painting eyes - advice?

[GlassJaw]

I'm definitely becoming more proficient painting my minis but one thing that continues to elude me is painting eyes. I've tried various methods and usually I just hope that it looks decent in the end. I use black primer exclusively.

Any advice? What a good order of operation? Do you use a standard brush or something like a pin?

 

[kirinke]

Well, when I was doing ceramic figurines, I used an actual colored pen for eyes and it came out fairly decent. For fine detail like mini's, maybe that'd work

 

[R-Hero]

I use thinned paint in the eye socket-eyelid detail to do the white part. Let gravity pull the paint into the eyelid stamp. With white it sometime takes more than one coat.

For the next coat (color) I use a testors 00 detail brush, in even thinner paint.
Roll the tip to a very sharp point with very little paint and wedge the mini between both hands while guiding the brush between my thumb and first finger.

The left hand holds the mini while the pinky, ring and middle finger steady on my left hand. The free thumb+first finger are free to paint. I barely touch the eye. I use this method for eyebrows also.

Thin paint sticks better to thick paint.

If the eye paint gets on the face, I'll leave it (sometimes) and touch up with flesh later. It can be easier that trying to blot an eye.

Like welding, music or tying a shoe, Practice, Practice, Practice.

Start with a horse or something with a larger eye to get a feel for it. If I had a digital camera, I would show off a mounted cavalier I did not long ago, the horse has blue eyes with a visible iris. Cavalier had a helm, so no eyes for him.

 

[The Madhatter]

I use ZIG pens. I think they are for scrapbooking or something. You can get them at craft stores and office supply stores. They come in a range of colors and you can get variable size points. The smallest are actually too small for 28mm scale minis!

 

[kenobi65]

I used to have a *terrible* time with eyes. My biggest problem was ending up with the "surprise" eyes (where you can see the white all around the iris). If you can't picture what I'm describing, look at most WizKids minis -- they tend to be classic examples of this.

A few years ago, I read about a technique to eliminate this: first, paint the iris with whatever color you want it to be (darker is better). Then, put a tiny dot of white on either side of the iris. I do all of this with a 10/0 spotter paintbrush -- in fact, I have a brush that I specifically *only* use for eyes, so that it keeps its point longer.

If you're starting out with a black-primered figure, you could probably skip doing the iris, and just put the white dots on the sides of the eyes.

 

[Chroma]

One of the tricks to remember when painting eyes: don't use white for the "whites" of the eye. Use a light grey, cream, or bone; it helps get rid of some of that "surprised" look.

 

[Greylock]

After priming, splash on the white, and go for the perfect dot.

If it doesn't come out right, rinse, lather and repeat.

Always do the eyes first. There is no shame in having to redo them. Repainting the entire scheme? That's a beatch.

HTH

 

[Terry Edwards]

The eyes are always the first thing that I do on a humanoid miniature. First I paint the entire eye black then white over the black, leaving a border of black. Next comes the black dot in the middle of the eye that, ideally, just meets the black border above and below it. Done.

 

[Drachenherz]

I always paint the face first, due to my style. As for the eyes, is you used black primer, paint the non-lid portion of the eye with thinned white, like Reaper white brush on primer, or just thinner white paint, until you cannot see black (if doing eyes first) or the facial colors (if painting my way). Then, you take a 10/0 brush, dip just the tip into the color of paint you wish for the eyes (yes, i do colors rather than the generic black), and just dot the center (or offset if you want the character to be more action-like, as if catching something from the corner of the eyes). Just make sure the dot meets or almost-meets the upper and lower lids. I find that the colored eye effect gets far higher reviews than the black eye method. Don't be afraid to experiment.

 

[Laurel]

Use a slightly off white color for the eyes. Paint the whits first on the face, then paint the flesh color up to that point. Try to get as little paint on your brush as possible and dot the eye color. If you really want to get more detail, cut off one little bristle of the brush and use it with a small dab of paint.

If you find something better that works let us know! (or me at least)