Eyes

If you are going to paint eye detail, paint the right eye first and then the left. If you do it the opposite, you cross over the eye and put the paint brush between the figure eye and your eye, partially obscuring your view and making it harder to align the eye detail properly. Resulting in crosseyed or wall eyed figures.

QUOTE: Originally posted by tediam Dwight, How is the drafting pencil used? I am practicing on some cheaper figgys before I tackle my high dollar resin ones. Any advise you can give would be great. I have admired all of yours and the other guys work here on FSM.

Sorry for not being clear. I actually meant drafting pen which uses ink of black, red, blue, violet, green inks for drawing of plans for building and manufacturing. It comes with tips ranging in size of 0.1mm to 1.0mm. I use to detail really fine lines such as in eyes in 1/35 scale. Since its tip does not expand like a brush tip, it is easier to control and use.

Dwight,

How is the drafting pencil used? I am practicing on some cheaper figgys before I tackle my high dollar resin ones. Any advise you can give would be great. I have admired all of yours and the other guys work here on FSM.

A point to remember about aligning eyes which may be of use - if a person is looking straight ahead, then the centre of the iris is directly above the corner of the mouth. Using this anatomical gem might help remove the cross-eyed look that some figures end up with in model form. Not that I am suggesting for a moment that any viewers to this site would have cross-eyed figures, of course!
Hope this helps.

I'm casting my vote on the "keep it simple" side, especially if you have a lot of figures and/or they are supposed to be outdoors in the days before sunglasses and/or the scale is 54mm or smaller. I'll shade the underside of the eye socket, leave the "white" of the eye a caucasiany skin tone, add a darker dot for the iris and pupil, and be done with it.

As with anything, though, a particular set of facts and circumstances might demand a different response.

Thanks so far for all your replies.

Greetings

Paul

I am not an expert on figures (and I may never be) but I just observed that most people who view models with figures (or dioramas for instance) are not really very particular with the accuracy of the vehicles being presented, or the historical accuracy of the diorama but rather have a tendency of scrutinizing the figures among the other componets of the diorama. They tend to look closely to see the expressions on the faces of the small figures and due to this, I guess there is a need to paint the facial details more completely.

And in addition to the tips provided above, I have discovered that a 0.1 drafting pen is a very good tool to use.

I agree with cplchilly. I put eyes on all my figures. The method I use is a cross method. First, draw a thin line with white across the eye horizontally. Next, a thin line down the center of the eye vertically, either brown or dark blue. This can be centered, or to one side or the other to have the figure looking off in a different direction, just as long as the eyes are looking in the same direction. Lastly, take some flesh color and paint in around the eye at the top and bottom to give it shape, it should be an oblong oval, thicker toward the nose, thinner as you go out. To finish it off, a thin line on the top edge of the orbit for the eyebrow.

I have to disagree , although I have some MK figures that a simple wash is quite affective on. But on a lot of Tamiya, Italeri, and Dragon figures with their bland features cry out for eyes because of a lack of details in their faces. Eyes as they say are the windows to the soul and they can really bring out individuality in faces, even in 1/35 and 1/32 scales.

I mix a very dark wash from black and dark brown and use that. Gives the impression of squinting. 1/35 is too small in my opinion to try and worry about painting whites, irises and pupils.
The confederate sailors are 1/32


The German soldier is 1/35

I've always had great sucess using Shep Paines technique for figures.
Heres the directions from start to finish 1.Do not t any whites in the eyes because eyes appear the same color as the face in viewing distance.
2.Paint a wide band of light blue or brown verticaly through each socket keep each band the same distance from the nose.
3. Paint a narrow band of black or dark brown down the center.
4. Cut off the top of each eye band with a dark brown line this is the upper eyelash. Concentrate on positioning the bottom edge of the of this line correctly keeping the 2 eyes level from side to side let the rest of the line fall where it may.
5.Add half of a bottom lash.
6. Carefully trim the eye down to size with a flesh colored paint.
Also eyes are more of a wedge than an ovel in shape, this is how Shep writes it in his book and it is amazing with a little practice how easy and effective it is. The book is called How to build Dioramas and is published by Kalmbach and if you only own one book on modeling this is it (my humble opinion). There is a full drawing of the technique is his book and Im sorry I cant show it to you as it helps a lot also. Armorama and Missinglinks have also had articles on face painting and are very informative (and great sites ta boot also). good luck