Starting with the face?

[10 ball]

I always start a mini with the face, I've read that you should not do this because there is a chance of overpowering the colour/shade of the face with the rest of the colours of the mini.

What do you lot think?

Oh, and also ive started to lick my brushes - I caught myself last night, its becoming a habit...:curse!: helppppp

 

[finn17]

There is always two sides to every coin....

I'm the same as you and always start with the face as it gives me motivation to finish the rest. It's also the most difficult part as far as I am concerned and I like to get that over and done with.

There is also a school of thought which says that you should paint a mini from the inside out...skin - clothes - armour - accessories etc. Personally, I feel people should just 'go with the flow' and do whatever feels right for them.

 

[SkelettetS]

i pretty much always start with the face, its nice to have someone to talk to when painting the rest

 

[Noddwyr]

i pretty much always start with the face, its nice to have someone to talk to when painting the rest

HAHAHAH! That made my day, thanks.

I pretty much just paint whatever I feel I need to paint next, or whatever I am in the mood for. That usually ends up with me painting the face first and then painting the rest.

 

[10 ball]

i pretty much always start with the face, its nice to have someone to talk to when painting the rest

LOL, no its nice to have someone to 'SHOUT' at when painting the rest! LOL LOL LOL

 

[Einion]

I always start a mini with the face, I've read that you should not do this because there is a chance of overpowering the colour/shade of the face with the rest of the colours of the mini.

Where?

Oh, and also ive started to lick my brushes - I caught myself last night, its becoming a habit...:curse!: helppppp

Can't help you there. You're the one has to get out of the habit (which I'd highly recommend).

Einion

 

[10 ball]

Hi Einion, I read it in an 'Eavy Metal painting article in white dwarf. Before xmas I think.

 

[RuneBrush]

Personally it depends entirely on the thing I'm painting and how accessible things are to my brush. Things like the face (as they're generally a focal point) I will often paint last if there is any chance I may bash them with a brush whilst painting something else (bare-headed marine tends to have his face done after the armour) as I find it harder to touch the face up. I seem to recall reading GW suggesting that the face should be the last thing to paint too.

And there's nothing wrong with licking brushes.

p.

 

[A Luna]

I most of the time paint it as one of the last. That way I can mess the mini up after having some fun from it instead of messing it up before I actually do the rest.

 

[Talion]

Always painted as If I was getting dressed, Skin first and work my way out.

 

[BPI]

Generally I'd say get the face in early if you're aiming above TT. Too easy to screw it up & end up with a cross-eyed clown. If I'm going to abandon or strip a mini, I don't want to have spent forever on their trousers beforehand I suspect that as abilities & confidence increase it becomes less & less of an issue though.

You mention overpowering the face with colour applied elsewhere later. The face is done, you can see it, why would you ignore it whilst painting the rest of the mini? Besides which it's easy to bung a couple of glazes over the face to tweak it if needs be. One of the advantages to the wet pallette is having colours you used earlier still in front of you. It makes it very easy to do touchups as you go, rather than thinking that you must get that pot of paint out again later (and then forgetting).

Brushlicking? With or without paint? Practice some oil washes & use more TCR, that'll sort you out quicksmart

Cheers, B.

 

[Ordo Septenarius]

I tend to do the face last. It's the icing on the cake, the cherry on top, or however else you'd like to define it.

I also tend to do any dry-brushing first. It gets routinely very messy, and any overlap will need to be cleaned up or covered over, so hitting up the chainmail after you have spent 12 coats blending up that tunic can be a risky gamble!

Also, I lick my brushes into a point whenever I have finished rinsing them in water. Apparently, from reading these forums and others, it happens quite often. I only use Reaper Master series, but for the Quality vs. Price and "Why and how do those sell?" you'd think that they put something addictive in the Games Workshop paints!

 

[Einion]

Hi Einion, I read it in an 'Eavy Metal painting article in white dwarf. Before xmas I think.

Well I think you can see now that it is definitely a matter of opinion! Take stuff you read on painting (and most other things) that's not stated as an opinion with a pinch of salt, no matter who it's from.

I generally start with the skin too, often painting skin-out but not always.

Einion

 

[freakinacage]

Always painted as If I was getting dressed, Skin first and work my way out.

aye me too, but then again, i'm, rubbish!

 

[StillLifeMiniatures]

I've also was told about "dressing the mini", starting with face and skin tones and working outward. I personally paint whichever strikes me. Sometimes I'm in the mood to do fiddly detail work and other times I only have the patience for painting larger areas. Go with the gut.... it's a creative process.

 

[Mourner]

I paint whatever needs to be painted, Usually starting with any drybrushing.
Because of the mess inherit to the technique.

But after that, my impatience kicks in (really ) and I paint whatever I want to see finished first.
Wether that's the weapon, the armor, the face or the cloak. Or even the base...
I don't finish one color before moving on, I just finish what I want to see.
but I don't move on before it's finished (apart from minor tweaks).

That said, I usually block in my models fairly early on in the painting proces (again, because I want to "see" the finished model, but also to check my colorscheme). This limits the amount of "messing up" I have to do later on. (I use a 0-brush to block in, and a 00000-brush for anything else)

-Mourner

 

[Kretcher]

Generally I'd say get the face in early if you're aiming above TT. Too easy to screw it up & end up with a cross-eyed clown. If I'm going to abandon or strip a mini, I don't want to have spent forever on their trousers beforehand I suspect that as abilities & confidence increase it becomes less & less of an issue though.
...
Brushlicking? With or without paint? Practice some oil washes & use more TCR, that'll sort you out quicksmart

Cheers, B.

BPI That last suggestion from you to get rid of the brushlicking is a really nasty way to do it, but it will surly help.

 

[10 ball]

I think will will carry on starting with the face, I suppose we all have our own styles and ways of doing things and it works for me.

As for the infamous brush licking, well, I will continue with this strange ritual that I thought so weird before I joined CMON. When painting alone at night just I, vallajo and the accursed mini us painters need
some form of structure and order in our painting charade. This 'Licking of the brush' seems to encompass us painters with a sense of 'painters comfort' that seems to have started some form of mass hysteria
that doing this act will improve our work. Well for me its seems to be chuffin working as my masterpieces are improving by the week! :brushlick:

 

[Avelorn]

Well from the perspective of doing an army I'd say it's not a bad idea to paint the skin last if you haven't already nailed a recipe. Say if you do space marines you can easily realise that your skin recipe works poorly with the colours of the armour.

When doing display kinds of miniatures I usually both start and finish with the skin. I first paint until I've nailed a skintone I like and then choose the rest of the colours accordingly (the shade of red to use if I paint blood angels or whatever). Then lastly I go over the skin again introducing little nuances and details that help tie the mini together.

 

[MightyChad]

I always start with the dominant part of the mini, armor on a space marine, black orc, or chaos warrior. Or the skin on a savage orc, chaos marauder, or beastman. So the only way I paint the face first is if the mini is a lightly armored figure.