Eyes!

[Shadow]

Hi,
Don\'t you just hate eyes?
Doing them is such a pain and so when I mucked up my last pair I decided to see what other people though so.....
Do you bother to paint the eyes on your models(I mean human ones with white and black not just red or summin\')...
If so how do you do yours?

 

[supervike]

the eyes have it...

Yes! I struggle with the darn eyes.

There is a few good articles about them in the article section (where else!) One by zaphod is pretty good.

I usually paint a darker flesh color over the eyes. Carefully use white to color the eye ball (leaving a tiny line of the darker color). Then I kind of cheat since I use a Micron Pigma pen to \'draw\' in the iris/pupil.

The eyes are usually the focal point for the mini, so they are important to get right.

 

[Dragonsreach]

I have tried every thing with eyes, pens, small (10/0) brushes & pins.
But the first time I\'ve got them right is the B****Y VIC#9 mini and can\'t show it yet! Typical.
My tip for eyes Breath Slowly do the eye closest to your primary hand. (ie Right to right) then turn the mini upside down and do the other eye. That\'s how I got the one I can\'t show you, yet, right.

As for those smart alec\'s who paint in the Iris\'s don\'t they just really annoy you.

 

[barkel]

Eye wish! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! oh, I\'m an idiot.

I cannot paint the iris and the pupil AND add the subtle glow of light, which I have seen some people do. If I ever reach that level I will have to... who am I kidding? I\'ll never reach that level.

I paint the eye ball palid flesh. Then I dot the eye with a micro pen. I don\'t think of this as cheating. Occasionally I surprise myself and do quite well.

If you want to see my eyes check out two of my minis. I believe all of them were done with a pen except the goblin. His was far more difficult. I dotted his eye with a very fine brush.

barkel

 

[finn17]

The big secret IMO is.....

Micro pens!!!!

I am a much happier bunny since I started using these little babies. My other big secret is. I always paint the faces first, when I am totally happy with these, I mask them off with fluid and paint the rest. There is nothing worse than painting a first calss mini (in your own humble opinion) and then screwing the face up repeatedly.

Try it. See if it works for you?:flip:

 

[darthfoley]

My method (which, granted, can be hit or miss) is to paint the entire eyesocket area black, then place a white dot on each side.

I know, I know, it sounds harder than the \'usual\' way. But it really is easier and helps you avoid that \'stare\' that the little guys sometimes get.

Though I\'ve been known to use a Micron pen when a particular piece frustrated me enough.

 

[Pellimore]

I had the old eye problem, but I found the perfect solution...slap a helmet over it. Works for me!

Have fun!
-Pellimore

 

[supervike]

sounds familiar....

Originally posted by Pellimore
I had the old eye problem, but I found the perfect solution...slap a helmet over it. Works for me!

Have fun!
-Pellimore

Nice! This is similar to my old answer to the problem. Every mini gets an eye patch!! I could get one eye to look right, but the other was \'mysteriously\' blinded in a fight, thus the eyepatch...

 

[laurence]

Originally posted by supervike


Nice! This is similar to my old answer to the problem. Every mini gets an eye patch!! I could get one eye to look right, but the other was \'mysteriously\' blinded in a fight, thus the eyepatch...

lol What a classic comment lol
I\'m having trouble containing my laughter here

My latest mini could sure use an eyepatch!!!

 

[Fabian]

An eye painting adventure

First I finish the face then the hardest part the EYES!!

Paint the eyes black and a very small area round the eye then paint the white on the eye and leaving a black line a round the eye.
Now comes the hard part to place the dots and this just need a steady hand so be very relaxed when doing this and don\'t be rushed and place the dots.
So that\'s done and look happy to those eyes.

And discover that :flame:
Damn!! HE\'S GOT CRAZY EYES!!!

So your gonna try to fix that by removing the black dot with white place again a black dot
and you totally fuck up because your stressed.
Then you must paint the eyes and face again and that\'s the circle of eye painting.

Well good luck with your adventure!
Cheers!

 

[Flashman14]

Try painting the negative space . . in other words - on a black undercoat go ahead and blob on the white on either side of the iris then reshape the eye with black. That way you don\'t have to get tiny white dots exactly in the right place - you just have to black out what you dont want left.
Then frame the remaining with your base or shadow flesh color. - I do the same with small straps (like on minifigs) - I blob on the strap first (before the uniform color) then black out what isn\'t strap rather than trying to paint one thin perfect line . . .

 

[ZaPhOd]

Er, yeah!

Liek the man said, check my article

Interesting Finn, that you do the eyes and face first as well. I have to agree. I mean, messing up the face this early means a quick soak. Start over. Messing up the face after 8 hours on a mini just plain blows goats!!!!

 

[Lai]

hey finn what fluid you use to cover the face?i tryed vallejo liquid mask but it glue on the paint and when i remove it the paint goes away with the mask

 

[Corvus]

I tried some other colors for the iris other than black. Blue, green, brown or grey eyes look more realistic than those black dots

 

[Corvus]

:bouncy: jippie :bouncy:
that was post number 400

 

[U4-Welcome]

I want a micro pen !!

Ugh. I paint the sockets and eyelids a dark skin color, then paint the whites, then put pupils in. Sounds simple ? Takes me about two hours every time. Yup, count\'em, 120 minutes. Some people paint whole minis in that time.
Maybe one of the reasons for this is that the best tool I have is a 3/0. But hell, in the end (i.e. after 2 years of painting) I have finally gotten down a way to make not only decent, but beautiful eyes. IMO. So what am I complaining about ?

 

[Panza]

I don\'t usually bother with eyes. If you hold up your figure in a crowded street (haven\'t we all done that....ahem) and try to match the scale to a real person at a distance, you don\'t see the eyes, just a vague impression of the shadows of the face.

Eyes that are done well look good, but I can never get away from the feeling that they still look a bit wrong. Using white always looks too stark. Any other colour than black for the iris isn\'t realistic for scale, and on the subject of scale, the height of the eye in of a 28mm figure shouldn\'t be more than a fifth of a millimetre, and who (other than the painting gods) can paint that?

If I’m feeling frisky I\'ll sometimes go for superhero eyes and paint only the \'white\', but who has time for pupils and irises?

 

[laurence]

Originally posted by Fabian
First I finish the face then the hardest part the EYES!!

Paint the eyes black and a very small area round the eye then paint the white on the eye and leaving a black line a round the eye.
Now comes the hard part to place the dots and this just need a steady hand so be very relaxed when doing this and don\'t be rushed and place the dots.
So that\'s done and look happy to those eyes.

And discover that :flame:
Damn!! HE\'S GOT CRAZY EYES!!!

So your gonna try to fix that by removing the black dot with white place again a black dot
and you totally fuck up because your stressed.
Then you must paint the eyes and face again and that\'s the circle of eye painting.

Well good luck with your adventure!
Cheers!

lol

What you mean I\'m not the only one that produces crazy eyes

 

[barkel]

eyes to scale

I\'ve heard the Eyes to Scale argument before. That if you view a person from far enough away so that they are the same size as your mini you will not be able to see their eyes. This is true, but you also won\'t be able to see half of their body because of shadow. Most light colored objects become grey from shadow or white and washed out. And dark objects become black. Not to mention all the detail fades. The 4 layers of color shading you add to the hair would be indistinguishable from that distance. The stylized monogram you added to the backpack would disappear. You can\'t add all that detail and then just say that the eyes would not be noticeable.

I look at it this way; If I were to meet a person who for some reason had been shrunk to 1.25 inches and I held him up for observation, I\'d be able to see his eyes. I\'d be able to make out all of the tiny details.

Eyes are hard as crap, and it is usually what will make the difference between a model I want to show off and the other 90% of what I do. But I still don\'t think they should be ignored.

barkel

ps. What really makes me mad is when the mini has screwed up eyes before I even paint. Who\'s genious idea was it to make the mold line run right down the center of the eye? And is it me or can GW not make dwarfs with a normal left eye? At least 20% of my dwarfs have some gash in their left eye, or they have extra pewter that has to be cut out, or some other problem that renders making the eye look good impossible from the start. I love GW, I think their minis are great, but they need to invest some money in QC.

 

[Malfecto]

First thing I paint on a miniature are the eyes. I guess I got that instruction from the article here at CMoN and it works for me. You can be a bit more sloppy and go back and prime the overpaint after.

I have also taken to painting the eyeball a light shade of grey with a dark shade of grey for the iris. This just feels more real to me. It is only really noticable if you are looking for it though as the contrast makes it look black and white.