Way of the Lazy Painter: Miniature Painting's 5 Basic Techniques

I've been painting for almost 2 years now, I am by no means an expert but I do feel confident enough to write about the basics of painting. I know that there are a lot of resources on the net for these basics techniques, my hope is that I can provide help to people starting out by simplifying the explanations. Now let's get started.

There are 5 basic techniques that one will use in panting miniatures. With these 5 techniques you can produce tabletop quality miniatures, what this means is that you'll have an army that looks good when you put it on the table and look at it from afar. Techniques that allow you to produce higher quality work also have their foundation on these 5 techniques.

1. Priming - This is the application of a thin layer of primer to give your paints a better surface to stick to.
2. Base Coating - Application of color on your miniature.
3. Washing - Application of a color darker than the base coat in a medium that tends to stay in the deep sections of the miniature. This help create the appearance of shadows in the miniature.
4. Highlighting - Painting of a lighter shade of color on top of a base coat. This helps create the appearance of light hitting parts of the miniature.
5. Dry Brushing - The application of paint very thinly only in the raised areas of the miniature. This can be used to highlight and create more dynamic metallic colors.

I'll be discussing each of these techniques in detail and will provide some sample videos on how to do each in the coming weeks.