[Tutorial] Tom's basic painting tutorial

The following describes how I paint my models, but of course there are
as many other ways as there are painters. Still, i believe my technique
to be a good compromise between effects and time, resulting in rather
good-looking models obtained in a reasonable amount of time.

Here are the basic rules you should stick to:

1) Undercoat well! The spots that are missed by the primer-spray should be undercoated with paint and brush.

2) Three shades minimum! I ALWAYS paint at least 4 layers (= shades) on every model, for every type of zone.

e.g. The leather parts get 4 shades of brown, the skin parts get 4 shades of skin-colour etc...

You can paint only three layers to save time, but at the expense of
realism. You should never paint less, lest you regret it in a week time.

3) Darkest colour first! ALWAYS start with the darkest colour and work your way up to the brightest.

4) Shrink the layers as you go.
Every new layer you paint onto the model should be smaller than the
previous layer, thus creating the wanted "3-dimensional" effect. The white here being the "basecoat".


5) Drybrush metal parts!
Parts that are to look as though made of metal, should NOT be painted
as described above, but should be painted by "drybrushing" (explained
later).

6) Dip the brush carefully. Try to avoid paint going up to the metal part. It makes the brush last longer without loosing it's tip.

That's about it.

Let's see an example. I painted an orc arm here, but it is the exact same
technique with EVERY miniature. Only the colours change.

Here I used 3 colours for the skin. Light green, dark green and black. I used
black to make my dark green even darker (= 1st layer!)


Step 1: Undercoat.


Step 2: drybrushing weapons.

- Paint/Undercoat the part in BLACK.
- Take some "rust" paint onto your (thick) brush and wipe off 80% of it into a piece of cloth (or other).


-
Now brush the weapon with vigorous strokes. Make sure some of the black
undercoat still shines through. Don't take too much paint or you will
clog the detail of the miniature!


-
Reapeat the same only with "metal" colour, and stroke more gently. You
should now see both, very little black AND a little "rust" shimmer
through.


Step 3: Painting the skin.

As described above, paint the layers.

1. 90% dark green + 10% Black


2. Pure dark green (smaller areas)


3. 50% dark green + 50% light green (even smaller areas)


4. 10% dark green + 90% light green (only highest areas, like knuckles etc...)


For
human skin you would rather have used Brown and Pink. Starting with
pure Brown and finishing with pure pink. The intermediate shades would
be mixes of those two.

e.g. The layers would be as follows:

1. Pure brown.
2. 40% brown + 60% Pink
3. 10% brown + 90% Pink
4. Pure pink on the nose, cheeks, fingers...

The percentages should depend on the paints used, and on what you think looks good. There is no ideal recepie. Be creative!

I hope this helps.

To what standard would you hold this tutorial too? Tabletop or competition?


Tomo
Trouble from the Corn

Tabletop.

But the technique per se is usable at any level of painting.

Just a little add-on... feel free to delete this if it doesn't fit here.

Quote :

Darkest colour first! ALWAYS start with the darkest colour

, except when you want to make heavy use of wash/ink (I mean the newer colored washes/inks, not just a final layer of wash to make a piece of metal dirty), or of very diluted color. Those colors will tend to pool in gaps/recesses, where darker, and not brighter, colors, should be. Thus, they work naturally on lighter base coats, and not so good on dark ones.

Starting with black is great for a gritty, heavily shadowed look; for very light/bright/"happy" colors, white can work fine as well (and you can get lots of shadows using washes at the end).

I find it almost impossible to get good bright blonde hair when starting black - and a piece of cake with white (using diluted paint, which I prefer).

I sometimes start with black, sometimes with white, and have even used both on the same mini (i.e., white spray + a second layer of black for certain parts, or the other way round). One thing though: for one warband (or one army), it pays off to use the same base coat for all minis, as using black vs. white will stand out at the end of the day.

hei tom nice tutorial, i will try that next days...

i was reading a lot over washing etc. could u make a tutorial to these things too...? would be great

elChelli wrote:

i was reading a lot over washing etc. could u make a tutorial to these things too...? would be great

I'll try to make one if I have some time

I found this dark to light tutorial ideal for my requirements. The whole thing of painting minis seem less daunting now.