This is the El Greco Samurai bust in 1/12 scale. This bust is very much in the early stages (I even need to craft a tsuba for the wakazashi), and I'm really struggling with the basic skin tone. I just can't seem to get one with which I'm satisfied. I've watched a few YouTube videos on painting Asian flesh, but ...

Cruddy pic, I know, but good enough to show where I'm at with the flesh color (no highlights or shadows to speak of yet). Any suggestions? I realize that - like most ethnicities - there's a wide range of Asian tones, but they don't extend to anything I've come up with. The references I have go into Native American, Caucasian, and African coloration, but not Asian.

SO - Does anyone have any tips, favorite formulas, or references that might help me out here? Do I just need to set it aside for a couple of days? Any guidance will be greatly appreciated!!



MODEL TIP: I shouldn't have assembled it before starting to paint (I'll remember that when I do the 1/9 scale version).

Have a look at the 'Cool Mini or Not' forum on Ethnic Skin Tones:-
http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1310-ethnic-skintones
Scroll down for the Japanese section.

Cheers,
Andrew

@Andrew: Absolutely marvelous! Thank you so much!

Done a couple which may or may not be helpful. I would suggest adding a tiny amount of 'Japanese uniform' or 'English uniform' to your basic European flesh skin tone mix. I'd also go easy on the shadow tones which helps give the suggestion of a smoother less pronounced face shape. (Using acrylics)

Hope that helps
Paul View attachment 460588 View attachment 460589

for my japanese i use andrea color set, for base i mic 60% of second base (the light base color) 20% first base(the normal base) and 20% of english uniform