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To get the pupil on the eyes currently I'm using and insane detail brush and black paint, dabbing it on, unfortunatly my eyes end up looking like they belong on a chamelion!

Is there a particular method or item I can use or is it just a case of practice?

Remember the part of the iris that you can see is NOT round. Paint a vertical line in the center of the eye for a more realistic yet easy effect. Alternatively you can just use a wash on the face of rank and file troopers and you'll never notice the difference.

I believe another alternative would be to use a very fine detail felt pen to get that dot in. iv heard of it done that way.

A Micron pen or the like would make placing a dot easier than a with a brush, for many, but the effect is likely to be so stark that any imprecision will result in the dreaded "crazy eye." Using less stark colors - something akin to Bleached Bone for the eye and a thin mix of dark black/brown for the pupil will give a more natural effect.

As for the technique, practice can't hurt. Even so, there are alternate ways to go about it that are easier for many. The first bit of advice I frequently see is that if you're going to detail the eyes, paint them first. This allows you to work on a larger area, as if painting an entire eyeball, and use the more exaggerated, rounder shapes that many expect from a human eye, but aren't normally seen. Afterward, when you paint back over the eyelids, the natural shape is restored.

The second method actually involves blacking out the eye and applying dots of white in the corner - a reversal, more or less, of the expected process. Similar to the line vs. dot practice, this simply helps to avoid an overly stark, small, and round pupil that looks unnatural. At this scale, the slight bulges at the top and bottom of the black portion are nearly indistinguishable from a straight line painted on top, so it's mostly a matter of preference.

There is a really good video over on miniwargaming's site for painting eyes. You basically give the model a "racoon" mask around the eyes, paint the iris as a vertical slit (makes the model look like a clown) then go back and shape with whatever color you are using for the face. Seems to work for me, good luck.

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/dates/blog/1291161600/26

Do not use black, do not use white other than as a dot highlight. It is easier to not 'centre' pupils, have them looking to one side or the other,

I work by painting eyes just after the initial shading of the face. First I paint the whites with an ivory colour, then the pupil in a very dark flesh/brown. Then tidy up and highlight the face as normal. Glaze a blue shade into eye sockets. Finally finish eyes with a tiny sharp highlight ov pure white. This should partially overlap the pupil to give it life.

+1 for what winterdyne said.

I can only add that going with tiny brushes is not always the best solution. Good brush should keep point even if slightly larger. I'm using kolinsky sable and I can't be more happy with them.

In general - very tiny brush means paint drying quickly. You can find yourself not being able to make precise dot, just no dot at all or big dot in wrong place. Bigger quality brush will keep the moist and will make your life easier.

If you don't want to consider getting that kind of brush I can suggest to keep your paint diluted properly. I'm a lazy man and for a long time I didn't wanted to thin down those tiny amounts of paint needed for pupils, but it always end up wrong

When it comes to the shape, look on this pic:


Iris is always covered more on the top side, unless your character is very, very frightened. Your dot done on bleached bone eyeball will represent iris, not pupil. Pupils are too small for that scale, but the truth is that you need to keep more contrast, so all dark colours for the iris would be good.

As for technique, one thing that helped me IMMENSELY (after reading an article at Reaper's forums) was to stabilize my paint brush hand by resting the heel of my palm in the hand holding the mini itself. This will keep your hand much more stable as you paint the detail. Also, put the brush as close as possible to where you want to dot the eye, and move only the slightest amount necessary to do so.

I don't have the vision to do that unaided, either. I dunno if you use any magnification, but if not, I got a set of 4x reading glasses from Amazon at some ridiculously low price - like 3 for $9 or something. They helped tremendously for details.

All the ideas have been a fantastic help, thank you.

SavageRobby wrote:

As for technique, one thing that helped me IMMENSELY (after reading an article at Reaper's forums) was to stabilize my paint brush hand by resting the heel of my palm in the hand holding the mini itself. This will keep your hand much more stable as you paint the detail. Also, put the brush as close as possible to where you want to dot the eye, and move only the slightest amount necessary to do so.

This is great advice! Also I find that when painting the smallest details having good light is extremely important.

Well what I like to do is paint the iris colour, thin some white paint to washlike consistency and do it around the edges. The pigment settles to form a white outer coating that looks quite good IMHO. The pupil is simply control and stead hand so I can't help there. But what I like to do is use a GW Large Brush (I use for all except drybrushing and washing) and come at an angle across the bridge of the nose. By altering the angle you can change the direction of looking.

While this technique does create a wide-eyed effect, which, depending on what you paint, may be bad, it works well on the 40k range as many of them are shouting or wideeyed.

The best tip I ever got to do eyes was to do them FIRST. That way if you screw them up and have to paint over them or strip them, you're not screwing up the paint on the face.

Better yet, you can use the fleshtone to shape the eyes much more easily that way.

I've found the easiest way is simply to paint the eyesocket white, dab a vertical line in your chosen iris color in the center, then apply a wash to the eyesockets. Quick and easy, looks like this:

http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o198/AdamMcD/ED9626E8-307F-4357-9862-8260DE0B9025-2501-00000294B30C960D.jpg

In addition to all of the great advice given I would also suggest what someone once told me ..

When painting eyes, flip the figure upside down. If you're not looking at a "face" it just seems to be easier to do.

As crazy as this sounds it has worked for me!

SavageRobby wrote:


I don't have the vision to do that unaided, either. I dunno if you use any magnification, but if not, I got a set of 4x reading glasses from Amazon at some ridiculously low price - like 3 for $9 or something. They helped tremendously for details.

I do have pretty good vision, but this is the best advice I ever got. I picked up an Optivisor headset and I almost never paint without it now! What I do is paint the face, wash the face, let it dry, then paint the whites using a bright white paint, and after it's dry, put in a dot using one of the aformentioned micron pens. I have black, blue and red, for lots of options! I also use the insane detail paintbrush, and it's mostly useful for the eyes, but yes, the paint drys quickly, so one dip typically only does one eye.

This was a while ago, but I used Micron pens to dot the eyes on these guys. Works well for anybody with a decent sized eye that you can actually get the pen to.


Guard heads by Jay Adan, on Flickr