After a recent trip to Italy (including stops at Rome and Pompeii) I was inspired to paint another Ancient Roman figure. I picked this beautiful 90mm Young Miniatures figure up from Wheels not too long ago, so it was an ideal choice. I've painted several of their busts but this is the first full figure from Young that I've tried. Officially the figure is called 'Roman Officer' (a little vague) so I'm going to paint him up as a tribune.

I'm still in the middle of cleaning and assembling the body, but I jumped right in and started painting his head. To start I focused on the eyes. I began by laying down the shadows around the eyes since I can be a bit sloppy at this stage. I'm using Reaper Master Series acrylics for everything so far. Mahogany Brown at the darkest sections and then Chestnut Brown for the rest. From there I covered the eye with a pink (mix of Violet Red and Rosy Skin). This in turn gets covered up with the 'white' but will still show at the corners. For the whites of the eye I used off whites, Weathered Stone and Leather White. I choose to do a blue eye... maybe not as common as brown for a Roman, but I feel like the blue shows up better at the miniature scale. I began with a dark blue to get the full iris and then filled that in with a lighter blue, leaving a bit of a dark edge. The last steps were to add a black dot for the pupil and a pure white dot for the catch light. To complete the look I made a fine dark line at the top of the eye (bottom of the upper eyelid) and, when I got to the rest of the skin, a light line of skin highlight along the top of the lower eyelid.



Colors for the eyes:
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For the skin I used the following colors:


The Mahogany Brown was used only right under the brow, in the nostrils, and under the chin. The Fair Highlight was only on the tops of the cheeks and the nose. So mostly I'm working with the middle three colors.

For the lower part of the face I mixed in a bit of a grey-brown into the Chestnut Brown, Rosy Shadow, and Fair Skin to get more of a stubble look. Just a little bit of grey-brown goes a long way. Lastly I laid on some black to create a base for the hair.

You are really excelling at skin tones, I look forward to the next steps.

Thanks for the color mixes, great face!

Bob

Great work on the face

This figure really benefits from getting the face right and that's just what you've done
Cheers
Derek

whaouuuuuuuu!! You are a master!! excellent work

Yes, really great and smooth face painting.
Looking forward to the rest.

Adrian

Great painting

Very clean painting and the blending of the colours rocks!

Jhan

Thanks, everyone!

I'm continuing to work on the face. I think it's interesting to see how these things progress so here are some image series. The first image is very early. I've finished the eyes but the skin is only the shadows and midtone (chestnut brown and rosy shadow). The lower half was left very rough since I was going over it with a slightly different mix for the stubble. The middle images are the ones above. Since then I worked to fix the corners of the mouth so they match. I originally followed the sculpt but the left side was a little off, so I faked it with a shadow. I also cleaned up the left lower eyelid then finished the ears and neck. After that I went back with some glazes of red and purple. I added a little red to the creases in the forehead, but focused mainly on the nose, ears, and cheeks. The purple went around the eyes and in the darkest part of the cheeks. I've got one or two little things I'd still like to fix but the face is essentially finished. Looks like it's time to quit stalling and start on the body.




Oh, the glazes were from GW. Thinned down Bloodletter for the red and then a thinned mix of Bloodletter and Guilliman Blue to create the purple.