painting eyes - advice?

[The_Universe]

I find it's easier to paint a miniature looking to one side or the other, rather than straight forward. Putting both pupils on the far right or left of the eyes means that your minis are less likely to end up cross-eyed, and it gives you a good uniform reference for size. if the dot is too big, you're going to cover with flesh for the face, anyway!

I paint a white domino mask over the whole eye region, put in the pupils, and then either rim with black and then cover the flesh with flesh, or do the same but skip the black rimming.

 

[deltadave]

Try using a pin dipped in the appropriate ink or paint. Also depends on the scale you are working at. For 1/72 scale (25mm) a black, dark green or dark blue half circle works best. Unless someone is looking up into the sky or is suprised, the most iris that shows is about 1/2.

To avoid the cross eyed look, take two long sharpened skewers (or glue pins to one end) and position the sharpened end the distance of the pupils apart. tape or glue the other end together then dip the sharpened end in the paint and dab against the eyes. both eyes will be focused on the same point, the same distance from the figure.

 

[pogre]

This article by Jenn Haley covers the technique I use for eyes. It leads to great results - give it a shot.

 

[Stone Angel]

I will reiterate what some of the others have said. I don't use a white white I tend to use an off white. Also when I paint the white and then the eye color I will then go back around the eye with it's flesh color and sort of shorten up the amount of white that I have on the mini that tends to take away the look that most of my mini's have just seen a naked supermodel.

A friend of mine also had some success with using a toothpick I never did it but you could try that if you like.


The Seraph of Earth and Stone

 

[GlassJaw]

Try using a pin dipped in the appropriate ink or paint

I really didn't have much success with this technique. I found that the paint actually runs up the length of the pin and therefore the point of the pin itself doesn't hold the paint. What I did notice though is that you could actually use the pin to SCRAPE away the paint to create the eyeball itself. This wasn't my intent when I was practicing however but it seemed to come out ok. I'm not sure I'm going to do this on a regular basis but if the mini is particularly difficult around the eyes, I might give it a shot.

The mini in question that I was trying it on had its face partially covered but a helm and the eye sockets were recessed, making it very difficult to get in with even an extremely fine brush.

when I paint the white and then the eye color I will then go back around the eye with it's flesh color and sort of shorten up the amount of white

This has produced the best results for me as well. If you are only concerned with being precise about the eyeball itself, you can clean up your "mistakes" afterwards fairly easily. Painting minis is all about layers after all.

 

[kengar]

Another good article is on Reaper's site:

http://www.reapermini.com/index.php?nav=The Craft&sub=Paint&article=12

 

[Stik]

A eye-painting technique that I have had some success with:

I use flat white primer on my miniatures, which means there is no need to paint eye-whites. If you are using other than white primer, I suppose you will have to paint thin white stripes across the entire eye socket before you use this technique.
Paint the eyes before the rest of the face.
Using a 3/0 or 5/0 brush, paint the appropriate eye color as a thin line from the top lid to the bottom lid, rather than a dot. (Most of the time, people's eyes are not open far enough to see the white above or below the iris, so the line if just fine).
Then, when you mix the flesh color for the mini's face, use a slightly thicker consistency of paint for area around the eyes. Paint along the eyelids horizontally. This will cover any paint that got on the eyelid. (Use a slightly darker color for the top lid than the bottom, to depict the shadow of the brow line).
Do not outline the eye with black or another dark color. If you have done this right, the flesh color on the eyelids will come forward, the eye-whites will fade back, and the iris color will be in between, just like a real eye.
This technique will eliminate the kohl-eyed look that many miniatures have, a look which makes them look like Maybelline models instead of adventurers.