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I was wondering if anyone had suggestions about how to avoid mistakes (by this I mean colours spilling over into the wrong section). Also, how much do these errors matter (ie if you look closely enough will even well painted models have these errors, but to a smaller degree)?

you have to think in term of layering instead of mixing a certain color and apply to one area. Also think of deepest area to outer areas too. Rinse your water cup often, and always do metallic rinse separate from normal rinse bowl. If it's something really fine, you can use a dull xacto knife tip and carefully remove just painted areas using the subtraction method. Brush selection, steady hand, wet palette also helps.

Nobody really pops into the hobby and straight up does flawless paintjobs with no spills.. The boring answer is patience and practise.
The more immediate answer is to learn to hide your mistakes.

First, always keep a clean brush and clean(ish) water to hand,and paper towel. If you stray somewhere you don't mean to with your current colour, and notice immediately, drop what you're using, grab the clean brush, load up on water, wipe it on a paper towel, and then wipe that mistake. With a few good rubs you should get it loose. Now you have milky painty water on your model, booh.
So you need to wick that away. Clean the brush again, soak up the painty water (or wipe some more), and dry the brush on a paper towel. Do it again until you're ride of the water.

Otherwise, learn to paint in an order that's easy to cover your mistakes. Do dark colours first, then your lighter ones. if you spot light paint on a dark area, it's much much easier to paint over than spotting dark on pale.

T'other tip is rest your elbows on the table if you wobble.

I make it a point to always paint the most recessed areas first - it's easier to paint the vest, then the shirt, then the armour, then the weapon held over the chest than it is to reach past the nicely painted weapon, armour and shirt to try and reach the vest without touching anything else!

As you work from inner layer to outer you can easily correct any minor mistakes as you go.

Brush control improves greatly over time I find. With more experience you'll learn how to brace yourself to keep the brush steady, when to turn the miniature to an angle which allows you to perform an easier stroke, and when a particular stroke is likely to result in an error if you don't take it very slowly & carefully.

It helps to keep your breathing steady and predictable, move the brush as little as possible so don't try to cover too much ground in a single stroke, and try to ensure you're in passive relaxed mood with few distractions if you know you'll be doing delicate work that requires absolute concentration.

One of the things I like most about painting is finding myself in that pristine state of zen calmness where I'm almost observing myself paint from afar, and its in that state the tiny details seem easiest to paint.

By spill over, I assume you mean paintbrush strokes, not literally paint spilling over.

If you thin your paints, correcting these without leaving trace will be much easier. You can also get an 800 or 1000 grit sanding block to gently get rid of brushstrokes (make sure the paint is totally dry) if you build up too much paint.

With practice, everyone's basic skills, like painting clean lines, improves.

 Minimachine wrote:
One of the things I like most about painting is finding myself in that pristine state of zen calmness where I'm almost observing myself paint from afar, and its in that state the tiny details seem easiest to paint.

Obi-Wan-Minimachine, I am in awe of your Jedi mastery One with the mini are you!

All kidding aside, you're totally right, state of mind and breathing make a difference. Bracing your hands or fingers helps too, as does ensuring that you stretch now and then and not get hypoglycemic (low blood sugar). Interesting factoid, sugars power the little muscles that you use to paint, and having a bit more in your body will help steady the hands a little. Just have a chocolate bar and try to paint something

 Talys wrote:
Obi-Wan-Minimachine, I am in awe of your Jedi mastery One with the mini are you!

All kidding aside, you're totally right, state of mind and breathing make a difference. Bracing your hands or fingers helps too, as does ensuring that you stretch now and then and not get hypoglycemic (low blood sugar). Interesting factoid, sugars power the little muscles that you use to paint, and having a bit more in your body will help steady the hands a little. Just have a chocolate bar and try to paint something

May the Brush be with you?

Haha I love the analogy Talys. It is all about giving the mini the entirety of one's concentration. It also feels like the strength of one's finger & forearm muscles plays a role in stabilizing everything and that they build up over the course of painting regularly. Selecting the right grip on the brush is also important, I use a relaxed grip above the ferrule for basecoating & layering but a closer grip very near the bristles for freehand.

Blood sugar levels isn't something I'd really considered but I would definitely advise against large amounts of caffeine which can cause the hands to shake ever so slightly.

I've found that an oil wash is an excellent substitute for skill when it comes to accuracy.

my secret weapon is the humble toothpick...
when paint accidentally flows into a crevice where i don't want it, i just run a toothpick (softened and moistened with a little nibble on the point) along the crevice, and it picks the wet paint right up...

for stray brush strokes, say from painting some raised detail a different color to the main surface, i just let it dry, and then tidy up the stray bit with my main color...

i think the main thing is not to stress little mistakes too much, as they can all be fixed...
having the patience to fix little mistakes is a lot less stressful than trying to get eveything perfect on the first try...

good luck!!!

cheers,
jah

two options.

1) Not doing it (dont make the mistake in the first place )

2) Hide it. use washes inbetween colors to blend in the seams. or depending on the situation you can blend it in as chipping or battle damage