Is this the single best hobby tip that every painter out there should know? It is for certain at great idea to add to your hobby arsenal at the very least, come see!
Nope, this is not an ad for one of my fancy hobby e-books. Shameless title plug aside, this article is one simple trick you need to know which end is up while painting on multiple things.
One thing I’m really bad at is remembering how I painted something.
Painting a pair of boots on some models today, I won’t remember the exact steps and colors in 2 weeks. This situation is quite frustrating when a client asks for the same paint scheme as last time on a commission, or when I want to add the new OP thing in my list (Bullgryns) and paint them to fit my existing army. Frustrating as it is, it’s incredibly easy to avoid.
Take notes
Sure, right now you remember that Ushabti bone mixed with Rhinox Hide is on fleesh, but trying to remember that mix 6 months later looking at pictures you took, good luck with that. Especially if you applied a wash after. Was it brown, was it black? Who knows?
You will know now, because you will take notes, you smart man!
Keeping your army uniform and colors tight will make the overall look immensely better. If you’re whole force is one color and only 3-4 troopers and a tank are a slightly different color, those will stand out like a sore thumb and ruin the overall look.
So write down the colors you used and how you used them – Was it with an airbrush, drybrush, layered, blended? All things future you will be happy to know instead of guess.
It sounds simple enough, where do I sign up?
There are 2 ways of taking on this endeavor, each with it’s pros and cons, so pick one of them that seems to fit your needs and that you are most likely to stick with.
The Old School
I’m an old fashioned kind of guy, so I like to have an actual notebook to write my stuff in. Get one of those 200 pages lined book that costs like 35 cents, stick a pen in there and voila.
Keep that book somewhere in sight where you paint and after each sitting take a minute to add in whatever new you did. If you have multiple armies, get a notebook with different subjects and use one for each for easy book keeping.
You can go as far as painting the actual colors next to each step. This is specially useful when you are doing crazy mixes.
Tech Savy Option
This is probably the smarter way to go, but write down your steps in a Word document or an Excel Spreadsheet.
You can’t paint the exact colors like you would in an actual notebook, but it makes the process of digging for information much easier with the ctrl+F option on whatever it is you’re searching for.
Furthermore, saving that file to your phone/tablet allows you to carry it around, like to your painting area for quick reference, or event better, to the store to buy the right color – No more of the “I remember it was a brown kinda color, but which one out of the 16 shades?”
Now the hardest part is not remembering how I do something, it’s remembering to write it down…
If you have your own technique for remembering which end is up when it comes to colors, hit me up on Facebook, I’m always happy to learn new tricks!
Like us on Facebook
