team.
Display painting (unless you’re a machine like Giraldez, or have a LOT of training) takes hours and hours and hours of tight focusing on a single project. Keeping your attention span in mind, is that really for you ? No shame in it either way.
I’m also sorry if the editing team would rather cut up a tutorial in parts, and schedule them very far apart, for reasons that are beyond me.
Scheduling is as scheduling goes, it takes into account news, themed weeks, other shows, and whatever else is in Backstage : as a regular feature, my tutorials get moved about a lot around the “newsworthy” ones, and it probably is as it should be ! I’m flattered you think the videos are too far apart, though ! I sometimes think so too, but this isn’t my fault… 🙂
I mostly do display painting, even though I have made some tutorials with quick and easy recipes akin to the GW ones. I trust less in “recipes” than in “chefs”, and I’m trying to teach chefs, here.
You shouldn’t even need this tutorial if you know the basic technique and the exact tone you want in the end (observe real japanese skin in order to know this… just like I tell you in my series on colour theory and painting basics ! 🙂 )… this is just one more example, one more specific case. This was also requested, by the way.
I don’t even paint all the layers in “real time” on video, the filming time is much longer than what you see… And my tutorials are incredibly shorter than most of the videos by master painters such as Jeremy Bonamant Teboul, Miniature Mentor, Painting Buddha, and so on (hours and hours for partially painting a single miniature, even when shortened with editing… it’s not the same quality or price range either. I am not under the delusion that I have that kind of talent !).
I know you find my videos tedious, and I know this is not a criticism, don’t worry.
Yet, I do this not just to blather ponderously about stuff… but to show you the proper brush strokes and progressive effects, as a person would right in front of you. Of course, sometimes I manage it, sometimes I don’t, but it’s the shown process that’s important.
Either way, as I said, painting like that requires patience, and explaining it all properly requires me to slow it down some more sometimes, because that’s the only way I know how. If you want to sum up what I do, I suggest you read synthetic articles and step-by-step with pictures instead. There’s a lot of that online.
For your sake, I could, of course, ask the rest of the team to edit my tutorials to ten minutes all told, and a single video. I’d just be naming the paints I use, and doing one single brush stroke, fast-forwarded. Even if I agreed to it, I doubt that they’d accept.
Or better yet, you could wait until the parts are all in, and learn to fast forward the videos.
Alternately, go watch Lester Bursley’s tutorials on Youtube : he does recipes, and fast-forwards his work, and really doesn’t talk much at all. If that helps you see what he actually does, it’s fine… it’s a completely different teaching style, but that’s didactic freedom for you. The man has talent and popularity, and can certainly teach a lot… I fully agree that my “teaching style” isn’t for everyone.
There comes a point in your painting where the shortcuts just no longer exist, and it’s skill and practice that rule the day.
We have hundreds of hours of tutorials on here and it is worth browsing around to see.
As for scheduling, we do what we can, and what time we have available, these things don’t edit themselves unfortunately 🙂
“There’s no royal road to learning”, and all that… 😉
I have ADHD and I don’t think the vids are too hm, I want tea Oh WOW DINOSAUR MODELS!
Hey sorry, I realy didn’t want to come on too strongly. As I said I love your stuff, and I still watch it all. I really think that at a certain point simple recipes don’t cut it anymore, when you have to from craft to art. You paint like I cook :D, but to use the analogy, my girlfriend tries to learn how to cook and she tried to learn by observing me and it completely didn’t work because season to taste whereas she isn’t familiar with the basic techniques and can’t simply skip the stages. I am in painting pretty much where she is in cooking and I need simpler stuff, recipes to follow and then progress from there on.
The reason why I make this point here, is that when Warren and the Gang talked about how gaming should be more including I thought they were really spot on, I even felt a bit bad looking at my all white fantasy armies (seriously, why am I more familiar with painting green skin then brown one???). And thought that the announced tutorials by you would be a great chance to change things round a bit there, especially because I really liked your basic tutorials on this site. I think I was just hoping for something a bit more basic, but the only thing to blame here are my expectations.
I want to get lots of different skin tones for my Deadzone Rebs factions, as I find the idea of an all white future in space scary and I think it would be a great opportunity to try out stuff.
Sorry again, please don’t think I wanted to say that you didn’t do a good job, the very opposite is true. I will definitely check out the pages you recommended.
Don’t be sorry… I think it’s just that you don’t know where to start, really !
Start by watching my two series : Colour Theory, and Techniques Toolbox. Then you can move on to this tutorial…
Also, it’s really not difficult. This skintone tutorial IS basic. It’s just long. You DO have to sit through it if you want to learn, though.
What we learn, we learn durably through our focused attention.
I myself like the format that your tutorials use now. I don’t mind the time length, in fact it is kind of a break for me from the everyday goings on. I do understand what alan1917 is saying, and think he expressed himself very well. I just don’t agree. Though I too wish the videos were a little closer together, but do understand that BoW has a ton of content to get onto the site, and imo they do a good job catering to a lot of different tastes. Thanks all.
I tend to watch these tutorials during lunch or dinner, when my hands and mouth are busy, but my eyes and brain are not. That is a great way to avoid the ´tedium´, although personally I could watch these shows for hours on end. 🙂
I think it’s also possible to distill a recipe from these videos. Just focus on the things you need to know and write down each step. An example for this show could be like:
– stage X –
color used: reddish skin (x% pale skin + y% blood red)
dilution: 90%
where to apply: in the creases that are in shadow
Yes, it’s possible… that’s what Lester Bursley is doing. However, it would let people be lazy about it ! 🙂
Also, painting never goes as planned. It’s an organic process… Your steps might not be my steps, and the steps I do are kind of blurred, seeing as I go back and forward a lot between them. But I see what you mean…
It’s always possible to extract a recipe from a process. It what a lot of people teach online. It’s not the way the really pointed and expert tutorials out there teach. More to the point, it’s not what I teach.
try waiting till they are all out then watch them in sequence?
Another great episode, Romain. 🙂 Even as a guy who usually just paints commanders sticking out of tank hatches (usually the limit of my flesh tone), I’ll confess it’s always tough to do. I definitely like the way you keep reminding people to keep some red mixed in at certain stages, even if the paint comes out of the bottle as “flesh tone.” If I had a nickel for every “khaki-skinned” tank commander I’ve seen on people’s tables . . .
Another really impressive part of this series in particular is the number of “safety cones” you have to navigate around in the commentary and narration. Between this girl’s suggestive pose, ethnicity, wardrobe selections, the “skin tone” theme of the show, the parts of her you’re painting, etc, it’s a “politically correct nightmare” waiting to happen. But you handle it all with poise! Great job!
Thanks ! I find talking it out with simplicity, and not hiding behind words and being afraid of cosmetic issues, is what does it. As for the painting, well, I’m glad you like it. Down with khaki, beige, taupe or salmon commanders indeed !
Khaki skin tone, that’s the way I paint all my British/Irish forces. Is that not correct?
Another excellent tutorial, from Le Grand maître de la brosse!
I completely disagree with Alan – I find Romains tutorial pitched just at the right level for me.
I would rather spend an extra 20 minutes viewing a tutorial and getting every possible detail I can out of it, than having cut-in / cut-out the way GW do, which often leaves questions – ok, this is fine if you’re painting a squad of space wolves to a gaming table standard – after all who wants to see someone taking 10 minutes to paint a model all over with one colour. But when going into the fine grain detail of high quality / display painting, which is what I personally prefer to see, I think Romain has it nailed.
His explanations of the intricacies of what he is doing are insightful and inspiring. His revelations about what he is thinking as he does something and what his reasoning is for doing it is very helpful – I find this promotes a greater understanding of the whole process and helps me improve ( I like to know why I am doing something and not just perform it as an autonomous like task). And then his rhetoric, banter and humour are very entertaining and endearing (indeed they themselves are enough reason to watch!).
Ok the level of detail covered may not be to everyone’s taste or requirements, but its better to pitch it at a deeper level where everyone can get something out of it, than cover the basics, cut in and out and risk missing the more subtle things which are still essential to doing the best work possible.
Très bien, Monsieur. Vive la France!
Oh wow !
Merci beaucoup, that’s waaaaay more than I deserve, but I’ll take it ! 😀
very subtle blends to the colouring very nice @elromanozo
Another excellent tutorial Romain, the length is about right, patience is a virtue in this hobby
iv been paint for some years now and while I’m a lot better than I once was but still have a lot to learn, Its only seine watching these tutorials that I’v picked up the courage and tried the new Technics well new to me.
I what to get pass table stranded which to be honest is where gw hit with there videos what’s that you have a squad to get painted up hears how to cheat and do it fast but when it comes down to the one off mini or one that’s set you back £15 and has such depth of detail I’d rather have a video form Romain taking me step by step and advising then how to knock 10 out in hour
so thank you Romain thanks to you tutorials I’m actually painting minis i was to scared to paint before(the ax fictions krakon hunter) for fear of ruining them with my heave mass painting ways
You’re very sweet guys !
I feel glad, and validated in my approach ! 🙂
Another informative vid. Thank you. As I said before, I am currently working on these. I am having a problem getting the stockings to look right. What would you recommend?
I just realized how stupid that sounded without telling you what I was going for and what I did. I am going for the translucent look so painted the legs in the flesh as I did the rest of the body, then tried very light black glazes over the top, but by the time it built up to the darkness I wanted, it was just real streaky and splotchy.
Depending on what colour you want the transparent stocking to be, these things differ…
I would have suggested basecoating with a mix of your base fleshtone colour and your base stocking colour (that will be your basecoat), shading progressively with your stocking colour and the darker tone you would have used for a non transparent stocking…
The highlighting phase should be done by using mostly the base and highlight colours you used for the fleshtone, with only a tinge of the base colour for your stocking.
There are refinements you can go for depending on the exact tone… a blueish transparent stocking would garner a colder highlight, and a white stocking would be greyish and white.
Also, find out where the cloth isn’t transparent : on top of pleats and folds, stitches, areas where the stocking is thicker, where it doesn’t cling to the skin, etc. and shade and highlight those areas (small as they may be) with the colours of the stocking entirely devoid of fleshtones.
I don’t know if I’m clear…
There is a tutorial I did on a Malifaux lady with a pinkish dress in black nylon stockings that can be useful for transparency, but it’s quite old, and the cloth might be too dark… It’s here on BoW.
I hope this helps ! 🙂
Yes, I follow you. Thanks. And I will go try to find that video. I didn’t even think of trying to create a color for them, I thought glazing would work, but I obviously don’t have enough skill to pull it off, if it would even work. I appreciate you taking the time to answer.
Found the vid. Colette part 2. That will help a lot. I am thinking my biggest problem is rushing to much. I am to used to speed painting units, so when I sit down to pieces of art like this, I need to slow way down when I get paint time. Thanks again. You rock.
You’re very welcome !
The thing is one should envision this logically : you are painting flesh AND stocking, so you need to have an idea of what colour the stocking would be without the flesh in it. Then you mix the two.
There are other techniques but I find this one works well.
Thanks, another great tutorial! Am now feeling all inspired to break out those lovely Rackham minis I have been hoarding…
Ah, nostalgia !
Thank you for that…
I really enjoy your tutorials as well! They have helped my mini’s improve greatly! And….Jesus loves you Romain….LOL……aka…Allen Smith or Crazie German. Cheers!
Ugh… don’t start that here ! This is Northern Ireland…
LOL…have a good one!
Very good Romain, and thanks.