How to Become a Mediocre Painter

One of the earlier posts offered up an example of some of the truly horrible paintjobs I am guilty of. I have gotten better. However, the other day while I was set up to do demos at the LGS, someone looked at my models an commented "Wow, these are beautiful" to which I thought "Are you drunk?" On second thought, they were probably talking about the models themselves, not my painting.

Before I forget, I have finished several crews recently, so the page for my finished crews has just been updated.

I have absolutely no business offering painting tips, by the way. I am not great at painting, rather I have developed a systems that works for me with the end result being models I am not ashamed to put on the table. I wouldn't dream of entering them in any competitions though.

So, if you are struggling to get past the stage of painting where you manage to "paint between the lines" as it were, then maybe this will help. Just don't expect anything spectacular - if that is the level you aspire to, then practice, and read tips from people who are actually good painters. If you happen to be one of these good painters, you may want to just stop reading this post now, so you don't get annoyed at all my lazy shortcuts.

I will detail the basic steps I go through. I have a few pictures to help illustrate, but my photography skills aren't great either, so....

Step 0: First thing - clean any mold lines or flash of the model please. I am crazed about mold lines. The best paint job ever will be ruined if the model has mold lines showing all over. Next, you want to spray on a base coat. I used to always use black, but I really hate painting certain colors over black (particularly red and yellow), so now I usually use white or gray, but it depends what I want the end product to look like. If you want lots of bright colors, I would go white, which is what I have done for this marionette. Army Painter has a nice line of spray colors that I have just recently used for Warhammer - where you have dozens of minis with a predominant color. This may be worthwhile depending on what models you are doing, how many, and if there is one color that will make up the bulk of the model's coverage.

Step 1: Put down your base colors. Keep it neat, but don't go nuts fixing every little mistake if it is something that will likely get painted over later. I was particularly fond of the GW Foundation paint range as it suits this method of painting - I have not tried any of their new paints and doubt that I will once I need to refill, as I also picked up an Army Painter paint set last Christmas that I like very much; however, they have adjusted the range somewhat, so not sure how the colors I have (which are cleverly named things like Yellow and Blue) correlate to the newer ones. But if you were asking me where to start, I would suggest picking up an Army Painter starter set. About five years ago I splurged and got a Vallejo set with like 70+ paints, but they have not aged well, which could be my fault for not using them often enough and not storing them properly, but still, I can't recommend them as they have caused me a great deal of frustration, though many other people swear by this line. Please don't use the kind of cheap paints you buy at large chain retailers - I did this for many years, and my results were pretty much not good. Some people have better results with cheap paint, but I would strongly advise against using these if you can afford a nice starter paint set at your LGS (which you should be able to find for about $40). Brushes, however, I almost always buy these on sale at the craft store. Go for Red Sable, not synthetic, and try to get a nicer brand, but don't go crazy. Get a variety of sizes, and make sure they are for acrylic paints. A proper brush cleaning solution is a wise idea also.

So, this is the easy step. Here is the marionette with the basic colors:

Step 2:  Washes. I am actually going to write my next post specifically about washes, so won't go into super detail here. I will caution you: don't think that you can just slap a brown or black wash all over the model willy nilly and expect good things. They don't work that way. I will go into much greater detail on this tomorrow. I am using GW's old wash line - as these run out I will likely replace them with Secret Weapon washes. On this model, I used Badab Black wash on the blue, purple and red areas, Devlan Mud (dark brown) on the green, Ogryn Flesh (medium reddish brown) on the flesh toned face and the brown wood, and Leviathan Purple on the yellow (thanks to Ratty for a suggestion on the forums a while ago for this one).
Then, I did a second wash to bring the colors back up a bit - green wash on the green, blue wash on the blue, purple on purple, red on red.  I left the yellow alone, though GW's new paint line does have a yellow glaze that I might pick up for this sort of use. Be careful to avoid any pooling where you do not want it, as it will leave a stain. Washes don't naturally run exactly where you may want them, you need to guide them there. Be careful if you are using multiple wash colors to keep them where they should be - it's just like painting, be neat.

Really, with a little tidying up in spots, you could probably just say done after this step if all you want is a painted mini. The photo makes it look like there is a little more contrast than what you see in person, btw.

Step 3: Highlight. The good thing about using this method is you can often get away with using the base color as the highlight color, as the wash will deepen the tone on all areas of the model. Since this model is small and lots of texture, I am only using a single highlight. For larger models with larger flattish areas, you will probably want to do two or more highlights. I may do another post next time I paint a model like that.

For now, go back and pick out any areas that need a little pick me up. Raised areas are usually where you want to hit, but also try and think about how the fabric or whatever would react in real life, where it would be shaded and where it would be reflective. If you make a mistake, like I often do, and go a little overboard on the highlights, you can use another wash coat to dull it a little bit, then try again (I call this the magic eraser way of using washes). Be very careful in this step - since you are almost done you don't want to make mistakes. This is especially true if you have mixed colors, as it can be really difficult to match a color that has been covered in layers of washes.

My models have what some would call a high contrast, cartoony style. I personally like this, which is good because I can paint this way. I don't blend colors well, which you need to do if you want a more natural looking effect. So it is a matter of taste - if you don't like this look, then try to find a method that gets you the result you enjoy.

The finished marionette:

Adding Step 3.5: Details. If you struggle with having sufficient brush control to pick out really small details (for example, the stitching on the wicked dolls, or eyes - I suck at painting eyes!), you need to make a decision weighing the added impact of a well executed detail vs. the likelihood you will screw things up trying to achieve that detail. In the case of eyes, I have just stopped trying. It has never turned out well for me, so usually I just wash and highlight the faces, and maybe use a colored wash on lips or eyes to give them some definition. With the wicked dolls, I decided to not pick out the stitching at this time - I have in the past used a pin to apply paint to really small details, but in this case I just wanted to get them finished so I could work on other things. I figure, I can always go back later and try to finish these little things, but if I am not feeling confident about something, I generally think it is better left alone for the time being. It's your choice though.


Step 4 & 5: Varnish & Base. I have been using a brush on varnish lately, but spray varnish is fine, just be careful and make sure to test it on something before you spray your model, every time.You can varnish before you base, or after. It depends. I like to do one coat before the base, as it makes it a little bit easier to fix any mishaps (though not always) that may occur when basing. For these models, I tried an experiment. I filled in the base with modelling putty (before painting began) and then painted it brown, the lips of my models' bases are color matched to their faction. Then, I used a trendy nail polish designed to give a "crackle" effect. The idea I had in mind was peeling paint laquer on a wood floor. The results were mixed, but oh well. I often use resin bases, but these I usually need to order and I didn't have any on hand for these models.

That is pretty much it. I have pictures of my recent models on the Finished Crew Pictures page. And I will try to do the in depth discussion on washes tomorrow.