This article is designed to present a way for doing flesh tones for figures. It is in no way the definitive manner, but a technique that has worked well for me, and has given me solid consistent results, and wanted to share it with the figure community. Its important to remember that with any new technique this will take a few tries to get the results you want. I want you to focus on what looks best to you; let that be the guide, and be the test you use to either add a little more here or not.
Painting figures to me is a passion...you can watch as you paint him come to life; watch as he begins to take on a personality that you as a painter give to him...with that being said, you need to get a few supplies:

* Primer - this can be a white acrylic base or the figure primer from Floquil. I use a simple white acrylic base from Grumbacher. A primer is important, because it gives the paint something to bite on to and enriches the colors.

* Artist oils, 1 tube of each (I recommend Winsor Newton since they have in my opinion the richest colors and blend nicely):
- Burnt Sienna
- Cadmium Yellow Deep
- Cadmium Red Medium
- Yellow Ochre - Titanium White
- Burnt Umber

* Luiquidtex acrylic Israeli pink
* An old white cotton tee shirt
* Good red sable brushes 3 to 3/0 and a 00
* Thinner...I use Winsor Newton Sansodor (Low odour solvent) for oil colours.
* A crock pot...( I know, but trust me...we will use this to bake the paint to flatten the paint dead flat)
* Wooden dowel about 3in

Once you have the supplies we can get started... I never paint the figure's flesh tones while on the figure, if possible. If I can, I will detach all the flesh parts, and put them on a wooden dowle, prime them, and then paint them all in the same sitting to insure that the base, shadows and highlights are the same. This way to, I can bake them all at the same time. A piece of advice...I learned the hard way on this. Have a timer handy, one with a bell, so that you don't forget that something is in the crock pot...

The crock pot is a great tool...whenever I use it, I set the temp to low and only bake for no more than 15-20mins depending on the figure. I try not to put the large scale DML or Tamiya plastic figures in for more than 15mins, but the hard resin and metal figures can take up to 20mins. When you put the pieces in to bake them, have a way to prop them up inside the pot; don't lay them down. I have a round base w/a hole cut in the middle that I set the dowle in as it bakes...

Ok, on to the flesh tones. I use a mixture of burnt sienna (4 parts; a part is a #3 brush about 1/2 covered w/ paint), cadmium yellow deep (2 parts), cadmium red medium (2 parts) and a dab (tip of #3 brush) of yellow ochre. This is the base color...mix this up on the pallet and get the colors blended nicely. Then, with your tee shirt, wipe off the #3 brush you just used to make sure none of the single colors on it (we will use this brush to lay the paint on the figure).

Take the figure's primed head and give it a nice even coat of the Luiquidtex Israeli pink...letit dry for over night (See step 1 picture). The next sitting, mix your base (see above) and with that same #3 brush we just cleaned with the tee shirt, apply a nice light stain to the flesh areas. Don't worry if you get some on the hair, we will paint over it.

Once we have the stain on, take your white tee shirt and gently, very lightly take it across the face. What will happen is that it will pull the paint from the places where we put the highlights, leaving a very faint base stain there, and deeper ones where we will put in the shadows. So what you should have, is a face that is partially stained and looks kinda funky...but that is good, cuz we know where to highlight without guessing (See step 2 and 3).

We want to lay in the highlights first since its easier to soften since we already know where the highlights will go...(at least for me it is...you might go the other way in time). Mix your highlight with titanium white and cadmium yellow deep. Put a blob from the tube of each on your pallet, and take your # 10/0 brush and grab two dabs (a brush tip full) of titanium white and place it on the pallet. Then take a dab (a brush tip) of cadmium yellow deep and simply tint the white slightly yellow...this becomes our highlight.

Clean the brush off on the tee shirt and use it to softly apply to the areas that have the light stain... pick a highlight, say the bridge of the nose, and blend it in while the base coat is still wet...short brush strokes pulling the paint off the brush and onto the highlights; then go back over the highlight until its blended and you can't see the distinction between the base coat, shadow area and the highlight. Once you have the highlights that you want on the bridge, move to the nose flares, then to the cheeks, jaw line, and forehead (See step 4).

It's important here not to use a lot of the highlight (part of the reason for using the 10/0 brush, too). Remember, with highlights we are using the tip of the brush (the sharp edge) to apply the highlights.

Once I have the highlights on, I move to the eyeballs, and apply an acrylic white to the eye socket. I go back to the highlight shade, and with the 00 brush, begin to highlight the skin around the eye socket. Once the eye sockets are done, then I pick a color for the iris and apply it. As a general rule, if you are painting the eyes straight forward, they should be centered on the corner of the mouth...so if you draw an imaginary line from the corner of the mouth straight up to the eyes, that is where the center of the eye should be. Have a mirror handy so you can look at your eyes for reference too.

Now take the figure's head with the highlights laid in and put it in the crock pot...bake it between 15-20 mins depending on the plastic. Pull it out and give it a quick look under a light to make sure that you captured the highlights. Go back over the highlights with just a very faint whiter shade of the highlight on those areas that are typically more stark...like the nose flares, the chin, upper lip.

We are ready to lay in the shadows...Take the base color we mixed, and pull a #3 brush full to another area on the pallet. Add a dab of burnt umber to the mix to deepen the shade. Get your 10/0 and 00 brush ready, they will do the shadow work for us. Take a good look at the face, and see where stronger more contrasting shadows need to go and lay them in very softly using the tip of the brush...10/0 works well along the sides of the nose, under the chin and neck, while the 00 does well in the shadows in the forehead, eye socket, cheek line and under the bottom lip.

We want to make glaze of this shadow base so a dab of thinner will get the consistency we want. Once it is the consistency of milk, then begin to lay the shadows in (See step 5).

When you are satisfied with the contrast between the highlights and the shadows, its time to bake for the last time...when you take it out for the last time, use a clean #10/0 brush to go back over the entire flesh area and gently do a blending stroke...this will remove any separation lines that might have been missed, and will give the flesh a blended look.

So there it is...remember this will take some time, don't get disappointed...try to work through it, and remember that oils are forgiving since they have a longer set up time than acrylics.

Good luck...