Painting Blood

note: This article was written by Allan Carrasco, for any use or reproduction of this article please adresse him. All the painting seen in this article was also done by Allan C. This article was translated from french to English by Arthur Muguet ( FrenchKid)Blood Who never painted blood on a weapon, on the ground, ect… ? The majority of the minis you can see on the net or in contests, show warriors whether it be from a fantasy world or from history. However it’s not easy to give blood a good color that’ll make it look as real as possible. Most often you end up with a red paint effect and not the hemoglobin effect you were seeking. Painting Blood: If you use paint you have to dilute it, I’d say about one part paint for 2 or 3 parts water. The realism is obtained not only by the color but also by the way the paint will be applied, and you have to think carefully before you start painting on the mini. How did the blood get there ? If it’s a blade, as it been dunked in blood as for a ritual? Did it go through a body or hit it with the edge? You also have to think of the direction and the angle of the blow the most often the blood will go from a low point to a higher point on the blade. If it’s on the ground, did the blood come from a wound ? or did it splatter on the ground? All those conditions are going to guide you in the way you’re going to paint the blood. Splatters: I choose a point from which to start the blood. I then paint lines more or less fine and irregulars in a same direction. When I get to were I want to stop my mark, I apply a bit more pressure on my brush will pulling it lightly in the same direction in order to deposit a drop. This way you get the impression the trail ends with drop. This is, of course, only possible with a juice, otherwise you’ll get a very ugly pasted effect. Then You justx have to repeat the operation until you’re satisfied. You can also darken more or less the color to get different shades of blood ( a deeper blood is darker ) Bloodstains: Doing bloodstains is very simple. You just have to deposit a drop ( small one, it’s a good thing to work with a brush half empty) then to spread it in a vaguely circular form and let it dry… I then come back to work on the stain with some juices of the base color that I’m going to darken by adding black, With that I darken the edge of the stain ( that is were the blood dries on a actual stain). To Flood a weapon with Blood: A splatter of blood is made by a blow or by spilling a little bit of blood… but when I ‘flood’ the weapon and want to represent the red liquid in abundance I proceed in an other fashion. When you use a weapon in battle the blood will be splattered on the weapon and then wiped off, and then splattered again… thus you’ll find wiped out splatters, faded stains, dry marks and some brand new marks…. Well anyway something great to paint !!!! Here is how I proceed. The first step is to redden the blade with successive washes ( I take the example of a blade but it’s the same on all smooth surfaces ) Once the area has been reddened I will apply a bit of all the technique mentioned earlier. Some splatters aren’t ended by a drop or wiped out with a drier brush , as if something had rubbed the blade. I will also apply some larger stains and less ‘full’, I try to obtain a couple of stains without any real content just at the border of a dried drop.. You can also play on the colors (more or less darker) to tone even more the stains and thus bring out the difference between old and new stains…. And of course it’s the same with the splatters. I hope I was clear, it is difficult to express something that you feel brush in hand and with a clear vision of what you want. [pagebreak] Using paint: I think that it’s really difficult and maybe impossible to obtain realistic blood with paint. But I think that if you want to keep on using paint the advice mentioned earlier will be very useful to you. That is that since the color will not be very realistic it is important that the realization be efficient. Color wise, the best is a mix of blood red and chaos black, the whole thing very diluted. Then once it’s dry varnished to keep it’s wet aspect, or with diluted varnish for a drier aspect. Using Inks: Much better !! inks are made of brighter colors that unlike paint keep their shine once dry. Normally there is no need to dilute them for the usage that interests us. You have to choose a medium dark red, not to dark though I prefer to mix in some black myself if need be. Normally there is no need to varnish the ink. To push the realism even further you can add a bit of white glue to the mix, when drying the glue will form some light cracks just like real blood would. Using Real Blood: And finally what could be better then real blood ? No need for any type of varnish, white glue ect… I can imagine what you’re thinking “ that guy is crazy I shouldn’t be reading stuff like that !!!!” But relax !!! I don’t go around mutilating myself to have real blood on my minis. It is possible to buy some blood from a butcher. Blood can be mixed without any problem with paint and inks but it dries pretty quickly and can damage brushes once it dries and coagulate. The only problem with real blood is that you’ll obtain dried blood, so if you want a fresh blood effect it’s not easy. By adding some varnish in the blood it self you can have something a bit brighter upon drying, you can also make it brighter by applying a couple of red washes once it’s dry. But I think the easiest solution if you want a fresh blood effect is to use only inks, but in the case of dried blood real blood is definitely better