Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Redshank on August 26, 2025, 09:54:41 PM
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By which I mean whites and irises (and pupils), rather than just a deep shade.
I haven't gone there myself, even with my 40mm stuff. Main reason: I don't have the skill.
However I have to own up that I haven't been minded to develop the skill, either. Given I paint exclusively for tabletop game use (not display), I try and work on a "3 foot rule" basis.
Also, I have rarely if ever seen it done well to serve as an inspiration. In fact, literally as I type this I am looking at an advert in the banner across the top of the forums for Oathmark Elf Cavalry, and the painted-in eyes look a bit off to me. Not askew, just somehow "uncanny valley". (No disrespect meant if the painter happens to read this; it is a much better job than I can aspire to!)
Still, I wonder if I'm just being lazy.
Any skilled eye painters that can set me straight?
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I paint eyeballs on generic fantasy humans and demihumans, while leaving monsters red.
But you can't see them when gaming. No point painting what you'll never see, even though I'll do it. :P
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I can, but usually just a light grey base and then pupil and eyebrow with a .005 Micron pen. Even on 15mm, I tend to use the pen to draw in a comma.
Doesn't show up so much out on the table, but it does in any close-up game photos!
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Nope. The risk/reward on the effort to paint eyeballs isn’t worth it. I mean, if you do a good job, no one will notice. If you do a bad job, the mini looks like trash. “Faces and Bases make models look Aces”
Besides, as mentioned, you never see eyes at arm’s length on the tabletop.
As the closing statement, here’s a “real world” image depicting a shot closer to the subjects than you would be to a mini at arm’s length. No eyeballs visible.
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I use to do it all the time but there is little reward so I stopped on most models. Now it has to be something special for me to make the effort. That and my eyes are going in my old age.
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Nope. The risk/reward on the effort to paint eyeballs isn’t worth it. I mean, if you do a good job, no one will notice. If you do a bad job, the mini looks like trash.
This.
I only do it for large monsters like ogres, trolls or giants
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I do it as and when it's worth while, and that pretty much just means big critters these days. I might do it for character models, not mooks, but only because they tend to get picked up for close examination -- for pure tabletop use, there's no point. When I do eyes on 28mm humanoids, I generally go for an understated look: no pure white, for example, and an indication of the pupil rather than an exact scale replication.
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Only on fantasy models where they're supposed to look weird/funny. Otherwise, IMO it NEVER looks good. I've seen so many otherwise nice models ruined. They all look like Chihuahuas with goiter issues.
Steve
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As the closing statement, here’s a “real world” image depicting a shot closer to the subjects than you would be to a mini at arm’s length. No eyeballs visible.
I think this hits the nail on the head - you often can't actually see eyes very clearly at any distance, hence the uncanny factor if they pop out on a model.
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I keep trying to talk myself out of doing them, but then I put the Optivisor on and the 3ft rule goes out the window.
Pupils shouldn't normally be surrounded by white, only really at the sides, so I tend to go for a bigger circle than really needed, and then trim it back with flesh afterwards.
However, I'm only ever happy with it maybe 30% of the time, so no pictures will be provided lol
I actually have more of an issue with eyebrows, partly because I keep forgetting them and partly because they end up looking massively out of scale.
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I do, and often fairly badly ( lol ), because I play skirmish games far more than mass battle. En-masse, doing eyes is probably highly optional.
For close photos and for skirmish games, it's not about 'realism' - the proportions are all wrong anyway on most models, they're generally miniature representations of characters, not fine art sculpture*.
In other words to me it usually looks wrong if the eyes aren't painted, as the models have exaggerated features and look rather creepy with skintones where eyes should be. lol
*To be clear, they are still art and good art at that, I just mean they're not photo-realisitic portraits.
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Unless you are modelling M?ori or Marty Feldman, no.
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I'm definitely in the no camp, but then all my stuff is 15mm or 6mm :D
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Skirmish games and characters? Yes
Mass battle? Not anymore
I have a a pretty easy to do method (by far the easiset that I tried so far), but it still doesnt make much sense for a mass of miniatures:
- Paint the face skin color
- White blob, wehre the eyes should be
- Pupil with a fineliner
- Drying time, fineliner needs it!
- Paint eyelids with skin color
Its much easier to paint upper and lower eyelids on the white blob, than panting a precise white almonds for the eyes.
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Used to be a point of pride, all my figures had eyeballs (sometimes even looking in the same direction!), but now only if I feel like really pulling out all the stops on a mini or if its big enough to demand it.
Honestly, a combination of not having the time, my own eyes not being up to it and the general "meh, close enough" that comes with age have made it slide down my list of priorities for what makes a finished mini.
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I always paint the eyes - even in 15mm and 10mm. But most of what I paint is monsters, so I usually go with red eyes: white, wash of red ink and a white dot over that.
With human(ish) eyes, I try to follow two rules: grey rather than white (usually Vallejo Silver Grey) and a lot of pupil rather than just a dot or line.
I think all these figures would look much worse without painted eyes:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4LxN_wk9aSsfl1cX-rDFipqzCTxEKobfTtlHMgroJ9fWHQJmHhwN0EVVgeBuISHPBygPXh80Ln98nFh0A_Qr3xLVTFgx0yTqVrreYcUyyKuj4ZJ32GSezhbhT6CsOXPkgsoYPPdaB7iNW653qBBxa83D7XAg4teRq1ODrsondFoRxL-Hp4jVYjN1e5uQe/s4032/Frostgrave%20undead.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf1COhd-Jz_E9K2Uzj2xp49ujyrjzoE03yJgNdpHCoRbZbXERRiCgSzM-mEHHfGW_TYjheD-MtsM3Mdvdn2RYVycJaHyfUq1_PayiXv11XDj7bc4waj38jVLOCFmFgK12VvypCWUm-FPvq2oUVaDklocRfihXv136N5X3Y8Uol09hmj6rwtHWaiULmYUqr/s4032/Broo%20leader.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggnKVjsYWdXcYDfkIGyCZHBZgBLNP573JjS7rNNkJ7HOeQ9qIkOnLblaW19a9r73G-TRRpzFbmxPnmUqfqkRXDi5-QywYTbtOEciAgSA7nVEws1-BZ5DyjGoXYzAjBnb5bEhV9BaJEvIrUvKM6VUf6YNET5fnUSirJOHB7r7ytAiRYKh_wO1mJQ9OTJBi_/s4032/Dark%20trolls%20and%20trollkin.HEIC)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiFaS1tAcCZd6V5ZHrFWkrePiNIUoFz56y8YanBHzMt8Vu7imirVZHQHRALmM7etN7AtrsQmh-_oYKooxoS4TcW5lMlfla_g99K3dQda7mBApoSOKBpuMQeFSZWrAYm_G1OV-du0QS7fhO/s1224/Goblin+king.JPG)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqgM6kdnlMU1mV9p9Ny9b4xlL9EaWSF70xNNqcbxAAbNJLEP4tH9_JUoPRRZPl05sBs0gwG-VWn8-Ga19HisDQgksYI5WGiMnLa5Bb9HcUROxRv374kLI7p1T8ibcYFbRJHCTmrSurpHNp/s1600/Hobgobs.JPG)
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@Hobgoblin - true. Those wouldn’t look as good with unpainted eyes. But you’re a phenomenal painter. They might look worse if you left them unpainted, but if I tried to paint those eyes, they’d look much, _much_ worse! ;)
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In other words to me it usually looks wrong if the eyes aren't painted, as the models have exaggerated features and look rather creepy with skintones where eyes should be. lol
This is how I feel, too. I am getting better at painting eyes, I feel. Yes, you may say the 3' rule on the tabletop, but we tend to pick up cool figures and hold them close to our face... lol No judgement on those who do not paint eyes. When we are playing a bigger game and I'm moving a unit of 12 figures of one of my friend's figures, I don't notice that they don't have eyes. I think I am the only one in my Sunday Night gaming group who still paints eyes.
I tend to do slits more than ovals. I start with a black one, then put a white slit inside. Then I put the pupil in the middle of the slit so there is only a little bit of white on either side. I should probably do as Cat does and switch from the paint brush and use the micron pen for the pupils.
Mike Demana
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It kinda depends for me, generally no, but if something's got a very dark flesh colour then I do, Orks for example, they've just been getting yellow dots for the eyes but it's more than humans get, apart from a warrior priest who needed eye a couple of years ago, just because of how dark his skin was.
I've also realised I spend more time painting lenses on helmets than I do eyes.
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Nope, except for my 6mm. Those I do.
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As a general rule I do it for my 28mm figures. However some sculpting styles make it difficult, and in those cases I just go with warm brown. My technique for eyes is to paint the area in black, add in two white stripes (this lets me get the black line thinner than if I did in on top of the white), and then paint the flesh around it, doing my best to make it look like both eyes are looking in the same direction. But as I get older, we'll have to see if my eyesight and steadiness of hand allow me to continue with that practice.
Chris
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For 28mm and 1/35 I always paint eyes and I do it with oils and a small (5/0 or even 10/0), pointy brush. Oils because it is really easy to correct because of its transparency and slow drying (an acrylic pigeon shit/fried egg can not be taken back, has to be good for the first try. Oils do not.). For smaller I just let the brown wash used for the face fill the eye sockets.
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when younger yes always if 28mm or larger, nowadays nope not unless they are easy to get to, from 3ft away who can tell ;D lol
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Long ago I painted eyes. Stopped painting for quite awhile and just didn't have the proper control when I restarted. Tried recently and it was so bad I repainted the face without them. Probably in the Nay camp from now on.
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I always do, because I would miss them if I didn‘t.
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If the figure has well sculpted eyes, I will paint them. If it's just a smear of putty or a crease above the cheek, it's getting a dab of wash and added to the squint brigade.
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I paint my 28mm figure eyes and even though my eye sight is not as good as it use to be I wont let it beat me ;)
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I had almost completely given up due to my ageing eyesight and the difficulty/impossibility of correcting errors. Having read Freddy's contribution I'm going shopping for oils, Ive already got tiny brushes! Thanks!
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For me, it depends on the size of the miniature (not necessarily the scale). More heroic-style minis with cartoony faces tend to have bigger eyes, which are easier to paint. When I’m painting standard 28mm figures, like Perry’s, I usually don’t bother with the eyes.
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I did. Whole 25mm Alexandrian Macedonian army from Lamming, with variations in colour for skin, clothes, armour etc. so of course I put eyes on them. Not any more, though. Nearest I get is red eyes on Orks and Grots.
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For me, it depends on the size of the miniature (not necessarily the scale). More heroic-style minis with cartoony faces tend to have bigger eyes, which are easier to paint. When I’m painting standard 28mm figures, like Perry’s, I usually don’t bother with the eyes.
That's a really good point. And within that, fantasy (and some sci-fi) humanoids often have even more disproportionately large heads than 'heroic' figures. For example, the heads of those Perry hobgoblins I posted above are probably about four times the size of the head on a plastic Perry man-at-arms.
An exception would be the Oathmark range, where the orcs and goblins have rather small eyes - and where the option of glowing eyes (with no pupil) is very welcome as a result!
One more tip on eyes with pupils: if you paint the figure so that it's looking to the left or right, you can make the process much easier, as you only need one bit of 'white' (i.e. grey or off-white) in each eye. I've found that this helps quite a lot with small historicals.
Another thing: using a grey for the 'white' of the eye means that you can get a much better light/reflection effect if you put a dot of tiny dot of pure white into the pupil. The eye will look much more alive as a result.
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25/28mm or above, I paint the eyes. 20mm or below, I don't.
How I paint the eyes - I do it right after the flesh basecoat on the face, so I can go back over the 'white' (actually a dirty grey colour) with more of the base coat to thin it right down for very narrow eyes (narrower than you think), then the iris, then neaten up with more basecoat if it's got messy, before painting in the rest of the face.
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On the basis of the debate so far, I think I can say... the eyes have it
(I'll fetch my coat)
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With that humour, you’ll find it on the bonfire :-)
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I don't paint them.
Most of my figures are Perry 28mm, and both with plastic and metal you usually have an eyeball and eyelids on the sculpts. I paint the eyelids, and leave the ball itself dark brown. Most of these figures wear helmets with low rims, so the eyes usually end up in shadow.
(https://i.imgur.com/REkWSUv.jpg)
On the figures without low helmets rims, i.e. the occasional figure with a soft hat or no headgear, I still do the same, and you can see the eyelids and the dark slit between them more easily. Never felt the need to do anything more.
(https://i.imgur.com/DKgNlJ7.jpg)
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As the closing statement, here’s a “real world” image depicting a shot closer to the subjects than you would be to a mini at arm’s length. No eyeballs visible.
(https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=150438.0;attach=246781;image)
I think that's a pretty damn good closing statement!!
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I think that's a pretty damn good closing statement!!
I do not think it is good one.
Humans are trained to look into each others eyes, so detailed eyes have simply more weight than detailed belt buckles or boots. And it is not about the white of the eyes, it is about the facial expression and the direction of the gaze. It is determined by the adjustment of the eyelids, eyelashes, eyebrows and the pupil/iris as the focal point, especially its ratio to the white of the eyes. Here is another photo, if the direction of the light is not a strong one from above but more diffused, the pupils/iris are also clearly visible.
(https://media.gettyimages.com/id/588284108/photo/russian-soldiers-waving-from-onboard-a-t.webp?s=2048x2048&w=gi&k=20&c=iU1WULRKG3xUdPrnWsCgocFOb7xWiIVbS17r8hTMQGM=)
If the iris is too small compared to the white, you will get the dumb/shell shocked look.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Shellshock2_%28cropped%29.jpg)
In most cases a T-shape for the eyelashes and the pupil is enough on a figure. If the sculpting is detailed enough, even a wash can bring out the important details of the eye.
Also note that most of our figures are heroic scale, with the heads way bigger than they should be in the scale. For the eyes, even the hyper-realistic Roman sculptures had sometimes the eyes bigger as it is such an important part of the face.
My closing statement would be a wish for everyone having their figures painted to a level where only the eye details are missing :)
also:
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRtRfrR2XkzHPID9TFBQOuMZbKoaK0RJUTTaXW2E7ECFhDFuDB9c-LXAUIIH5za-AfkHxY&usqp=CAU)
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As a rule I don't, unless the figure looks "wrong" with out the eyes painted in. Usually limited to fantasy monster types to be honest.