Old dog seeking new tricks

[stokerd]

I've been painting for several years now, and my level got to what most on here would consider table-top painting. Which is fine, because I painted to play with cool armies. However, due to health restrictions, my gaming time has fallen off dramatically.

These health issues have also affected my painting, specifically fine motor control. Basically, I have shaky hands This doesn't lend itself well to trying to layer on highlights and have good results, which has led me to almost quitting painting altogether. However, I decided I wasn't going to let this happen.

I've started to experiment with dry-brushing, and am looking for advice on any highlight method (including dry-brushing) that can lead to good results. I will never get to Golden Demon level, but I am hoping to at least get back to that high table-top quality that I had before.

Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Zab]

Have you seen any of James Wappel's work? In the early stages of his work the minis look like hell and he slowly refines them. I got in on the KS and have a bunch of his videos. I am dying to try his approach on a few minis, but it flies in the face of all the control I've developed over the years, but you cannot argue with his results. It's a little bit exciting

 

[MAXXxxx]

I'd first suggest to try the following:
- put your elbows to the desk, then your wrists against each other, so one supports the other. For me that helps a LOT as the only parts that can be shaky and affect the painting are the fingers.


if that doesn't help, then what you could do is going up in smaller steps when drybrushing and using a smaller brush for it when 'painting' details AND using washes to hide any painting mistakes (usually the part that's lower should be shaded anyway, so a wash there can help in both shading and masking any mistakes)

Here is a figure, where I did this january. The mini (except skin, where I couldn't resist my usual way of painting) was done only with drybrushing and washes (that was the challenge, using only those 2 techniques)
View attachment 29138

 

[stokerd]

thanks for the replies, guys. Zab, I've been looking into Wappel, but can't find his videos available anywhere. I found the Kickstarter, wish I could have seen it when it was running.

MAXX, thanks - I do some similar bracing as you describe already. It helps, but ... not as much as I want. I saw that model earlier, browsing for drybrushing help I think, it's gorgeous. Great job!!

 

[Zab]

He will likely have them for sale as downloads in the future so don't sweat it.

 

[stokerd]

Well, I finished my first model in over a year today. Started painting him yesterday - he is the test model for a new Imperial Guard Stormtrooper army I have laying around - all nice metal Kasrkin Hopefully they approve him soon, so you guys can see.

Image URL: http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img53b906f7b328e.jpg

 

[MAXXxxx]

it looks pretty good, especially with the shaky hands you described. The edges of the colors are where they should be, so there *is* enough control there, especially as you could paint the eyes pretty good too.

What I noticed on the pic (not to be changed here, but maybe on next figure):
- the bottom of the sides of the blade could be a bit darker blue, so there is a bigger contrast AND to help separate the edge from the side more.
- metals could use a bit more wash to help bring out the detail (for example the pattern on the grenade)
- for now I'd leave the pipe one color
- how did you paint the edges? with the side of the brush or with the point? Most GW shops teach to use the point, but imho that only makes it harder to do clean lines so I'd suggest the edge. Also another small trick I use here: after painting the lines, if they are not straigth enough I add a thinned blob of the panel's color to the middle, then from there carefully spread it towards the edge, making them thinner and neater. Because of the bigger surface I have some play area, so I don't have to be extra careful.
- no idea how thick is the paint on the eagles, but a wash could show the wings here.


as to the drybrush question what I think can help:
- thin the paint down with water: pretty counterintuitive, but helps going in smaller steps AND not obstructing details with the Xth drybrush
- go in small steps. GW tutorials today are like: base, 1-2 shade, 1drybrush. You could change that 1 drybrush to X (X depends on surface size and your confort zone, can be just the same 1 or can be 10 or more)
- more or less controlled washes help a lot in controlling the final result.
- to help in protecting already finished parts you could:
a. be really careful with a small/smaller brush
b. use a liquid mask (basically any brand, but VMC, revell being common where I live) to mask the finished part.

 

[vmpewaith]

There is a good tutorial on miniwargaming.com . This and the focused dry-brushing technique video may help. Its a subscription site but its not much and you get 7 days free.

http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/btp-basic-painting-techniques-value-tinting

small brushes. Thinned paints and many layers.

The image you showed looks ok. I have shaky hands also and fined that thinned paints and lot and lots of coats can help as a small shake doesn't show as quickly as when using thicker paints. I also lay on a little then take a break then do a little more which helps. My enemy is patience and as soon as I thicken my paint I mess up the mini.

 

[stokerd]

I used the Shaded Basecoat idea, used by James Wappel. This covered a lot of my initial mistakes and worked exactly how I was expecting. With practice, I could see this being useful. The problem is that really only covers about 80% of the mini, and for that i had to fall back on other techniques.

The eyes look good because of a trick I learned a long time ago, similar to to your trick about painting edges. Paint the eyes first, and be as sloppy as you want/need. Then paint the face, moving from the eyes out. It helps to focus the face on the eyes, which it should, and can give extremely good results. I've really benefited from it.

Yeah, and patience is my enemy, too. This mini took me almost 8 hours, including drying times, and I just kept wanting to do it "quick-enough" to get by. This comes out in the metal (which I hate doing) and they have basecoat, highlight, wash - nothing else. Definitely noticeable when you know there are three 'basecoats' before two washes and spot highlight, just on the armor.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! And the words of encouragement. It's good to be back painting again.

 

[Trevor]

For many things a light undercoat and a wash will look pretty good (I'm currently painting Imperial guard with just basecoat and wash for pretty much everything and they look great for table top). The GW washes and glazes are pretty good for getting a nice effect quickly and you can mix them to get different shades for different colours. You could try the following:
Black undercoat, dark base coat leaving a little bit of black in the deepest depressions, wet brush* with lighter colour, wash with darker colour, wet brush if needed with lighter colour.
Or, try a white undercoat, wash with dark brown (or other dark colour suitable for the main colour on the model), wet brush with the colour you want for the area. Then add wash/glaze/wet brush steps as required.

*By wet brush, I mean like drybrushing, but with with slightly watered down paint and moving the brush in one direction, rather than scrubbing all over. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it you can quickly build up highlights that are close to blening/layering in how good they look. You lose a little bit of control, but then with the shaky hands you don't have as good fine control anyway.