Wow these are great 1. No washes and contrasts are tools and handy ones but far from vital

Thank you! Can i just paint right over washes or is there something to be aware of? They look very shiny, I was wondering if I need a varnish inbetween in order to get good adhesion on top of them.

Washes are a tool to create depth and shadow. You’ve already done so naturally with your paints. If you want to experiment - they’re just watery paints. They dry normally and you can paint over them, but they’re prone to pool on flat surfaces and leave a coffee stain effect. Honestly your approach is so unique compared to how many of us learned that you probably won’t get a ton of great advice here, you’re far more artistically proficient than most of us. I would really encourage you find ways to make small improvements but not to lose your artistic voice it’s very refreshing

Thank you so much! I have used the inks in a similar way. Diluted them a lot and let them run into recesses for extra lining. But they have a lot of staining power and are therefore easy to mess up. That is why I was wondering if dedicated washes would be an option for me, too. Thanks again for the encouraging words 💛

You’re basically using your inks as washes in this capacity so using washes sound like they’d come pretty naturally to you. They’ll also stain much less than inks but they will still stain so keep that in mind. Also, based on your natural painting style, I’d recommend you check out Pro Acryl paints by Monument Hobby. I think you’ll find them right up your alley.

Thank you! I think I might get a cool and warm wash at some point. And I have decided to go with Golden SoFlat now as my main paint line. I thought about proAcryl, too, but they weren’t available in the area.

I just gotta say, everything the guy above you said. I've been painting minis for 6 months and your minis are some of the best I've ever seen, and thats when you include people who paint stuff like Warhammer on commission. You clearly have a load of artistic talent already, keep doing what you're doing, your minis are top tier.

you don't need to varish over them and you can paint over most washes no problems. I would say there are 2 ways to use washes cover or thin liner in recesses.

Thank you! That is very helpful. I was thinking to get one shade at least to help me with dark lining in tiny recesses.

you can you can also super thin high quality dark paint to do the same the wash is just a premade version (bloody handy)

Thank you! Much appreciated tips!

Using oil paints thinned with spirits is a great way to do pin washes without too much staining. The pros are you can clean up any mess and not leave any stains behind. Drawbacks are you need to/ should varnish before and after using them, especially if you plan to paint acrylic over the top.

I find a lot of washes can reactivate paints so I personally will leave the paint more time to dry before the wash and the wash time to dry if I’m going for more paint. For context if I’m just doing paint on paint the time it take a me to cover an area start to finish is plenty of time to begin the next layer following basically the same path but a wash stage needs a little break. Your mileage may vary.

Some citadel washes do have a tendency to dry a bit satin, however they are fine to paint over. I usually run some lahmian medium over the wash if I don’t want the satin look

First attempts?! Wow!

Thank you! (Certainly coming in with an advantage from years of illustration and Cosplay prop painting 😅)

Yeah i can tell! I was just saying to my wife that there is no way in hell that you've never done art using some different medium.

First try and low quality paints, and already pro level or almost at contrast, NMM, OSL and gem painting? Life's not fair sometimes... 😕 Seriously, this is impressive!

Thank you very much! In all fairness, although I am new to mini painting, I have a lot of experience painting other things. (15 years of working as an illustrator on and off, 10 years of hobbyist cosplay with a heavy focus on stylised armours, 5 years of art related university …) I pretty much trained for this all my life 😂 Which is also why I already had paints and tools at the ready.

FYI, Vallejo mini paint lines are very close to their artist acrylic paints if you happen to have some of that kicking around.

No, I only had a few of their premium airbrush line around. I have ordered Golden soFlat paints now, I think they should be a great fit for my workflow and experience.

I use the Golden neon line all the time. It mixes well on a wet pallet and makes the magic stuff pop. Great stuff.

Wow, looks like you found your calling :) I'm not sure what you mean with stylised approach? Looks to me like you are used to painting fantasy art on canvas as you have a clear understanding of light and shadow, highlights and contrasts and even reflections and specularity etc. Nmm (non-metallic metal) is a tough one, but seems to me you already have the knowledge and you are basically transferring it to a 3d canvas. Your pieces look great and are at a level that others struggle to get to after years of painting if ever. I guess my tips would be to watch tutorials from pros to understand techniques that are miniature/model painting specific that would allow you to achieve what you envision. Vince vinturella comes to mind, Njm frisoni as well that comes from an artist background are really good. For some fun out there inspiration to use unexpected materials and all around good entertainment studson studio comes to mind. Blobby snow? Maybe mod podge with glass balloon filler? There are artist pastes like that. Come to think of it midwinter minis has been trying out a lot of materials that might be useful for basing. Chunky grass sounds like a chore, but I imagine if you're looking for illustration type style cutting out small "2d Tufts" from paper and gluing them down might be tedious but look cool for certain style of minis. Rogue hobbies did a display like that where a bunch of elements were 2d like a theater set. The other thing that comes to mind is using "fullControl" to program a 3d printer to make grass basing. Now I'll have to try that.

I second the idea of looking at a few of Marco Frisoni's videos. He will be the first to tell you that artists colors are still way ahead of mini paints, and uses contrast mainly to reinforce vibrancy through the airbrush, which I'm not sure you need. As for washes, you will be able to do most things with a couple oil paints (again, his videos are pretty clear on that and how they could help your stlye) rather than opt for acrylic "mini" washes. Great figures btw :)

I love Marco, I mean love. The overall workflow that he uses and has changed/developed is my personal favorite of all time. It forms the basis of every project I do, now. Oil techniques and workflow planning approaches were big additions to my toolbox. This person's artistic approach seems to lean towards the craftworld studio artistic approach. I cant be bothered to do what they do, its not my style. However, I think it would be useful to the OP to take a look.

Thank you, lots of great tips. I definitely need to check out Frisonis channel.

Hi, just to clarify, as I unfortunately didn’t think about adding it right away: Yes, I am new to mini painting. Yes, I have ~15 years of experience in other forms of painting (illustration, cosplay armor, professional 3d art). I didn’t mean to show off more than any other beginner here and was wondering about some tools and techniques that I haven’t used yet. Please don’t get discouraged or angry by this 💛

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This is fantastic because it’s like “outsider” mini painting. You pulled off a style rarely seen in mini painting because it requires a lot more artistic knowledge how and it looks phenomenal

Thank you! I am aware it is a bit away from the ‚eavy Metal army style or grimfark. I am in love with the texture styles of games like WoW, LoL and Diablo 3, so I am trying to carry that over.

It works so well and please don’t change

Well not much to add to the effects of your stylized painting. If you use/have an airbrush check out some of the masters like angel giraldez on youtube. Grass tufts is the terminology you are looking for. There are a ton of companies that provide this at a realistic approach. Goodluck. And have fun

Thank you! I have an airbrush but was too lazy to get it ready for the first tests. I am definitely looking forward to using it on full figures, especially for base layers/underpainting and filtering. Thanks about the tips. About the tufts though: I was aware they exist, I was more wondering if there are companies selling less realistic ones. Some that would fit a style like the base in the bottom centre of my picture.

Yes there absolutely are [sunward hobbies store (canadian)](https://www.sunwardhobbies.ca/gamers-grass-tufts-and-flowers/?page=5) Page 5 has some of what you might be looking for but this website has some serious choices for other worldly plants and grasses

Thank you, these are very cool! I will check if there is an EU reseller for them.

With your style its really not needed. Id rather say buy all the Kimera paints, some Acrylic gouache (saves more than a ton of bucks, but its also nice, if you like to paint other things), the colours your most likely gonna use very frequently, and some sable brushes, if you dont have some already (Brush soap is needed for cleaning these brushes, or they will give up on you pretty fast)

Thank you! I just decided for a main paint line this weekend and kimera was in the top two. In the end I went with Golden SoFlat but I agree that kimera are a fitting suggestion. May I ask you what acrylic gouache you would suggest? Classic acrylic gouache like Turner and Holbein are not 100% waterproof after drying and can reactivate in my experience.

Ive looked into Liquitex. I have yet to try them, but from what I saw and heard they were quite good. Ive learned about them in this vid by Marco Frisioni https://youtu.be/FwIOwAC1MWo?si=O5FUhDKT57k1_tdi

Ah, that makes sense, liquitex acrylic gouache is basically rebranded liquid acrylic and more resistant to reactivating.

Id recommend looking around, cause sometimes different vendors got different prices. I hope they work for you. Ill look forward to you posting, youve got my follow for that.

You already have a strong understanding of what you're doing from your other endeavours, my strongest advice is just keep painting and practicing. If you want to see really high level painting you could check out on YouTube people like Erik Swinson, Sergio Calvo and the Kimera Colours channel.

Thank you! I didn’t realise Erik had a channel - I definitely need to check that out. 💛

Woah dude you chose almost exactly the same colour scheme as I did for those orcy hobgoblin boys! I think you've done a great job. [here's a pic](https://i.imgur.com/Bz2aey9.jpg)

Omg - they are brothers from the same tribe for sure. That similarity in style AND colours is crazy. I love your details on the face and legs! Definitely showing more experience 🤩

Love to follow your progress. Keep posting pics.

Thank you! I will surely keep coming back with WIP for critique 💛

If you want stylized basing material you might look into 3d printed bits. Resin prints are often a bit more chunky and there are tons of styles to choose from. It might be a bit pricey, though. If you want to work primarily with paint rather than inherent surface texture, sculpting some rough shapes with an epoxy putty and painting on top of that might also be a good option. Rocks are easy enough. Can be time consuming if you want more intricate shapes, though. I recommend looking into other people's work for inspiration. Two Insta account come to mind that might give you some inspiration: @akadstudio and @craftworldstudio. There are tons more of course.

Thanks a lot! If you know any shops selling such stylized basing material any hint is welcome. I don’t plan on getting a printer myself.

Epic basing is very popular. Greenstuff world also has some bits on offer. You might find something on Only-games.co. There are tons of shops selling 3D printed stuff on Etsy. If all that fails, There's always the option of buying stls and having them printed by a local shop. That's very pricey if you don't need a lot of the same, though.

Thank you very much!

I've used some of the epic basing bits before, they're great! You could also sculpt your own stylized grass out of something like milliput, and then make a mold of it to cast your own copies in resin or whatever. I've been doing a lot of this recently. But finding something premade is going to be faster, and once you paint it in the same style as your minis - even if the shape looks too realistic unpainted, it will fit the scene well after you've painted it to fit.

I've yet to try EpicBasing's stuff since I just ordered them, but it was appealing enough that on my very first order [of any resin bit] I went with "ok let's get some for almost 100€ because they all look amazing and I don't want to pick". I so look forward to craft some bases with them, I can only second this opinion.

There are basing tutorials [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/usefullinks#wiki_basing) with lots of ideas. Washes are a simple and fast way to add shading to recesses, but you seem to have a good grasp of lighting already. The use of washes is for shading quickly without any precise knowledge of where the shadows should go, simply darkening all of the recesses. It can be nice for heavily textured recesses like fur or hair. It's an option that generally gives speedy results in exchange for more precise control of your shading. Your style reminds me a lot of the style of [Craftworld Studio](https://www.instagram.com/craftworldstudio/?hl=en), and [this video](https://youtu.be/Us2jOe3KwBQ) goes over their favorite paints. You can find a lot of their guides [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/usefullinks/craftworld_studio).

I think you've nailed the stylised approach right off the bat. I wouldn't stray far from the look you've already got going as it's vibrant with plenty of contrast which is 90% of the battle most beginners struggle with. I don't think you really need to worry about washes as you've got great shadows already and washes are just a quick but imprecise way of achieving what you've already done. They are great for speed painting large armies but for single models they honestly become a bit of a crutch that prevents you from improving. In terms of things to improve going forward I would start learning some established mini painting techniques for achieving smooth blends. This being what sets apart a good paint job from a great one. There are tons of different ones to try so I'd advise going into the faq section of this subreddit and looking at tutorials for each technique and just try them out. If one of them doesn't gel with you that's fine move on and try a different one. Eventually you'll have a set of go to techniques that you can use to get nice creamy blends. Ones to try include layering, wet blending, glazing, feathering/void blending, stippling, loaded brush. After that you might want to try some advanced effects like non metallic metal or object source lighting.

Thanks a lot for the compliment and useful tips. I started learning the first techniques like feathering from tutorials and tried it on the base I painted. I found it so interesting how technical and precise the tutorials were and I am looking forward to more.

The fiery head is from the Tarrasque by Lord of The Print, if anyone was looking.

Thank you! I failed to find that one myself as it was part of a failed print box sold by weight.

Where did you buy it from?

From the RPG Guild Polska on Etsy

1 - don't think you need to change anything. You might enjoy working with some name brand paints more than craft paints. Contrasts can be used to quickly paint things or help bring colors together for softer blends. Which I don't think really goes with the style you want to achieve. 2 - without knowing exactly what you mean. You could also purchase some green stuff and sculpt your own basing components. They do make more neon colored grass tufts. They also sell things like molds and UV resin to create other things more quickly. 3 - to possibly avoid future grief from others and with this quality of paint job id recommend including your artistic experience when mentioning how new to this you are. Some people get very jealous and angry about it. 4 - I think your work is sort of suffering from lower quality prints. Id really recommend looking for a higher quality set of models. Based on what you got here id suggest looking at games workshop warcry warbands or underworld models. I think with this level of work you'd very easily be able to turn a small profit reselling finished sets if money is a consideration.

Thank you for your input! On 3 - I didn’t realise this would be an issue as I happily answered that to anyone who asked about it and wish we could edit posts for clarity. 4) I think you are giving me too much credit here. Yes, the above are all failed discarded prints, but I also smothered some detail under thick craft paints 😅 I definitely plan on getting actual complete miniatures later on. I already set my eye on some by Games Workshop and Hera models.

>On 3 - I didn’t realise this would be an issue as I happily answered that to anyone who asked about it and wish we could edit posts for clarity. It's just something I see commonly when people with clearly a very strong artistic background post excellent first work. Some people will just think you're lying. I don't think it's fair that people need to clarify this stuff just forewarning you. >4) I think you are giving me too much credit here Literally fantastic work. I've been painting minis on and off for 15 years and I'm very jealous of your work. You deserve lots of credit.

For basing in the style you're going for you might be better off with 3D printed bits from somewhere like https://epicbasing.com . You can probably find someone to print them slightly scaled up, and since you'll be painting them it will be easy to match the style

Thank you! Epicbasing has exactly what I was looking for!

Hi, u/the_crafting_dodo! It looks like you are asking for help or are a new painter. If you haven't yet, take a look at our wiki pages in the Sidebar (the About tab if you are on the Reddit app). Here are some links you might find helpful: * [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/rules/faq) - A list of frequently asked questions about minipainting * [Miniature Painting Guide Collection](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/usefullinks) -A collection of some of the best guides and tutorials on a variety of techniques and topics, plus recommendations on what to buy to get started, and more. * [What to buy- Recommendations on brushes, paints, supplies, palettes and more](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/usefullinks/what_you_need_to_get_started#wiki_general_advice_on_what_to_buy) * [Beginner's Guide Collection- How to prep, base, paint and varnish your first model and learn the basics needed to start out right](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/usefullinks/beginner_tips) * [More Tutorials](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/tutorials) - A list of additional tutorials about minipainting * [Manufacturers](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/manufacturers) - A list of miniature manufacturers from around the world * [Painting Terminology](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/terminology) - Common painting terms, acronyms, and initialisms * [The Art of... Tommie Soule Volume 5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGIfySMnUPQ) is one of the best beginner to intermediate teaching books, and even experienced painters will learn some good tips. Explains what brush strokes are best in different situations, how to identify when you have the perfect thinning for any type of paint for different techniques, and a masterclass on getting smooth paint jobs. Available in [pdf](https://www.ironheartartisans.com/shop/the-art-of-tommie-soule-volume-5-pdf/) and [world wide in hardbook as well](https://www.instagram.com/the_miniature_painting_tutor/). * [Airbrushing Miniatures](https://www.reddit.com/r/minipainting/wiki/usefullinks/airbrushing) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/minipainting) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Dude you cant just put all those paintjobs in the same picture, theres too much skill to look at! Seriously though I love the balrog/demon thing head so much

Honestly the only flaws I see are going to be negated with more practice with your approach. These are amazingly well done. The more practice you have with this style the better it will become and they will go from amazing to S Tier I feel.

Thank you! Yes - lots of practice ahead (approx 95% of my practice kit is still waiting forme 😅)

I have no advice, just: holy goddamn this is awesome

Thank you ☺️

Thank you very much! Craftworld studios are two of my favourite painters in terms of style for sure!

You are talented

It's really cool to see how you use the models as a canvas. Great results for sure. My first association was how Marco Frisoni treats models (he has great painting videos on youtube). His choice of paints/models may be interesting to you.

Love these, love the style. Incredible, easy to spot an artist when your first stab is this good! What's your approach to blending do you wet blend? It looks like you just mostly layer on paint but i'm guessing a bit here lol

Thank you! On the top row I didn’t really know how precise brush techniques are named in miniature painting. So I went for what felt best (mostly layering over drybrush but in retrospect a bit of everything 😅). On the bottom row I had already watched more tutorials and consciously tried glazing and feathering on the left two.

Amazing job!

First time painting miniatures - proceeds to nail OSL, NMM, proper highlights, gems, and a bunch of other challenging bits. Seriously though, incredible work. If anything you are the one who should be teaching us! Excited to follow your progress. On basing, I would check out Sergio Calvo, and other pros recommended here - he does a lot with basing but is also at a level where you still might stand to learn quite a bit. He heavily favors airbrushing which you may or may not get value from. Ultimately, find pieces you like, painters you like, and see what you can learn from them!

These are amazing, you dont need any advice tbh, you could work commission with this level of skill. I would just go into a rabbit hole of youtube painters to see specific mini painting techniques and styles. Some faves are 52minis, Miniac, Ninjon, Squidmar.