Painting eyes. Yay or nay?

[Hobgoblin]

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:

[Mr. White]

@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!

[mikedemana]

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. 

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...  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

[voltan]

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.

[Inkpaduta]

Nope, except for my 6mm. Those I do.

[joekano]

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

[Freddy]

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.

[Storm Wolf]

when younger yes always if 28mm or larger, nowadays nope not unless they are easy to get to, from 3ft away who can tell 

[syrinx0]

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.

[Michi]

I always do, because I would miss them if I didn‘t.

[Mammoth miniatures]

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.

[modelwarrior]

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

[Tarnegol]

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!

[MaaX]

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.

[Moriarty]

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.