New painter getting discouraged (tips pls?)

[sickpuppy]

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[Shadow Raven]

Don't be hard on yourself, experience is what imo makes a good painter. Try watching tutorials online and then using the techniques as described. Never try to rush layered affects as the paint is going to blend rather than sit as you intend. My own personal tip is always paint in good light!

[40kGamer]

Learning to paint is like learning to write with a pencil... It takes a lot of repetition to build the muscle memory and to achieve really good brush control so stay positive and realize that it's a marathon not a sprint. Plus we all tend to be super critical of our own work and art is totally in the eye of the beholder.

Searching the internet for tips and tricks can improve the learning curve for you. The best trick that I learned late in the game was thinning the paint. Most paints are just too thick coming out of the bottle and thinning them (even a little) makes it a lot easier to blend them in and preserve the detail on the model. It takes practice to get this to work well as you don't want to get the paint too thin or it ends up behaving like a wash.

I also learned to use a wet pallet or some Vallejo slow dry to extend the working time of the paint. The slow dry is really great if you want to venture into wet blending at some point. And I second the paint in good light tip... it may seem obvious but natural light or a daylight bulb can make your task a lot easier! Best of luck!

[Zaonite]

40kGamer nailed it on the head.

Painting takes practise. You aren't gonna be golden demon level in two weeks. I've been painting for years and my local group loves my work but my Golden Demon entries get a sticker with "that's cute" on them.
A good daylight lamp is a must as is a palette. It will allow you to thin your paints and see the true colour.

The recent GW paining tutorial videos are really good for beginners, as is the "how to paint citadel miniatures" book with accompanying DVD.
I've found that when I did a paint job in the past, I loved it. Move on a few years and (I think) it looks awful, you may end up going back and repainting them anyway.

Don't lose heart. There'll be people worse than you at painting and even master painters can always learn something new. Don't forget that Fantasy is about the overall look of an army not the individuals that make it up. So who cares if the odd elf spearman is bug-eyed? In a unit of 30 models it won't even get noticed.

:D

[40kGamer]

I've found that when I did a paint job in the past, I loved it. Move on a few years and (I think) it looks awful, you may end up going back and repainting them anyway.

I'll add the option of keeping a sample of your work over the years as a reference. It makes it easier to measure improvement and visibly see the effect of any changes in your technique. Once you get into the right frame of mind painting can be as much fun and just as rewarding as actually playing. Heck there have been entire decades where I painted thousands of models and manged to not play a single game. ;)

[Shadow Raven]

Must admit that I would be very concerned about not spoiling miniatures though if I were buying at Australia's prices!! (Though I am from Yorkshire) Where copper wire was invented by two blokes fighting over a penny :)

[Ben_S]

My first thought was don't worry about stripping and repainting the ones you've already done. They're almost certainly better than bare plastic, so just leave them as they are and get on with painting the next ones. You'll get better as you work through your army (which is worth keeping in mind - save painting characters and the like until a bit later).

Of course, I appreciate that if you thinking you're ruining models, this will only mean 'ruining' more - but once you have a whole army painted and can do a better job of it, then you can go back to stripping and repainting your earlier efforts (while still having a fully painted army in the meantime).

If you really must use some sacrificial practice miniatures, you can usually pick up cheap ones (including old GW, pre-mangled Space Marines, other companies like Mantic or EM4, etc) and use those for practice.

[sickpuppy]

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[Shadow Raven]

I normally swap to another squad or vehicle if I hit the wall. But there again I normally have four or five squads on the go and paint for other people too. When I get sick of hard lining Raven Guard I swap to painting my Space Wolves, as I use different techniques painting grey (Not gw blue), never seen a powder blue wolf yet lol

[daboarder]

Practice.

Make sure you are always using good brushes, dont be unwilling to get new ones when they get tattered.

Try new things, you never know what technique may work best for you until you try.

let the paint do the work, if you need to force it to cover an area then its probably to thick, water it down (water is fine for GW paints) if the paint is flowing into areas you dont want it too, then its probably to watered down, either add more paint or wait a little bit for the water to evaporate.

Armypainter brushes are great I really like them.

Another tip for brush maintenance, dont ever let paint get further up the bristles than half way, if it gets up near the end the paint will get caught and dry between bristles forcing the tip out of shape.

[Darren Richardson]

Lots of good advice here.

I've been in the hobby since Hero Quest back in 1991, so I should be a master by now, but funny enough I'm not, because I suffer from the same problems you do mate, I look back on my oldest model I kept after trying to get out of the hobby in the late 90's and I think it looks awful, I know I can do much better these days, which is why I keep that battered old Empire Mortar of mine around, when I got back in in the mid 00's my painting was just as bad, but I kept on it, watched videos on line and am now much improved.

The main thing we have now is sites such as this and Cool Mini or Not and Youtube and such so experts can pass on tips and such, get a reasonable camera and lighting setup and post photo's in the mini thread and take peoples advice when good advice is given and you'll improve no end you watch.

Just remember to keep your worst mini to hand for when you want that added kick to finish off that model that you are struggling with, it works a treat :D

Oh and on a side note as you get better, don't hesitate to go into a fine art shop and invest in Acrylic Mediums and masking fluids and such (assuming your using Acrylics), as they can help with blending paints and masking off areas you don't want painting.

An old trick I heard was when using masking fluid on models, while it's still wet stick a hair into it and it helps you to peel off the masking fluid.

Oh and Acrylic Modelling Pastes sold by art shops work great on bases and scenery!

[Erik Setzer]

Oof, yeah, no pine cleaner for plastics, that'll wreck them bad. Castrol Super Clean isn't bad.

As painting goes... just be patient. It'll come to you in time. Don't be afraid to experiment, either. Sometimes a color combination or technique you think might be cool really *is* pretty darn cool.

Don't try to be a master painter right off the bat. Use simple techniques, especially on the rank-and-file guys. Stuff like drybrushing and shades can give you a nice look without having to put in much effort. You can even get away with painting a model with a base coat of colors and then doing a wash of something like Agrax Earthshade (especially for darker models) and then boom, you're done.

You'll get better as times goes on and you have more practice and more experience to draw upon. As long as the models look reasonable, that's good enough. You're at least putting in effort to paint them, that makes them a darned sight better than a lot of people's grey legions.

[Captain Bubonicus]

^^^Amen to that. You won't always be happy with your stuff, but you'll learn - and you can always strip 'em and re-paint!

Drybrushing cures a lot of ills - you can get some great effects without really working all that hard at it. Try it out - it works really well to give dark colors and models some "depth."

This guide is kinda old, but it has some nice illustrations:

http://www.how-to-paint-miniatures.com/miniature_painting_getting_started.html

[daboarder]

If you want to strip plastic then 95% ethanol will do a good job on GW paints

[sickpuppy]

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[Darren Richardson]

it's certainly a possibility, just make sure if you are using waterbased paints to get suitable mediums for that, another thing as mentioned is good paintbrushes, I hear a lot of the top figure painter use Watercolour brushes by makes such as Windsor & Newton, so that may also be worth looking at.

I really do recommend to read the BoLS editorials about the Master figure painters which the site puts up infrequently they really do make a good read, and they all started off at the same level as you did, and I did, and everyone else did....

[Erik Setzer]

Thanks! You've all given me some good ideas to go on, will be trying the Castrol and ethanol as well.

Art shops you say.. perhaps they'll have a cheaper version of the top coats or the Lahmian medium.

Testors Dull Cote is nice for sealing. And look for "matte medium," that's what "Lahmian medium" is called by people who don't feel the urge to slap a trademarked word on everything.

[40kGamer]

Testors Dull Cote is nice for sealing. And look for "matte medium," that's what "Lahmian medium" is called by people who don't feel the urge to slap a trademarked word on everything.

I've had good results with Testors Dull Cote as well... you have to be careful with sealers as I've had some really bad experiences with them. I actually don't bother sealing 90% of my models anymore... only time I do is when I am looking for a variable finish (a mixture of Satin/Gloss/Matte)

[Khastarax]

Dont get discouraged by expertly painted models on fora and coolminiornot etc. Check out the painting logs of some of the older logs like on warseers random threads. You see the painters here improving through the years.

Practice, have fun, and get joy from small things, like that picking out details gets better, or your use of washes improve. Experiment, don't be afraid to mess things up, you'll definetely learn by playing around and having fun!