How do I improve my painiting skills?

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

Hi everybody,

I want to know how I can improve my painting skills. Therefore I uploaded some pictures of Bombur.

Thank you for your help.

truck22 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:41 am

I would suggest you to:

Use more muted colours for Bomburs hair. Those heavy reds should only be used for armour and extremely red hair.

Attempt to put the pupils at the same spot in the eyes. He now looks like if he is a mad cartoon guy.

Attempt to do layering on the clothes.

That is what I think would improve your paunting.
Ps: It looks pretty good

Sithious · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 1:47 pm

I don't see any coloring outside the lines, so your foundation is good. You could use some work on highlighting/shading (which will be a lifelong practice for all of us).
The red color choice was off, it was too much contrast with the base coat so it doesn't show as a highlight and instead looks like a bloody nose. The hair particularly and else where on the model you could use sharper highlights, or deeper shadows as the case may be.

As for suggestions overall;
1 - Read many articles on painting, try for one a week, on any painting topic.
2 - Research what you are painting. Movie stills, pictures of other painted models like the one you are doing, pictures of cloth colors/patterns... what ever it is. example if painting a horse, look at a few pictures of horses in the color you are aiming for.
3 - practice. not just on models, you can practice fine line and brush control on paper.
4 - read up on color theory. See what relationships the colors have. You have a cool grey, a dark green that is walking the neutral line, and warm colors for the coat, hair, face. These relationships can help or hurt a overall appearance. A painter on here Gandlaf the Grey often will talk color theory when shading to create contrasts and deeper shadows. All of this is helpful for the end results.

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

Thank you for your help.

Should I try to improve Bombur or should I leave him as he is and try to respect your tips on a new miniature (I am thinking of Alfrid)?

I am not very happy with the trousers colour, which colour would be better?

truck22 · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 4:24 pm

Very light grey?

Gene Parmesan · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 4:42 pm

What kind of result are you looking for?

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

It should look similar to the trousers like GW painted him l, but not that dark. It should also fit the rest of the miniature.

halauas · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 9:06 pm

You should do what the above members suggested, read articles, watch videos or even ask personally a painter you like his work for more details advice, i am sure everyone will help gladly.
BUT i would strongly suggest if you are on the stage to improve your painting skills and try new techniques to practice on either old plastic miniatures or metal ones. Because you cant strip after finecast or the anything from the hobbit range so you might have a bombur painted to a beginers level and a thorin painted a lot better next to each other and thats something you might not like.
Every miniature you practice new techniques on will be better than the last one and you will eventually reach a satisfying result.
Just an advice because i have experienced the same a year ago and i must say i did not like it

Wise Old Elf · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 10:40 pm

Your painting is good, there's definite attempts at highlights, and you've even managed the eyes, which is something I avoided at all costs for about six years of hobbying. :-D

My only suggestion would be to increase the contrast between your foundation and highlights. Shadows should be really dark, and highlights fairly bright. Even black tends to look better with a final highlight of something like Administratum Grey. My personal experience is to use a base (something quite dark), followed by a wash to darken all recessed shadows, then a layer using something slightly brighter than the base colour from earlier, and a final highlight of something bright. And always use thinned layers (with water) to let the colours blend a little more. So let's say I was painting something brown, my final recipe might end up being =

Base = Dryad Bark.
Wash = Agrax Earthshade.
Layer = Gorthor Brown.
Highlight = Karak Stone.

If it was a larger area, let's say a huge billowing cloak, I might add a layer before the final highlight using a 1:1 mix of the layer and highlight colours (for the brown example this would be Gorthor and Karak).

Hope this helps.

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

halauas wrote:

You should do what the above members suggested, read articles, watch videos or even ask personally a painter you like his work for more details advice, i am sure everyone will help gladly.
BUT i would strongly suggest if you are on the stage to improve your painting skills and try new techniques to practice on either old plastic miniatures or metal ones. Because you cant strip after finecast or the anything from the hobbit range so you might have a bombur painted to a beginers level and a thorin painted a lot better next to each other and thats something you might not like.
Every miniature you practice new techniques on will be better than the last one and you will eventually reach a satisfying result.
Just an advice because i have experienced the same a year ago and i must say i did not like it

Thank you for this tip. Would you say that I should try to improve my skills before I start to paint plastic/ fine cast heros? I only have some night goblins from warhammer and a metal Sam, are they good enough for learning how to paint?

Wise Old Elf wrote:

Your painting is good, there's definite attempts at highlights, and you've even managed the eyes, which is something I avoided at all costs for about six years of hobbying. :-D

My only suggestion would be to increase the contrast between your foundation and highlights. Shadows should be really dark, and highlights fairly bright. Even black tends to look better with a final highlight of something like Administratum Grey. My personal experience is to use a base (something quite dark), followed by a wash to darken all recessed shadows, then a layer using something slightly brighter than the base colour from earlier, and a final highlight of something bright. And always use thinned layers (with water) to let the colours blend a little more. So let's say I was painting something brown, my final recipe might end up being =

Base = Dryad Bark.
Wash = Agrax Earthshade.
Layer = Gorthor Brown.
Highlight = Karak Stone.

If it was a larger area, let's say a huge billowing cloak, I might add a layer before the final highlight using a 1:1 mix of the layer and highlight colours (for the brown example this would be Gorthor and Karak).

Hope this helps.

Thank you for this tip, I will try out the layering this or next week if I have enough time.

Gene Parmesan · **Posted:** Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:04 pm

The old 'how do I paint better?' question has no real answer, or at least not one answer. There are many different approaches, so the best thing is to find some models you like the look of and try to emulate the style. However there is a learning curve of some basic steps which I think helps you along the way. Try getting comfortable with the following techniques in this order.

1) preparing the model, file the blobs lumps and mold lines. also priming in black or white whichever you prefer.

2) Painting within the lines. The basic component of painting. Proper colours in the proper places. Stay neat

3) Layering - this is where you start to get your models to have a bit of life to them. Dark in the deep parts, light on the extremeties. A cloak is the best example. If you don't have a steady hand then drybrushing is a quick way to achieve this result and get your head around the concept, but building up in layers is better.

4) paint consistency. This again depends on the style of painting. More advanced painting usually requires more watering down.

5) Shading. This is where you use watered down dark paints to seep into the cracks. This helps the colours blend together, and can be a quick way of layering basic colours.

6) details. Don't do eyes until you are comfortable with them. Big eyes can ruin a model. a little purple and grey mixed together and watered down can make an eye socket look like it has eyes without actually painting them. Big white blobs never look convincing.

This is a very basic guide. Most of the tutorials online are quite advanced, and wont be much good until you grasp these basics. The original 3 LOTR rulebooks had nice sections on painting for beginners, or else some old bgime magazines.

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

Thank you for your tips. I will post some pictures when I painted an other miniature.

Harfoot · **Posted:** Sun Feb 15, 2015 5:53 pm

all i can add to the brilliant posts above is to take your time and enjoy your painting, as long as you are happy with the result it doesnt matter what anyone else thinks. Also i know my painting will never be at the level of some painters, but i enjoy every minute i paint, and thats all that matters at the end of the day.

Dior · **Posted:** Sun Feb 15, 2015 11:59 pm

Your painting skills are not too bad you know.

But if you want to improve your skills I can best suggest you make use of a wet pallet.

Because it will let you use paint blending without the worry of your paint going off and dry.

I use one..you put your paint on baking paper which is resting on a foam pad holding water. There typically made out of blister packets and the packaging foam.

anyways I put paint on the pallet one night and three days later it was still wet and usable. I'm not kidding.

So you can paint when you have the time and any interruptions or jobs to do you can go off and do those and your paint mix can stay there for you to pick up again later... taking the stress out of having the time to paint.

And you can explore shading and those things that make colour really pop on your mini.

Check this artical out on coolmini or not

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

Hi,

Thank you for this link; I threw away a blister just two days ago

(however, now I have an excuse for buying something new

).

Elladan & Elrohir · **Posted:** Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:25 pm

Good painting videos really help. That was how I learned a lot. When you read about painting a miniature it can be hard to put what you learned into practice, or when you watch a live demonstration you are subject to time and place and you don't have all the nice features of a video.

Youtube has some really great resources on how to paint models. Games Workshop has a nice series by Duncan Rhodes on it's Warhammer TV Channel. You can pick up a lot of useful techniques and tips. (The subjects are all Warhammer though.)

Warhammer TV
https://www.youtube.com/user/GamesWorkshopWNT/featured

Here's one of the simpler videos on painting Cadian Shock Troops to give you an idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enUqWuU ... pRYmfJhZc1

And above all, enjoy! A nice relaxed set up and environment is perfect. I never paint when stressed or on a deadline. I just relax and enjoy the process.

Hope that helps!

Elladan

GreatKhanArtist · **Posted:** Sat Mar 07, 2015 6:34 pm

I would suggest buying some cheap/wrecked minis to practice on. You can do whatever you like to them without feeling like you messed up a favorite character. Washes improve a mini so much. If you can afford it, buy a copy of the new citadel painting book. You can copy the tutorials and there is a base/wash/highlight guide for almost every color. I did the Haradrim and am very happy with them. Try these on the cheap minis until you are happy. I also shamelessly copy the painting guides in the White Dwarfs.

I usually don't paint eyes in LotR minis. Their eyes are too small and they look psychotic. I use washes to define the shadow of the eye. Horses get a black eye with a tiny white dot to suggest reflection. My wargs are all the old version with squinty eyes, so I wash those too.

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

Hi everybody.

I have a problem:

I tried to do some highlighting, but it did not work that good. I do have 20 Erebor warriors to paint and some heroes. However, I am afraid of painting the heroes, because I am not that good. But for getting better, I do have to practice. However, I dont know with which minis.

I thought about these 3 options:

1. practing with the dwarves, which could make the army look strange, because some minis are better painted than others.

2. Practicing on the cloaks of some nightgoblin archers, which I dont need. This would stop the painting process of my Erebor army.

I also watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/user/GamesWorkshopWNT/featured and I found out, that I do need more paints. For example, I do only have one red. Should I buy some boxes of scale 75 paints or some vallejo paints? If vallejo, which for skin and brown?

Here you can see some pictures of my work:

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2015 6:30 pm

The wish to improve is not affected by what figure you choose to paint, it's your techniques and brush handling that will bring about the higher levels.
The ironic thing is to get better means you spend longer and longer on each figure.
Let's start from the basics
Thin your paint - I tend to look at three coats to apply a base layer to give a solid coat.
You cannot highlight or shade in one coat - multiple coats are needed.

Read this link for paint thicknesses and practise on pieces of white paper.
http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/15

Get this right and things will improve. Your painting is currently too thick.

Mix colours to get your shading and highlights, never jump from your base layer to your deepest shadow or highlight, work you way toward them. For example, slowly getting darker paint and as you go darker only paint slightly deeper areas u til your darkest colour is only touching the very deepest spot.

As for paints, do t get Scale 75 yet, they are not a beginners paint. You need to have an understanding of glazing to use them. Vallejo would be a good choice and your money will not be wasted as you can use these to whatever standard you get to.

Look for tutorials on YouTube for glazing and blending. Then practise, practise and practise.

The above is really a starting point, there is literally tons to learn for everyone.

I hope you find this useful.

Badner · **Joined:** Wed Jan 14, 2015 1:04 pm **Posts:** 296

Thank you for your help. I will try it.

How did you see that my paints are too thick? Is there a trick, how I can see it on the miniature?

When I looked at the very nice miniatures from the painting challenges, I noticed that the miniatures seem much brighter than my miniatures. Is this the case, only because they are much better painters than I am or is there an other reason?

How do I decolour resin and plastic miniatures?

How do I improve my painiting skills?

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