Do you use magnifying glass?

Do any of you guys use magnifying glass for detailed painting?

I tried to paint the eyes of my skinks and its hard enough to see clearly let alone paint an iris!

I wasn't very pleased with the result so I would like some tips on these extreme details.

Also, my brush is fine enough for drawing patterns but I feel that a brush is not a good tool for creating the iris of a lizard's eye! I thought of using a needle but it won't hold paint and it scratches....

 

Skinks aren't so bad, they are worse on the Saurus.
I occasionally use on, I got on for Christmas
that is attached to an arm with a light.
I occasionally use a sharpened toothpick for making dots,
it hold a bit more paint than a needle.

 

micro pens are great for eyes. you can get them on ebay quite cheap

 

lol I got a super fine Sharpie from wallmart.

 

I got one like n810 for my birthday. I mostly use it as a lamp, but I have had success with the magnifying glass too. Can't really give you tips on using it, though, not enough experience. But for painting the iris, I think a fine brush is a good tool, you only need to have quite a lot of paint on it, so that you'll get a nice sharp line, but not too much, as it will just splash all over. I think reptile-like irises are easier to paint with a brush than human-like Toothpicks are also a great tool. Haven't tried a pen.

 

I have an arm lamp/maginfier too which I find works great.
Using a super fine sharpie for eyes is a fantastic idea thanks.

My army will now soon have eyes! Been stalling cause I couldn't decided what to do and didn't want to screw em up.

 

i owned one of those lamp-magnifying glasses some 10 years back, but i didnt like it, and i always claimed i didnt need it. however, last year or so, my fine detail painting have become much better, and yesterday i actually bought a new one of those lamps (its pretty cheap, about 30€ for a decent one) to use for extreme details such as the "sparkle" in the eyes of small models, like this one:



I did do this one without a magnifier, but it was a pain in the neck. im hoping it will be easier in the future. Note however that i will pretty much only use this for eye painting. No other details are small enough to warrant a magnifier.