Damn your eyes, To paint 1st or last

[Show Case Studio]

i am having trouble painting eyes on my 28mm minnis, and was wondering how othere people do theres, is it best to paint them first or at the end, you no how i ust feel, you spend hours painting and shadeing the face till you sit back and have little smile, then you start the eyes and hey presto you ruein the face around the eyes, any ideas guys,

 

[Ritual]

You will get different answers from different painters. It depends on HOW you paint the eyes which is best. I prefer painting them last. I have found it much easier to ruin a pair of eyes I\'m happy with while painting the rest of the face, than vice versa. But, no matter how you go about it, practice is the key!

 

[demonherald]

yeah I\'m in the last camp too .. painted over so many that I have liked doing it the other way.

It\'s just a case of as said practise and bing as steady as possible with a nice fine pointed brush.

one thing I have been finding a lately particularly with GW models is that they seem to have one nicely sculpted eye and one dud so before painting I make sure to check it and if needed a tiny ball of putty is used to mke a readable eye.

 

[Crayfish]

I do them first... i tend outline with a dark colour first and then start doing the eyes, then its really easy just to paint the face, as ritual said he does it when he is happy with the face, i do the face when im happy with the eyes lol .

Just have a steady hand when painting eyes i guess

 

[Beelzebrush]

I paint them last too. I find it easier to detail into a finished face rather than to paint around the eyes afterwards.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Show Case Studio
...is it best to paint them first or at the end...

Up to you. I think it\'s a good idea to paint them first when you\'re starting out, then when you have more experience (and confidence - makes a huge difference) you might like to try doing them later, see if it works for you.

No reason to do them any which way, other than what works best for you.

Einion

 

[Dragonsreach]

Whatever you are most comfortable with.
I prefer eyes first.

 

[Pixel]

I prefer not to paint them at all >.< no but usually the face first and then the eyes, but I might try the other way next time and see what I think about it.

 

[Show Case Studio]

thanks guys will keep practising and will get them right yet,

 

[Jericho]

The easiest way to do eyes is obviously to glue a helmet on the model during assembly. I hate painting eyes, I\'m never happy with them. I\'m never happy with skin either, although I\'m finally getting into a good groove using Tallarn Flesh as the base.

Anyway I like to do the eyes pretty close to the end of the face. I do them before I do the final glaze/hilight on the skin, so if I need to touch up around the eyes then I don\'t have to repeat quite as many steps.

 

[Joek]

I\'ll do the eyes late on into the painting - if they work they really do make a figure pop, and if they don\'t...well, my bin is close by

 

[Shawn R. L.]

I\'ve finally accepted that I will most likely never do good looking eyes!!

 

[SJB]

Last here. I find that I paint the eyes to fit the face and try to enhance the character. Harder to do if you paint them first.

 

[JesterzUSMC]

I find that when I do the eyes last, I end up getting the \'tooney\' googley eyes, and when I do them first they tend not to pop enough based on the rest of the face.
I\'ve gotten pretty good results by painting the base flesh color, shading and first highlights, then doing the eyes, and then I can adjust the shading/highlighting further to tone down or lighten up the look of the eyes.
just IMHO.

 

[bullfrog]

I often paint my eyes first as a result of so many disappointments of having nailed the face and not being able to cut it with the eyes ... so much wasted time.
Now when I want a strong focal point I paint my eyes first and either leave a blackline or wash around them depending on the result I am after ... that way I don\'t have to get so close when painting around them later on.
If there is little room for a margin around them such as with a pale female face I will sometimes dot a bit of liquid mask over them to prevent any accident.
Only when I am happy with the eyes do I move on to the next bit.

 

[tooshy]

It\'s interesting to see that so many of you paint the eyes in last. I have always painted mine first on the basis that the face is usually the hardest part for me.

I work on the principle that if I can get the face right, the rest should be easier to do! Also painting the face brings the model to life and gives me motivation to finish.

Having said all of that, I can see the benefits of doing the eyes last, especially SB\'s comments about being able to enhance the character once the face has been done.

I guess it\'s whatever floats your boat, but I might be a devil and have a go at leaving them till last

 

[Ritual]

@toosh
I think the question is whether to paint the eyes before painting the rest of the face, or paint the eyes when the face is done. Not, whether to save the eyes till the whole mini is done. At least that\'s how I perceived the question.

I usually paint the face rather early on. Pretty much for the reason Steve mentioned. The face sort of sets the character of the mini, and a finished face can influence you to paint the rest in a certain way.

 

[supervike]

Just paint one eye,

The other can be an eyepatch...they are always popular.

 

[Ritual]

If you have truoble deciding, paint one eye first and save the other till last. :idea:

 

[fiesta0618]

I do eyes first, every time, but that\'s because I don\'t have good enough brushes...mine are dime-a-dozen synthetics, but I bought a huge stack for cheap when I didn\'t know any better and would hate to waste \'em. So! Eyes first!