Female Mage on Stairs [WIP - Skin Tone]; used as proxy for Princess Myrcella of House Baratheon

Personally, painting skin is the most enjoyable part of working on a miniature. To me at least, the skin tone is one of the key things that determines whether a miniature looks 'alive' or not. That and the eyes which ironically is my least favourite part of painting a miniature, which is why Princess Myrcella's eyes remain unpainted and put off until the very last. Here she is then with one of the two main ingredients of what would eventually make her into a Victor Frankenstein she's alive moment.   

Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs: latest work-in-progress on her skin tone

The Female Mage on Stairs is being used as proxy for Princess Myrcella Baratheon

In terms of the skin tone colour scheme - I decided on a fair skin with a hint of tan starting to show. After all Myrcella has been soaking up the sun in Dorne for a while now. It was a case of using a lighter hand on the highlights as opposed to adding any particular 'tanned hue' into the mix.

Skin tone highlights on Myrcella's left arm focussed on the upper arm and elbow

Myrcella's hair remains undone and will be the next part to be painted

Skin tone has more shadow hues towards the back of the arms

In a way, the addition of skin tone hues has brought all the colours even closer together in harmony. Seeing colours in isolation can give an erroneous view of how the final scheme will eventually turn out. This is something I continue to struggle with as the urge to tinker with a hue without first seeing how it will look next to another colour is always there, like an itch you can't scratch. Sometimes the only way around this is to trust in your original vision. If all else fails, you can always adjust the errant hues accordingly. But your original vision still has to be there as a target to aim for. 

Side view (right) of the Female Mage on Stairs work-in-progress

Addition of skin colours has, in my opinion, further improved the overall colour scheme

Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints were the only paints I used in painting Myrcella's skin tone. It's based on a Marike Reimer recipe, I used colours like Oxford Blue, Pale Violet Brown, Beige Red, Basic Skin Tone and Pale Sand but in differing ratios than stated in the original recipe. I've found this mix of colours to be very versatile and they are one of my favourite go-to skin colour recipes.

Princess Myrcella holding on to a book, coloured here in the orange hues of Dorne

So that's it for my progress update on the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs which I'm using as a proxy for my Game of Thrones miniature painting project. While not entirely costume-accurate, the mini does have potential as a Princess Myrcella proxy especially if the colours conform to what one would expect of the character when she was in Dorne. I must admit this mini is turning out better than I expected. Mind you that doesn't mean I believe I did a brilliant job with her but it does give a sense of satisfaction that I'm not as bad as I think. That I'll gladly take ... for now.