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So, here I was attempting to complete the paintjob of my first Infinity miniature, and all it's missing are her eyes. Eyes, I delayed the inevitable until now. I managed to paint them white but painting the iris is being maddening.Either it looks blotchy, either is looks bad, either it's too thin, too thick, I'm going mad!

I already attempted joining the wrists together, holding my breath, and the paint brush isn't helping either, I feel I have to do way too much pressure for paint to transfer.

What are your tips, tools, anything to fully paint the eyes?! This is being so...

If it's particularly small, there's no harm leaving it black and just using shadow as a reason. However, if you do feel you have to paint the eyes, I'd say the best way is just to practice. Brace your wrists together on the table, and just do it when you're absolutely confident that it'll turn out right, which may take some time at first (one of my more recent works took me 40 mins to paint the white of the eye, yet it turned out absolutely perfect). As for paint consistency, you want it slightly thinner than normal, something like the consistency of full-fat milk; creamy, yet runs easily, but the key point is practice, practice, practice. Find a Guard player, see if he has any spare heads you can practice on.

Do the eyes first, then use the skin color to shape them. It works a lot better than doing the eyes last and screwing up half the mini when you have to strip the paint off because of a failed attempt.

This article changed my eye painting, for the good: http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/12

Also, I find one hand steadying the other by resting one heel of my hand is the other palm is the best technique (for me) for steady hands. And instead if dotting, I draw the slightest line - that has the effect of having the paint brush draw across the mini (an action I do regulalry when painting) instead of trying to dot it (an action I almost never do, and therefore have a hard time judging).

SavageRobby wrote:

This article changed my eye painting, for the good: http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/12

Also, I find one hand steadying the other by resting one heel of my hand is the other palm is the best technique (for me) for steady hands. And instead if dotting, I draw the slightest line - that has the effect of having the paint brush draw across the mini (an action I do regulalry when painting) instead of trying to dot it (an action I almost never do, and therefore have a hard time judging).

I use this method to get this result:



It does take practice. You also need to have zero caffeine in your body: it'll make your hands shake. Make sure your hands are steady, so no sugar too.

Some helpful advice I once got is to do things in the opposite order that you naturally want to.

Paint the whole eye black and work the white in from the sides until you get an iris left in the middle. Still takes some practice, but it lessens the risk of ending up with googlie-eyes on your otherwise nicely painted models.

Drying retarder helps a lot when doing eyes or other fine details. You only have a tiny amount of paint on your brush so it dries really quickly and so doesn't go on smooth. This helps prevent that.

i hate doing eyes so i do them first after all the base colors. I use a white background and hold the miniature upside down so if you get a slight mistake its hidden by the brows when the model is right side up

Try vertical strokes repeatedly on the desired area, paint will slowly but surely transfer in the way you probably are looking for

Agree with others:

Thinning or drying retarder (I prefer drying retarder, eyes are the only time I use it) will fix the "pressure for paint" problem your having.

I'd also recommend going across the eye instead of dotting.

A good quality brush will also help, Kolinsky are good from my exp.


If your still having problems getting a result I'd do the best you can then slowly add layers of really light wash into the eye area untill you are happy. This is to still give the impression the eye has been painted but shadowed in by the brow.

Thank you all so much for the many wonderful tips. Tonight I'll probably try with the retardant and I'll hope for the best.

Oh, and that article is fantastic. I never thought about starting with the eyes, but it makes bloody sense now. Next one with normal eyes I'm painting I'll be sure to try that!

You can use the tip of a micron pen too

One good piece of advice i picked up from an old citadel book; try to have the iris close to if not touching the top and bottom of the eye. Making them too small gives you a startled look.

The Reaper/Citadel technique are pretty much the same. I wasted a lot of time before I realised you should just paint white , paint in the iris, and then trim from the outside in.