Thirty five years of modeling and these are my first serious attempts at figure-face painting. I want/ need/ appreciate critiques as my stash of figure kits has recently tripled.
I'm building a Jagdpanzer IV but I closed up all hatches. Then I decided to add a figure or two in a small diorama to show the size of the vehicle. I chose the Dragon kit of Kampfgruppe Von Luck, figure "A." Pulling out all brushes, acrylic paints and the Andrea book "FAQ," I started. And decided to do all four kit heads, for practice and aggravation.
Please forgive the picture quality. Day to day the camera acts differently.

Began with basecoat and a white/ gray eyeball color.


Followed by iris/ pupil color, (actually no color)


A two color highlighting session


And then a two color shadow/ shading followed by some touchup.




Please, let me know if I'm in the ballpark. Or if I should change sports.

Ken

Ken, From what I can see from the photographs, you are definitely in the ball park.
I think if you post close ups, you will probably get a more accurate critique, and suggestions from our members.
Hang in and do not get discouraged.

Cheers
Roc

Thank you, Roc.

I also wanted to mention that the final colors took a few minutes to set-up after drying. They then became very prominent and needed some toning down. Does this sound normal, or did I maybe mix up paints that were too light/ dark compared to my starting base?

Ken

Hi Ken,

Yep, you're in the ballpark and enjoying the game! The iris/pupil seem a bit too pronounced for my taste, with something close to that dreaded "thousand yard stare." Try to bring the flesh color up from the lower eyelid to reduce the prominence of the iris/pupil, and I think you'll like the result.

it looks fine to me!
maybe a close up?

As Guy taught me, crop your pics. It will allow you to show more detail.

I just started after a 10 year hiatus and this can be frustrating! I would suggest that you tone down "the whites of the eyes." You are on the right track.

About the big pics-- I'm just so glad I figured out how to post them I leave them as is so as not to ruin them.

tgsgt, I see what you mean. The Andrea book suggested a remedy to exactly what I did... easily done left eyes, (I'm right-handed), and troublesome right eyes on the heads. My attention to detail here was seriously lacking. Your suggestion may be the ticket.

merty, thanks, but a close-up? Right now I dunno how. I'm gonna read up on the camera instructions.

seeker, although I used a white/ gray mixture, no white will be my next attempt. I remember a Shep Paine diorama booklet that recommended, for eye painting, a vertical slash of black from upper brow to cheek, two vertical eye color slashes bordering the black, and flesh touch-up until the colors were contained within the eye area of the figure. The reasoning being you can't really see the whites-of-the-eyes from a scale distance, (three feet away from a 1/35th figure is like looking at a person 105 feet away in reality) so why put them in; experiments are coming.

Thanks all,

Ken

It's very funy to me because I recently decided to paint some faces too

Hi Ken,

I think your faces are really nice! After lips, eybrowes, hair and maybe some facehair painted they get more contrast and then you can make a final judgement (and we too, if you post them ), but I'm sure they gonna look nice.
Few of my suggestions to the eyes, when I painted 1/35, I liked to play with them a lot the get the as good as I could paint, everyone does it a little different, but it might help:
- to the whithe basecolor you might add a little pink rather
- the irises look a bit big, in most poses of the iris (or of look) the iris/dark spot doesn't fill up vertically the visible part of the eyeball (white) between the upper and lower eyelid, not making a visible whole circle, meaning that you could try to add the iris spot higher, have the center of the spot somewhere around the upper eye lid, of course touch up the eye lid, resulting cca 3/4 of the iris circle remaining in the white of the eye ball, that's when someone looks straigh head level, for looking up or down you adjust the position, of course. It depends on the position of the head as well, eg. Clint Eastwood before a duel would have his head bent little forward and iris more in the upper half, in order to look straigh, the ratio between white/iris and the position of the iris gives loads and loads of expression, emotion - when you are scared your eyes pop out, lot of white with a full circle iris, - when you look mean, eyes almost shut, little white/more iris color, kind of fearful. Watch real eyes, you hardly ever see the whole circle of the iris
- I used a toothpick to do the eyes, it needs a (really really) little practise only
- for the iris color, I mixed the brown (or whatever) with flat lacquer, so it's not so intense, but still dark enough tone
- put extra pressure to have the eyes in the same position (with toothpick might be easier) and don't be afraid to re-do them, or usually only one x times until you are satisfied, with a dry toothpick you can adjust by scratching a little paint off from the side, also when still wet or dry, but rather lacquer the white base, so you don't end up ruining even the white
- if you go to larger scale, the little seethrough iris will contrast nicely with the back pupil (with toothpick can be easily done, with a good brush too)

Hope it helps and don't forget to show us the results
Cheers

Denes

verg and dino,

Again, thanks for your interest and comments. This was one of those projects that I studied and researched and read about and bought stuff for... and never tried it. And like everything else I put off trying, it was fun and satisfying, and opened up my imagination ( which is sorely lacking in ideas).

I'll keep at it.

Ken