Look at that...

I know most, if not all of you have been frustrated in painting your lovely Sisters of Battle miniature's eyes. You'd spend a siginifcant amount of time painting up their armor, backpacks and weapons which all look magnificent from a distance until you bring it closer and see how all that hard work will go to naught because you couldn't get the eyes right. Well, fret no more. In this article, I will share with you one of the discoveries I have made in the struggle for decently-painted Sisters of Battle. 

Since not all of us the have steady hands of a professional miniature painter, the biggest challenge to painting decent eyes is how to get that precious black eye shadow around without slipping up. Here's my first step:

1) After applying the base coat (white paint in this case), determine the right color combinations for your mini's eyes and hair. I usually go for natural combinations such as in this case, blue-blonde, brown-black, green-red, etc. Of course, I'm not saying you should restrict yourself to that but it helps a lot so since members of the Adepta Sororitas are supposed to maintain a strict code of conduct that includes proper appearance. Nothing too heretical mind you. If you're using another color for base coating, paint the facial area white first. After that's done, paint a thin line on the model's eyes that will be the color of the iris. Its easier to paint over a white undercoat because you can see the borders around the eye sockets and can position your brush tip better. Since there's not much paint, its also easy to clean up mistakes by rubbing the model's face with a cotton swab of rubbing alcohol and doing the procedure all over again. I don't recommend painting over mistakes at this point as it is easy to accumulate paint and lose that very important facial detail.

2) The next step is the all-important black mask that will serve as the model's eye shadow. Carefully paint around the model's eyes with black paint. Make sure you don't use too much paint on your brush tip because it may run over the the eyes and ruin everything. This is the easiest way to define the size and shape of the model's eyes because you have more control painting around the eyelids. Caution must still be taken so that you should keep the eyes level. Its quite easy to get carried away painting around the model's eye sculpting details. Remember that not all miniatures come off the molds exactly aligned. Some may require you to adjust the eye position a little so that it will look right. Oh, and do wait for the paint to dry first before moving on to the next step.

3) The next step is to paint the flesh on the model's face and around the eyes. Once again, be careful not to have too much paint on your brush tip that may spread onto the eyes. Leave just enough black lining around the eyes to be noticed and you've got instant mascara! You can also vary the thickness of the lines along the eyes from model to model but should you make a mistake and paint over the black lining, you can re-apply black paint over the area you wish to correct and finish it off again with flesh paint. I recommend that you do not do this more than twice on the same area because there might be too much paint on it already and it will show. In this case, you will have to start over again in order get it right.

4) The final step would be to paint on the hair and other facial details. In this case, I applied a light wash of Snakebite Leather paint on the model's facial recesses and dry brushed with Elf Flesh. The blonde hair was achieved using Bleached Bone with Snakebite Leather wash and Bleached Bone drybrush. Voila! The face is done and all you have to do now is complete your masterpiece by finishing the rest of the body and base.