Learning how to paint human skin doesn’t have to be hard; check out this painting tutorial to get your miniatures on point!
Galharen has some amazing hobby content, and if you need some sweet tips, you should follow him to get up on all your painting and conversion techniques!
This time, he paints up some great-looking skin without wasting too much time. It’s a pretty easy way to get a cool effect without a lot of effort. Let’s get into the tutorial!
How to Paint Human Skin: Galharen Miniatures Painting Tutorial
We’re going to start with a black primer and use Arnold from Conan as inspiration!
Step 1:
He starts with Red Brown from Vallejo, he just does two thin layers here. Next, he mixes Light Turquoise with the Red Brown to create some shadows. He paints all the areas with this where natural shadows would be. Just be sure to avoid a “was-type effect. Because you’re mixing it with the color from before, it already starts blending smoothly.
Step 2:
He adds Elf Skin Tone to the Red Brown and starts with the first highlight. He highlights the most natural spots on the mini and uses his reference to see where to highlight them. Also, think about what would naturally be hit by light and highlight there. He also paints the eyes in this step. Starting with black and white.
Step 3:
He continues highlighting by adding Salmon Rose to his previous mix and does an even finer highlight than before, focusing on an even more focused area. Just note, you don’t have to make your transitions perfect here, as we’ll deal with that later. He then introduces the highlights of the face on things like wrinkles, scars, and lips. This will already be more than enough for tabletop standard, but you can keep going.
Step 4:
He returns to the turquoise mix from before and highlights all the veins to really bring out the muscles. Next, he Mixes the dark red with Dark Leather with a glazing medium. He then uses this to fix mistakes and blends together all the colors.
Finished Model:
There you have it! It didn’t take that long, and the skin looks awesome!
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What’s your favorite way to paint skin on miniatures; did you like this painting tutorial?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
