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I don't have a very steady hand. This makes me sad for painting details. Any advice or tricks or tips to work on getting a steadier hand for fine detail?

I usually lean my brush hand on the table, know what I'm saying? When its against the table it minimizes any shakiness. for me at least

Create anchor points, as many as you can. As Donkeyshot says, putting your elbow, or forearm, on the table will limit any shakes from the upper arm.

Another trick is to lock your brush hand and your mini-holding-hand together, further stabilizing the two and reducing any wobble from the forearms. If done well, all you should need to be able to move independently are the fingers you're holding the brush with.

Practice.

Gluing the miniature to a dowel (with Elmer's) or cork helps. Helps eliminate slips, drops and lets you put more concentration on your painting hand.

There are also these contraptions with clamps to hold the miniature. The one I have has a magnifying glass on it. I have used that and then used my left hand to stabilize my right hand (kinda like aiming a pistol). I got mine at a hardware store. Harbor Freight I think. Cheap too. Under $10 bucks.

As mentioned - shorten the length of the lever (rest your hands on something).

My paint desk has a padded keyboard rest on the edge for comfort.

What happens is that you will still be shaking some, but as opposed to your hands shaking at the end of your 3 foot long arms and moving a few millimeters or more with each shake, they are at the end of a small portion of your forearms moving only a fraction of a millimeter at a time.

After that - see if you can identify the source of your shakiness. I know I won't try to paint a face without at least one cup of coffee in me. It can also help to practice your breathing for really fine details (just like shooting a gun - your whole body is connected...inhaling and expanding your chest drives your shoulders out and causes your hands to wobble).

You can toy with a holder as well if one hand shakes more than the other (or out of sync with the other). This allows you to steady your brush with both hands (pistol style) and the miniature stays in place. Works well enough for some people but I tend to hold the miniature in one hand and brush with the other (unless airbrushing).

Being right handed, I hold the mini in my left hand, then extend my pinky from my right hand and touch my left hand. This way the two hands tend to move together rather than separately.

Then when I hold the brush between my thumb and forefinger, just those two fingers (and the brush) move independently of the rest.

I think the first step is to try and lock my hands together a bit better and see if I need to do more from there (resting hands on edge, etc). I usually have them fairly separate, which feels really dumb in hindsight. Thanks!

Put elbows on the table elps

or i put my chair down to have the table at chest high and rest my arm against the edge.

 Evertras wrote:
I don't have a very steady hand. This makes me sad for painting details. Any advice or tricks or tips to work on getting a steadier hand for fine detail?

An art instructor always told me to drink water, seemed to work for me.

Avoid caffeine, alcohol and sugary things that increase your blood glucose level, starving yourself is just as bad.

The tip redbeard suggests works for me.

Rest your elbows on the table and then rest your wrists against each other. That should get rid of pretty much all shaking unless your fingers shake independently of the rest of your hands.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Rest your elbows on the table and then rest your wrists against each other. That should get rid of pretty much all shaking unless your fingers shake independently of the rest of your hands.

I pretty much do this. Except I lock my elbows into squishy area between my hips and wait, next to the hip bones. Then I lock my wrists together.

I guess it depends on how high your desk is in relation to your body and how high you like to hold your miniatures.

Yeah, if you have a watchmakers type desk (which is very high) you can probably just rest your forearms on the desk the same way watchmakers do.

If you have a low desk, resting your wrists on them results in pretty poor posture, so I think it's better to rest your elbows on the desk and your wrists together.

That's true, a low desk doesn't help with posture. I have tried painting with my elbows propped on the desk with my wrists together, but it just wasn't a comfortable painting position for me.

I only use this for tiny freehand, which I do after varnishing and drying, so may not be worth much, but I place my left foot on a chair, lay the model on it and have my right hand set on my leg just below it. Completely removes the shakes, but damn near useless for painting the model itself.

I shake a bit, I try to do as much on sprue or locked down somehow as possible, I liked the old metal models as they stay still minus any weights etc.
I agree with keeping arm on table, anything to minimize movement in brush and model is good.
Least I know one things not moving :-)

I'm no good with bold, fluid strokes. Even if I didn't shake, painting fine lines and details in one go wouldn't generally work, for me. Knowing this, I instead aim to use multiple short, overlapping strokes to build up my lines/coverage. Being able to repeat "dry runs" (not actually dry - the brush is loaded, I just repeat the stroke slightly above the surface, inching closer until I finally apply paint) lets me dial in a smooth motion. This is, of course, coupled with as much bracing of my hands against each other as is practical.

Elbows on table, hands as close together as possible.

If you're doing something like eyes, I find slowly exhaling as you paint helps steady your hands even more.

A belt of whiskey calms the shakes.

Especially if I haven't had any for awhile.

Try drawing and writing a lot smaller in your everyday life. It helps (a little)