Hi,
I'm keen on improving my painting skills and have a few questions about getting a better paint job. (I collect tau so I almost always paint these models).

Ok, first question:
How do I paint tiny details ,i.e. eyes, to a good standard?

Second question:
My paintjobs normally look blotchy :realmad: , so how can I make the colours bolder?

Thanks,
Ka'shu

well (starts rambling and muttering)

ah now.

For eyes, use the finest brush you have, and paint white where you see the eye itself. if you've read tsoalr
than you'll know what MASSIVE eyes look like.
after that, a easy way to do pupils is to buy a .01-.02 mm black felt tip pen, and just lightly do the pupil. however, if you want to challenge your self, paint the pupil on with your finest brush.
before you do this, practise doing it on paper, numerous times before you do it.

for a bolder colour, what is your undercoats colour??

over white, multiple coats of the one colour is fine.
but over black, shading up to the colour you wish is the way to get a full colour.
soooo, say you paint your tau blue, and you use gw paints.

what i do for my blue paints is shade up from midnight blue, using about 6-7 steps to reach ultramarines blue. shading is required for bold colour, or if you lazy, multiple coats of teh one paint over it,

and remember my golden rule, ALWAYS WATER DOWN!!!

I agree mostly with what Bonjordo has already said. I would however look at pigma pens rather than felt pens. The ink will be of a better suitability for the figures. I personally recommend the micron .005 pigma pens.

To expand a bit on what was already said on painting eyes - or at least how I do it:

Paint the entire eye an offwhite color.
Either paint in or draw the pupil where you want it. usually a straight ligh works well enough.
Don't worry about being a bit messy at this point

Go back around the eye with a darker ink. a brown ink works good for most normal flesh colors but I have also used purple, red, etc. Again don't worry if you go too far around the eye.

Go back with your base flesh color and clean up most of the ink. You really just want a very thin line of ink to define the eye. If you make a mistake just go back and hit it again with the ink.

It can take some time but with practice you will definitely get it faster.

As for blotchy painting - this is usually caused by paint being too thick or a color that doesn't really paint on opaque. For the first problem - thinning your paints is the best way to go. for the latter - several coats which was already talked about will eventually work.

Above all else - practice practice practice. Theory is one thing - doing another. The more you do the better you will get.

Cheers,

-Mike

As many have said before - practice makes perfect. Another good idea is simply to ask other people for tips - if you see a model that you think is amazingly painted, ask them how they did it and then try it for yourself - if you keep working at it eventually you'll get it right. Basically, you'll need a tester model if you want to try new things - say you're highlighting pulse rifle casing, and you use lines around the edges to highlight it - you may think that the lines are too thick, or not thick enough, on one model, so you try it differently on another - eventually you'll get to an optimum point that you're happy with.