How to get better at painting?
Paul
I've been painting minis now for about 8 months and to be honest I still
look at my figures and think they look crap. How do I get better?, How do I
improve?, I know about washes and drybrushing, I've read many web tutorials
and what dry brushing/washing/blending etc etc is, but my washes always
leave to much of the wash colour and my drybrushing always covers to much of
the figure. And eye's are the bane of my life they never look the same, and
are either to big or too small..
Any advice would be grateful received!!, as a few weeks ago I paint
stripped all my figures and started again and I'm likely to strip them all
again at this rate!.
Ta!
Malcolm McDowall
"Paul" <Pau...@REMOVETHISblueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:UgeMb.12725$Jn7.14...@news-text.cableinet.net...
Dwarf too. Also try posting this question (if you haven't already) to
rec.games.miniatures.warhammer. They will refer you to their group homepage
which has lots of painting links on it. Tip, when you post to r.g.m.w use a
tag in the title; [model] or [paint], and read their FAQ.
Malc
Insane Ranter
Rob Singers
words of wisdom
> Best advice is to keep practising! Look in modelling magazines and GW
> White Dwarf too. Also try posting this question (if you haven't
> already) to rec.games.miniatures.warhammer. They will refer you to
> their group homepage which has lots of painting links on it. Tip,
> when you post to r.g.m.w use a tag in the title; [model] or [paint],
> and read their FAQ.
That web site is http://www.rgmw.org. In the Paint section are a bunch of
links to guides and tutorials etc. Malcolm is probably right that you'll
get more responses to specific questions in RGMW. Don't be afraid to ask
the questions either.
--
rob singers
pull finger to reply
Enkidu
I'm hardly a painting pro, but here is my advice. Good lighting is
essential. Try using a thinner wash, and less paint when dry brushing.
Using a bright dry brush color allows you to use less of it for the
same effect. You can always add more later if you need too. As for the
eyes, after you've added the pupil, reshape them with the surrounding
color. The sculpted lids will help keep the paint away from the ball
of the eye.
remember to have fun,
Enkidu
arachedeux
news:UgeMb.12725$Jn7.14...@news-text.cableinet.net...
> I've been painting minis now for about 8 months and to be honest I
still
> look at my figures and think they look crap. How do I get better?, How do
I
> improve?, I know about washes and drybrushing, I've read many web
tutorials
> and what dry brushing/washing/blending etc etc is, but my washes always
> leave to much of the wash colour and my drybrushing always covers to much
of
> the figure.
Sounds like too much pigment for the first and too much paint on the brush
for the second. I'd suggest practicing both those techniques on scenics
first or even just a piece of textured scrap plastic. Try extreme watering
down of your wash, wash two figures, once they're dry wash one again and
observe the differance between them and an unwashed one. Then water the wash
down again and try it on two more figures. Don't be tempted to rush through
the lot with a single wash.
> And eye's are the bane of my life they never look the same, and
> are either to big or too small..
Fine point pens for the eyeballs might help. If the eyeballs are too big
paint in a hint of eyelid above and below them with a lighter or darker skin
tone. Triple zero stuff.
cheers,
Paul T.
"Paul" <Pau...@REMOVETHISblueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:UgeMb.12725$Jn7.14...@news-text.cableinet.net...
I know its not what you want to hear, but practice really is the key. I was
awful for many years, now I paint part-time for collectors & various
companies as my main income (see link in sig for my work).
One quick, easy, but useful tip on drybrushing:
Use your fingers!
No, not to apply the paint, but to make sure you have the right amount of
paint on the brush. If you draw the brush across your finger & it highlights
your fingerprint/skin pattern without filling in all the gaps, you've got
the right amount of paint on your brush. If it covers the whole area, you
have too much & if it doesnt do anything, you've forgotten to open the paint
pots.....
Trust me it works - After a Day painting 6mm Sci Fi models for GW Specialist
Game's Studio, I'm typing with a brightly multi-coloured thumb knuckle....
--
Cheers,
Paul "TuffSkull" T.
http://www.aofk.co.uk - Home of The Mercenary Brush Galleries & Painting
Service
http://www.epic40k.com - if its epic, Its there.....
Malcolm McDowall
"Rob Singers" <rsin...@finger.hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns946EB185862BBrsingers@IP-Hidden...
> Malcolm McDowall startled all and sundry by ejaculating the following
> words of wisdom
>
ejaculation?
Malc
Malcolm McDowall
"Insane Ranter" <wh...@hooo.me> wrote in message
news:44kMb.9189$v16....@bignews5.bellsouth.net...
> Do it
>
IR, that's very Zen, and true too.
Malc
Rob Singers
words of wisdom
> Rob, on a purely personal note, I think that was more of a simper than
> an ejaculation?
Well I synchronized my ini files between work and home so the rgfd stats
counter sees me as one person and not two. I’ve also had people take
offence at “simpering meekly”; however my tribute to Zane Grey is
getting a little bit old. I’ll put my thinking cap on and see if I can
think of a new attribution line that I like.
Rob Singers
of wisdom
> "Insane Ranter" wrote
>>
> IR, that's very Zen, and true too.
I'm thinking he wants to be elevated to being a Yoda master.
Rotwang
"Paul" <Pau...@REMOVETHISblueyonder.co.uk> schreef in bericht
news:UgeMb.12725$Jn7.14...@news-text.cableinet.net...
The brush should be almost dry when drybrushing. Better to have too little
paint on the brush than too much.
Just paint the eyes before anything else. Just carefully paint the flesh
tone around them and trim the eyes as neatly as possible. This is the
simplest way of doing good eyes.
As for the secret of painting : practice, practice, practice etc.
My suggestion would be that for your first few minis you just practice
getting them neatly painted without any highlights or shading. You can
learn those techniques as you go. Don't be afraid of messing up miniatures,
you can always repaint them later on.
And above anything else don't be daunted by the stuff you see done by
others, their first minis were probably not very good ...
David Brewer
Are you a gamer? Here's three words for you: "Arm's length
paintjob". Can't do washes, drybrushes, paint eyes? Give up, move
past it, do without.
Unless you game with myopic ubernerds who kneel on the floor and
play with their noses pushed on to the edge of a two-foot-square
table, miniatures only need to look good at an arm's length, not
four inches away. Subtle techniques and fiddling detail...
bullshit: a waste of time. Harsh contrast is everything.
Go out to a public, open-air place on a bright, sunshiney day and
look at passers-by at a moderate distance. The colours of their
clothes, clothes that you know are coloured uniformly and evenly,
vary from bright and vivid colour where the sun falls on the upper
back, shoulders and tops of the arms down to a darkness in the
armpits and crotch that might as well be black. This apparent
colour change isn't a smoothly blended gradient from one to the
other, but the folds in the cloth and shape of the bady make for
jumps from light to shade. These unsubtle changes define the shape
of the person as we see them.
Now look at their faces. How close does someone have to be before
you register their eyes? When we see a distant person their "eyes"
are their eyesockets, areas of dark shadow, not the
cornea-iris-pupil. Their "noses" are the lines of shadow marking
the creases between their cheeks and noses, and the underside of
the nose.
Since this isn't the historical newsgroup, I'll take a wild guess
that your miniatures are of seven-feet tall people with gigantic
fifty-kilo shoulder-mounted laser cannon, or swinging two huge
ten-kilo swords. Your miniatures are already cartoons, don't try
to paint them as realistic, hyper-detailed homunculi when they
have stupid fat arms and legs.
Start by painting them black. Coloured areas are then painted with
two shades of the same colour: the strong base colour and a darker
shade. There is no highlight. Paint the area with the darker shade
first, painting with downward strokes from the top of the figure
with good, thick paint and let the undersides of things, the
armpits and crotch just stay black. Then paint over with the base
colour, painting much less area, painting only the tops of things.
Keep a black outline around belts and straps.
You now have some wicked contrast going on.
For faces, start with a leathery brown colour and leave the
eysockets and the underneath of the nose, ears and jaw black. Then
get the flesh tone out and paint the T-zone (forehead and nose)
the cheekbone protrusion and the tops of the ears. Maybe hit the
upper lip and a dab on the chin.
There are other ways of getting that brutal shape-defining
contrast that looks so good on the table. Some people like to
paint a completely monochrome figure, drybrushing white onto black
until the shapes are well-defined and stain the coloured areas
with inks. It amounts to the same thing: detail is bullshit,
subtlety is bullshit, contrast is king.
--
David Brewer
"The mentally disturbed do not employ the Theory of Scientific
Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of
facts." - P.K.Dick (from VALIS)
Peter Pradelski
> Are you a gamer? Here's three words for you: "Arm's length
> paintjob". Can't do washes, drybrushes, paint eyes? Give up, move
> past it, do without.
I agree with skipping washes and drybrushing, but 28mm figures should have
eyes, imho.
And a low-level painting:
1. Start by painting the whole figure with some dark muddy color. Something
like "scorched brown" should be fine.
2. Drybrush the whole miniature white or bright grey.
3. Paint the larger (face, hands or larger) areas with paints thinned with
some water. Don't flood them with too much of the thinned paint.
4. Ready. You can paint up some details if You have the time and patience,
but this must not be.
Works good enough for 15mm armies, especialy for soldiers in uniforms.
snh9728
Steve H
Paul
><snip>
><lots of snip replies>
Thanks for all the advice everyone it has ALL made a difference already,
I'm hardly entering into coolminiornot but atleast my figures now don't look
like complete pants.
Thanks again everyone!!