How to paint a Orc?!?

[ThorneMD]

I need the help of the people who paint. What colors do you mix to make orc skin tone? I need to paint a bunch of orcs for a game soon and need the skin done.

 

[Drakmar]

that's a difficult question.

are your orcs green? then I do a base of a dark green.. and then drybrush with lighter green (I usually lighten the base green with yellow)

are they that greyish colour? I usually do a base in a flesh colour that I have darkened with a grey.. and then slowly reduce the grey content and lighten the colour..

you really just have to experiment with what works for you.

 

[Aldymnor]

Yeah dark green with pale yellow gives a nice sickly feel to it - perfect for orcs.
Also mix in pinks when you're going to do the nose. Er at least that's what I do.

 

[Gizzard]

I have a large jar of Tamiya NATO Green that I use as the base color; I have some black and a GW Yellow that I use as mixers.

Start by mixing 1:1 Green+Black; paint this into the crevices and stirations of the muscles. Mix this color up in a couple coats to a pure Green, by which time you should have covered the whole figure (skin anyway.) Start adding Yellow to the Green and thin this color down so it mixes smoothly. Paint onto the highlights like cheekbones, biceps, shoulders, knees. Keep mixing this color up to almost a pure yellow. Use the (thinned!) pure yellow to hit the very highest of highlights; the edge of the cheekbones, the nose, the point of the chin, the specular highlight of the bicep etc.

If you want to do this fast, just take 3 colors (1:1 Green:Black, Pure Green, 1:1 Green:Yellow) and do the whole thing in three coats with no blending.

 

[Gizzard]

This guy is a little bit older; the technique is hard to see. I'd probably be a bit braver with the colors these days. But he gives some idea of what I'm saying:

 

[alsih2o]

how to paint an orc?


boy, i could go all "henny youngman" on that one for a while....

 

[Gizzard]

Mmmm, heres a link to a coolminiornot work that is much more illustrative of what I meant. Its not mine, I wish it was. ;-) But you can see the technique pretty clearly in the muscles of the arms etc. Also, note how she varies the skin colors just slightly from orc to orc. I do this too; its an interesting tradeoff. I mean no two humans have exactly the same skin color, so it makes things look more "realistic" to have a range of skin tones. OTOH, it makes your army look less "cohesive" from a distance. Normally, you want to have a very finite color palete to work with so that you dont overwhelm the eye. (One of my artist friends recommends the "rule of 3". Three major colors, no more, no less.) Of course, orcs break all the rules; thats just the way they are. Anyway:

coolminiornot

 

[Sanackranib]

for the green races . . .

I usually use green slime as the base and then do a troll flesh green wash over the top, then do the highlights as needed depending on the figure

 

[Sanackranib]

painting

This guy is a little bit older; the technique is hard to see. I'd probably be a bit braver with the colors these days. But he gives some idea of what I'm saying:

Nice checks by the way