Free Painting tips

[Kloudfire]

Any one kn ow a place with a good collect of paint tips and techniques? I know coolminiornot has a bunch but I was wondering if any one else knew some good sites.

[Major_Gilbear]

Try Brushthralls, I found their tutorials to be excellent, and their forums are very friendly!

[PeteScete]

just ask in forums mate.

my tip for you is water down your paint a tad.

[goblyn13]

The Jenova Project (click on tips and tutorials on the right)

Aslo this forum has several articles as well

[Breten]

One of my buddies has been doing some on my forum:

Here's his latest, painting Expressive faces and Eyes:

http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=75510&threadid=2110085

Here's the first part:

As I'm working on my current Hell Dorado commission, I thought it would be a good idea to post some process pictures, and do a tutorial for those wondering how I go about things, and how I go about painting expressive faces and eyes.

I get asked about my faces quite a bit, and this particular mini has an excellent face which I could use to demonstrate my techniques.

It's the Damned One of Pride from Hell Dorado, and from what I've heard, it's a satire on the current French President, which is likely why this particular face is extremely realistic, and expressive, even without paint.

Getting your mini's face and eyes right, and having a good expressive face always helps in providing a focal point for the model, as the human eye automatically is drawn to the eyes and face. We spend most of our lives looking at other people's faces and eyes. It's the first place viewer's look when they observe a person in real life, or sculpted as a miniature.

This tutorial is meant to provide anyone with a solid method for getting that expression right, and I'll go into great detail with my techniques for both painting the face, and especially the eyes.

Depending on your methods, and the order in which you paint your minis will of course differ from mine, as these are very personal things. But, the best thing is to see how others work, and finding out what will work best for you as an individual artist. This method, and any others I'll post here are for showcase paint jobs, but I'm sure just about any one can afford to learn something new....and I need some practice for the mini painting book I want to eventually write. :cool:

I always base all of my minis before I apply paint or primer, as I can get a better idea of what the final product will look like, and I can put it down, rotate it, and set it amongst terrain to get a very clear picture of where the mini is going during the painting process.

For commission work, I will often use Uncle Mike's bases, as it allows me to provide a cheap and easy solution for my clients, and I don't have to sculpt or build a custom base, allowing me to give my clients a good price for the work that I do. Plus, it's free marketing for Uncle Mike's Worldwide too.

If a mini doesn't fit on any of Mike's resin bases, I'll just make a custom one, but this doesn't happen that often. But, lately I've been having fun making bases, and I've been doing a lot of my own stuff on custom bases. Commission work will almost always go on Uncle Mike's resin bases.

Here's the victim...so to speak.

I use Reaper Master Series Black Primer, which is a brush-on type in a dropper bottle. I highly recommend it if you live in a colder climate, or don't have an outdoor, or well ventilated space for priming your miniatures. I've had some terrible luck with sprays, and chemical poisoning some years ago, so I tend not to use sprays of any kind.

I start painting my models from the 'deepest' parts, and work outwards. For example, if I'm painting a rotted zombie with bones and muscle exposed, I'll start with the bones, then move onto the muscle, then the skin, clothing, and so-on, working outwards. I don't base coat the entire mini first, as one with 5 years of formal art training under my belt, I don't have a hard time visualizing my scheme before applying paint.

The reason I start 'deep' in the mini and work out, is that it allows me to paint neater, and the recesses, and deeper parts of the mini are easier to keep your brush out of as you paint.

So, the primer is applied, and you've figured out your scheme, and you're ready to apply paint.

I start with the face and skin. Always. It sets the tone for the entire model, and I can then 'build' the rest of the scheme around that.

Plus, the face and eyes are the most difficult part of the miniature to paint. Getting the hardest parts out of the way first may frustrate you in the beginning. However, the rest of the paint job will feel easy, and go a lot smoother if the difficult parts are already out of the way.

Any feedback on my wording, and descriptive text would be great as I add more to this particular thread. Feel free to hammer me here guys...I'm seriously going to write a book.

-Brant

[Magno]

Here is a slew of links to the French painters, most with tutorials.

The Frenchies