Miniature (specifically warhammer) - Freehand?

Question

Greetings folks,

To expand my painting horizons I would like to do a little freehand work. Whats the best and most efficient way to practice this?

Answer 1

Practice on flat surfaces first. If you want to save your miniatures from this, banners are a very good way to practice freehand painting. An ordinary piece of paper is enough, or primed piece of thicker tin foil like that found on some toothpaste tubes or similar. If you use paper you don't even need to use time for the priming, although you may want to use glossy paper to stop the paints from absorbing too much, as absorption will make the colors appear darker.

If you are happy with the banner, you can use it on a mini. Glue the banner straight to a piece of thick wire or a plastic banner pole, or glue the banner to a piece of tin foil which you  bend to 'flutter' in the wind, and then mount to your miniature.

You might even just mount the banner flat in a small frame, or passepartout and hang it on your wall.

Painting banners is a good way to improve your brush work, but you might want to start out with pencils and coloring pens. Good subjects for banners are heraldic devices, battle scenes and various portraits. You can find inspiration in the various miniature source books, but you can use any subject really. The head creative director at Games Workshop, John Blanche, painted a Mona Lisa reproduction as a banner on one of his miniatures.

Happy painting.

Answer 2

The best way to start is by planning out your design in advance.  Use a pencil and pen to sketch out the design on paper, as large as you like.  Then do it again the size that you want it on the mini.  Then, finally, do it a third time on paper, but use the paints you intend to use on the mini.

This will help you to rehearse the right consistencies of paint and give you an idea of how the different colours will go together as well as acting as a "dry run" to help you check the steadiness of your hand and such like.

When it comes to painting thin lines on minis, the trick is not to try to paint the thin line first time.  Instead, you paint three thick lines.  How does this work?  Well, let's say you want to paint a slender white line around the edge of a model's black robe.

You paint a thick(ish) white line around the robe, not worrying too much about its width but just trying to keep it nice and straight.  Once that's dry you then paint similar black lines either side of the white line, overlapping the edge of the white line so that you slim it down to the required width.

Similarly, if you want to do an elaborate design, say painting a brilliant two-headed eagle on the red cloak of an inquisitor, paint a black silhouette first onto the cloak.  Tidy up the edges with red so that the silhouette marks the outermost limit of the design.  The you can use the black silhouette as your "canvas" on which to paint your design.  The black acts as a guidline to your paintwork and also, if you leave the very edge of it visible, acts as a firm outline to make the design pop out.

If you don't want a black outline, you can do the same thing with a white or grey silhouette instead - this is especially useful if you're doing a very light or bright freehand design on a dark background.

Hope that's helpful!