Learning to paint figures?

[The_X_Marker]

I always love the figure repaints. I also love many Warhammer figures, and how their paint seems so easily, yet awesomely, done.

I want to get into figure painting, and repainting, however, my artistic ability is close to zero when it comes to the painting part.

For those of you professionals, many of you currently come to mind, I have a few questions:

How do you go about painting figures?
How did you learn to paint figures?
Any tips on a new guy learning to paint figures?
What paint do you use, and how do you use it?

And, as always, thank you all for your time!

[Agent Minivann]

I wouldn't say that I'm a professional, but there are a lot of resources for learning to paint figures on the internet. There are loads of videos on youtube (usually Warhammer 40K). Between tips I picked up here and tutorials and pointers elsewhere I learned a fair amount. I think the biggest thing is to get something and start painting. It's one thing to read about drybrushing and putting on a wash. It's quite another thing to try it out. I just use the cheap acrylic paints you can get at Walmart and Michaels. They aren't the best, and it may be more difficult to get good and consistent results with them, but you can get a decent selection of colors for very little.

['Scaper94]

Painting figures is always very fun, IMO! I think you'll enjoy it!

My process is pretty systematic. I generally start with clothing (robes, armor, etc), which I first do as a darker shade of the main color I want. Then I get a lighter shade of the first color (preferably by mixing in some white), and drybrush that color all over the clothes. Optionally, you can do a third, lighter shade of drybrushing if you feel like it'd help the effect.

Next, I paint the skin/face. I paint on the color I want, and after it is dry, I put on a wash to darken it up. This will add some nice shading effects, as the paint in the wash will go to the recesses of the sculpt. You can highlight the skin with a drybrush layer if you want, but I don't do that.

After the clothes and the skin/face are done, I paint the weapons. Metallic colors work best for most weapons. If you use a silver color, I recommend going over it with a black wash. It helps. And if you have a weapon with wood-looking parts which you choose to paint brown, I'd add a brown wash over that.

Finally, I go over any smaller details that I may have missed or procrastinated on (eyes are a good example). When painting an opened mouth with teeth, I paint the inside black, and drybrush a bone-like color over the teeth. Paint the tongue first, however.

It is recommended that you spray primer on figures (ie Warhammer) before painting them. I don't ever do this, and they turn out fine as long as they are taken care of. You can also spray some acrylic sealant on the figures to make the paint stay on. I'm going to try this later today/this week.

If you want, check out my customs thread in my sig. On the 5th or 6th page I should have a Skaven figure that I painted by doing the process I mentioned above.

Lastly, each painter has their own method. Experiment a bit and find what works for you. Search around and maybe talk to others that paint figures. I learned just this past weekend that wood finish looks well on figures.

[Dad_Scaper]

Here you go. That thread should have been stickied. Glad I remembered who started it so I could search that way.

[Yodaking]

I started painting figures when I was around 12 or 13 years old. Then I stopped when I hit high school and didn't picking up a brush again for a long time. My early attempts both times were pretty rough but I got better at it fairly quickly. Learning techniques like dry brushing and washes make a big difference. The only way to really get good at them is trial and error though. So I'd recommend getting some cheap, basic figures to start out on. Ones that don't represent a character that you have a huge emotional attachment to or tons of detail. That way when it does not turn out as great as you imagined you will not get frustrated and quit. Once you have painted up a few generic figures and practiced some different techniques, you will be ready to paint up a favorite figure of yours.

[The_X_Marker]

Thank you all for the quick replies.

And DS, that link is incredibly helpful!

[Dad_Scaper]

Justjohn posted that after I posted my own Warriors of Ashra repaints.

My repaints were truly awful, I think, and he didn't want to need his eyes bandaged every time he looked at this fine message board.

For the curious (and don't say you weren't warned), link to my one and only contribution to the world of Heroscape repainting.

While I'm posting relics from my short-lived career as a Heroscape artist, I'll also post this link to my old custom fence pieces.

[Agent Minivann]

That tutorial is one of the ones I learned a lot from. The fingerprint wash thing is something that I've done ever since.