"Eyeballs on 28s?" Topic

Hello painters and gamers.

Eyeballs painted on at 28mm: Yea or Nay?

What is the smallest scale (for a person-sized figure) at which painting in eyeballs "looks good" to you?

What is the smallest scale at which you attempt to paint "the whites of their eyes"?

What's your method for painting/representing/not representing eyeballs at 28mm? At 15mm?

So far for me 1/72 25mm is the smallest, A small dab of white and a black dot with a micron pen.

Havent tried it with 15mm yet, but more than likely will not.

I don't do eyeballs for the simple reason that on a real person at that distance (the distance where they would appear to be 28mm tall) you can't see the eyeballs – it all looks fleshy colored. I do irises and I outline parts of the eye so that it looks, at table distance, like an eye, but I personally don't like the googly eyed look that white/black eyes give figures. But that's just me.

Agree with Sundance.
I have seen far too many closeup photos on TMP of figures the painter was proud of totally ruined by the Bug Eyed Monster effect.

Hint: CLOSEUPS ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND!!!!

I do an eyebrow, with a tiny dip down in the middle. That's it.
Even when I know better, if the eyeball is well defined on the figure, I try to paint the eye and always regret it.

28mm figures get the whites painted, the eyes outlined with a Micron pen (usually in brown), and a dot for the pupil. 15mm figures just get a dot for each eye with a Micron pen.

Grelber

I agree with the posters above. I do the same. I feel that if the figure is painted for display only, then do the eyes. If it's painted for gaming purposes, then just the "suggestion" of the eyes is more than enough.

No. The vast majority of people can't paint them correctly at that scale and you end up with bug-eyed mutants running around the table. The initial "don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" volley would have been fired at 300 yards.

I have to say that I agree with Sundance, John the OFM and 79thPA. The white eyeball/black outline/black dot method draws my eye too much, and, to me, is distracting from the rest of the figure. Maybe on the table they don't look so big, three feet away, but in close-ups they look goggle-eyed.

Personal taste, I'm sure. Just weirds me out a bit. O.O

If it's a (28mm) piece for the shelf, then yes, I paint the eyes. If it's for the table, then no.

Some larger 28mm (30-32mm heroic) figures that have well-sculpted eyes, I'll paint just for the practice.

I paint the eyes on most of my 40-42mm stuff and on all of my 54mm.

I don't do whites with white; I use my middle shade of flesh.

In general, 'suggestion' of a thing subconsciously forces the brain to fill in the detail, so a suggestion of an eye will have a more natural look simply because the eye is not guided to it. If you detail paint an eye, the brain critically analyses it and if there is imperfection, it will be obvious.

The human brain critically analyses faces and the eyes in particular, far better to let the brain do all the work by 'suggested work'.

Agree with those who think close-up photography generally does not do a lot of figures any favours, especially as digital photography generally on most people cameras is set to give a hard edge (sharpness). Softening camera setings can help and should always be done for portraiture anyway to get a more natural, kinder look.

All my figures and my paint jobs look better now that my eyes are older :-)

No, no, no, no!

I used to paint them on 15's. Then I got a life….

I don't paint eyes on anything 1/35 or smaller.

I always 'want' to paint them, but I'm sane except when I'm not :) then I go ahead an mess up 5-10 figures, then I come to my senses and paint it in flesh tone then define in dark brown wash and shadow and highlight.
Happens every so often and I never learn, I blame it on the superb sculpting that we get now.
Cheers

No, for all the reasons stated above they just don't look right. I use washes to create a shaded area and at gaming distance they work.

Don't try and paint an eyeball shape – that gives the bug-eyed effect.
Use a wash or other shading method to get dark eye sockets.
Then add a horizontal white line with a dot of brown in the centre. That give a tiny bit of white, which is all you need.

I use a wash of medium brown on my 40mm figures eyes. Your attention is more toward the uniform of the figure and the face is the last thing someone looks at during a game unless they take the figure in hand and look at it close up.

If the eyes are modelled correctl, you can paint decent eyes/eyeballs from 18mm and up.
Here a some examples of how I paint them in 20 and 28mm

[URL=http://s16.photobucket.com/user/oniria/media/arnhem6_zpsb3cd4514.jpg.html]

[/URL]
[URL=http://s16.photobucket.com/user/oniria/media/arnhem7_zps4869bfd6.jpg.html] [/URL]
[URL=http://s16.photobucket.com/user/oniria/media/11_zpsd2fe493e.jpg.html] [/URL]
[URL=http://s16.photobucket.com/user/oniria/media/2-ps_zps9e271b8a.jpg.html] [/URL]

Used to, not anymore….

I do not, but I did have someone paint a few figs for me that do. I use them as scouts and always put them out front since they have "eyes".

I will paint eyes only on select 28mm command figures that are not wearing a helmet of have a hat with a bill or visor covering their face. Rank and file if no head gear I do eyebrows. I have found that on the table eyebrows actually look better that doing eyes most of the time. I do use a was on the face so there is a darker shadow where the eyes are. I have in the past painted eyes on 15mm figures.

ONIRIAMINIATURES, those are great examples of well painted eyes, very nice work.

Thanks Thomas O.
I forgot to add that, of course, it all depends on the time you want to put in your figures.

I paint the eyes on 28mm but nothing smaller. I do the following.

* Light grey horizontal line
* Black dot in middle
* Come back with flesh tone and trim from the top and bottom until you can just barely see the light grey on either side of the black iris.

The last step takes time but the result is worth it to avoid the googly look.

If the eye is sculpted and you can color within the lines properly than do it – display or not, whatever scale. If the sculptor is going to bother to sculpt a proper face with all its regular features, why not paint it?

There's plenty that can't be seen from arms length. Why bother with buttons, piping, rifle bands then? Why bother with the under sides of figures- no one will see them once they are on the table. Should the Perrys stop sculpting eyes because they cant be seen at arms length?

I'd do em anyway because it's good practice and a good skill to learn. I do eyes and faces first on every figure. Very easy to do now.

Googly eyes however are ruinous in my view (Pun intended).

There is a tension, if you haven't noticed, between the pure gamers and the modelers. I want it all: great, fun, game with beautiful figures and terrain. Its your hobby too, make the most of it. Honor the sculptor and paint what is sculpted.

I sometimes mess up when painting eyes on 28 mm and 25 mm figures, but I at least try to paint the pupils if not the whites. I usually use a thin toothpick instead of a brush.

Now those pictures are works of art! Well done.

If someone has gone to the trouble of detailing the eyes on a sculpt then they deserve to be painted imo. By the same token trying to paint eyes that are not sculpted is a waste of time.

If they are cast well then you should be able to paint the whites and the iris on a 28mm figure directly with a good brush.

If you do not use a decent brush or your hand coordination is not up to it then the best method is the horizontal 'white' line bisected by a 'black' vertical line and then paint the flesh around it.

This fellah had his eyes painted directly with a Raphael 8404 '0'. Pale Sand for the whites and field blue for the iris.

I try to, some come out better than others.

I do on 28's, unless I am painting to "mass wargame" quality (which is usually only with comparatively "rough" looking minis).

I briefly experimented(in the most literal sense)with eyes with some 15mm (humans)in the past, but found it to be really only a futile and aggravating exercise.

That Viking must be left-handed, fizzypickles – but even then, the axe is the wrong way round for a swing.

You've obviously never heard of the Danish left-handed axe swing Henry……

Who says you can't paint eyes on a 10mm figure?

link

This attempt was a bit more bug-eyed:

link

Perhaps impressionistic, this one?

link

Can't say I won't try again.

Cheers, Michael