7 replies to this topic

[Kritari]

Ok,  This is probably going to be the first is a series of noob questions from me as I try to get info about intermediate painting techniques to paint figs.  While I dont have paints/brushes at the moment, (That comes next month I believe, end of the month) I want to get the stuff I need to know in my head before I start applying paint to figs and messing stuff up.

So, first question, they make a huge difference in the appearance of a lot of figs, how do you paint eyes?

Thanks for any help you can offer

[Fellblade]

Kritari, on Jul 1 2007, 07:33 AM, said:

Ok,  This is probably going to be the first is a series of noob questions from me as I try to get info about intermediate painting techniques to paint figs.

First off, this? is a great starting place for reading about painting techniques and just getting to look at some well painted models. I think I found an eye tutorial there once but I don't see it offhand.

Here's what I do:
1) Paint most of the base colors on the fig's face.
2) Paint the eyes and a little of the surrounding area pure white.
3) Paint the pupil whatever color you want, or simply black. You can get as fancy as you wish. Its okay, and desirable, to paint it a little over the actual eye's area. In this pic, notice how the pupil is hidden behind the eyelids so it doesn't form a full circle.
4) Using a darkish skintone, clean up any mess made in step 2. Cover up anything that isn't the model's actual eyeball. The darker tone helps the eye stand out more.
5) (optional) A little dot of white in the eye to represent the reflected light.


Okay, Maybe I didn't explain that well, so here's something I threw together in photoshop:

[Tadite]

Stick with Fellblades version if you want really great eyes.


But if you want a quicker version:

Paint the first levels of your mini first.  But before you do the last stage details put a tinny little dot of white in the eye region.  Then take a nice Micron Pen and put a dot in the white.

If you want a really light wash of glaze medium evens out the color.

[Kritari]

I think Fellblades  sounds awesome, and WAY above my skill level lol.  Once I get more in practice I might try it, but at the moment, the micron pen looks to be my best bet.  I will save the post however for later when I get more advanced

[Fellblade]

Actually its not that hard. Think brushstroke of white across the eye left to right, thin brushstroke of color/black top to bottom, then paint over any mess with a dark skintone. Anything beyond that is just gravy. My rank&file troops don't get any more work than that, characters might actually get an eye color and often the eyes are so small I can't get in there to add a dot of white without blotting out the whole eye so I skip that too.


*Edit: You could always go nuts with something like this...

...adding in an eyelid, details in the eye, etc.

Edited by Fellblade, 01 July 2007 - 10:33 PM.

[Pyrian]

I don't recommend any more detail than white and iris.

On a more practical note, when I do eyes, I leave the model on the table or in a vise, get a small amount of paint on the tip of the brush, and then rest my left hand on the table and use it as a steady "tripod" while aiming with the right hand holding near the back of the brush.  This is the only way I can reliably paint that level of tiny detail.

[Andrew_Mouse]

the best way to do eyes is actually to do them first (before paiting the skin and such)

I tend to leave eyes off my models just out of laziness though..

but if you paint the eye white before painting the skin around the eye you can be messy.

getting paint all over where the skin is

then when you paint the iris instead of just putting a dot you can paint a vertical line from the top of the eye lash to the bottom making is nice and even with out worrying about putting the brush perfectly in the right spot..

then you paint over the skin and cover up the messy area that you got all over the face and eye lid..

its much easier avoiding coloring in the eye (typically they are in a socket) then trying to put the brush down into the socket and trying to avoid coloring on your skin..

if you do it that way its really easy two step eyes.. paint white then black

[Kritari]

Well, All your advice was not wasted! I painted my first decent looking set of eyes this night on a D&D fig, and I am bleeping impressed with myself.

What I did was lay down a basecoat of flesh tone, then put in white splotches where the eyes would be. Then put in dark dots where the pupils would be, then paint with more flesh tone over the uneven parts and make them "Eye" shaped. Result, pretty decent looking eyes. Not competition quality, but definately bettert than my previous attempts. Thanks you guys