Step-by-step tutorial for painting Clayface

This was a remarkably quick little project to do using an airbrush. It took a little under two hours from the primed stage to finished including drying times. I was totally surprised by the drying time of the odourless thinners as I'm more used to using white spirit with oils and they take overnight to dry.

The colours main used are:-

Citadel’s Dryad Bark, Gorthor Brown, Baneblade Brown & Karak Stone. Ammo by Mig’s Streaking Grime and Odourless thinners.

I used a black primer to start and then gave it a blast from overhead with white primer.

Two coats of Dryad Bark to get an even coverage.

Highlight from about 45 degrees with Gorthor Brown.

Highlight with Baneblade Brown. Reduce the pressure and concentrate the highlights on these sections:  pecs, shoulders and tops of the biceps, tops of the forearms, right thigh, upper chin, top of the head and right toe.

Highlight in the same areas as above with a mix of Baneblade Brown and Karak Stone 50:50 but try to work in a smaller area keeping the highlight area towards the top of each section.

Highlight with Karak Stone to the same section areas but in smaller areas.

Apply Streaking Grime to the deepest folds.

Cover the figure in a wash of Streaking Grime mixed with the thinners at about a 50:50 ratio. I was quite lazy with this because I would load the brush with some grime and then dip into the thinners and slapped it on. No real technique lol.

You have a bit of time now to work on the wash. Dip a brush in the thinners, wipe off the excess on a paper towel and stroke the brush over the highlighted areas to remove the streaking grime. This can take a bit of practice but you will see a difference in the area where the wash was applied and the area where you remove the wash. You should then be able to get a transition between the recesses and the highlight areas.

For the face I used Dryad Bark for the eye sockets and inside the mouth. 

The teeth were painted with Ushabti Bone and highlighted by adding white to the mix. 

Inside the mouth was Red Violet and then highlighted by adding white to the mix. The same mix was used for the lips. 

I then used Dryad Bark line between the gums and teeth.

The eyes were picked out with Vallejo’s Flat Yellow and dotted with white, followed by an orange glaze to soften the yellow against the dark brown of the eye socket.

The lips were highlighted by adding some Vallejo’s Ivory to the Violet Red and picking out the raised areas. I lined the outer eye sockets again with Dryad Bark which made them appear darker.

And finished...