I don’t try to paint them—I try to “suggest” that they are there by using dark colors in and around the socket. Truth is, in this scale, whites in eyes–or any color–would almost be impossible to see in most instances…
Only in 90mm and up do I attempt to “paint eyes”:
Excellent figures Manny!
I knew you had the Horton’s 2-29 throw down!
(once again another intentional pun)
There is a theme and style to your figures that works well. My favorite is the scene in front of the white washed Tiger I.
The colors in the skin tones, uniforms and gear is perfect!
One item if I may is to not use black unless absolutely necessary or just in black items of course. I know black makes details ‘pop’ yet resist the dark side and reach for a darker shade of the color or a dark brown.
A few 54MMs:
And in large scale busts:
Excellent work Alfie!
The native American sculpts captivate your interests, I too admire their spirit, courage and honor.
One out of the 54mm figures interests me as well, who produces the ‘Mad Max’ figure? Sooner or later a manufacture will produce a series dedicated to the vehicles & characters involved in ‘the Road warrior’ in 1/35 scale.
Thanks for posting your work, like the expression says 'a picture is worth a thousand words’
I personally think there’s trial and error with any method you choose and, yeah, it will depend on the manufacturer as well. Hornet eyes are clear as a bell, and you can get right in there and provide as much detail as you are able. Others, such as Dragon and (alas) even TANK heads are not so sharp and too much detail looks phony IMHO. On these, I try to suggest the eyes, as has been previously mentioned in this thread. I can say that I always do it one way but, realistically, I just work it until it looks OK to me.
I like the idea of "over"painting the eye a bit, and then going back over the eyelids with fleshtone to tighten it up. I basecoat the face with Vallejo beige red, then go back over the eye with light fleshtone. Use a very fine sewing needle that’s glued into paint brush handle, I then use oil paint (so I can wipe away errors) for the iris. The color I use generally depends on the nationality of the figure I’m painting.
Here are some examples of what I’m “getting away with” using this method…
(unfinished) Italian in Russia:
Japanese American (Hornet heads)
German with Hornet head
practice practice practice practice practice
Steve
A lot of good ideas here. My problem is that my figures (the few that I have done) either end up crosseyed or walleyed (one eye going on direction and the other going in the oposite direction. The biger the figure the less problem I have with that.
That’s an Andrea figure. Right now, it’s on sale for under $10 (USD) at Military Miniatures Warehouse.
As the cabbie said to teh pianist, practice, practice, practice.
There are few of us who get decent results on our first tries.
Besides the mirror trick noted above, a couple other things to try are starting with the eye opposite your dominant hand, e.g. if you’re right handed do the eye on the left facing your, (the figure’s right eye). Also, if you avoid having the figure look straight ahead, the problems you noted are not so evident. I’ll choose aiming the eyes where a hand is pointing, to the side a head is tilted, etc.You’ll have a more animated figure this way as well.
Wow this is amazing feedback with this topic I started. Much appreciated.
Neshyfaith…Thanks for the questions I learned a heck
of alot!!!
Dead cow eyes:
Dogs have eyes too:
Or just do this:
“I reckon she’s a two pointer, at least.” That first photo made my Sunday night, Manny. Too funny…
Another method you can try is to paint the eye black and then add a small dab of white on either side of the pupil. I think that’s how Games Workshop does it.[:|]
I don’t have any figgies I can demonstrate on right now, but I did manage to get my camera to cooperate (sort of) with me on taking pics of a couple of finished ones:
!(http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac160/klik8888/Models post 2010/GEDC0104-1.jpg)
and this guy, whose eye I painted After Construction:
!(http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac160/klik8888/Models post 2010/GEDC0106-1.jpg)
Both were painted with the technique I mentioned before.
Good luck with your figures!