An amateur artist of tabletop miniatures decided that he wanted to test the next level of his skills and took on the challenge of painting his first tiny face. The result brought a bitter realization, which he and the community accepted with humor.
What challenge did the miniature fan take on? The hobbyist and Reddit user loweffortpainter decided to attempt painting a miniature face for the first time.
He was able to demonstrate that he already has solid painting skills through previous projects he shared with the tabletop community on Reddit. These mainly included armor with attached details and some organic elements like a pair of wings. However, faces were uncharted territory for the painter until now.
As a test subject, he chose Felthius from the set “Lord of Contagion and Blightlord Terminators” (source: Warhammer), whose face is exposed in the miniature. And what he created, he did not want to keep from the community:
“Gentlemen, here is my very first painted face,” writes loweffortpainter about the posted image, but not without commenting. However, he could already conclude for himself: “In the future, I’d rather stick to helmets.”
Instead of judging him, the community loves his “special” face
What does the creator say about his creation? Instead of being ashamed of the typical, not quite ideal attempt at a first painted face, loweffortpainter writes that his result makes him laugh: “I’ve never painted a face before, and I just have to giggle about it – cheers to all who can make these things look realistic!”
The community feels similarly. Instead of seeking false praise, they honestly say that his face looks exactly as it should. Even if they are not sure whether it is creepy, funny, or just both at the same time:
“That’s the good kind of horror,” is the comment by JPHutchy01 that received the most upvotes. Winterssavant also writes: “Keep painting faces – that’s the only way you’ll get better at it. But please don’t change this style! I would absolutely love to play against a Death Guard army with these nightmarish faces.”
To reassure him that he’s not alone in facing the challenge of tiny faces, other artists showcase their own works:
Meanwhile, Felthius’s face adorns the profile picture of his creator, loweffortpainter.
What does the community advise? While everyone has fallen in love with Felthius’s “special” face and desires an entire army in that style, others share their own tips to make the eyes of miniatures look fancier:
- Pupils are often larger than one might think. Instead of placing them small in the center of an eye, the largest part of the eye can occupy the iris. This way, they also won’t look so wide-eyed and shocked.
- Since eyes on a small figure viewed from above in an army are hardly noticeable, they do not need to be perfectly and detailed crafted. In this case, a shadow under the brows could create a cool effect.
- If one doesn’t dare to add a pupil or iris, they could create simply solid, glowing eyes for a particularly epic look.
The eyes of miniatures are not only a challenge for loweffortpainter. MeinMMO editor Caro also struggles with the tiny eyes of her miniatures. However, what she was able to learn in her first year, she explains here on MeinMMO: A look back at my first year as a miniature novice – These 6 things I have learned since starting
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