Tutorial: Painting Orc/Ork/Orruk Skin By Chris

Greetings here is my tutorial for painting green skin, first shared on the blog's Facebook page.

Stage 1:

Primer - Tamiya Fine Surface Primer Light Grey

Base coat - Goblin Green 72.030 Vallejo game Colour

Stage 2:

1st Shadows - Sick Green 72.029 Vallejo Game Colour

Using a thin downed coat of Sick Green, begin sketching in the areas of shadow. You can add multiple thin layers to increase the intensity of the shadow.

Stage 3:

Deep Shadows - Heavy Black Green 72.147 Vallejo Game Colour

Using thinned down Heavy Black Green, focus on the areas of deepest shadow. Make sure to leave some of the previous shade colour (Sick green) showing, to create a more natural look. Again adding multiple shades will increase the intensity of the shadow and will create a shaded gradient.

Stage 4:

Black Lining - Heavy Black Green 72.147 Vallejo Game colour + Black

This part if optional. Using a mix of Heavy Green and black (thinned down), you can trace along the absolute deepest points of shade on the model ie nostrils, ear holes, borders of the teeth and gums. This will create subtle division between areas of the skin and non skin, while providing a natural and more 3D look to the model as a whole.

Stage 5:

1st Highlight - Livery Green 72.033 + Goblin Green 72.030

Apply the first highlights using a mix of Livery Green and Goblin Green. The amount of each will change the intensity drastically ie more Goblin Green will create a more subtle highlight, while more Livery Green will create a more stark highlight.

Concentrate these highlights to the upper areas where light would naturally hit.

Stage 6:

Final Highlight - Same as stage 5 but add a small amount of white.

This is the most time consuming part, but has a good pay off. Using your finest tipped brush, apply thin lines and dots at the upper most parts of the model, this will simulate the 'highest' point of light and enhance details like wrinkles, scars etc.

The six stages above are actually very quick, and I have managed to batch paint units to the same standard with the above techniques. Whether it is line troops or characters, the above can be used to bring the most out of your Orc/Ork/Orruk figures as the examples below will show you.

I hope you find this tutorial useful and as always, if there is anything in particular you want to see me tackle/do a tutorial on, please ask!

Thanks for reading,

Chris 'DiStudios'
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