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Hello everyone!

First off, I'm a novice painter; so this may seem simple, but for me it's as tough as nails.

I've been trying my hardest to put detail into every last guardsman I own, since they number few, including eyes. I had an abused GW fine detail brush down to maybe a half dozen bristles that I brought back out to paint pupils-- a newer fine detail is enough to do the white. But those last bristles finally bit the dust. What would you suggest I use as some other way to paint incredibly small details?

Erm, new brush?

Forget the GW brushes mate, they are terrible in comparison to others. I use Windsor and Newton brushes and they are a ton better. I have about two hundred guard, but to be honest I only bother with my marine sergeants for white eyes. I have two little tricks that work to varying degrees. First, get a vice and mount the brush with a tiny blob of paint and then push the model towards it, once you get the right height that can work...a bit.

The other, is to just be as careful as possible with the black dot, and the touch up around it, I reckon that's easier, that's how I do all my marine eyes now. Hope they help, but keep at it, you will get better with experience!

You might want to look into brush care. Brushes should last you a long time with proper use and care. Make sure you keep paint away from the ferrule, clean the brushes in water regularly during painting sessions and every so often use something like masters brush cleaner for a good clean.

Drying retarder helps a lot when painting fine details such as eyes. It stops the paint drying on the brush before you get it on the model so you get a smoother finish and have an easier time doing it.

You could use a pen instead. A white paint pen you can pick up in most art stores. Then using a very fine nib black you can do the centres.

I havent done this myself, but ive seen a lot of recent work where pens have been used for fine details such as scrolls etc..

You need a good brush for a start. 00 or 000.
I like Windsor & Newton. They do watercolour sables that are cheap (and work for a while, bit too soft), or the Series 7 (watercolour, not miniature) that are excellend but expensive.
Rosemary & Co Series 33 are also very good.

Start by basecoating and washing the face. This is the point to do the eyes.
Paint the eyes with ivory/bone or a light grey. Don't worry too much if you're not super neat.
Do not use pure white or pure black (unless dotting for reflection).
Paint the pupil by dotting to one side (never aim for the middle of the eye, it usually looks wrong). Use a dark brown. You can use the same colour to paint the underside of the brow too.

Now finish the face, going up to and including the lower eyelid.

Another way is to put the dark colour for the pupil down first in the above, then to dot the whites of the eyes. Helps escape the surprised look.

If you're having problems with brush points, try using a new toothpick or cocktail stick just to dot the pupils with.

Pen, damn, that's a great idea!

I use technical pens, far quicker/easier.

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I will look into finding better brand brushes or other tools.

And just to be clear, as that was one of my first brushes, I'm making sure not to let any other ones suffer in the same way.

 n0t_u wrote:
Another way is to put the dark colour for the pupil down first in the above, then to dot the whites of the eyes. Helps escape the surprised look.

This is the best way to do eyes, bar none. I have to say that I'm not a fan of the toothpick/cocktail stirrer method of painting eyes though. You don't really get enough paint on a small hard surface that you do on a brush, and it doesn't really flow. Just get a thin brush, and only use it for similarly fine detail.

You are a beginner, you play Imperial guard and yet you paint the eyes ?
Man, you are crazy.

I almost never paint the eyes, and though I'm a correct painter and have a steady hand, I'm SURE that I wouldn't paint the eyes of my guardsman if I were painting such an army. It would drive me insane.

Keeping the eyes dark and using the shadow caused by the eyebrow is my way to go.

I've never painted eyes on my bare headed marines. I think that the shade under the eye brow ridge is indistinguishable from any high level detail of pupils and whites when viewed from a foot or more away. If you're pushing yourself for finer brush control, technique though - more power to you!

If you'd like to see what I mean please check out my gallery. There's only a very limited number of photos but I've done a few faces now - white primer, brown shade, flesh base, light flesh highlight and brown pin wash.

Don't dot the eyes (unless you like your guys looking like they just partook of the emporers Krak pipe).
paint the whites with a very fine brush, then using a brush (or a fine sharpie pen) draw a line and bisect the white down the center. Look in the mirror...your pupils actually do bisect the entire white part of the eye.
And don't be dull. Not everyone has black/brown eyes.
Pask is a steely blue eyed lady killer after all.

I have no idea how to get the image onto the thread, but I put an image of my best guardsman's eyes on my gallery for anyone who wants to see it (yes, that is U.S. WWII insignia). On that note, the reason I started doing the eyes is because I was sick of faceless LOTR models.

I paint the eyes and their sockets black, then paint white over the eyes. Then I take a 0.5mm illustration pen to do the pupils. Even it is too large. The tip of the pen is a cylinder, so I use the edge of the cylinder at a 45 degree angle and make a vertical line for the pupil.

Maybe I should have a gallery just for the funny eyes I paint. One guardsman I just finished almost has vertical slits for pupils (obviously a Tyranid in disguise)

I find the easiest with guard is a line down the middle of white (or bone) eye. From far away it looks normal, and doesn't give the image of the soldier being surprised or having a lazy eye.

I agree with those who say you should use a pen.

I use this one (0.05mm is a good size in my experience):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pin-Fine-Line-Marker-0-05mm/dp/B0019MQMVO

I paint the white on the eyes before the rest of the face. That way, if you go outside the lines you can gradually paint in the skin tones over the excess white until you've reduced it down to just the eye.

Then I just take the pen and do a vertical line down the middle of the eye.

May I give you a bit of advice? Forget putting eyes on the guardsmen. Wait, hear me out!

Ever watch an anime? Whenever they want to portray a character as a stone cold killer, they draw a big black shadow over the eyes. This works really well on Imperial Guardsmen!

What you do is you paint your face in your given flesh tone, give it a wash, and a couple quick highlights to make the details pop. Then you take a black wash (or black paint, as long as it's nice and thin) and you dab it over where their eyes should be. This blacks the eyes out, and you just leave them that way. The result is a force of faceless, remorseless killers. One of my GFs was helping me paint my guys for a tournament, and she looked at a lord with a bunch of skulls and blades and bling, and then picked up a basic guardsman I had done with this technique, and told me "the little guy is scarier than the big guy."

Wisdom.

/\ This. I wash out the eyes like they're shaded from the sun.

What, no pic of the washed out eyes? Come on man...

Okay, here's two.

@bossfearless - Which is all well and good, until you get to painting Salamanders - who have black, and I mean BLACK, skin...

In all seriousness though, as I find your technique an interesting method, and Mr Nobody's pictures are a superb example or said method, would you then just apply a red wash in the area until you get the red glow effect Salamanders are noted for?

I tend to find with the deep brows on guardsman and the helmet lip putting the face in shadow, my favourite way is too shade the eye sockets and put a line of gloss varnish. It's very neat and if someone picks them up they appear to "glint" which is surprisingly effective!

Also I paint every face and eye on my guard army too so you're not alone!

Cheers
Chris Miller