Au Ra Facepaint, Working as intended?

[Vermilion]

I mean from a logical point, both parties are right.
Scales are part of the skin, so in a sense it makes sense to paint over them.
But if we are arguing on a realistic/logical scale, then it's just as easy to cover them up, and paint around them.

Aesthetically I prefer no paint on my scales as it adds a good contrast of colors. I wouldn't mind paint on the scales if it didn't look muddled either. If we are playing with logic here, paint would change colors depending on the base of the canvas, in this case, Skin + Black scales. Any paint over the black scales would be much darker and still have that shiny and hard scale texture. But what we currently have is same color/texture for paint on scale and skin. I think that's why it looks slightly "off" to me.

[Ecks007]

Personally I won't be using facepaint on any Au Ra I create outside of the ones that look like eye makeup. I think it looks absolutely horrible to have the paint on the scales as far as the look goes. It just doesn't look good.

In some cases it looks like face paint while on the actual skin, but then someone decided to use chalk and do a crappy job of it when it came to the scales.

Every time I see an Au Ra picture with a facepaint pattern that goes over their scales I cringe a bit.

I'm with the OP. If they made it where the facepaint went under the scales or just stopped at the scales I don't think it would be so bad.

[Vermilion]

Personally I won't be using facepaint on any Au Ra I create outside of the ones that look like eye makeup. I think it looks absolutely horrible to have the paint on the scales as far as the look goes. It just doesn't look good.

In some cases it looks like face paint while on the actual skin, but then someone decided to use chalk and do a crappy job of it when it came to the scales.

Every time I see an Au Ra picture with a facepaint pattern that goes over their scales I cringe a bit.

I'm with the OP. If they made it where the facepaint went under the scales or just stopped at the scales I don't think it would be so bad.

The problem is with the texture mostly, I think you put it fantastically by saying "chalk" The way the paint falls on the scales and blends in with the skin is unnatural.