Face/eye help on small detail mini

[masterofnone]

Topic says it. Working on a mini that doesn't have a great deal of space to work with in the face as it's partially obstructed with a hood. The mini in question is 3491 Anirion, Wood Elf Mage. The eyes are so small I'm having some difficulty. Any suggestions? I was almost thinking of doing something with shadows to obscure the eyes but I'm not sure how well that would work.

[Doug Sundseth]

First paint the forehead and the eye socket; don't worry about the rest of the face. Possibly also paint at least part of the interior of the hood at this time.

 

Second, paint the eyes, being careful about the top edge but not worrying too much about the bottom edge.

 

Third, paint the rest of the face, covering up any slop from painting the eyes, and finish up the interior of the hood. This is when you'll define the bottom edge of the eye and paint the under-eye shadows.

 

The idea is to paint the deepest parts first, then gradually work your way out. If you're careful, you should not have to do much (if any) painting past already-painted areas.

[Alex3]

A shadow would work if painting the eyes is too difficult. I did a mini recently who had a hood, and I shaded from her cheeks up so you couldn't see anything. (was meant to copy a drawing where the artist did that.) Black to brown, like a really sharp dark shadow. It ended up kind of cool. Here's a pic.. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v115/k3lit0/Hara1.jpg Hope you can see what I mean.. pic is kinda bad.

[Mercius]

If you don't want to paint shadows for the eyes, the best advice I can give you is to steady your hands by putting your hands against each other and elbows on the table. Take a decent detail brush with a sharp point, and paint a black line in the eye socket, then paint a white dot on each side of the black line leaving a little bit of the black on the top and bottom of the white. This is the best way I know to do eyes. I sometimes have problems with small eyes, but I just try and be patient and usually get it done after a few attempts.

[Cyradis]

I had some luck using a super fine tipped pen to get the pupils on eyes. Pens didn't work detailing as well as I had hoped, but for eyes they were pretty good, if you can get the white in. Granted that isn't true painting, but I figure I can use whatever tools work.

[Mercius]

I had some luck using a super fine tipped pen to get the pupils on eyes. Pens didn't work detailing as well as I had hoped, but for eyes they were pretty good, if you can get the white in. Granted that isn't true painting, but I figure I can use whatever tools work.

 

 

You would be surprised how many people use pens to dot their eyes.

[dargrin]

There are lots of ways to go about this. Most of the time I do the inside out approach. I paint the eye with with either Leather white or polished bone. It then paint a dot for the iris and then a black dot for the puple. Once the that is done I use my shadow skin tone to push from the check bone tward the eye. Thin paint is better then thick here unless you have a real steady hand. Thinner coats are easier to fix then thinker ones.

[brd_hef]

Check out the Betty Davis Eyes tutorial on the main site. I love this technique but somehow always manage not to use it and end up with goofy eyes

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