How do you folks paint eyes?

[Orctrader]

Over a black undercoat, with a brush.

Off-white (I use Ivory) horizontal line covering where the eye would be.  (Don’t worry about being too tidy.)

Black  vertical line for the pupil.

With the black, tidy up where the Ivory wasn’t tidy.

First flesh coat paint upto the edge of the black.

As for painting eyes or not, I always do.  Look better in photos.  But then, I don’t paint armies.  If I ever do, I may work on a quicker method.  Then again, if I didn’t paint eyes, would I bother with finger nails?  Before I knew where I was, my army types would just be undercoated.   

[Plynkes]

Actually, H, I hold a figure about six inches from my nose when painting it. Taking one of my painted figures at random (Richard Burton, as it happens), if I hold him at arm's length I can't make out the eyes. If I hold him close up I can see them. I don't really see what is unrealistic about that - it seems to be working in the same way for little people as big ones.

Anyway, I ain't saying you are wrong, just that your way isn't right for me. While you may not have, I certainly have seen plenty of figures where I thought the eyes were an asset rather than the ruination of a good miniature (which I happily agree is a very common result). And the way I see it, if Kevin Dallimore or Steve Dean or Alex Bews can do it, I can fucking do it. It's just a matter of application, and being bloody-minded enough not to give up. Take all that negative "Wish I could paint like that" energy and convert it into sheer force of will to improve. That's just my way, and it works for me.  

I'd rather try and paint like them and fail than not try. So maybe that means I have more than a few Marty Feldmans in my ranks, but that's a price I'm prepared to pay if it means I'm slowly getting better at it. Which I think I am. The Martys aren't nearly as common as they were five years ago.


Marty Feldman (1934-1982).

[Hammers]

Well, eye painters, keep adding miniatures to your Proptosis Brigades if you must. It is after all your fantasy. 

[Captain Blood]

Life's too short for painting eyeballs.

Now fingernails is another matter.

Personally, I think figures without mad staring eyes look more 'realistic' - which is a fine point, I appreciate, given that most figures do not look in the least realistic anyway  

And yes, most 28mm figures with painted eyes, do indeed remind me of Marty Feldman.

It is, as several have already remarked, a matter of taste. I can paint eyes perfectly in the style of the 28mm figure painting orthodoxy. But I don't like the look (ha ha!) But if you're having trouble achieving it,  it's not worth getting hung up on.

[answer_is_42]

Life's too short for painting eyeballs.

Indeed. I can't paint them anyway, it always goes badly wrong. I find that, unless done very well, eyes on figures usually look cartoony at best, and awful at worst...

[YPU]

I remember watching the privateer press painting DVD at the local club and the quality of my eyes increasing greatly afterwards, sadly I cant remember HOW it was done.

Yea not much help I know. 

[Chairface]

I took a class at Fall In last year, "Painting the 28mm face." It was taught by one of Reaper's star painters and she was excellent. Dark brown in and slightly around the eye socket. A thin white line, from left to right, with a dark brown pupil on the corner of the eye, as if the figure is looking to the side. This makes getting the pupil even on both sides a little easier. I have to admit that my pre-class paints look much worse than the figs that I've done since then. If you ever get a chance to take one of the painting classes at a HMGS convention I highly recommend it.

[achab]

The reaper tutorial was very useful for me. It looks good (most of the time anyway) and is the least time consuming method I've tried so far.

http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/12

A.

[Wirelizard]

I actually tend to paint eyes last, or nearly last, but aside from that I do something similar to the Reaper tutorial.

Except I don't use an actual brush, most of the time. I use a toothpick, sharpened with an xacto knife to a near-needle point. It holds just a tiny drop of paint, enough for the whites of the eye done as a short horizontal line, then a single point of black for the pupil.

If I wind up with mad-staring-eyes, I'll go back with my flesh highlight colour on the same toothpick-brush and tweak the lower eyelid/cheek a bit.

[Froggy the Great]

Huh.  I tried that a couple times and found the toothpick method to be clumsy and nearly impossible to control.  I prefer my 10/0 Kolinsky, and I just paint the eyes without using magnification.  It helps that I'm naturally nearsighted.

[Bako]

Huh.  I tried that a couple times and found the toothpick method to be clumsy and nearly impossible to control.  I prefer my 10/0 Kolinsky, and I just paint the eyes without using magnification.  It helps that I'm naturally nearsighted.

Likewise.

Plus when it comes to the toothpick it doesn't hold a decent, controllable amount of moisture, unlike the brush, so you can easily end up with the tiny dot of paint drying up before taking it to the figure if not quick enough. The right brush has a much finer point to it no matter what anyhow.

[FionaWhite]

I've always just painted the eyes white and used a needle dipped in black paint to mark out the pupils.
This does usually give the models a somewhat insane staring look, but meh.

They'd need to be insane to be a part of my armies to start with... 

[Connectamabob]

I feel like it's ultimately a matter of whether you're painting for the gaming table or the display shelf.

Stuff that's for the table doesn't need fine details, because A) it's almost always going to be seen at arms length, and B) having ready & playable pieces is a much higher priority than having complexly painted pieces. Efficiency will be favored, and since it only has be "good enough" the cap on what methods or results are considered worthwhile will be relatively strict.

Dedicated display pieces though are all about looks, and so striving for a more detailed and subtle paint job is pretty much the natural course of things. It is standard to view display pieces much closer than arms length, so detail that scales properly close-in as well as at a distance does make a critical difference. I'd say the typical intended viewing distance for a display mini is anywhere from a foot to two inches from the eye. Eyes can be painted to look natural, but it takes skill, and if a person is accustomed to seeing eyes painted with less skill than that, say by other table painters, it could lead to the false impression that it can't be done to look right.
 
I think the argument is mostly a case of table painters projecting their priorities & experience on to display painters and vice-versa, when in truth the circumstances really aren't as comparable as that. The two categories aren't always distinct in practice: many table painters display their figures between gaming sessions, and there's lots of people who like to paint their table minis to display mini spec. It all ends up blurring into a fuzzy edged de-facto philosophical difference in actual use, so it's easy for things to get muddled when you come full circle back to practicalities.

[Connectamabob]

Plus when it comes to the toothpick it doesn't hold a decent, controllable amount of moisture, unlike the brush, so you can easily end up with the tiny dot of paint drying up before taking it to the figure if not quick enough.

The trick is to soak the toothpick in water or whatever the appropriate thinner for your paint type is first. That way the wood acts similarly to a wet pallet, keeping the paint at the tip moist.

[HerbyF]

I very seldom paint eyes on my 28mm figures. When I do I put a white spot in the eye socket, then a dark vertical line in the midle of the eye ball, then redo the edges of the eye in the fleshtone of the face.