Gotta go fast - anyone having tipps on speedpainting?

[Nunae]

So, a lot of the tipps and youtube channels out there are about painting better, which is great. But with a tiiiiny box of miniatures incoming soon, I was wondering about your best speedpainting ressources or tipps.

I know about dipping, but that does sound rather messy. So far I've tried assembly line painting with some skeletons and now Orcs, which seems to speed things up, but is a lot more monotone. Instead of having one orc mostly finished after an evening of painting I now have 9 orcs who all got their skin base colored, yey.

I've bought some Reaper liner now, and I'll try to use that instead of primer with my next Bones, hoping it'll speed up the shading and cut the time wasted with me figuring out what I'm looking at.

 

Any other tipps? Any particular painters who are really good at getting stuff done?

[Kormydigar]

What level of finished product are you going for? Everyone has different standards for what they consider to be "good enough" for tabletop. The techniques you use can depend on this. 

For my rank and file tabletop jobs I use a quick 3 layer process. I lay down a base coat that is usually mid to light tone, then shade quickly with washes, followed by a few touch ups with highlight colors. Textured surfaces get the dry brush treatment. I only do the most basic eyes and don't spend much time picking out fine details. If I have a group of similar minis then I will do them assembly line because it is more time efficient to keep working with a color once I have it on my brush. Also the assembly line method allows things to dry properly between stages. Having a mini finished in an evening feels good but If I have a squad of a dozen to do and get them done over three or four evenings then I'm still coming out way ahead on time. 

[Adrift]

For speedpainting; aka tabletop level of quality I follow a simple plan:

1 - basecoat the whole thing, allow to dry

2 - apply a wash, allow to dry

3 - use simple glazes to bring out edges, details and punch up the color

4 - pick one detail to punch up like the eyes or unique feature and add some extra glaze layers

 

Don't agonize, just paint and keep going. Also, have like 4-8 figs going at once so that 1-2 are dry by the time you're finishing the basecoat on others. Waiting for washes to dry is the most time consuming.

 

When in doubt, just dry brush glaze layers gently to cover large areas. 

 

I've been using speedpainting to knock out lots of figs lately and I'm now experimenting with all manner of things like OSL, rusting, etc. I feel like learning to speedpaint such things will make me a better painter when I'm taking my time and really TRYING to use the techniques.

Edited April 13, 2019 by Adrift

[Gadgetman!]

Airbrush.

 

Also, consider coloured primers. 

Both Army Painter snd Stynylrez have them. 

There's even bone and metallic colours. 

Prime a skeleton with a Bone coloured primer, give it a wash, and it's just about done. Just need a bit of paint onthe weapon and whatever clothing is on it.  

 

[TheOldGuard]

Although speedpainting is immoral & the 's work , something I've thought about trying but never got round to is:

 

1. Do all your basecoat colours

2. 1st layer of highlight colours via a medium to heavy drybrush

3. 2nd layer of (final) highlight colours via a light drybrush

4. Apply washes or glazes to soften the drybrushing and unify the layers of colour. Or even a brown all over wash for extra speed?

 

[Inarah]

I used to do a lot of speed painting.  Some ideas:

 

- work with 4-6 figures at a time. It's possible finish this in a short period, which keeps you motivated. More figures = more time painting before something is finished.

- clear other projects you might be tempted to pick up off your work space

- limited palette of colors. You don't need 300 paints, or even 30 distracting you with choices. Pick one each of red, yellow, blue, green, brown, flesh, etc.  Do some impromptu blending if you need a shade or highlight.

-- pick similar figures.  Paint 4 orcs at once, or 4 Nova corp troopers, or 4 skeletons.  You only have to think about the first one, the rest are copies.

-- get base coat down first, then use a wash, then pick out details if desired

- paint assembly line style.  For example, flesh first on all figures, then hair, then boots, and so on. One color at a time.  Figure out which parts are going to be black or really dark and paint all of it at once. Go back later and highlight with brown or metallic. 

--  set a timer for ~1 hour, then stop, stretch, hydrate, etc.  This helps avoid strain (eyes, wrists, back) 

- put on music you can listen to, or a movie you have seen before. Something to keep your mood up, but not too distracting

- don't spend painting time checking phone, email, FB, etc. 

 

 

[DocPiske]

Zenithal priming and thin coats of paint.

 

This Sorastro YouTube video is an example:

 

Sorastro's The Lord of the Rings Painting Series Ep.1: Orcs, Goblins, & Ruffians

 

YouTube is a commercial site, so no direct link but that title should get you there.

 

[WhiteWulfe]

One thing I'd mention is a valuable asset is a slightly larger brush.  I typically use a size 0 for everything, but I've gotten a LOT more done in the same amount of time by switching to a size 2 for priming, and blocking in colours...  And will probably wind up getting a size 4 brush at some point for those same duties.

[Doug Sundseth]

There's a pretty fundamental difference between "I need to paint four orcs for an encounter tonight" and "I need to paint 150 spearmen for my army by the end of next week". For the former, the tips above work pretty well.

 

I'd add that planning out your color scheme ahead of time reduces the "What color should I use here" time, which can be surprisingly long. For that plan, take notes. This will not only help to remember the plan, but it will help to remember to paint all the bits.

 

For bigger projects, I normally paint in batches of 12 - 32. I find it useful to add some variation to hair colors and leather colors and the like by painting (say) every fourth figure with blond hair and every seventh with red hair. And every third with light leather bits and every fifth with black leather bits. And so on. Then go back and paint each part with whatever basic color I want to use for the main look of the army.

 

When you're doing that sort of thing, a real assembly line process, boring as it can be, helps a lot: Paint the front of the left leg of every figure. Then the front of the right legs, then the backs of the legs. Etc.

[Zink]

Lots of good advice already. What TheOldGuard posted is my preferred method now. I have a bunch of different inks and washes so that helps with the variety. I go with a base coat lighter than what I want to finish with then drybrush and/or highlight the higher spots with another 1-2 shades lighter and then apply a wash. If the wash went to dark I do another quick highlight. If you look in the showoff area there's a bunch of my stuff (ghouls, skeleton, leeches and others) done this way.

 

I tend to work in groups of 4. That's the magic number for me doing the same detail on multiple minis before I get totally sick of it. By the time you finish the last one the first is usually dry and I can stat the next colour. We've got a dry climate so elsewhere might not dry so fast. Another trick if you don't want everybody exactly the same is to use the same colour but on different parts on the minis. One gets a blue shirt, the next blue pants, etc. I'm weird about not wasting my little drops of paint and have dozens of primed minis on a shelf next to my painting table. If I have some paint left over I look at my shelf and try to find a mini quick that could use a touch of that colour. After they have a few colours I'll focus on them to finish them up.

 

One thing I often do is use different washes on different parts of the same mini. You don't need to dip the whole mini in the same wash. I actually don't like dipping. I did 60 skeletons that way years ago with wood stain, gave myself a repetitive stress injury to the arm shaking the dip off and didn't like how long it took to dry or the colours I ended up with. There's better washes available now but still... I prefer to brush on my washes for more control and it honestly only takes a tiny bit longer. If I have a mini say with dark boots, red shirt and light skin I'll use army painter washes with dark on the boots, red or strong tone on the shirt and soft tone on the skin. More contrast quickly.