Basic painting tips

Hi! does anyone have tips for me about painting? I'm not realy good..so I can learn much!!

Hey!

I suggest you first have a read through older threads. Some interesting questions have already been asked and answered. You will surely find interesting stuff there.

e.g. How to paint Matt Goldish Weapons.

If you have any specific questions, I also suggest you ask precisely for what you want to know. We can't give you "advice" in general apart from:
- use a brush (not a tooth brush)
- use a primer (spray if possible)
- use acrylic paints
- take your time
- paint in layers (at least 3)

Cheers!

remember an important fact about the Focal Point!

The Focal Point is when you have a model and you paint it with different colors and a certain part of the models is painted with a certain color that attracts the eye to it making it the focal point. you certainly don't want that.



if you look at this picture the focal point is the snow on the mountain. you want to use a color scheme so that the eye actually looks at the whole model.


I hope that Helps

Cheers
Hellfoot

Wow!

I have always subconciously respected that rule, but have never seen it formulated.

Good job Hellfoot! :bball:

hehe np

if the uploding was right here are 2 pfotos of my dark elve

hm.. I still don't get it

did you create and account with Photobucket? (you have a link)

Hmm, you should ask a little bit more specific. For starter-tips, you could have a look at GW's website, that can't hurt

Maybe somebody can help me with this, When I paint I mostly drybrush 3-4 layers, but I want to learn more tecniques like highlighting and stuf because Drybrushing isn't nice always..

Tag, similar questions have been asked 1000 times before (some of them by yourself).
And the answer has always been this.
Please DO take a look at that. It WILL help.
Thanks.
--Admin Tom

Can I just add something about the focal point.
It is important, I think, to stick to a limited pallet that actually draws the eye in to focus on the model.
Too many colours, or colours that don't blend well together, can make a model extremely hard to focus on and enjoy.
As a general rule of thumb I like to stick to no more than 3 main colours that complement each other. Individual details can be picked out in different colours, but by limiting yourself to a few complementary ones you force the viewers eye to focus because it isn't as confusing.
There was also a good article in a WD a while back that talked about focal points, and I believe it is quite accurate and with a little practice not too hard to achieve. The basic precis of it is that each model has a focal point on it, something that initially draws your eye before mocing on to the rest of the model. It could be something like a face or weapon or shield etc.
When painting it's important to use the complementary colours so that the viewer is drawn to this focal point but not trapped by it. The way to achieve it is to focus on a 'triangle' ideal. There are generally 3 areas that can be used - hands, faces, weaons - and on most models these form a sort of triangle. By painting them in similar or complementary colours (with slight variation on each of course) it allows the model itself to be 'outlined' by the eye and defining it so that the rest of the model can be fully appreciated.
It's a difficult thing to explain, and I don't think I have done a very good job of it, but if I can come up with something a bit better I'll post it.

I agree 100% with you Exarch Thomo.

Thanks for the extra info. Read this people, the man knows what he's talking about.

Thanks for sharing guys, I'll definitely need more to fully grasp the concept, but a great start here.

Thanks guy,
Ashton

I just have to say that the above link to the 'don't panic' blog, literally just taught me how to paint minatures.

I've got a goodly part of my beastmen and undead 'finished' and after reading through your tutorial something just went 'click' inside my brain, and i'm suddenly churning out witch hunters that i'll soon be afraid to handle, let alone continue painting, in case i ruin them.

thank you all so much for the tons of useful information and supportive atmosphere you've built here. this web-site is what the best part of wargaming (apart form actually playing... or guilt-tripping your girlfriend into playing with you) is about

thanks
-rhuntar

Yea, isn't that a great tutorial!?

Tom, you need to do more tutorials! They are great

rhuntar wrote:

(apart form actually playing... or guilt-tripping your girlfriend into playing with you)

HAHA

haha, thanks rhuntar and Ash!

There will be more tutorials in the future. Next up: painting whites (probably)

Admin Tom wrote:

. Next up: painting whites (probably)

Oh yes, very needed Thanks

I thought I'd post another general painting tip/idea here as there really isn't anywhere else for it and it is nought but a basic, general tip. It deals with something we all use and often gets abused - especially by those just starting out. I am talking about BRUSHES. While it is tempting to go with the cheaper ones resist. A good quality brush will save a lot of time, effort and heartache.
Taking care of the brush is important to getting a good looking model, heres a few things I learnt the hard way.

1) Wash it out in clean, cold water and don't, under any circumstances, mash the head against the bottom of the cup/bowl/jar.
2) Use separate water for metallics and normal paint, and even separate for darker and light colours. The metallic one is important because metallic paints leave little 'flecks' of pigment in the water and this can get transferred to your fresh paint.
3) Use larger brushers. Don't fall into the trap of thinking the smaller the brush the better the detail. The paint dries out too quickly giving a lumpy look to the finished product. Most decent painters use one or 2 different sized brushes. Personally I use a 3/0 and 0 for most of my work.
4) Use separate brushes for metallics, dark paint, light paint, drybrushing and basecoating. The reason: Sometimes paint gets caught in the ferrule (metal bit) and stays in the bristles, mixing disasterously with the latest coat. Also, drybrushing brushes tend to spread out a bit more, making fine detail work somewhat vexing.
5) Don't cover the brush in paint. Only the top 1/3 of the brish should have paint on it. Any more and it travels down into the ferrule and ruins the brush - drying hard and spreading the bristles.
6) Once the bristles spread, don't despair - you now have a new drybrushing brush.
7) Storage: Keep them tip up and cover the tips with those little plastic barrels they give you with the brush - this protects the tip and stops them spreading.
Dry them out. Use a piece paper tissue and light drag the brush flat across it, twisting it as you go so the tip stays in a nice point.
There, some very basic tips, but they helped me along the way. Hope they help someone else.

Thanks man. Great tips.

I follow almost all of these... I bought a back of 25 paint brushes for $4. I just couldn't resist. But I take really good care of them, so haven't had too much trouble. I didn't have to buy a detail brush as I didn't have any "thin" brushes.

Agree 100% with Exarch Thomo. Thanks for taking the time and writing those tips up, it needed to be said.

I must add one thing
I can NEVER let the brush stay out of my moth!! And that is a good thing. Nothing gets the brush together as good even if it is a little spread already...
(Lucky acrylic paints aren't that poisonous since I painted a lot during my pregnancy)

Trulsa wrote:

I must add one thing
I can NEVER let the brush stay out of my moth!! And that is a good thing. Nothing gets the brush together as good even if it is a little spread already...
(Lucky acrylic paints aren't that poisonous since I painted a lot during my pregnancy)

Geez... I only visit my local GW store like once every six months and everytime I go there and see all those kids lined up in front of their workspaces licking the colour off their brushes I remember why I avoid the place. I guess GW mixes some wicked addictive substances in their colours that keeps the kids buying the latest issue of White Dwarf and regiment boxes for armies they don't even play.

any good tips for fur painting?

do you paint your models before you glue them together? (when yes what do you do when u for example want to greenstuff something over de sholders?)

what are washings exactly?

For fur, I just paint it like the rest (subequent layers & washed) and it turns out good enough for me. Easiest would be doing a base colour and then drybrushing it with another colour for the highlights.

I usually assemble my models before I paint them, especially if I convert them. Only sometimes I glue larger parts like shields, which would make it really difficult to reach some parts, later onto the model. What I started doing, however, is not gluing the model to it's final base, as it's sometimes much easier to access certain parts of the model if it's not based.

And finally, washes are thinned down paints which are ideal for shading you model. Especially Devland Mud and Badab Black give awesome results and improve the way a miniature looks dramatically.

to the washing, when u have got the tutorial https://boringmordheimforum.forumieren.com/tutorials-f18/tutorial-tom-s-basic-painting-tutorial-t626.htm do u do the washing after that?