"Face Paint" - Sword Bro Head - Painting

All is deceit. 

Nothing wears a true face 

or uses a true name.

- Dan Abnett 

Hello and welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

I hope you are all doing well and are enjoying / have enjoyed the sneak peeks from Games Workshop via their online Warhammer Fest over the past few days (at time of writing we're still a couple days out). 

Today is part 2 of a three part series looking at my first Black Templars Sword Brother. Last week you saw me sculpt hair for the first time, and this week we'll look at painting his pretty face!

Above is where we'll end up, and below is where we left off next week - looking like the Joker with his green locks. 

I start by painting his skin 3:1 Cadian Fleshtone : Wraithbone using several thin coats. 

I then shade around the eyes, nose and lower cheeks by glazing in a mix with more Cadian Fleshtone.

I missed photographing a few steps, but I then mix in a bit of S75 African Shadow into my Cadian/Wraithbone mix and glaze this around the eyes and lower cheeks. I then bring some warmth into the cheeks and nose by glazing in S75 Indian Shadow.

I deepen the shadows around the brow, and service studs with Doombull Brown, before darkening the whole eye area with Doombull Brown with a touch of black mixed in. To paint the eyes I dot in some Corax White and then paint in the pupil with Abaddon Black.

With the eyes dotted in, I then bring some life to the areas around the eyes by mixing in some Cadian Fleshtone : The Fang and then adding a bit of Wraithbone to this mix for a highlight. 

I then go back to my original Cadian : Wraithbone mix and re-establish the forehead, bridge of nose, and upper cheeks.

With the face pretty much done I painted in the stubble under his handlebar moustache with a mix of Cadian : Mechanicus Standard Grey before moving on to his hair. 

I wanted to paint the hair that I sculpted last week to have a nice distinguished "salt and pepper" look. The trick I have found for painting hair (especially black hair) is to go crazy with layers. I first painted the raised areas of hair with lighter and lighter greys before shading the whole thing with thinned Abaddon Black with a touch of Altdorf Guard Blue and then doing the same thing again many times - hitting different raised hairs with each pass of highlight / shade to build up layers.

I'm really happy with how the hair and face turned out - he might even rival Marshal Grymm for my favourite face I've painted! Below you can see my palette after completing the head. It's amazing to see how many colours went into a few millimetres of model! 

And there we have him, a face not only a mother could love!

Tune in next week to The Art of Caesura!

Reading: Animal Farm - Orwell 

Playing: Small World

Next Week:

The body...