Technique as/more important then skill?

[Pokerface]

Ive been looking through alot of guides and I looked at the "noob" painters here and it seems that the noobs just seem to one coat every piece while the pros multi layer and drybrush and ink.
What do you people think and are there any pros that can tell me what you think about when you decide what layers and drybushes you are going to do?
(Im very tired while writing this so please excuse)

[Grim_Reaper46]

ok,it took me three months to make my marines from sloppy to decent and I didnt read no guide book just learn on your own i think it works alot better for me.Also it's not just about technuiqe,you have to be very still with your hand in some areas like a space marines eyes that also takes practice.Newbs just spray it and say it's done dont put any effort or just make excuses like I dont have time.Me I love to draw and get the pic done so I take my time to paint.The only thing I hate about painting is "JUST GET ME TO THE END".Oh about deciding the layers and dry brusing,1 step is what do you want your model to look like and all depends on the model I first see it in my mind picture it bam ready to go 2 need to know what colors to mix dont do the mix until you know what ur doing or what simple color you need.3 Types of Brushes ouch you need like 10-15 types of different brushes for detail,drybrush,or paint a big area like the base.4 need sand the edges down when metal or plastic is made the model they will have this line that will stick out need to get rid of that.5 Prime it quicker get to the painting of your model or really want it good just paint it cuz the regular paint is really thin which is good for your model.6 Paint the main areas that is most "Popular Color" like what does the model have the most then second most and so on.7.Is almost the same thing but now your to the point of Narrowing it down to detail you have the whole model painted the main colors now you add dry brush of different paints or put in detail.8 look at model at every angle even the angle that no one will see Far Away and close.see the model far away or short and see what needs to be fix if his eyes crookded,paint a little off,bad color on axident needs to be change and so on.It takes alot of time and practice to just be average to be a pro is your model looks so smooth and colorfull.The more you paint the more you learn and ALSO DO MORE EXPERIMENTS like what if I do this what will it turn out to be.If you read this I didnt waste my time typing this thx and I hope you become a good painter.

[Warcrier]

Technique gets armies done, but skill and practice make modles look good...

[Imperial marine]

i just give my models one coat since i can't get in detail like chest eagles and eyes

[Dante]

i think you need some skill, then lots of the GW technique if you wanna get a GW looking army (ie...extreme highlighting so that it starts to look cartooninsh) I personlly dislike this (stoopid NMM...thinks its better than me!) so i try to go for a "more realstic" look. Now im not terrible and there are things i can work on, but i think my "own" style is pretty good. My point is if you have skill you can paint it your own way, enjoy it still have a nice lloking army. If you have some skill and lots of the techniques down, you'll have a nice looking GW style army, and if you have a combination of the two...then your a Golden Deamon winning FREAK! jk :D

[FPAlpha]

The most important thing is colour choice..you can be the best painter in the world but if your colour selection is bad your models will look bad.

Next thing is to improve the cleanliness of your painting..this may not be much but nothing is more irritating when i see a mini where the pupils of the eyes are all over the face or the paint of the undergarment is spreading out on the armour.

If you master this (whis is not hard to do and just needs practice) you will have a very nice looking army.

After that come the easy techniqes like drybrushing which improve certain aspects...from then on its your ego that will drive you forward to improve (if you want to improve at all or just establish a solid base and paint your army).

[kaksoipiste]

I think the most important thing is being neat. You don't even have to blend you can almost layer colours ontop of each other normally. Providing it's all neat the models will look great for tabletop play. I find this method ideal when it comes to painting lots of your average ground troops that are really boring to paint repeatedly. I would much rather people learnt to paint neatly without mistakes rather than learn some clever techniques. I went for the techniques first and I still paint quite unneatly and make mistakes. Yeah I can make blends and effects that all the great painters can do, but I often have a few bits of paint in the wrong places spoiling my highlights and thus having to correct them. Correcting usually ends up not looking as good, especially if you pretty much blend all of your own colours like I do.

If I was you just go for neatness.. follow the simple guides in the Codexes for nice neat effects which aren't too hard and then go from there.

[orkdom]

equally important. the techniques are what u need to know in order to make it look nice when ur done, but if u hav no skill, or perhaps experience is a better word, at these techniques then u may not be able to paint well.

[iceheart07]

well... i ahve absolutely no skill and very little time so i was told to do exactly what everyone has been saying, make it look clean and dont worry about all the techniques as you can QUICKLY ruin a model if you dont know what your doing.

[Pokerface]

well... i ahve absolutely no skill and very little time so i was told to do exactly what everyone has been saying, make it look clean and dont worry about all the techniques as you can QUICKLY ruin a model if you dont know what your doing.

Thats too true I was just trying to use some highlighting technique on a Khorne Bezerker and it came out looking shit.
But it might be because I mixed the Red Gore undercoat (Blood Red + a little dark angels green), I think the undercoat was too dark even though I painted it 100% perfect onto the model and I was overjoyed then I tried highlighting with Blood Red kinda thin lines on the armour plates but the difference was too large so I tried mixing up Red Ink which is the last step on the armour but it came out crappy :/
Anyone got an EASY technique to paint on red armour?

[-_Phoenix_-]

Easy technique for red armour - Undercoat by drybrushing white, then drybrush blood red, then red ink all over the model. What ??! Don't look at me like that!!

By drybrushing you actually get very thin layers. With red you've got to get a nice even coverage and i've found this is the best way to do it, with the red ink just finishing it off.

Note, I said easy, not quick :)

[iceheart07]

ahhhh red, my favorite color to destroy my models, so i was messing around with color schemes and i decided i was going to give all my assault marines red shoulder pads and red kneed plates. BUT, becasue my basecoat was black it looked awful, even after appyling a coat of white then two coats of red it was still to dark so from now on, im basecoating all my dark angels in white, plus i think it will give me a brighter look which should make them stand out more.

[GreyWolf]

i use blood red on shoulder pads of my marines, you have to stick to one small section at a time making sure the area is covered, cause if you dont the paint will slowly slide to the side and the black undercoat will show through, and you cant really water down red because then its pretty much red water, there isnt any really thickness or anything to it to make it stay where it is

[Fiend]

Sorry if this was covered already but I'm too lazy to read all the posts.

Important aspects to painting:

1. Colour scheme - keep it simple, subtle, and tasteful. A nice scheme painted simply will win out over a garish scheme painted complexly (w3rd).

2. Cleanliness - make sure the colours are painted smoothly and neatly. Thin your paints, take your time, make sure all the paints are in the right area. Again, simple painting executed well is better than full on painting executed sloppily.

3. Be careful with: Drybrushing (can spill over to other areas) and washing (can spill over to other areas) - use them but keep them NEAT.

4. Learn which simple techniques can be most effective. I.e. lining with a dark colour (black can be too harsh), layering, lining for highlights. These can be very effective without having to go into full on blending.

I guess a main theme is that you can take some shortcuts with the icing (i.e. the advanced techniques), but not with the cake (i.e. the basic application of colours).