In the minipainter yahoo!group,

Mickey Leach wrote this about painting with oils.

greetings,
as in step by step procedure..you will have to have cleaned the
miniature .whether it be resin,..plastic,..metal...also purchase the
best oils and brushes you can afford..probably Winsor and Newton..
1. first step in painting any flesh parts ..undercoating..this is
essentially the building block of any great looking mini..use a water
based acrylic or enamel based flat light sand color..as oils are
translucent and the base will show through.this is what you are
wanting to achieve to get that soft skin look.
2. lay out your palette on file cards..as they are thick and will
absorb quanities of the thinner ingredients that you dont need alot
of..colors you will need..burnt sienna..yellow ochre...raw umber
cadmium white..cadmium red
3. base mixture..mix a equal amount of burnt sienna..yellow
ochre.gradually put this mixture all over the skin areas to be
done..it wont look very good..but this is ok..as you will take a flat
brush thats completely dry.((.no thinners of any type what so
ever..or you will have to start again at the beginning))and start
removing the excess paint with a light brushing motion..cleaning the
brush time to time on a cloth..after removing the really nasty mess
((yeah thats what I said the first time I did it also))..you will
have dark recesses and lighter raised areas will be transparent and
lighter...
4. now take some cadmium yellow and apply to all the raised
areas..and allow to sit 45-60 minutes..not alot as this will be more
of the high light...after sitting start removing and blending as
described before..
5. now take white as before in step 4 and follow thru with this
step..now wait the alloted time to let the solvent in the paint to
evaporate..blend and remove excess paint..if more contrast is needed
you can do step 5 again adding less paint this time...
6. apply cad.red to the lower lip..((not top..dont want it looking
like lipstick..course less its a female..then its fine))as on the
cheekbones..no waiting this time start blending and removing..as in
previous steps..if you accidentally add to much red..just add white
and remove..blending again

ok here you have the basic skin tones and highlights..as i dont yet
have my camera..when I get it maybe I can do a picture to step by
step..as this is a practice upon practice medium.Now given this
technique was made by larger scale miniature enthusiasts..but with
time you can achive wonderful skin tones even in 25mm..hope this
opens a few new avenues for some people.

your painting pal
Mickey L. Leach

Micks Gallery