A Hobo's really bad painting thread! (Advise me!) ((Pictures))

[HoboDevil]

Alrighty, so I finally borrowed a digital camera so I can embarrass myself with showing you guys my asinine skills. My camera sucks. My painting sucks, and yeah. Anywhoo, if you guys could offer some advice that would help my painting suck slightly less I would be stoked!

Also, how do you guys learn your insane-painting-witchcraft? Seriously. That's crazy.

[underdog6750]

Best way to start is by planning in your head what colours you want to use. Apply your base colours and wash either with a dark brown, blackor opposing colours for varyings shades/effects. Once this hasdried give the model a dry brush with a lighter shade of your base colour and you now have modelspainted to a basic standard.

Taking things a step further you can pick out extra details like belt buckles eyes etc o finish of a model.

There are a few things esential to painting a good miniature. A decent brush,Im not saying go out and spend £10-£20 on a brush. You can get decent synthetic brushes for a couple of pounds that will hold a decent point for a couple of months. Then you can invest in better brushes etc. I personally would avoid the bundel of brushes you can see in craft shops. Go to an artist supply store look or ask around and get 2-3 brushes they will be better quality for around the same price.

Next is decent paints. although most acrylics can be used for painting minatures. Vallejo are a really good make,cheaper than gw and better in my opinion.

Work space. a good sized work area will make it not only easier but more enjoyable to paint if using a temporary area make sure you protect it. You dont want to destroy your wifes/partners/parents dinning table lol.

Primer, the best way of getting a mini to hold the acrylic paint is by priming the models first with spray primer. Most popular colours are black, white and grey. Get a hobby specific primer like army painter etc others tend to be too thick. Prior to priming you may want to glue sand to the base which you can paint once the miniature is finished.

Hope this helps in some way? Sorry if it is a bit disjointed as im running around after my 2 daughters at the minute. Most importantly enjoy painting. Take your time. You dont have to paint them all in a day. Have a look around the forums and feel free to PM or post on peoples threads for tips advice. Every started out at your level of painting at some stage. It just takes time and effort but the rewardsare well worth while.

Finally enjoy the game and welcome to Malifaux

[Zombie Kitt]

For what it's worth, as I am far from a paint witch, I think there are two things you need to do to improve your painting by leaps and bounds.

1) Take your time. I paint fast naturally, but I get far better results if I make a concious decision to work at a steadier pace. Malifaux demands maybe a dozen models in a game, so spending a couple of hours on each one is no great hardship in the long run. Also, by winding your speed back you'll get a much better feel for your medium and your materials and gain an understanding of what you can do, which leads me on to...

2) Be realistic. We're painting zombie trollops and clockwork spiders, realism went out the window ages ago. But, if you're realistic about what you personally can achieve and work to that level, you'll push yourself in little increments and see improvements all the time. You can get perfectly decent results out of washing and drybrushing if that's where you're at skill-wise for example, and work towards blending etc over time.

When I started painting my Malifaux stuff, I was on some pretty hefty medication. I liked the paint job at the time, and it looked ok on the table top. I painted my Ramos crew specifically for a tournament, and really took my time with it, again I was happy with the job I did but when I put it next to my Ressers, I could see a vast difference. So, the Ressers are stripped and getting re-done slowly and to a standard I'm happy with now.

If you're not satisfied with how you're painting, do it different. Paint another figure slowly, carefully, using simple techniques and to the best of your ability and see how that compares. Keep it thin, keep it controlled and keep it simple.

[Evilbleachman]

A good thing to note is that you are experimenting with colors. This is actually an essential part in this line of hobby as a lot of people going into it have no clue what stuff can actually look like when it has been applied to the minis. I remember in my day, when I started with Warhammer 40k as a 14 year old, I would sit there for ages and think of what would look good together. Which color scheme I could choose. I ended up just painting a pre-given color scheme (Salamander Space Marines) because I couldn't get any bright ideas. So do experiment all you want. Remember: This models are pewter and easy to strip the paint off of. You can always redo them once you feel more comfortable.

Practice. Since you are in a phase of experimenting with colors, keep painting up. This will help you improve your brush skills and you will get more eye for the details the models all have. The more models you paint the better your skills will get!

Otherwise just start out with beginner materials. Simple acrylic paints and synthetic brushed should do for the beginning. Once you get a hang of it more switch to real haired brushes. This will imrpove your painting experience a lot, since they can save up a lot of paint in their 'bellies' and also have really good tips for the finer detail.

I do have a tutorial on how to paint undead skin, linked in my signature below. Since you are painting zombies, it might help to give you some ideas and also a bit more depth on the model painting process.

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Now to your models:

I am always up for bright colors. I think you are on the right direction with your Belles. The ladies like to draw attention to themselves, even in their post life!

I also find the idea you had on the Hooded Rider very interesting. The idea of multicolored snakes, or more a wider range of color there is a pretty neat idea. I personally do not care too much for the color selection, since the colors are just too bold to fit together well. But the general idea is really neat. I have one laying around and I might experiment with that idea you came up with a bit. Awesome!

[kmdl1066]

Absolutely fantastic advice given by everyone above. But if I can offer a small piece of advice, the number 1 thing you can do to make your painting look better is to finish the base. It is incredible how much better it makes the same paintjob look.

[HoboDevil]

Sweet! Thanks for all the info. Though I see you guard the secrets of your witchery carefully...

Couple questions regarding advice. Dry brushing...Seems this is a simple thing, but it completely eludes me. Am I incorrect in doing it as a last step? It was suggested to do it after the base coat (Which I had also been skipping. I've been priming black then painting all the details.) and THEN do the details. That could be a big part of my error(s)!

Also how can I keep the paint from getting that inelegant clumped look on the edges of some of my minis? Namely the yellow Belle in the pictures. Am I painting layers on too thick?

Could someone explain to me the purpose of "Glazes" in paints?

Thanks again!

[i_was_like_you]

I'm digging your Night of the Living Dead green zombie flesh tones. That's originally what I went with for my Necropunks, Mindless Zombies, Punk Zombies, and Crooked Men. For my Steampunk Abominations, Desolation Engine, and Steamborg Executioner, I opted for sickly blue-purple.

Now, though, my other undead models tend to just be Rotting Flesh green (primed white, a wash of Dark Flesh paint watered down, a skin tone, which I vary based on who the model would have been in life, then topped with the Rotting Flesh). Not quite the same steps EBM uses on his tutorial, but I think I get a good effect from it.

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Drybrushing can be done at most stages of painting. It merely refers to using a bare minimum amount of paint, whether blotting it on a paper towel or wet palette (as contradictory as that sounds), applied at a consistent angle to pick out ridges and details, while leaving other areas the base coat or wash or even primer underneath. [If you prime it the color you want to leave as your shadow color, then you've saved a step.] As you add more layers, leaving just the barest edges of the previous colors show accentuates the model.

It's so much easier to practice and learn by doing than it is to pick up by reading our tips. But at least we can give ya some ideas to try.

It looks like you're on the right track. Ya just could use some cleaner lines and transitions with your colors. Touch up the details. There isn't really a wrong way to get the models painted how you want them, but there are plenty of shortcuts that will keep ya from having to go back and touch up other parts later. Keep at it. Hope to see more from ya.

[Webmonkey]

I would say, lets start at the beginning,..

1) Clean lines. By this, I mean, to make sure that your colors live only where they are supposed to on the model. This is an important skill, and you seem to have a good grasp of it so far. For me, nothing kills a model faster then seeing the flesh color from the arm bleeding over onto the models tunic, or the silver from a helmet also painted too far down onto the strands of the hair.

2) Try painting flat first. By this, I mean straight, flat, raw colors,.. straight from the pot. This is going to give you more of a "cartoonish" look to your work. But that's ok. This is just a starting point. Once you have mastered this (in conjunction with clean lines), then you can move to the next steps of mixing custom colors and/or shading and highlighting. But for now, lets just stick to basics,..

3) Black lining. By this I mean to paint or "draw" a thin black line wherever 2 colors would otherwise meet. If the blue sleeve would touch the silver gauntlet,.. put a small black line there to separate the colors from each other. If the green pants would touch the brown boots,.. put a black line there as well. This is going to add to your "cartoonish" look. And you may eventually want to remove it from your paint style. But for beginners, it's a good way to "train your eye" as to where the separation points between colors should be.

4) Don't forget the eyes!!. This one gets overlooked a lot too,.. but, in my opinion, it helps to bring a sense of completeness to the models. Steps are as follows,..

-1)Flesh color the whole face.

-2)Put white in the general eye area. (doesn't have to be perfect at this point, just in the overall area)

-3) Place a small black dot in the white of each side of the face. (placement is important so they aren't googly-eyed or what have you. Colors can be done, but at this scale black works just as good)

-4) Go back to you flesh color, and make a small rainbow like arc over each eye section, centering the arc on the black dot. And then the same thing underneath each eye. Basically, you're using the flesh paint to "trim the eye into existence". Or to put it another way,..

Don't try to "paint the eye into the flesh"

Instead,.. "paint the flesh ~around~ the eye"

This process will save you much headaches down the line, and keep you from wanting to pull your hair out.

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Once you are comfortable with the results you get from these first steps, then we can move you on to more "gritty/realistic" type paint jobs. There are, of course, other techniques to learn (many of which have been suggested). But I feel that this is a good place to start, and should get you the basic fundamentals anyways.

Just my two cents,.. since I'm not exactly a Rembrandt either *grin*

Edited May 5, 2013 by Webmonkey

[HoboDevil]

You guys rock. Thanks so much for all the advice. Tomorrow is a day I plan to dedicate to painting, so I will have more janky photos for you to scoff at!

Also starting a project...The Resser master I use 9.5/10 times is Seamus, and I like Toshiro, but see....He just doesn't fit. So I'm going to Purdy him up! Going to give him a "Belle of the ball" theme, haha. Same will probably go for Yin of course...

[Zombie Kitt]

A glaze is an extremely thin wash that barely tints the paint underneath it. Think of it as coloured water rather than thin paint.

If you're using a black undercoat I would...

a) Basecoat.

Try not to go straight from the pot, but thin your paints a bit. Go steady and concentrate on getting a nice, even, smooth and tidy coat. You might need two or three coats of paint to get a consistent coverage, but that's cool. Webmonkey mentioned blacklining, you can get that done at this stage, but rather than painting a thin black line where two different colours meet, leave a tiny line of undercoat there instead. All done? Grab a coffee and let your mini dry completely.

Washing & Drybrushing.

You can get different effects by doing this stage in different orders, so you can have an experiment as see what works for you. But essentially, applying a wash is going to give you more depth of colour and apply some shading to the model. You'll get loads of use out of the black and brown GW washes. On your Necropunk for example, I'd use a black wash (probably 75% wash, 25% water) on the green flesh. It's gonna run into all the crevices and it'll give you nice definition around the details. Then I'd get another coffee, and let that wash get totally dry.

Then, I'm gonna take that nice dark green skin colour and get a little blob on my palette. To it, I'll add a spot of bonewhite (90% green, 10% bonewhite maybe) and give that a mix. Old nylon brush goes in that blob, I wipe off the paint and I know when the brush is loaded enough by testing it on my thumbnail. Little bit on the ridges and I'm good to go, solid line and it's too painty. First drybrush is going all over, flicking the brush quickly across all that green skin, mainly in an up-down direction, so I get some dark bits under his moobs and chin and armpits. Then another bit of bonewhite into the mix, drybrush again, but less than before as at this stage I want to build the highlight more so I'm gonna concentrate a bit more on those raised areas : tops of shoulders, top of belly. And the areas I want to stand out : face and feet. Then more bonewhite into the mix and go again, very gentle, little strokes this time only targeting area I want to have even more highlighting and interest. You can do as much or as little as you like here really. If it looks a bit chalky, you can glaze if you like.

b2) Glaze.

Thin your basegoat green down. Now do it again. Again. One more time. Now add some water. Bit thinner. Use a tiny amount of paint and a lot of water. You really want water with paint in it rather than the other way round. Once you've got something you're happy with, apply a coat to the green. You'll probably notice no real change and this is good. You might need to glaze a good number of times, but each coat will gradually unify those highlights and 3 to 10 coats down the line you'll see a difference.

c) Details.

Thin your paint again, but not too much. The last thing you want is for the paint to run off onto the skin you've just done, so maybe 2 parts paint to 1 part water, just whatever works for you. Now, take a deep breath, chill out and start working on the pipes, cables, sticky-out-bits, wounds and sores etc. Take your time, don't overload it with different colours and work to your limits.

d) Know when to stop. When you are satisfied with what you've done, put it down and have a coffee.

Repeat the process with the big metal limbs and you've got 90% of the little dude done. You can apply the same basic principle to anything really, though it'll work much better on darker paint jobs than light ones.

[Wooden Crow]

@webmonkey, that is a really good idea about painting the flesh around the eye. Trying to do eyes (which is the way i have been doing it) has caused untold amounts of frustration.

[Webmonkey]

Always happy to offer useful advice. The eyes are one thing that beginners always have constant complaints about. So I just figured that breaking it down into a few simple steps would help make it not be such a "chore".

[i_was_like_you]

a) Basecoat...

All done? Grab a coffee and let your mini dry completely.

Washing & Drybrushing.

Then I'd get another coffee, and let that wash get totally dry.

First drybrush is going all over, flicking the brush quickly across all that green skin, mainly in an up-down direction, so I get some dark bits under his moobs and chin and armpits.

b2) Glaze.

c) Details.

d) Know when to stop. When you are satisfied with what you've done, put it down and have a coffee.

Repeat the process with the big metal limbs and you've got 90% of the little dude done. You can apply the same basic principle to anything really, though it'll work much better on darker paint jobs than light ones.

Digging the advice, but I have a feeling with all that coffee, the guy's Necropunk is going to look like a Jackson Pollock. :-P

Moobs...That is all.

[PipX]

A technique you might want to consider, is "dipping" or "magic washing." I have been painting models and doing wargames since I was a very young, starting about 13 years ago. I am a horrible painter. To me the process is 1. Build/convert awesome stuff, 2. ???,3. Play with awesome models.

You can use certain varieties of Minwax Polyshades, or the Army Painter brand which works a bit better for models to act as a final step which shades and seals the models with a gloss varnish. You just do block painting, which is painting areas in a base color, and then painting on the dip (Basically a wood varnish, or if you make the magic dip colored floor polish) or dipping it then shaking off the excess, which causes it to shade the model.