How do I take my painting to the next level? I've got 100 models to learn!

[Kingside_Bishop]

Hello everyone!

I'm looking to improve my painting skills. Right now, I can produce decent, tabletop quality paint jobs, that look okay at arms length but fall apart when examined more closely. I can do this relatively quickly, which is certainly a useful skill, but my question is this: what can I do to improve my painting? I've just painted up my first zombie, so here it is, for reference as to my current skills:

Zombie Test Model:


The way I've painted in the past is to:
1) Primer the model black.
2) Basecoat using foundation colors, watered down slightly (maybe 2 parts paint to 1 water).
3) Paint about two layers of "normal" paint above the basecoat, again watered down a little.
4) Do a wide highlight with a lighter color.
5) Wash the model.
6) Do a more extreme highlight of the brightest color.

I feel like I'm probably not watering my paint down enough, because I hear about people watering their paint down to 1:1 as a minimum, but I find that when I do that, the paint just runs all over the model, like a wash, though maybe (as I write this it occurs to me) if I brushed more of the paint off of the brush, this wouldn't happen. I also feel like I'm not as good at picking out details... my models come out looking like they've been cel shaded, or like they're from a comic book, which is okay when the whole army is done that way, but I'd rather have that super crisp, almost photo finish that I see other hobbyists achieving.

Anyway, I've got 50 zombies and 50 skeletons to paint while I attempt to take my painting to the next level. Any advice?

 

[Amuse Me]

I never water down my paint....Maybe i should start...

ANYWAY, i would learn some techniques, like stippling or blending. Stippling is really easy, and it looks nice.

Eg:

I cant resist the chance to show this off...MOVING ON.Focus on the armor... Stippling is kindof like drybrishing, where you get most of the paint off the brush using a paper towel or something, but instead of stroking, you STAB the model with the brush. This ruins the brush, so have one brush set aside for it.

I have never tried blending...

Third thing you could do (well, its really the second, but who is counting) is to use more layers. I can see how on the head of the model, there is the basecoat and then an extreme highlight. Find a middle ground, and apply that over most of the head, leaving the darker colour in the recesses (eg around the eyes). This is kindof what a wash does.

While we are on the topic of eyes, they could be improved a little. Going for two colours could be an option, but plain white is also cool. When i paint eyes, i put the white on, being sure to get all of the eye. It doesnt really matter if you get some on the skin. After that, paint the skin around it. Its much easier to paint around the eye than just painting the eye.

Hope i was somewhat useful... You can always go on the workshop site and look for tutorials there.

 

[Monkey's_Uncle]

First of all, that Zombie aint bad.
I personally use a white undercoat as you need less layers to cover it evenly, but go with whatever suits you.

Tippe 1: Use a small brush for details, and when painting really fiddly things brace your brush arm on something, you may look weird, but it makes you much more stable.
Tippe 2: As Amuse Me said, layers are the way too go, what I do is to water them down really heavily, this leaves some of the previous coat showing through.
Tippe 3: Don't assume that the more watered down the paint is the better, if you really don't want paint to run, put it on quite thick.
Tippe 4: Practise, but don't try and paint 50 skellies if your not motivated, if you get bored, paint something else.

Hope this helps, Monkey

P.S. Someone like u_m should be along shortly, those guys can help you far more than we can.

 

[skullgrl]

By your test model which is a lovely clean tabletop level painted, you definitely have a good base to build off of. I suggest consuming a lot of painting how to videos. My personal favorite is GirlPainting. Read tutorials!

Thinning paint is good but you should wipe it off if you find its running all over. You don't want it to be super watery. You should focus on blending if you want your miniatures to be "photo-finished".

 

[skullgrl]

I'm just sitting down to paint now so it just occurred to me. You should get yourself some matte medium. I use liquitex because you get obscene amounts for cheap as you're not painting... paintings but miniatures. Also some flow improver and paint retarder. I've found with the new line of GW paints you can't get a nice thin paint for layering with water. It just turns into water spots. Flow improver is the way to go.

The matte medium is essentially just paint with out the pigment in it. It will thin your colors whilst keeping a thicker paint consistency meaning you have a lot more control. I would still thin it out a bit.

 

[Mad 'At]

First thing: That zombie need blood! An easy way to make great blood it to by the paint "Clear Red" from Tamiya. A red wash from GW could also work. Water it down and paint a little on his face, it would make both the eyes and the mouth look more convincing.

You are right about the watering down paint bit. Adding water sometimes makes them act like washes, the trick is like you say to have less of the mix in your brush.

Again looking at the zombie I'd say you could experiment more with colours. His got a nice over warmth colour wise, but could use a spot colour, something that stands out. Think in terms of opposite colours and cool and warm colours, on your zombie something bright blue would really have stood out. Some bigger differences in tone on connecting surfaces could have helped too, like painting his skin a little bright so it stands out more from the dark clothing. This would define separate areas more.

On his cloths I would suggest a starker edge highlighting, like painting the edges of the square in his "skirt" a bit brighter, or possibly just edges of the skirt itself.

 

[Kingside_Bishop]

Thanks for the input, guys. So a short list of recommendations would be...

1. Try blending and stipling. I've heard of these techniques, and I've always wanted to give them a shot. I admit that my current methods are basically technique-free (making myself sound so lazy!).
2. Use more layers. I agree that I should use more layers. I think I'll try buying an eyedropper today, and start making my own paint mixes. That would be an easy way to come up with more gradations.
3. Buy a finer brush. Doing better eyes and details will be a lot easier with a finer brush, as the only one I use right now is the most generic GW brush you can get (I'm sure you know the one I'm talking about).
4. Wipe excess off the brush. Try painting thin, watered down layers again, but this time, if I wipe more of the mixture off of the brush, I might have better results. Seems simple, surprised I haven't tried this yet...
5. Add more color. Add some contrasting elements to the model, some blue, purple, or green detail to contrast with the overall warmth of the model's palette. Also, more extreme edge highlighting.
6. Paint some blood. They are brain eating zombies, after all, and a nice, bright red would really stand out, and setting this amongst some dried blood, as well, would be a good opportunity to practice blending/layering.

This seems like a good list to get on with. I'll paint another zombie using the techniques listed above, and post him up so we can see the differences. Thanks for the help guys, wish me luck!

 

[Amuse Me]

Glad we all could help, show us some pics once you have done a new model!

 

[skullgrl]

You will not regret buying a nice Kolinsky-Sable brush. It was like night and day for me. My favorite are my Restauro's, I use Da Vinci but a lot of people swear by Winsor Newton. Here's an article about them. It may seem like an expensive investment but it makes such an amazing difference.

 

[Von Calyptra]

I like the Da Vinci brushes best, but the Winsor & Newton Series 7s are also very, very good.

Basically what you're looking for is kolinsky watercolor brush. (Fun fact: a kolinsky is a kind of Siberian weasel. The hair used in quality brushes comes from the tip of the tail.) Take care of one of these brushes and it'll last you for years and years, so it's worth the investment.

Keep paint out of the ferrule (the metal part of the brush). You only want to paint with the tip. And kolinskies hold a *lot* of charge, so you'll need to spend a little extra time cleaning it.

 

[Kingside_Bishop]

Hi everyone! An update. I tried some simple blending, added a few more layers to the skin and clothes, and bought a finer brush for the details. I also started painting in thinner layers, at least for the yellow shields, and plan to try it out more broadly on the next batch.

The new batch (included with the first zombie):


I like the results, I think they look a bit better, but I struggled with detail control on the facial layering (especially on the third zombie, it was really hard to pick out detail), and on the next batch, I'm going to go less heavy on the wash -- this batch, the heavy wash was largely experimental, and although i like what it did, I think it's a bit too much. I'm still struggling to think of a way to add a spot color, though I haven't put too much thought into it, and I haven't gotten around to buying some red paint for the blood effects.

Thoughts? Especially criticisms?

P.S. I tried out static grass basing for the first time with these as well -- I love it!

 

[Telliphas]

Looking very good, I can’t see the image in your first post for comparison so I can't comment on the differences.

Concerning the facial detail, this will come with practice. A little trick I do when detailing is make sure that my hands / arms / elbows are seated on a stable surface. On the odd occasion, I will hold my breath whilst doing this, probably more than I can recall. Many a time my wife will ask what’s wrong as I let out the breath / sigh. This I find helps calm everything down and gives me a steady hand.

How are you holding your miniatures when painting? Are they mounted on something you can get a good grip of? An old paint pot, wine cork?

I mount all of my current models on a paint pot, I find it easier to grasp when painting instead of the base of the model.

The skin tone you have on the Zombies is good. I would knock the highlights up a notch on them, especially the raised areas of the arms, elbows, knuckles and the top of muscle structure. You can define the muscle structure with thin highlights to further emphasize key points. Don’t be afraid of using white to pick out extreme edges or points for the final highlight. Just make sure when doing the extreme edge highlights, keep your brush light on paint. If you load it too much or the water to paint ratio is off then you’ll end up with a splodge (technical term) along an edge and it can ruin the look of it. I’ve done this numerous amount of times.

To help define the highlights, I would suggest using a smaller brush to wash in between the details. Apply the heavy wash all over, build up your layers through to the final highlights and then reapply the wash in between it all. This will help things pop more.

For example, when painting my Zombies I would do the following:
1) 2x Tallarn Flesh add a 1 – 1.5x Lahmian Medium (much better than water IMO), this will make the paint a milky consistency.
2) Apply 3 – 4 layers of this over the flesh areas, or until you have a solid flesh tone.
3) Mix in Rotting Flesh. I use the standard sized GW brush for adding in paint, I would load 1/3 of the bristles with paint.
4) Apply the mix, on all of the raised areas. Making sure to keep the recesses clear.
5) Mix in another part of Rotting Flesh, slightly less than I would have from step 3.
6) Apply this to the raised areas but concentrating on the higher areas and more defined details (knuckles, fingers, edges) I would use this to define the muscles more, chest, rib cages and the like.
7) Mix in some white, not sure of the ratio. Enough to see a difference on the model.
8) Apply this to the very edges of the details, picking out the extreme edges and points of the details.
9) I would then apply the first light wash – Baal Red in this case, this would go into all of the recesses.
10) The 2nd light wash Leviathan Purple would go over the Baal Red, I would concentrate this on areas that natural shadows would fall. The purple helps obtaining a slightly bruised look to certain areas.
11) Final wash Athonian Camoshade is then applied in a light wash to the whole flesh area. This adds a sickly green hue to the skin and unifies the highlights and washes applied in the previous steps.

Long winded I know, but the final product is worth it.

Concerning the cloth, I would apply the same steps used on the flesh, but swap out the paints and washes you have used to paint the cloth.

The main things you’ll need to improve your painting are the three P’s.
Practice.
Patience.
And more Practice.

There is a wealth of knowledge out there, gawd bless you interwebs, which is easily available. YouTube has a good number of channels with painting tips and tricks, there are also plenty of tutorial sites / blogs all put up by other painting enthusiasts. Spend some time reading, watching and practicing and you’ll gain more confident with painting and you’ll find your skill set will grow.

Remember, painting isn’t a chore, do it for fun. If you’re struggling with a new technique, take a break. Come back to it with a clear mind and keep at it.

Wall of text crits you for S4 + 3D6.

Cheers
Telliphas