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 Shadenuat wrote:

Reshaping the brush with my tongue. If I die of cadmium poisoning, at least I'll know why...

Current pigments used in paint production are generally made to not be dangerous. Also, if paint is named cadmium, it doesn't mean it has cadmium in it. It's the name of the color (ie cobalt blue)/imitation.

The only way to seriously harm yourself is to grind dried paint to dust and inhale it, then it could harm you, or drink about half a dozen of bottles. Even if it's natural cadmium, in paint, it is still mixed with a binder (say oil) which limits its ability to be dissolved in water and absorbed by your body.

So most of artistic scary tales about deadly artistic materials are clickbait material, especially if you just paint with modeling acrylics and never use real pigments or some heavy duty materials.

Ah... not entirely. Quite a few famous artists died from heavy metal poisoning due to their paints... and presumably brush-licking habits.

Any sources? Only one I can find is a sculptor who died of heavy metal poisoning from grinding down mussel shells to use in sculpture and breathing in the dust.

The most common anecdote is that Van Gogh went insane because of it but afaik it's also fake - he had mental issues since youth.

So lick if you want; they don't even make oil tubes out of lead anymore, too bad - they were awesome in the day and 40 yo oil paints in them are still perfect today. Decline!

I wouldn't be surprised with older paint, but not so much modern ones.

One thing is that I'm a disaster with colours, and when I go by eye, I never get anything right. Of course, I also don't document anything, so matching paint schemes is utterly impossible to me.

Aside from that, I sometimes just don't take the time I should be taking for things and get annoyed with fiddly details.

I can think of two major ones:

1) Overfocusing on one part of a model and rushing others (this also ties into missing parts out when batch painting).

2) Using way too much paint when mixing because I eyeball all my mixtures. I did try being more structured, but I ended up needing to remind myself to look at my reminders to remind me to check what I'd written down and it became insane, like having a diary for your diary, so I stopped doing it.

Made me wonder how much being organised is a mental talent, as much as it is a literal series of controlled structures (abstract or otherwise) designed to make management of life easier and more efficient.

Being so cheap that, whenever I have extra paint, I try to get it back in the bottle.

 ced1106 wrote:
Being so cheap that, whenever I have extra paint, I try to get it back in the bottle.

That is not a worst paint habit! That is an admirable trait, resourcefulness!




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Any sources? Only one I can find is a sculptor who died of heavy metal poisoning from grinding down mussel shells to use in sculpture and breathing in the dust.

Yes I head something about that. was it a sculptor, and something with the fumes during glassing/firing process?

My worst painting habits have to be having a wide range of half-finished projects on the go at any one time and not keeping a log of what I am doing.

I do find that leaving projects half-done for a long period of time and moving on to other projects in the interim can make me come back to the original model and put in a much better performance than just working straight through.

But I am starting to keep a log as the former problem means that consistency across multiple models becomes a real pain. And organisation needs to be enforced, particularly where I want to deal with GW releasing multiple models for the same necromunda gangs years apart!

I find I've started a project that requires too many models for the complex, time consuming colour scheme I've arrived at, and start again. When testing schemes for my new project I add more and more steps until that scheme becomes just as complex as the last, and I end up starting again.

I'm thinking of going monochrome tyranids next. The carapace and skin the same colour.

 ced1106 wrote:
Being so cheap that, whenever I have extra paint, I try to get it back in the bottle.

I do that. I use a brush to take it off the pallette and scrape it back into the bottle.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

 ced1106 wrote:
Being so cheap that, whenever I have extra paint, I try to get it back in the bottle.

I do that. I use a brush to take it off the pallette and scrape it back into the bottle.

This is why I end up with lots of primed miniatures with random patches of colour; can’t bear to waste good paint on the palette!

I just realized by reading some posts that I would also consider my color amount management on the palette to be a bad habit:
Especially with dropper bottles I tend to put way too much color on the palette and end up wasting way more than I should, cause I only take a bit of that and mix with water, medium or other colors.
As bad as the GW pots are, I often prefer them for that, cause then I only take 1 or 2 brushtips of color.

Some brush licking - but not as much as I used to.
Coming back to an army after years and my style having changed so they don't match, partly connected to:
Not planning a palette for a project
Not thinning my paints as standard. Painting straight from the pot!
Overly drawn to red: Praetorian Regiment; Kult of Speed; World Eaters...
Failing to keep up with the pile of shame.

1. i don't paint efficiently. i start at the bottom and work up but don't always plan well enough to do all the e.g. snakebite leather bits at the same time so i often find that i'm painting later a bit i could have painted earlier.

2. picking my ears with the non-business end of a paintbrush. this is bad because a) you should never insert anything like that into your ear for safety reasons and b) because occasionally i hold the paintbrush in my mouth whilst i manipulate the model with both hands and bleurgh earwax.

3. i also do the brush licking to get the shape back thing. its just the easiest way to do it and its basically one of those actions that i don't even notice anymore.

4. pile of shame is really shaming. i had a clearout a while back and now i know i want everything i've got but there is so much... i had great hopes for contrast paints but haven't had a lot of good results yet. i think most of the contrasts will go the same way as foundation paints tbh... though i liked foundation paints myself.

If we had longer lockdown I might have reduced my pile of shame, but it would be a question of proportional increase in online buy and decrease in unpainted models

Mixing paint with my paintbrush and getting paint all up the brush.

 Dolnikan wrote:
One thing is that I'm a disaster with colours, and when I go by eye, I never get anything right. Of course, I also don't document anything, so matching paint schemes is utterly impossible to me.

Aside from that, I sometimes just don't take the time I should be taking for things and get annoyed with fiddly details.

Yup. Rushing and not taking notes. Kinda sucks when my painting happens in 10 year gaps

I needed to repair some work I did on my Leman Russ tank with a custom blend. Had to go learn how to mix "black" to make a good mix. I was never good a colour theory in school art classes. Finally did the touch up and now I've scratch built a turret I need to paint I need to mix this blend again. Can I recall how I made the blend in just May this time? Hecking no.

I tend to use too many colours. I can't seem to stop changing colours. If I have a bolter it needs painting. If it has pouches they need painting. Armour must be a different colour to cloth. Tassels, grips, knives, grenades, sheaths, boots, trinkets, fetishes, vents, bionics ... i end up with VERY colourful minis. Too much of a hodge podge of colours.

My problem with choosing a painting scheme combined with me getting obsessed about unncessesary details.

 Duskweaver wrote:
Reshaping the brush with my tongue. If I die of cadmium poisoning, at least I'll know why...

Hahahaha this is me