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...to get some good results?

I'm completely new and have to say I'm a bit concerned that as I'm not really all that artistic. Making stuff I should be ok with whether it be the models or terrain etc, but painting i may find difficault. Is it something you can learn even if not artistic to begin with?

Any advice on this would be good.

Well it depends. None is really required, but an army will look better if they are painted or converted well. If you mainly want to focus on games, then flat colors would be a good choice for someone of little artistic talent. Keep in mind though that you learn from your mistakes, and practice makes perfect, and this is especially true when painting.

Yes, you can learn to paint models well. It just takes a lot more time. I have watched artistic people do a little research, pick up a model, and paint a masterpiece first try. I, on the other hand, have been painting for about a year now and have improved 10 fold. You can learn to get good but I would start simple first.

I have zero artistic ability I am not good at painting or drawing on paper but I am OK with painting models. Just dont be scared of trying out new ideas.

Artistic skills arent really all that necessary, I pretty much lack any real ability to draw, paint, sculpt etc outside of a wargaming environment.

I have found however that you can make up for lack of artistic skills with sufficient technical skills. Using precise cutting/fusing of bitz in conversions and the ability to plan well can circumvent some lack of artistry. Play to your own strengths and learn the rest along the way, and remember that what your army looks like to YOU is more important than what other people think (WYSIWIG and Chaos GK not applicable within this broad statement)

It really takes very little artistic ability to be able to follow a tutorial and learn certain techniques. I would suggest finding tutorials and follow them until you feel comfortable with your brush control and don't be afraid to experiment. just be aware that your first few miniatures will likely be a bit rough but as long as your learning your on the right track .

the biggest hurdle I think a lot of people encounter who have no previous experience painting anything is brush control and knowing what types of brushes are appropriate for what techniques.

stick with it and keep practicing and you will improve.

I have very little and it has taken me about 5 years to get any freehanding skill. You just learn and get better with every model

A good wash of Devlan Mud doesn't hurt either.

Its take time and the right tools for the right job but yuo get better over time. Just try not to force it.
I have being doing this for 4 years(barring breaks) aand im just learniing to sculpt more complex stuff with modeling putty and freehand. It takes awhile but you get that hang of it.

None necessary. Practice will teach you necessary skills and tricks. You'll get good proportionally to your willingness to spend time learning the craft(and doing it).

Okay, a couple of things here. No artistic ability is required, but it doesn't hurt. Very few people with no artistic background will paint a first mini that will rock your socks off. A friend of mine, however, had minimal painting experience and was shown at a GW store some basics, and picked it up QUITE fast and is doing well. Just don't be afraid to learn and try new things out. I suggest that you don't start off working on your HQ models as your first work. I made that mistake, but I chose a metal model on purpose, and was able to strip it off and redo it much better. Rank and file troops are usually not looked at with too much interest, so making mistakes on them is an acceptable loss.The internet is full of tutorials for various techniques, and videos seem to make things a bit easier to grasp on first view. Learning how to recover from mistakes is part of mastering something, so don't feel too bad about stripping models if they don't turn out right. One of the things I personally STILL avoid is spray priming my minis. Brush priming takes a lot more time and effort, but I live in an area with absurd weather, and I've found it way easier to brush prime minis once than fail at spraypainting them three times. Learning is part of it, just put some research into what you're doing and don't be surprised if your mileage varies, and learn to adjust. Everyone has different techniques.

The most important factor by far is practice.


Bear in mind also, that some armies are much easier to paint than others due to detail level of the models, flesh vs fully armored, etc.

Also, some techniques like drybrushing, dipping, and washing vastly improve beginner results for the right armies.

In the same vein, being an artist or artistic doesn't mean you would paint models well (or at least on the first few tries).

I'm a freelance artist by profession: I draw comics, paint, design logos and websites and posters and people pay me good money for it. But when I first picked up a model, I sucked at painting it. Sucked like a black hole. Mostly because the muscles I use when painting canvases (my whole arm, especially when painting large surfaces) differ from the ones you use when painting miniatures (just the tips of your fingers). Drawing and digital painting is somewhat nearer, but for me it never required more precise handling when drawing compared to painting miniatures. So, even if you are artistic, you would still need practice.

I'd actually argue that most people painting wargaming models are on the shallow end of the talent pool, artistically. Why do you think there are so many color recipes and by the number painting tutorials around (not to mention garish color schemes painted to a reasonably high standard - plenty of practice, not too much color sense)? Plenty of folks out there can get good results through practice, but first they need to be able to reduce the whole endeavor into simple, mechanical processes - paint with X, wash with Y, drybrush with Z, etc.

Those with natural artistic talent tend to improve more rapidly and with a higher potential ceiling, but that's not to say that those without it will never produce anything decent. There are, of course, those of us for whom there's little to no help, but they're a minority. Personally, I think I fall more into the "artisan" category than "artist" - I'm not all that creative, but I've got a pretty good eye and I'm good at adapting concepts. I read, I look, I practice, I copy, I modify, and I get pretty good results for it. Nothing amazing, but the more I do those things, the better I become.

Using a 3 color mininum and a wash (devlan miracle) is a good starting point.

My advice is to not be too nervous about it. I kind of ignored painting my first two armies (Tau and Marines) because I figured I'd rather be lazy than a bad painter. When I started Orks, however, I decided to suck it up and just go all-out and do a full paint job on every single boy - and just by getting over that first hurdle, I was able to start painting models that looked great in my eyes.

As daunting as painting may seem, it's not as difficult as it looks. While it's definitely challenging to make beautifully painted models, just painting a few colors on a model makes worlds of difference.

I can't agree more with most of the posts here.

Even if you are a highly artistic person, or if you are a chimpanzee with an etch-a-sketch as far as artistry goes, PRACTICE goes a long way to making models look anywhere from painted to good to great.

I had started with Space marines, and as my skills progressed, and I changed paint schemes with them, I stripped and repainted them. I also started other armies. Of all my armies, my Marines, Tyranids, Ogre Kingdoms and Dark Elves (fantasy) have all been partially stripped and repainted due to growth in skills and techniques (and also because I didn't like the looks of the armies as they were)


The biggest thing, and Locclo hit the nail about on the head, don't be afraid to mess up. If you have a LGS, or LGW, paint something up, take it into the store and ask, "how can I improve on this?" you can do this without the mini, but I think that I would find it much more helpful to me if I had the mini present.

I'll agree with those that say you don't really need that much coming into it. Sure if you have it it'll likely come out better sooner, but what counts is practice.

I have trouble drawing stick men; after a few years of on and off painting I can finally say that I am happy when I look at my completed minis.

So long as you never rest on your laurels you will improve.

If you don't have loadsa money then it may be an idea to look in to stripping your minis so that you don't have to pay for new ones when you feel they aren't up to your current standard.

Always keep the first one so you can see that you are getting better.

Like any creative activity (music, drawing, etc..) it first comes down to patient and practice, really.

It always surprises me when people say they lack the motor skills to play an instrument or assemble a model and then they pick up the mobile phone and their fingers fly over that little keyboard with a speed hardly believable...

What was it? Art is 1% inspiration and 99% transpiration?

Please please please do not take this the wrong way Shandara.

You had me picturing little trifids trained to paint miniatures.

It's perspiration not transpiration
To perspire is to sweat
Transpiration is the process of water evaporation from plant leaves.

Thanks guys. Feeling a lot more confident after reading your comments. I've watched lots of video tutorials already and they really do make it look easy. My concern is that when I try it and it goes badly I'll get downheated and frustrated it may put me off. knowing that with practice i should improve will certainly help me to stick with it.

thanks again

I'm pretty untalented, badly coordinated and yet I think my models look fine after reading tutorials and getting practice.

It also depends on the army you're collecting: Necrons, GK or Nurgle? Easy; anyone can use a wash.

If you tell us what army you're thinking about, we can give you specific tips. But flat colours and a wash, hell even a baby could do that : p


But the *most* important thing if you take that approach is to thin your paints; it's the most common mistake out there.

Use a palette, dip your brush in water, perhaps wipe it a bit 'till it's 'just right' with the dampness, then get some paint out with said wet brush and mix 'em on the palette. Easy.

After that, just follow GW guides, make sure you know what bit of the model is what (i.e. with a Space Marine, don't paint his soft armour parts in the armour colour) and practice.

I think this hobby is very intimidating when you're not confident in your artistic abilities. My early army was done with no research or help or anything and it was abysmal. But my second army (IG) was better and I painted that entirely using GW's online articles.

Try using this tool for figuring out 'what is what' on a model and experimenting:
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/smp.php
(They have other painters on the main site... just go on google and type something like 'Sister of Battle Painter Bolter and Chainsword')

If you find an army you are interested in, visit its page on here and look at the articles for it. There are painting articles for almost every army:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landing.jsp?catId=cat440163a&rootCatGameStyle=

You might want to try 'happening upon' a copy of How to Paint Citadel Miniatures, too. Though there is nothing in there that the internet won't tell you for free.

Good luck

Sonophos wrote:Please please please do not take this the wrong way Shandara.

You had me picturing little trifids trained to paint miniatures.

It's perspiration not transpiration
To perspire is to sweat
Transpiration is the process of water evaporation from plant leaves.

No offense taken, teaches me not to try and use figures of speech from another language.

Artistic or not it still takes practice to get good a it!

I know how far I've come and I keep my very first model to remind myself

Shandara wrote:

Sonophos wrote:Please please please do not take this the wrong way Shandara.

You had me picturing little trifids trained to paint miniatures.

It's perspiration not transpiration
To perspire is to sweat
Transpiration is the process of water evaporation from plant leaves.

No offense taken, teaches me not to try and use figures of speech from another language.

Please continue.

English is a language with a great many funny twists in it; if you fear getting it wrong, you never have the chance to get it right.

I've been speaking English for most of my life and I get stuff wrong ALL the time. Much to my wife's amusment. :-)

Absolutely none whatsoever. Artistic talent might mean you pick up a few tricks quicker, like for example where highlights should be but apart from that. It just takes practise. Not even that much, trust me you will notice major improvements each time you paint one. You've just not got to get frustrated.

Henners91 wrote:I'm pretty untalented, badly coordinated and yet I think my models look fine after reading tutorials and getting practice.

It also depends on the army you're collecting: Necrons, GK or Nurgle? Easy; anyone can use a wash.

If you tell us what army you're thinking about, we can give you specific tips. But flat colours and a wash, hell even a baby could do that : p


But the *most* important thing if you take that approach is to thin your paints; it's the most common mistake out there.

Use a palette, dip your brush in water, perhaps wipe it a bit 'till it's 'just right' with the dampness, then get some paint out with said wet brush and mix 'em on the palette. Easy.

After that, just follow GW guides, make sure you know what bit of the model is what (i.e. with a Space Marine, don't paint his soft armour parts in the armour colour) and practice.

I think this hobby is very intimidating when you're not confident in your artistic abilities. My early army was done with no research or help or anything and it was abysmal. But my second army (IG) was better and I painted that entirely using GW's online articles.

Try using this tool for figuring out 'what is what' on a model and experimenting:
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/smp.php
(They have other painters on the main site... just go on google and type something like 'Sister of Battle Painter Bolter and Chainsword')

If you find an army you are interested in, visit its page on here and look at the articles for it. There are painting articles for almost every army:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landing.jsp?catId=cat440163a&rootCatGameStyle=

You might want to try 'happening upon' a copy of How to Paint Citadel Miniatures, too. Though there is nothing in there that the internet won't tell you for free.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice Henners! Very helpfull indeed.

Necrons is actually one of the armies I seem most drawn to so far! I've been doin a lot of reading up and researching recently (im a bit ocd like that) and i really like their background story. Thing is a few people have said they might not be the best army to pick as a first army coz they have a few special rules and things that make them a bit harder to learn the game with! Would anyone here agree with that?

Other than necrons I like the look of IG....not really read up on them yet. And orcs look cool too but that may just be the World of Warcraft coming out in me a bit lol...oh and lord of the rings....orcs are just cool wherever they go lol. I may just go with AoBR set to begin with and start with orks or SM (probablly orcs for the reason i just stated and coz, dont most people go space marine? i like to be diffetent lol).

i dunno lol its too hard to choose

Henners91 wrote:But the *most* important thing if you take that approach is to thin your paints; it's the most common mistake out there.

yes! This is rule number one. A thick coat of paint on a model almost always looks like trash. learning how to thin your paint, and then having a simple color scheme down, makes painting armored things like marines very manageable. 3 colors (including weapons and ornamental bits) and a wash, when applied properly, will look decent enough.