Painting small things

[Hinton]

@TBS: No, it doesn\'t get in the way - for me anyway. I know that there are people that prefer something like the OptiVisor (or whatever it\'s called) while some don\'t use anything because things like that can be tough to work around, but I haven\'t had any problems (yet).

@Mose: As Onis said, everyone has a preference. I prefer to work from the lowest points and work my way out. And for me, eyes and skin are always first while others may do those last.

Ultimately, it\'s all about experience and practice to find what works for you.

@Onis: You can paint with your \"arse\"? Wow; there\'s an image I didn\'t need. lol

 

[elouchard]

Mose,

I think you are making it out to be more difficult than it actually is. The rivets, for example, can be done with a base highlight and then a glaze of darker color brushed right over it, so it flows along the sides and pools a bit on the bottom - instant shadow and darkline. (eg. gold rivet with glaze of dark brown + black) Most of the things you are seeing on the figures that look hand-painted are actually just simple applications of paint like that, with the work being done by the miniature itself and the paint properties. Some folks just apply more layers to get a richer result and re-apply highlights but the the only bits that really need fine detail are eyes or freehand patterns. There are tricks for those too so you should not get discouraged.

 

[Mose]

elouchard

That is exactly the type of information I need. I was thinking that it was painstakingly painted. Now you just gave me the secret. Thank you , Thank you, Thank you.

Mose.

Any more cool Tricks from the pro\'s out there?

 

[Avelorn]

Originally posted by Mose

Any more cool Tricks...

Attatch the mini to something while painting. + as already mentioned steady your hands by clamping them together.

Use the side of the brush instead of the tip. and be gentle when touching the details with the brush then the 3d aspects of the details themselves will help painting them. Very important in general not to overload the brush.. even more with this technique. I always test the paint consistency, and get rid of the excess, on my thumb (and rest of my hand when I run out of thumb ) You can also use a paper tissue of course and test the paint consistency on a palette.

 

[Mosch]

I\'m not a pro by any means, but here\'s a little psychological help:

Sort all miniatures on this site by score, ascending. Then save the worst minis you can find in a folder called \"I rule\". When you get the feeling you can\'t do anything right, look through the pictures in your folder. Instant ego boost.
Don\'t get too cocky though. If I feel myself getting smug, I browse through my folder called \"EricJ\".

Also here\'s one tip that was vital, nay, indispensible for getting more or less smooth layers: Paint towards the area that is supposed to receive the paint. If you highlights, draw your brush towards the upper points. For shading, draw it towards the lower ones.
This is one tip that I see very rarely and yet it seems really important. Well, helped me a lot.

Another one: Premix some water with a little soap or something to break surface tension (I use a cocktail of water, flow enhancer, painting medium (this stuff rocks. Seriously.), a little soap and probably some more... pretty much impossible for me to remix that ) and use that to mix washes. You will need to experiment a little to get the mixture just right. Use this mix to make washes and just slather them liberally over your basecoated area (no pooling allowed though). Recoat the area, leaving the wash in the deeper places and the edges. Instant darkline and help with the shading. This method would also be great for the rivets you mentioned: Paint the whole thing brown, get some black wash on it, rivets pretty much pop out at you. Now just carefully drag a brushful of paint across the rivets (being careful not get too much in the leather or into the deeper areas) and recoat the leather armor. If you\'re careful with the rivet painting you can do it at any time too - also, the blacklining will really make them stand out.

PS: Do not look at my gallery or you might think twice about using those tips

 

[elouchard]

A good tip is to keep everything as simple as possible and only do what is necessary to finish the figure. You will feel real good once the first figure is completed and not so good if it sits there half-done.

simple pallete - choose a small number of colors and include black, white and brown for mixing highlights and shadows. Look at the figure before deciding and stick a simple color scheme.

solid techniques - practice solid techniques that will give results from the start but take time to master. basecoating/priming, drybrushing and washes/glazes. There are many places to look these up in the tutorial section so I won\'t go into details but small changes in how the paint is applied give very different results so practice and play with them. (eg: drybrush with dry paint, wet paint, thin paint, etc. wash with ink, paint+ink, ink+ varnish, glaze with colored water). The thing to rememebr about drybrushing and washes is they are meant to let the model do the most work - you are not supposed to have to paint shadows under rivots or in fur or wrinkles like painting on a canvas. About 95% of a figure can be done like this, and the other 5% is just eyes and touch-ups.

finishing - finish the model and do not wonder how it would look in blue or something. There are plenty of models to paint so practice on the one at hand and then start a new one and try new things. It\'s not like the minis are made of gold or anything, so don\'t worry if they don\'t turn out perfectly.

 

[Mose]

elouchard

Again. Thank you very much. I printed out what you wrote and will keep that close at hand to re-read every once in a while.

Ill have to work on Glazing and drybrushing.

Again thank you for taking the time to write up some of your tips.

Mose

 

[Mose]

OK

One more question.

How can you tell what is what after priming a miniature. Oh I dont know if im explaining myself very good. OK so your looking at a Racham skeliton soldier. How can you tell what is bone, flesh, shirt, dress thingy,

I dont alway\'s have good pictures to go by so I can\'t tell what is what.

Mose

 

[SkyDancer]

Well, I use magnification, same as many of the other posters. But I\'m spoiled. As a scientist I have access to very nice dissecting scopes, and I use one at the lowest magnification, about 0.6, with a 10x eyepiece. This magnifies the miniature about 6x, and I\'m easily able to see all of the details needed. It still takes patience, good brushes with fine tips, and proper paint control and consistency. I often spend as much as an hour fiddling with the eyes, getting them just right. Other small stuff, particularly filigree, drive me nutso, even though I\'ve been painting for several years.

Determining what\'s what on a miniature depends very much on such things as its shape and where it\'s located. Armor plates are easy, but often there are objects that could be interpreted as metal or leather or fabric or organic, depending on one\'s point of view and what the miniature depicts. An ambiguous object could be painted in many different ways, so being consistent with the miniature is pretty important. A barbarian likely would have less metal than organic or leather material, whereas a city-fied rogue might have metal instead (or leather, if they want to move quietly).

Sometimes objects truly are completely mystifying as to their identity, but I often find this is due to less-than-skilled sculpting technique or casting mistakes. At that point, just make your best guess and forge ahead. And hope it\'s in the back, where people are less likely to snoop around! lol

 

[Jabberwocky]

Originally posted by Mose
OK

One more question.

How can you tell what is what after priming a miniature. Oh I dont know if im explaining myself very good. OK so your looking at a Racham skeliton soldier. How can you tell what is bone, flesh, shirt, dress thingy,

I dont alway\'s have good pictures to go by so I can\'t tell what is what.

Mose

Some folks will sometimes do a VERY thin wash of a dark brown or black over the mini to accentuate the cracks and crevasses and bring out detail. Darin Hlavaz (Whizard) did a short article on what he calls \"prelining\" here.

 

[Mose]

WOW

You guy\'s are great. I love the wisdom of Sky and the article is fantastic Jabber.

Thank you. I will try and follow your writings.

I do have a magnifying head thing that I do not perticulaly like. I am going to look for a light with a magnifying thing built in.

 

[Trevor]

I find being short sighted helps. Seriously, I always paint without my glasses, so I can stick the mini right up to my eye and still focus on it.

 

[Mose]

ok

So If im painting a buckle on a belt should I paint the buckle first (Metalic) or the leather then the buckle. The buckle casting is awfully small.

mose

I hope to have something for you all soon.

 

[goblinLB]

i would paint the buckle first then if oyu get metallic apaint on the belt just paint other it / when i paint i wear a head torch then i cant shadow the light i have it straight on the mini / or you could gte one of those book lights you clip to back of book to light up pages and stick on a spray lid or somit so its shoen on the mini with the mini stuck to the paint lid

just some ideas

 

[elouchard]

Paint the belt first. The pattern should be simple -> complex, so paint the belt entirely, including the buckle, and shade and highlight as desired, then paint the buckle with metallics. The same goes for armor with fillagree or clothing with trim. Paint the simple shapes completely first, then do the details.

 

[Mose]

I guess like goblin said im afraid that I might get paint on the belt.

How in the hell do you guy\'s get detail (highlights and Shadow) on something as small as a Buckle. I mean this thing is friggn SMALL oops small haha.

Mose

Have a great new year every one.

 

[elouchard]

You can paint it however you want. But just like the coat with metal studs, or armor with trim details, or pretty much anything on a miniature, you will be better off painting the large surface first, then adding details.

The last thing you would want to do is paint metal studs, rivets or buckles and then try to paint the large surface around them. Details are harder than surfaces to touch-up as you would have to repaint details entirely.

 

[funnymouth]

imho you should be VERY wary of repairing the overpainting of metallics buy...er...painting over it. while it may seem like youve covered the problem with the naked eye, the camera will often pick up otherwise unseen reflections.