# Need painting advice; Frankenstieein head.



## BKSinAZ (Jun 5, 2009)

*Need painting advice; Frankenstein head.*

This is only my third model since getting into this hobby and I am in dire need of advice for painting the Frankenstein head section.

I need to know what order to paint the head; hair, eyes or face first?
How do I get a touch of redness under the eye lids, should I paint the face with burnt sienna first? How do I get that "realistic death" look, not an exaggerated green? 
Also, please include, if possible, layers of colors and brush techniques I should be using for the face and eyes.

Please, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.


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## deadmanincfan (Mar 11, 2008)

What works best for me is: eyes first, then skin, hair last. I use a pinkish-burgundy color I've mixed up to rim the inside of the eyes with then go back and paint the eyeballs with Ceramcoat oyster white (a warm, very light grey color). BTW, the pink-burgundy color also works well for the inside of mouths.


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## falcondesigns (Oct 30, 2002)

I painted the base color and then the eyes,then the rest.


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## BKSinAZ (Jun 5, 2009)

falcondesigns said:


> I painted the base color and then the eyes,then the rest.


What was the base color? What technique did you use to cover up the base coat?


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## falcondesigns (Oct 30, 2002)

It was a custom mix,started with pale green/w white added and a little grey until I got a color I liked.If you mean sealer just spray dull coat when you feel the head is done.


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## Roy Kirchoff (Jan 1, 1970)

BKSinAZ said:


> This is only my third model since getting into this hobby and I am in dire need of advice for painting the Frankenstein head section.
> 
> I need to know what order to paint the head; hair, eyes or face first?
> How do I get a touch of redness under the eye lids, should I paint the face with burnt sienna first? How do I get that "realistic death" look, not an exaggerated green?
> ...


I looked at some of your other builds, The Witch and Dr Jekyll, and I think you have the basics down and a pretty good technique. 

Grab a few shades of green and go to town. :wave:

~RK~


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

falcondesigns said:


> I painted the base color and then the eyes,then the rest.


That one came out really nice. I am going to have to go back and maybe add some more effects to mine after seeing yours. I am not going to touch my base color but I do really like your coloring and effects.

As for mine, I did the flesh first. I used a mix of dead flesh from Vallejo with a pale flesh mixed in. I didn't want a completely green look but something in between. The eyes were then whited and since this is so small a head I simply dotted the iris with black. The hair was done last and it was very easy, obviously. Personally I would stay away from a bright green coloring. I have seen some that almost glow and I would think a deadish green that doesn't stand out much is best. But as I said in my first statement, that one the guy had the pic of is a grayish dead pallor and I might like it better than a green pallor now that I have seen it.


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## falcondesigns (Oct 30, 2002)

Thanks,It actually looks better in person.One of my better paint jobs.


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## phantom11 (Jul 12, 2007)

For my recent Frankenstein build, I started with the flesh tones first, mixing Freakflex Nosferatu flesh with shades of medium green and brown and applying that as a base. Then on to a very thin wash of medium brown, then when that dried, using chalk pastels in darker brown and violet to shade the darker areas, and pink for areas that would normally look "alive" on a normal human. Highlighting was done with a lighter tone of the original base color, then more purple and red pastel applied to areas I wanted to have a bruised look. Red rims of eyes and cuts were done with thinned transparent red, eyes in a bone white with dark brown irises. I did any metal parts following that, and finally the hair, using a dark gray tone to bring out some of the sculptural detail.

The overall effect looks pretty much like photos of cadavers I've seen in an anatomy book.


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## rkoenn (Dec 18, 2007)

I have a book on the classic monster movies and although the pictures aren't in color, they said that they did Karloff's face up in a gray waxy makeup and highlighted it with purples. You probably captured pretty well what he must have looked like with your paint job.


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## DocJam00 (May 18, 2010)

Excellent work on the painting!

Piece of trivia: the only reason that green makeup was used was to make the color come out as a dead grey -- green photographed that way with the old film stock.

It was never intended to be green flesh.

I know the green has become common, but if we're doing Karloff, and trying to make it look authentic, I would go for the greyish tones you have used here.

Just my opinion, of course. Were I ever to do the gigantic Frankie, I'd go green....


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## frankiefreak (Mar 15, 2011)

*Horizon Frankenstein*

That is so cool. Did you use a fine brush to get the bangs just right?:freak:


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I'm probably one of the few people who actually took a figure painting class... I learned, and I think its good 95% of the time, to paint the eyes first. Basically I do a face in these steps:

Undercoat the eyes with their color. For the Monster I would use a yellowish white. Then paint in the eyes and pupils. With these done, fill in the face with your skin tone and add the shading and highlights. The reason you want to paint the eyes first is that they are usually the key to the whole face, and probably what most people consider the hardest part. If you do the skin first, and get the entire head finished and then screw up the eyes, you have to strip all of the other paint off to start over. If you screw the eyes up first, its easy to remove that paint for a fresh start. You would paint things like hair last on top of the skin areas in most cases.


I didn't finish the Moebius Frankenstein, but here is my Aurora version










Here is also an original Aurora Hunchback head











Monarch's Sinbad










And the old Airfix Henry VIII in progress


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

I know the subject has been covered before, but how do you paint the dark rim around the iris? Do you use a very thin brush with black paint, or a very fine-tipped Sharpie?

And that dot of white really gives the eye a glistening effect, doesn't it? Cool!


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

I paint the iris first (thats the colored part of the eye ball) and paint a larger circle for it. Then I paint a black pupil (smaller circle) and a white highlight, last. 

Archer has eye decals with nice, assorted sizes and colors for the pupils and irises. I never really used any though. Even though they come in different sizes/scales, I felt they never quite fit right on any particular figure... slightly too big, too small, etc.


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## mrmurph (Nov 21, 2007)

djnick66 said:


> I paint the iris first (thats the colored part of the eye ball) and paint a larger circle for it. Then I paint a black pupil (smaller circle) and a white highlight, last.
> 
> Archer has eye decals with nice, assorted sizes and colors for the pupils and irises. I never really used any though. Even though they come in different sizes/scales, I felt they never quite fit right on any particular figure... slightly too big, too small, etc.


Thanks for sharing your techique. I'm currently building a Solarwinds "The Thing," and those tiny eyes are intimidating. I knew a guy once who could get a perfect black circle around tiny irises, but I didn't think to ask him how he did it.

I'm not really interested in decals either. They're somehow... out of place.

And on my Frankenstein, I didn't paint irises or pupils at all. I just left them a dull yellow or white, like the eyes had rolled back in his head or something. I thought it made the figure a little creepier.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

A cut down toothpick can be used to "stamp" circles of paint into the eyes.


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