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Hey guys just realised im absolutely SH*T at painting so trying to turn that around. What i ask from you:
-Comment and crticism (try to make them as nice as posible)
-Links to tutorials or things that may help me ( I need them! )
-Posts about techniques or skills i should learn
-Anything else that may stop me sucking donkey ass.

thank you in advance,

DC

MODQUISITION NOTE: I HAVE ASKED HIM TO REPOST AS HE'S TRYING TO START AFRESH AND IS GENUINELY LOOKING FOR GENERAL TIPS ON HIS PAINTING AND I WOULD APPRECIATE SOME POLITE COMMENTARY. SOME DAKKA MODELING HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED BY ME. deadly chicken could you posts some recent pics-this would be helpful in the furtherance of that-frazzled

All you have to do is browse the forums themselves for everything you need

Check through articles and painting and modelling tutorials, look through everything you think is relevent for yourself.

You can post images in any of the "rate this!" threads to get some good c&c, but asking us to go find the posts you need is a bit pointless, you can find them yourself and have them be more relative to what you are looking for.

Practice!!! o and buy some washes!!!! There great!

I think you need to work on your brush control. I took a look at your Orc in progress and the first observation is that it's really hard to tell where one part stops and another starts. All of your colors overlap and blend in a bad way. The grimy look is fine, but it's based on some fundamental blocking and tackling.

??? I understood very little of that ifurita

he means you need more control in your brush strokes or maybe a smaller brush. your uruk hai was an improvement to the other models, it helps to slow down while painting making sure to paint in the lines so to speak. the less paint you use the easier it is but it does take a little longer but if you want better results its going to take a little time.

Chicken, what Ifurita is trying to say is that the colours tend to blend into eachother too much, there needs to be a solid break in the colours.

Post up some pics of a few different models and ill give some advice.

ah like lining in. only which colours should i use to define the areas?

It all depends on the colour of that area chicken.

For example: you would use shading on an orks skin to break away the colours between skin and clothing / weapons.


Its all dependant on the model and the colours you are using.
Washes and inks tend to do this job very well when it comes to higlighting.
hence why i rarely use any solid colours and instead paint in washes and inks.

I used to suck at painting but if you keep trying you will get good believe me it has taken a while of tryin and screwing up but it will pay off, but as that old saying goes practice make perfect.

indeed. now i have completed some test models please try to focus on the presented areas, as the rest is crud.

Heres a better way of explaining colour breaks:

space marine armour is a good model for playing about with.
There are a few ways to break colour, otherwise (blood angels for example) we would have a solid red model, which tends to cause loss of detail.

Base colour: Allways the best start
just simply put on the colour to cover areas that will be red.

Shading / details: a red wash or ink (of a slightly darker red) will bring out all the details and areas to help break up the colours.

Details: highlighting is the best step, simply use a small amount of paint around edges of armour to pick out raised areas.
this will give the model alot moer detail and define the colours even more.

On black models: for models like legion of the damned or black templars you will need to pick out the armour to stop it looking like a lump of black paint.
you can either highlight the armour (dark grey on black) or, you can use a very light drybrush of grey to pick out the details and raised areas.




hope some of that helps, if not, take a peek in the tutorials section on here, plenty of great ones that im suer will help you.

already scoured the tutoril page

Hmmm; Chicken, we are here to help, but this requires some initiative and effort on your part too. Don't get exasperated; it will take over a year for you to become better. Stay calm, because your excitement seems to affect your literary skills too; this is a forum, not a random text to a friend.

One of the first things I learned about painting a model was something I will call ''sequence of colour''. The most common mistake I see by newcomers to the hobby is them trying to paint every little detail seperately. For example:

Little Johhny buys his first Space Marine boxed set (another common mistake? I'll leave that for another thread). Wanting to paint them as Blood Angels, he does the following.

1. Paints most of the armour red, but stays away from details such as guns, eyes, shoulder pad lines.
2. Picks a different colour for each detail, and tries to paint them on seperately. So we get a wobbly yellow line on the shoulder pads, a bolter forged to the marines hand through use of boltgun metal, etc. Oh dear, what a mess.

Apart from the poor marine looking like he's been fighting on a volcanic paint world for a month, that's an expensive model down the drain; most likely beyond the Emperor's salvation. He has gone to the great pallete in the sky.

The most important lesson I learned in painting is that when you're new, your basecoat is paramount. For the Blood Angel example, the best thing to do would be to paint the whole thing red, guns, eyes, even the base if makes things more simple. Then gently work a wash into the recesses of the model, this will make your model twice as good in about 23 seconds.

There are so many techniques out there, and I can't be bothered to list them all here. Also, calling people nasty names is a sure fire way to get laughed off every topic that you create.

1.You do suck at painting.
2.You do need to stop being so sensitive about it.
3.You will get better if you are patient.

The first model I ever painted was a Space Marine in the most uninspiring pose imaginable. I painted him Goblin Green, with Sunburst Yellow shoulderpads and brown knee pads. This was not the point where I thought I could make money off of painting. It was where I thought this model looks as if it's Stevie Wonder's GD entry. I need to practice and revise.

lol. dont get the point of the story. I dont do that. I paint all of it grey then pick out details. which model are you talkin about and are you a rapist. LITTLE JOHNY?!?! WTF?!?!

/facepalm

he he just me being an immature gimp! ^.^

deadly chicken wrote:he he just me being an immature gimp! ^.^

Well, you're good at one thing.

I spent a good ten minutes writing that previous post in the hope of you finding it easy to read and useful. Needless to say I won't bother again. So far, in my Dakka history, you are the only person to have ever laughed at advice, and yet you need it more than anyone else on this forum. By a long, long way.

Good luck with the painting, and puberty in general.

anti-mag is correct you cant treat those that are trying to help like dirt,or name calling,youve asked for help and we would all like to help.Use the advice your given and more of us will help,other wise anti-mag is correct in what he said so good luck

I find that what helps best is to paint it so that you're happy with how the model looks yourself. Eventually trying to beat your best model. Everyone has their own technique of painting, eventually you'll find yours and will improve it overtime. Becoming good at painting requires three things really; patience, practice and experimentation.

Best way imo DC, is to replicate a photo of what you want to paint.

80% of my painting messing up is when my mind blanks out when im doing my own color scheme ( i dont plan ahead for my own armies T-T )

I think it'll make BIG difference ( works for me )

Ifalna wrote:/facepalm

qft
Good luck kid, you obviously have a lot to learn about the world.

deadly chicken wrote:already scoured the tutoril page

Honestly I would pick up some of the reaper triad paints, they designed them specifically to work together in a paint by number fashion and you can simply apply it as shade, base highlight until you get a feel for painting. Then you can start experimenting with washes, mixing colors and all the other tools and tricks available. If all else fails pay Iörek large sums of money for lessons.

DC,

Try not to get too downhearted and try not to take criticism like it's a personal attack. You've asked people to be as nice as possible when giving C&C, but unfortunately by its very nature, criticism can sometimes sound harsh and is sometimes hard to accept. It's only human to feel defensive about something that you've created, but poeple are genuinely trying to help you out.

My advice is to spread your net as wide as possible for help and advice. Try other forums, youtube and above all, local game stores, gaming groups or even friends who are experienced in painting. The latter is probably the best, because as much as you read about other peoples techniques, it cannot replace seeing how someone actaully does something on a model and having them there with you to show you the ropes in person.

I'm afraid that as many other people have pointed out, there is no quick fix when it comes to learning a skill like painting, it takes time, effort, and hours of frustration but if you stick with it, you will eventually reap the rewards. Take your time, paint, paint and paint some more, and you'll begin to find working methodologies that are right for you and give good results. When I started out I rushed to finish everything and made a pig's ear of my models so I took stock, slowed down and went at it stage by stage with help and advice from friends and forums.

We've all been there at the start, and we're all still learning - it's an ongoing process.

Now advice on your pictures above. I would say that painting robes and cloth is the most difficult thing I have tried to do as washing does not necessarily catch all the shadows. As pianstaking as it is, you need to layer and blend successively lighter tones out from a dark bascoat in the recesses. This is a pain, but spending the time to do it can really make the difference between a model that looks mediocre, and a model that looks dynamic and alive.

I quite liked what you had done with the marine. You seem to have picked out the detail on the helmet OK. The only thing I would suggest is you might need to clean up the white a bit afterwards to make it look nice and crisp. I asked advice on how to do just that in an earlier topic and time and again people suggested a wash followed by a white retouch.

My final advice though would be to concentrate on getting the basics right first and then concentrating on more advanced techniques/high level detail. It's amazing how good a model can look with a basic, but well executed paintjob.

Hope this helps and stick with it.

tsd

Anti-Mag wrote:

deadly chicken wrote:he he just me being an immature gimp! ^.^

puberty in general.

epic.

I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW IMPORTANT UNDERCOATING IS.

well i guess i can show you a technique called highlighting, i do this to my marines metal by doing this technique, looks quite good (boltgun metal, badab black wash, highlight of chainmail.)

for example painting an Ultra Marines armour ( blue )
i would base coat black
then paint the armour blue
after it dries paint the armour the base colour with a slightly lighter blue colour (example regal blue 50.50 ultramarine blue) this gives the armour more depth into the model

you could leave it as that but you could continue on further continuously adding a light colour to the armour. this effect is called highlighting and can be extreme or very weak.
a good example of highlighting (other techniques) is shown by a great telion painted by GD


notice the gloves, neck guard and shoulder pads for the highlighting technique. good luck and i HOPE this makes any sense.

if anymore experienced painters then me could put this better, please edit

Sites I've found useful when I was learning to paint:

http://www.jenova.dk/
http://www.paintingclinic.com/
http://www.coolminiornot.com/

If there is one thing I can find to compliment you on, it is that relative to your painting skills, you have a decent ability to freehand. This would suggest that your brush control is actually pretty good, merely that you're having trouble deciding how to put to plastic rather than lacking the ability to paint at all.

Some general tips:
1. Always thin your paint, at least a 1:1 paint:water ratio.
2. Always undercoat, a black undercoat is actually easier to deal with than white, especially on 40k models.
3. Have a lot of patience. You need to take your time with painting. Very few of us have the ability to both paint fast and make it look good, and you should learn how to do the latter before you think about the former.

Now, for good practice:
1. Get a generic space marine model. The plainer the better.
2. Undercoat black.
3. Try to paint each individual armour segment a nice solid colour while you keep a really thin line of black undercoat between it and the next segment.
4. Observe carefully how your paint flows and layers, and how multiple layers of paint will build up to give you a good, solid colour, even on black.
5. Practise highlighting the edges. Mix up a lighter shade of your basecoat, and then paint a thin line on the edges of the armour plate, as well as the raised ridges.
6. Repeat until you're happy with it. This is basic "eavy Metal-style painting".

Thank you for all the advice and the websites.
Got some washes today. thought delvan badab and thraka were my best bet.
tried them out on a WHFB orc. here he is:

Picture is way too dark , light source is from wrong spots.

DC one main thing to remember is , the light should be around where your eye is. If the lights are behind the mini and at the side of the mini , where do you think will be lit up? Behind and the side of mini right?

In other words the light source should always be behind you when you take pics.

i must agree with a lot of things here

You really are terrible at faking/being thankful

Your paintjobs are extremely bad

You arent paitient enough

And finaly , some of your pictures are too dark

But i would like too help im sending a PM now about some techs and tips you might whant too use

Form what i see that looks like an improvement! from those other things!Reminds me i still got some black orcs to finish up.Think you need to photograph in a better lit area though! Apart from that looks good!