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I guess this is kind of a continuation of my other ergonomic painting station thread. Long story short, working from home has significantly hurt my arms, which has hindered my miniatures assembling and painting ability. I'd initially gone for stopping wholesale until everything with my arms had finished healing, which would be slow going when I still need to work. My physical therapy, however, suggested I not stop wholesale and instead just adjust what I need to in terms of work area, habits, and duration (just make sure I don't push myself).

I began painting last weekend and found that I can paint without triggering any symptoms if I go for an hour with a fifteen minute break in between. When I have whole armies to paint, that means things are going to take quite awhile.

My magnifying stand will certainly help with avoiding mistakes, which will save some time, but if I'm going to get the rank and file of my armies completely done, I'll need to change how I paint.

Are there any techniques that can help me paint faster and easier while maintaining close to the level of quality I had before my injuries? I'm going to list below my most common types of material I paint, and what I do for them currently, so any tips on what else I can do for those materials would be greatly appreciated.

Colored Armor: your basic Basecoat, Wash, Layer, Highlight
Clean cloth (robes, jackets and such): same as above
Leather boots: same as above
Skin: Either Contrast over off-white with maybe an additional highlight after, or above
Leather: Basecoat, 3x progression highlights (colors vary on initial basecoat), Contrast
Fatigues: Basecoat, wash, bright drybrush, 2nd (colored) wash, brighter drybrush
Metals: TMM from Hobby Cheating (base, shade wash in dark areas, 2nd wash in darkest areas, bright highlight, thinned basecolor going from highlights to 1st shade)
Lenses/glasses: wetblend from bright color to black (no matter how small the lens! ), then white dot near upper corner

I am trying out "buffing" and drybrushing, but my experiment from last weekend I think deserves a different thread. Any tips would be helpful though!

if you must have high standaards then there a no real shortcuts to get the results you discribe, not i know off

 skeleton wrote:
if you must have high standaards then there a no real shortcuts to get the results you discribe, not i know off

I mean, I guess getting between 75-90% of what I normally do would be good enough for basic troops. I don't mind spending more time on characters and ultra special elite units, it's just that if I have to spend, say, 4 hours per model, that means a basic 10 man squad takes nearly a month and a half to finish. Not good IMO.

I can post examples of my usual work if requested.

Arcanis161 wrote:

Are there any techniques that can help me paint faster and easier while maintaining close to the level of quality I had before my injuries? I'm going to list below my most common types of material I paint, and what I do for them currently, so any tips on what else I can do for those materials would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck on your recovery.

If you are willing to learn something new and spend 2-300 dollars for the equipment, I highly recommend trying out airbrushing. It can be a game changer for: Priming, base coating, light sketching, basic broad area highlights, and sealing which you can do super fast with butters smooth coats of paint. The only thing is it is definitively a new learning curve on how to properly maintain the airbrush, dilute properly, control the trigger well, and use the right amount of air.

Another possibility with certain paints (especially non-chrome reflectivity metals, that is your normal metallics) is to pick up some oil paints and miniral spirits or just AK's "Streaking Grime" coat the areas, then highlight by erasing it with a cuetip/makeup sponge. It gives it a nice worn look and creates very quick shadow/highlight transitions.

Only thing I can suggest is working on general ergonomics.

I use different desks for hobbying vs office work. My office desk is set up for proper posture while working with a keyboard/mouse/monitor. (arms at relaxed position for typing, feet flat on the ground or on a foot rest, monitor height adjusted so that I don't twist my neck, chair locked in upright position to prevent slouching.

My hobby desk is set up higher so I can rest my elbows on it to put the model closer to eye level as I paint. I've lowered the chair a bit to make sure I'm not hunching over and forcing myself to sit up straight.

I know you were looking for faster painting techniques, but I feel for you it's probably more important to focus on the physical aspects first.

Hope you get better soon! I'd hate it if I couldn't paint!

Quasistellar wrote:
Only thing I can suggest is working on general ergonomics.

I use different desks for hobbying vs office work. My office desk is set up for proper posture while working with a keyboard/mouse/monitor. (arms at relaxed position for typing, feet flat on the ground or on a foot rest, monitor height adjusted so that I don't twist my neck, chair locked in upright position to prevent slouching.

My hobby desk is set up higher so I can rest my elbows on it to put the model closer to eye level as I paint. I've lowered the chair a bit to make sure I'm not hunching over and forcing myself to sit up straight.

I know you were looking for faster painting techniques, but I feel for you it's probably more important to focus on the physical aspects first.

Hope you get better soon! I'd hate it if I couldn't paint!

Thanks! I'll eventually be able to paint for a longer duration, but my focus right now is to do what I can to just continue painting, and try to get something done before the next edition of 40k.

I'm mostly there in terms of ergonomics, but I may get something to rest my elbows on. Bringing things close to my face triggers my symptoms (tingling and numbness from my pinky and ring finger down) really fast, so I got a magnifying stand and I absolutely love it to pieces. I can't believe I didn't get one earlier.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dranu wrote:

Arcanis161 wrote:

Are there any techniques that can help me paint faster and easier while maintaining close to the level of quality I had before my injuries? I'm going to list below my most common types of material I paint, and what I do for them currently, so any tips on what else I can do for those materials would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck on your recovery.

If you are willing to learn something new and spend 2-300 dollars for the equipment, I highly recommend trying out airbrushing. It can be a game changer for: Priming, base coating, light sketching, basic broad area highlights, and sealing which you can do super fast with butters smooth coats of paint. The only thing is it is definitively a new learning curve on how to properly maintain the airbrush, dilute properly, control the trigger well, and use the right amount of air.

Another possibility with certain paints (especially non-chrome reflectivity metals, that is your normal metallics) is to pick up some oil paints and miniral spirits or just AK's "Streaking Grime" coat the areas, then highlight by erasing it with a cuetip/makeup sponge. It gives it a nice worn look and creates very quick shadow/highlight transitions.

.

Yeah, been told to get an airbrush for years now. Don't have a whole lot of space to use one. Maybe my garage? But then weather and temperature become major issues. Will see, but I won't say no to getting one!

I think on top of making your painting setup more ergonomic the other important things are

1) don't rush. Seriously it sounds silly, but the more you try and rush something like painting the more likely you are to make mistakes and that means going back to fix things (takes more time) or leaving them as is and being less than happy with the final result (significantly reduced reward for your effort).

2) Set shorter target goals. Right now you're thinking of painting whole armies; stop that and focus on painting a squad. By setting more practical to achieve goals you can end up boosting your moral far faster and that means a more relaxed working situation and faster results because you're not trying to cut corners and such

3) Adjust your painting style/desire. You're sort of doing that already, thought right now you seem to be trying to achieve the same results faster. My view is that, for a whole army, are there ways you can change the very style of what you paint to achieve things faster.

This might perhaps mean painting one army simpler than another because whilst you like the models its an army you want to play more than paint. Whilst leaving you more time for an army that you really really want painted well.

Adjust your horizons, but don't lower your standards too far. You still want the reward of enjoying what you've created.




In the end many times, if you want to enjoy the quality of your creation its going to mean putting time in to achieve it.

Find your limit and stay well within it. That is to say, if ~30 minutes starts to make anything hurt, do ~15 minute sessions instead. It's frustrating not to be able to do what you once did, but it's far more important to not cause more damage.

Ergonomics are very personal, but something like this 'support brick' might prove beneficial?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwEwXnwq8nI

Overread wrote:I think on top of making your painting setup more ergonomic the other important things are

1) don't rush. Seriously it sounds silly, but the more you try and rush something like painting the more likely you are to make mistakes and that means going back to fix things (takes more time) or leaving them as is and being less than happy with the final result (significantly reduced reward for your effort).

2) Set shorter target goals. Right now you're thinking of painting whole armies; stop that and focus on painting a squad. By setting more practical to achieve goals you can end up boosting your moral far faster and that means a more relaxed working situation and faster results because you're not trying to cut corners and such

3) Adjust your painting style/desire. You're sort of doing that already, thought right now you seem to be trying to achieve the same results faster. My view is that, for a whole army, are there ways you can change the very style of what you paint to achieve things faster.

This might perhaps mean painting one army simpler than another because whilst you like the models its an army you want to play more than paint. Whilst leaving you more time for an army that you really really want painted well.

Adjust your horizons, but don't lower your standards too far. You still want the reward of enjoying what you've created.




In the end many times, if you want to enjoy the quality of your creation its going to mean putting time in to achieve it.

Probably the best thing then would be to experiment a bit. If I find a new style that I like that's faster, great; if not, I'll just go back to what I was doing before.

Absolute worst case scenario, if I can't get what I wanted done in time before the current edition's out, I guess I can figure out how to get Tabletop Simulator to work.

Fire_Forever wrote:Find your limit and stay well within it. That is to say, if ~30 minutes starts to make anything hurt, do ~15 minute sessions instead. It's frustrating not to be able to do what you once did, but it's far more important to not cause more damage.

Ergonomics are very personal, but something like this 'support brick' might prove beneficial?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwEwXnwq8nI

Well, my current plan is based off of having painted for around 2 and a half hours with sporadic breaks. I think the longest period was around an hour and a half straight before I began getting symptoms, so with that in mind, two half-hour sessions separated by a fifteen minute break shouldn't cause any trouble.

I'll absolutely shorten it if I have to. Small amounts of painting here and there is better than making things worse.

There's definitely techniques that can give quick but impactful results for good looking miniatures, but won't be getting you any Painting Competition awards.

Although best painted at small tournies can often as much about a consistent, neat and well executed theme.

Try to work where possible across a few models at a time doing all of the same bits, so all the metal, all the leather, all the armour, etc.

Save the slower drying work like Contrast paints and washes for the very end of your sessions.

For belts, pouches and similar the Contrast paints are incredibly effective, especially if you thin them.

If you do your highlighting work first, followed by a gloss varnish you can then get very neat recess shading with inks/washes.

A dark "pin wash" can work wonders for giving definition to areas that are either the same colour or don't have big differences in colours.

You can use your "breaks" to reset your painting area, changing out the water, getting the next set of paints out for the next colours you're going to work on, tidying away anything you won't need again for that unit.

Planning and preparation will make possibly the biggest difference to your painting efficiency, both while you're recuperating and going forwards, it's a reason to build some great habits.

Rik

I've been using these on my Titanicus titans, and they give a really good result quickly:

https://www.migjimenez.com/en/151-panel-line-wash

Nice thing about them is that they're enamels. They have the surface tension that allows them to follow lines and edges like oil paints...but they dry in minutes compared to hours or more. I use white spirits to clean them up, just like with oils. I don't think they'd be very useful for smaller miniatures, but on vehicles, Knights, Titans, etc. they're great.

Arcanis161 wrote:

Yeah, been told to get an airbrush for years now. Don't have a whole lot of space to use one. Maybe my garage? But then weather and temperature become major issues. Will see, but I won't say no to getting one!

2 possibilities: 1.) You can get a spray booth indoors which makes it fine unless you are dealing with real toxic lacquer paints, etc. 2.) with a water filter on my air compressor (most have them) I have never had any trouble with rain, humidity, or temperatures, though coldest I have sprayed is only near freezing. I think it functions very different than spray cans.

As a person living with Fibromyalgia I completely understand your pain. It's difficult for me to sit and paint for longer than an hour or two at a time. I'm here to say, it sucks but it's possible to get great results quickly. Here's the tips I've found to be helpful
1) Most importantly, don't push yourself. If you're in pain you're probably going to skip over parts and move too quickly which ends up ruining paint jobs.
2) Glazing is nice and all but... inks are cheating. You can easily attain glaze quality color transitions on armor with a few high quality inks (EG liquitex or Daler Rowney)
3) Get into oil paints. It will make your life so much easier if you can slowly ease into oil paints. They are SIGNIFICANTLY faster to get fantastic color transitions with than acrylics.
4) on the topic of oils, at least get a black oil paint and mix it heavily with White Spirits or Mineral Spirits to a point where it's as thin as water. Then, use it in the recesses of your models. It has a capillary reaction, instantly filling the voids with the black oil paint and saving you an incredible amount of time and pain. It's also super important to note that any black oil "ink" you use is easily wiped away with mineral spirits after the fact so if you make a mistake, you can erase it without hurting your acrylics.
4.5) I love oils... use black oil paint on any script type work so you can easily wipe away mistakes instead of going back and forth with your colors in acrylics.
5) If you're not already, use a bigger brush. Really. Since I've switched to the Windsor Newton Series 7 # 1 and # 2 my life has been so much better. Accuracy is better, you can paint more with the paint in the brush... it's worth the money. Just trust me.

I hope some of these help. Let me know if you try any cuz I'd love to hear your experience.

Inks are cheating? Haha then I’m a big cheater. I use GSW intensity inks a lot but it requires a bit of experimentation. Here’s a few pics of how I am doing some death guard and it’s a few steps to having a well based model ready for detail at my leisure. I put a layer of red on before the green, for some reason it works.

These inks are very versatile. The browns create a great base for gold type colours but add shadows and expose areas for highlighting. A bit like contrast paints but they are not the same.