Art and Musings of a Miniature Hobbyist: Girl's Rider [Work-in-Progress: East Asian Female Skin Tone]

As weird as this sounds, the one main thing that makes me fall in love with miniature figurine painting again and again is the opportunity to paint skin tones in a three dimensional form. Regardless of shade and color, I find skin tones to be infinitely fascinating. In the case of the Girl's Rider figurine, it was the first time I had attempted to paint extensively using acrylics over a lacquer basecoat. That being the case, I had approached this stage of the painting process with a fair bit of apprehension. So it was with great relief to find that the results turned out to be pretty okay for a first try.

Girl's Rider work-in-progress: East Asian female skin tone

Based on a whim I had decided to change the color scheme I normally use to paint an East Asian female skin tone. I had removed two of the darkest shadow colors I usually use i.e. Vallejo Oxford Blue and Vallejo Medium Flesh Tone and instead added a new underlying color into the mix. All will be revealed later on this blog post. Suffice to say it's a game changer for me in how I will use acrylics to paint skin tone. I'm glad to still be discovering new things more than 10 years into this hobby.

Canon EOS 650D at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with Tamron 90mm macro lens

Previously when I took images of skin tone against an azure-like background I had noticed a warmer tint to the images. I believe now that this was likely caused by white balance issues affecting the DSLR camera. Now with Adobe's post-processing power in my hands, I can correct such issues and present a more accurate image that reflects what is seen in reality by the naked eye (see below).

Canon EOS 650D at f/16, 1/60sec, ISO-1600; with Tamron 90mm macro lens

When painting skin tones, I have always known there was a critical element missing especially with the usage of acrylic paints. While I knew exactly what was missing, especially on East Asian female skin tones, I had always thought I could only apply such color effects via oil painting. As mentioned earlier, I had decided to try adding the said element using acrylic paints based solely on a whim. What is this critical element for East Asian female skin tones? It's the color of green veins showing through the skin. After much trial and error, I found the Vallejo Model Color 70.808 Blue Green to be the best hue for the aforementioned purpose. I feel it adds a greater level of realism to the skin tone.

Colors used to create a fair East Asian female skin tone

A quick macro shot taken with the 13 Pro Max to gauge the face whilst painting

Most of the photos you see above were taken using the Canon 650D DSLR, except for the final two images above, and all those below. The latter photos were taken with the iPhone 13 Pro Max. Some like the one immediately above, was shot quickly whilst in the midst of a painting session in order to gauge the accuracy of my brush strokes. Because I no longer use magnifying lenses to paint, I now rely on such macro images to help me see the figurine more clearly compared to the naked eye.

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/100sec, ISO-40

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/25sec, ISO-250

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/17sec, ISO-320

iPhone 13 Pro Max ultra wide lens at f/1.8, 1/25sec, ISO-250

Of course the face is far from finished. The most obvious omission is her unfinished eyes while the less obvious ones are her eyebrows and highlights on her lips. These I'll leave for last after I've finished the rest of the figurine. It has been more than a year since I felt this happy and excited just from painting miniatures alone. A sense of relief also comes to mind, relief that I haven't lost my love for the hobby. I'll leave you on that joyful note, and wish you well. Oh yes, and stay safe, always!