So after how much I enjoyed my last class I could hardly say no when I saw Mamikon announce his face painting one. From last time I already knew that whatever preconceived notions I had of what I was capable of and how I thought the best way to go about faces would be blown out of the water - and I’m so glad I was right.

Bringing the right kit

This certainly won’t be as extensive as my previous NMM post, not least because I would likely be repeating all the excellent things I said last time, and also I sadly didn’t get as many pics… In any case, like last time the class started promptly at 12:00pm at Bad Moon Cafe. Unlike last time, at precisely 12:02pm I realised that I had left my wet palette out on the kitchen counter to dry out before transporting it and was thus left palette-less for the day. Fortunately, Mo, one of the other students, kindly lent me his normal palette, and then, like a knight in shining armour Zak, who I met at the original class, arrived and let me share some space on his - thanks to you both!

Prior to the class, Mamikon had prepped all the heads that we would be painting, once again we all received two bits to try out. To save us time just simply base coating the heads in the same flat colours in the initial steps, everything was pre-base coated in a suitably fleshly colour, so we could jump right into practising the highlighting and shading of the face and get to work bringing the piece to life. I only focussed on one head this time just because there weren’t as many fancy effects I wanted to try out, but more variations of heads for the bitz box is always welcome, and several other people did have a go at both as a ‘practice’ and ‘final’ piece.

The Gateway to the soul

Over the course of the 6 hour class (including some breaks for lunch and grabbing drinks etc.), we took the entire head from start to finish. Beginning with an initial mid-tone to lighten things up a bit, adding warmth to the recesses and around the eye and accentuating the scars and sharpest features. I’m particularly satisfied with how the eyes came out, and the addition of stubble around the mouth and on top of the head helped balance out the tone and realism of the whole piece. One thing I particularly felt like I learnt more about was approaching how to think about real objects (in this case someone’s skin) and consider which highlights and shades are due to the lighting conditions vs the history of the object such as the age of any scars - it certainly got me thinking more about tone modulation for other areas of painting and I do genuinely think it will have an effect on how I approach minis in the future.

Conclusion

Honestly, I think the results speak for themselves. They say the face is meant to be the focal point of any mini, but even without a body I keep getting distracted by staring at this tiny head on my desk, proud of the fact that this is something I am capable of. I will likely even stick it onto one of my space marines when I get round to finishing them. While both classes were great, I came out of this one with my mind buzzing about so many ideas for display minis that I have had over the last couple of weeks anyway and this has absolutely given me the confidence to give them a crack (once I’ve at least finished my first squad of Sons of Medusa…).

Something that I also realised I missed from my days when I would just sit in my local GW painting, was just talking about the hobby with like-minded people while we worked away on our own pieces. As well as the excellent tutelage from Mamikon, everyone in the class was exchanging tips and cheats that helped them with various aspects of the hobby and giving each other feedback on things we were working on as well as our thoughts on the latest competitions and events. It’s a sense of community that I haven’t actively been a part of for a very long time, and it definitely beats sitting at home with a random Netflix show on in the background.

As always it has been an absolute pleasure. If you are interested in Mamikon’s work, be sure to keep an eye on his Twitter and Instagram as that is where you will likely hear about more classes soon!

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