Painting- struggling with failing eyesight

[vodkafan]

Woke up with plenty of time in hand and was all fired up keen. Set my stuff up and got to work. Unfortunately some days my eyes are worse than others and this was one of the bad days. After 20 minutes I just had to give up and pack away, my eyes just weren't having any of it today.
I won't give up though.

[sukhe_bator]

I wholly sympathise and as I get older I find the old Mk1 eyeballs are increasingly letting me down. When I'm having off days I concentrate on more mundane stuff that needs doing with less finesse like assembly, basing or painting ground colour. That way I can capitalize on the time when the muse does take me and my eyes allow me to focus on the fiddly stuff. I've found that your style gradually adjusts to a more impressionistic painting style which is quite pleasing and tabletop-effective at least, if not up to intense close-up scrutiny...

[armchairgeneral]

Having just turned 50, I have had to wear glasses for painting for the last few years which seems to have sorted the issue for now. I also keep to 28mm scale.

Some people paint through a fixed magnifying glass which might help and I hear good things about the OptiVisor that Front Rank sell if you don't mind looking a bit Steampunk  

http://www.frontrank.com/product-category/optivisor/

[sundayhero]

You should take a look on magnifying binoculars. It's what I'm using the days I'm too tired to see correctly tiny things, like a 15mm sculpt job for instance. And I'm still reasonably young (37).

But depanding your age, I would suggest first that you see a doctor to verify that everything is OK with your eyes first. Then, no need for an expensive jewelry binoculars, any hobby glasses with several glasses (2x, 3x, 4x, etc...) will be good enough. I'm using a 25euros binocular, and I was impressed by the optical quality (no much distortion, no blur, etc...).

the important thing is to use a tool with one lens for each eye, so you keep the depth estimation.

[Yankeepedlar01]

My optician made me a pair with a focal length adjusted to how I paint. They are very good for the 28mm I paint. I went to Specsavers, of course...

[zemjw]

yup, started to notice that my focussing distance was increasing a few years ago

I have glasses from the opticians, adjusted for painting distance, but I find I also need the optivisor for pretty much everything past priming stage.

I also find that if I don't "warm up" my eyes for a bit beforehand I'll almost certainly get eye strain. Gives me an excuse to tidy things up around the hobby area and keep up to date with the lead mountain, so not the worst thing ever. 10 or 15 minutes is usually enough.

However, if my eyes are playing nice, then painting with glasses and the optivisor isn't an issue - other than making all the tiny details clearer and removing my excuse not to paint them

I'm still waiting for a magnifier that will magnify the figure but not the brush. That's a kickstarter I would back

[Bugsda]

I'm still waiting for a magnifier that will magnify the figure but not the brush. That's a kickstarter I would back

Right on brother 

I have 59 year old eyes, one has a retinal scar, and I paint more or less full time.

I give nightly thanks to the God of small things for the invention of the Optivisor. 

[Steve63]

I also recommend Specsavers I got a pair of painting glasses a few years ago and they are fine, but l'm now due a new pair

[Orctrader]

I wear varifocal glasses.  Use computer screens all day for my job.  Read alot too.

I always use an optivisor for both painting and prepping.

I usually only have short painting sessions, but if I've painted for an hour, I take a five minute break.

[Cubs]

My brother swears by the cheapo glasses in Tesco. Terrible for normal life, but great for painting he says.

[fred]

I wear glass all the time, mainly for astigmatism but as I get older for general age related deterioration.

But for painting I found I can't focus close enough, so I added a cheap big pair of reading glasses, about £5 from Amazon, which I can wear over my normal glasses for painting.

This really helps bring the figures into focus, and I can see all the detail.

But definitely only for wearing inside!!

[vodkafan]

Thanks all! I will investigate various methods. I think the plan of doing other work like undercoating etc when eyes are not co-operating is a very good idea too

[Norm]

It strikes me that eyes are a very personal thing. One would think that getting properly prescribed glasses would immediately give you the eyes of your youth and yet that does not seem to be the case for everyone. Also the 2 year cycle of getting eyes re-testing and new glasses can be a pretty long time, with eyes deteriorating to whatever degree over that time, so glasses might be great for the first 6 months and then a slow weakening of the eye puts those glasses to test, especially if painting small detail late evening when you are also tired.

I have some days, particularly on my long vision in which I am consciously aware that vision sharpness drops and apparently this is to do with blood pressure peaks.

I use varifocals and have a desk based (lit) large lmagnifying ens, but I tend to find the figure 'swims' under he lens and my brain struggles to co-ordinate the brush Stoke with the figure as a sort of depth of field problem. I now only use it tyo try and identify where hard to see strap lines might be or 'what is that lump hanging off the belt' type moments.

Anyway I think for some people the issue is more than simply getting 'proper glasses'.

On the positive side, not having such young eyes makes paint jobs on figures look better and mistakes much less obvious due to a softer focus :-)

[vodkafan]

It strikes me that eyes are a very personal thing. One would think that getting properly prescribed glasses would immediately give you the eyes of your youth and yet that does not seem to be the case for everyone. Also the 2 year cycle of getting eyes re-testing and new glasses can be a pretty long time, with eyes deteriorating to whatever degree over that time, so glasses might be great for the first 6 months and then a slow weakening of the eye puts those glasses to test, especially if painting small detail late evening when you are also tired.

I have some days, particularly on my long vision in which I am consciously aware that vision sharpness drops and apparently this is to do with blood pressure peaks.

I use varifocals and have a desk based (lit) large lmagnifying ens, but I tend to find the figure 'swims' under he lens and my brain struggles to co-ordinate the brush Stoke with the figure as a sort of depth of field problem. I now only use it tyo try and identify where hard to see strap lines might be or 'what is that lump hanging off the belt' type moments.

Anyway I think for some people the issue is more than simply getting 'proper glasses'.

On the positive side, not having such young eyes makes paint jobs on figures look better and mistakes much less obvious due to a softer focus :-)

Hi Normsmith you have hit the nail on the head for me. I have been prescribed glasses for close work and even told the optician what I needed it for and took a 28mm figure in with me during the eye tests so that she could test me focusing on that. She really wanted to help but sadly the specs don't seem to be the answer, I don't know why.

[The Grim Mariner]

I use an optivisor all the time now when painting.

I have found that once I started using it, because my eyes were tired and couldn't focus on the detail, I relied on it.  Now I use it for doing anything other than sticking grass tufts to bases.