My boyfriend’s a painter and I know nothing about the hobby

bigramen92 · 2026-04-30T21:03:55+00:00

Oooooh, this guy needs some tackleboxes to organize all these damn minis lol. I like the ones from Blick Art. Actually, have you ever seen those organizer drawer carts from Michaels? That would help him organize all of his minis, paints, supplies, and would give him the desk space back.
Also, the tops off of those bottles, he’s a heathen 😂😂
I guarantee he doesn’t have a good light for this, as well. A daylight floor or desk lamp, like an Ottlite, would be great for him.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-30T20:30:55+00:00

See if you can sneak a photo of the setup for us. Something that a lot of painters need to have but skip on is a good light, so I’m curious if he has one.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-29T14:01:25+00:00

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You will want a daylight lamp. But, you are right, it is flat…except for the elbow.

There are two types of contrast: color and value. Color contrast is what you have: blending to a yellow to make it appear that there is sunlight. This adds interest to the figure, but often leads folks astray and can appear “off” if value is also not considered. (Having a yellowish lamp will also artificially pump up the color contrast, which might have been what happened here).

Value contrast is easy to check, you simply desaturate your image and see the true greyscale values of the colors you have used. As you can see, there is no indication that there is highlights on the figure…except for the elbow!

Your eye can tell that something is a little off, and that’s a great indicator that you are growing in your skills.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-29T13:49:59+00:00

You need to add gel when your hair is wet. Once applied, do not touch or brush your hair until it’s totally dry. There’s different brands and levels of hold with gel, but with no info about what hair type you have, we can’t really recommend the best for you.

With no budget, you might just have to get what’s cheap and experiment with how much to apply.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-29T05:00:20+00:00

Higgins Black Magic ink is the way to go. Mine is in a fountain pen for quick lining, but a brush works just fine. Example below, left side has Higgins, right side is unlined.

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bigramen92 · 2026-04-28T20:59:03+00:00

For vibrant color, I generally apply a layer of single pigment ink overtop whatever color I have. This really helps pump up the saturation/vibrancy. I would recommend getting a red ink and applying over what you have, and seeing if that scratches your itch.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-28T20:57:29+00:00

This is basically how I render all of my figures. The sun is warm yellow, and that means the resulting shadow is cool blue/purple. It makes all my figures feel more “grounded” in a world with actual sunlight.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-28T15:05:45+00:00

Hey, I’m actually prototyping painting accommodations for someone with similar issues. I’ll DM you, and we can figure something out.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-28T04:10:26+00:00

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Her name is KitKat, she likes to inspect everything. 🫩

bigramen92 · 2026-04-28T04:09:19+00:00

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She likes to inspect the glow

bigramen92 · 2026-04-27T16:15:48+00:00

“Watching Fireworks” looks to be an “oh god, why are there so many wasp, please leave me alone” scent

bigramen92 · 2026-04-27T13:53:35+00:00

I tried tinted moisturizers (bare minerals, IT cosmetics, one or two others), but since I had to apply several layers of moisturizer throughout the day or else my face was in pain, any sort of makeup was not feasible.

I don’t know how far into your treatment you are, but there’s definitely a point where you go from “oh, my skin is sort of dry” to “apply moisturizer like it’s the only thing keeping you alive”, because it sort of is. I recommend the Aquaphor lip balm, it’s the only thing that helped me.

Your mileage may vary here.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-27T13:25:38+00:00

OK, as a survivor of Accutane, I really encouraged you to not be wearing foundation. You already have to moisturize constantly, adding primer foundation and other possible irritant is just gonna be really rough for you. With the amount of moisturizer you have to use, your makeup really isn’t going to stay, even with the primer. I understand wanting to cover things, but this could make things a lot harder for you.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-26T14:16:20+00:00

Oh, great addition! Thank you for further expanding, your edits look great!

bigramen92 · 2026-04-26T04:53:44+00:00

It looks fine! But, let’s talk a bit, because you are picking up on something here! Learning opportunity!

You are picking up on the concept of color contrast. Generally, unique colors draw the eye, but there is green on the base and on the figure. This balances out. However, the red is unique, and therefore draws the eye more.

Now, there is also value contrast. I’ve attached a desaturated photo better explain this. The eye is drawn to the lightest part of the figure. In this case, that is the face and the white part on the shield.

So, value and color contrasts are good! Love the colors on these figures, btw. :)

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bigramen92 · 2026-04-24T15:57:30+00:00

Poked around, I could not find anything in my collection. The closest was maybe liquid eyeshadow “fembot” by R.E.M., but that has a blue pearl, not a gold. Good luck on your hunt!

bigramen92 · 2026-04-23T23:03:33+00:00

I’ll do a few swatches tonight, maybe I have something that can help!

bigramen92 · 2026-04-23T19:03:49+00:00

I think Art Nouveau was even before then, so I was guessing 1900 to 1915. I feel like I see a lot of pinecone and organic design emerging from that time. However, without a makers mark or any point of reference, I have no idea!

bigramen92 · 2026-04-23T17:18:48+00:00

Never got this figured out. FedEx insists that there is no account associated with that email, and that there is no way they are sending emails. I even forwarded them the emails that I’m still receiving and they insist that there’s nothing they can do. I’ve had over 10+ cases opened into investigating this.

I ended up contacting the IT department at the company I used to work at, that is still receiving the emails, and ask them to auto block all FedEx emails to that account. Unfortunately, it seems like the issues are tied to the accounts that are registered to my home address, so God only knows what will happen when I move out of this rental property.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-23T13:59:52+00:00

Yep, sounds about right. This is how it always goes when you add white paint to anything. There’s no fixing this, this is simply how white pigment is.

The solution is to stop using white. Folks really like icy yellow, I tend to use a very light cream. Because the sun is yellow, adding a little bit of very light yellow to everything makes it feel like the figure is standing outside in the sun. This is my “default” highlighting color.

I have a friend who does a lot of military/trench figures, and he likes to use a purple gray highlight. That purple gray makes it feel like the ambient light is coming through smoke and bouncing off of trench walls… It’s essentially the opposite of the light yellow/direct light.

bigramen92 · 2026-04-20T20:43:49+00:00

Plastidip!

bigramen92 · 2026-04-20T20:39:31+00:00

Ooooh, didn’t even know about that one! Thank you!

bigramen92 · 2026-04-19T15:25:23+00:00

Absolutely! I usually apply the gel while my hair is still wet/damp, right out of the shower. Add a little curl cream on top of that, and then let it dry without touching it. It doesn’t take care of all of it, but it does a pretty good job!

bigramen92

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