Xpress Fairy Skin Acrylic

Pale flesh for ethereal figures

Fairy Skin aims at beings that are not meant to look humanly warmed through: elves, fairies, the undead or young girlish faces. The tone is light and turned toward the cool, so once applied over a white ground the face stays pale and the depth appears only where it should: in the eye sockets, under the cheekbones and in the corners of the mouth.

The hardest part of painting, which falls away

Flesh is among the most demanding things done on a figure. The classic route means laying a middle flesh tone, mixing a shadow two steps darker to go with it and a highlight two steps lighter, and then blending those three shades together through a series of thinned passes so that no boundary is visible between them. On a 10 mm face that is an hour of concentrated work and one trembling moment in which it is spoiled. Here both the mixing of the scale and the blending itself fall away.

Suitable use

• The faces and hands of figures in smaller scales
• Ethereal and supernatural characters
• A ground under blusher and lipstick from other shades
• The pale parts of statues and busts

Application procedure

A white ground is almost a condition with this tone; over a gray ground the flesh goes gray and loses its lightening. Lead the application from the forehead downward and let the paint run into the grooves by itself, do not push it there with the brush. If the shadow comes out weaker than you expected, add a second pass into the eye sockets and under the nose only.

Before you reach for the brush

A face is the most watched place on a whole figure, and so it pays to give attention to the preparation. On most cast heads the parting line of the casting runs across the face, and if it is not properly sanded down a translucent coat will bring it out. Equally, a remnant of mold release agent will cause the paint not to hold in place and to draw together into beads.