Blending at a nutter level

[MagicMushie]

Hi all, Im looking for some direction to improve my skills on blending and im looking for advice i guess.
Im looking to blend like some of the better artists on this site, what i need to know is what to do with the paint to get it to work the way i want it.
I dont care how long it takes as long as it works. The link below is an example from \"The yellow one\" work, that is the level of blending i want.
I have a full set of Vallejo and GW paints so using any of the two is fine with me, i like both brands.
What do you use to thin down your paints? currently im using just water but im not happy with the result, i thin it down alot but it doesnt come out being smooth enough for the level that i want.
If anyone has any advice or tips or anything that can help me out would be sweet. A reference would be good too if possible (like 1 part paint to 10 - 15 parts water or whatever as an example).

http://www.coolminiornot.com/63993

The grey area is what im interested in doing, that level of blending i want to achieve.
Any tips greatly appreciated.
Thankies.

 

[Tony Manero]

the only tip i can give you is to thin as more as you can the paints, almost watercolours, and take it slowly making a lot of passages

 

[green stuff]

What Tony said. Water is fine for thinning paints. People go crazy about acrylic medium or retardant, but in that case, they might just as much go back to oil paints (nothing wrong with that, it just takes a lot longer to paint and dry). Thin your paints down to skim milk consistancy and apply them in a controled way. Don\'t be affraid to apply several layers, as long as the paints are thinned, that won\'t be a problem. Oh and : practice, practice, ... .

 

[frenchkid]

I guess the best way to get smooth blend is the watered down, multiple layer technique. EricJ as a good article about it somwhere. Or check in the rticle section , that\'s the technique all master french painter use so you should find somthing.
Arjay as somthing about is painting technique on his forum too, it\'s a bit different then most standard technique, but it seems to work great for him so might be worth a look.

 

[james9487]

Originally posted by frenchkid
EricJ as a good article about it somwhere.

Here\'s a link to it: EricJ blending tute

 

[MagicMushie]

WOOT!

Thanks for the quick replies, im sortof getting back into painting mini\'s now that i actually have free time and a life and want to improve my skills and get some good ratings (i want a display in my house so people can drool when they see them) ^^
That tut is kick arse for any1 else looking for this (7-1 and 10-1 is great as it tells you what to add/remove from your paints imo)
Thankies to all that replied ^^

 

[Trevor]

What they said.

Also, glazes can help you out, but they have to be REALLY watered down.

Unless you are a painting God(ess), its all about thin paint and taking your time to work the colours up smoothly. A decent, smooth base coat helps enormously.

 

[Legacy Account]

It\'s about practice more than anything.

 

[sebrushworth]

Like others have said, this is a thing that can only be learned with practice and experience. Practice, practice, practice, and eventually it will come. All the reading in the world won\'t help and is often more likely to confuse you, since different people use very different techniques.

 

[Arma]

I\'m also a new painter and trying to develop my blending skills...

I think some of the problems i\'m having relate to paint control. By this I mean i\'m not entirely sure how much paint I should put down though I have noticed small pools of paint forming when I lift my brush away, I also try to remove any water from my brush before applying it to the mini by wiping the brush across a rag/cloth once or twice. However after doing this I feel like there\'s no paint going down at all? >_<

i\'m thinning my paints out at least 5:1 wateraint and have tried a few products (Magic Wash etc) but still to no avail..

I think colour choice is a problem too - I\'m working with purple currently (Liche Purple Basecoat) but unsure what highlights to go with? I want to achieve something like:

This

Is this just Liche Purple or something similar with different levels of white added for each highlight?

For example:

2:1 Liche Purple Skull White
1:1 Liche Purple Skull White
1:2 Liche Purple Skull White
1 Skull White

thanks and sorry for the n00bish questions hopefully i\'ll post some WIPs

Seb:

Could you recommend any ways to actually practice without using a mini? I guess using a simple, flat piece of primed plastic could work? I mebbe some pieces of sprue?

 

[SebastianRushworth]

I think the best thing is to practice on minis, rather than on anything else. It takes a bit of time, but eventually, after much trial and error you\'ll get a hang of it.

Purple, hmm, I don\'t use it often so I\'m not the best to ask, but shade it with yellow (seriously!), and maybe a bit of black if it needs to be darker than you get with just mixing in yellow, and I think maybe highlight with a light/bright red, and maybe some white if it needs to be lighter. That\'s what I would try anyway.

Oh, just in case you\'re not fully up to speed on painting theory. Every colour has three properties: Lightness, Brightness (saturation), and Hue. Lightness is how light or dark a colour is, brightness is how saturated (un-grey) a colour is, and hue is what colour it is (blue, green etc.). Shadows aren\'t only darker than midtones, they\'re also less saturated, because less light is striking the area. Highlights aren\'t only lighter than midtones, they\'re also brighter and warmer, for the same reason.

 

[Ritual]

If you have trouble achieving smooth blendings with the various techniques available (layering, feathering, wet-blending, tweening, whatever) you can improve the smoothness by applying a few thin glazes of a mid-tone of the colour in question. This will obscure the irregularities and the roughness of the blending somewhat, making it look smoother. The downside is that it will also reduce the brightness of the highlights, but if you do quite bright highlights to begin with this shouldn\'t be too much of a problem.

 

[Helga]

Welcome Arma

Hello Arma,

be very welcome on CMON. Happy to see you here!

Originally posted by Arma
...I think some of the problems i\'m having relate to paint control. By this I mean i\'m not entirely sure how much paint I should put down though I have noticed small pools of paint forming when I lift my brush away, I also try to remove any water from my brush before applying it to the mini by wiping the brush across a rag/cloth once or twice. However after doing this I feel like there\'s no paint going down at all? >_<

Try drawing on a sheet of paper instead of a wiping on a rag. Paintbrush on paper behaves very similar to paintbrush on primed mini. You can immediately see how solid the colour is, how fine the line and You simply keep drawing on paper till having exactly the paint behavior you are looking for...else rinse and start again...

Originally posted by Arma
... i\'m thinning my paints out at least 5:1 wateraint...

Quite the right attitude! The thinner the paint the better the blending. For experts.
Me being no painting god, I need an idea pretty fast how the intended colours will come out . So mostly I thin no more than 1/3, put on about 3 or 4 shades from darkest to lightest without bothering to blend them into each other and when satisfied with the overall effect smoothe the transitions with 1/5 or more diluted mixture of bordering colours.

Originally posted by Arma
I want to achieve something like:
This
Is this just Liche Purple or something similar with different levels of white added for each highlight?
For example:
2:1 Liche Purple Skull White
1:1 Liche Purple Skull White
1:2 Liche Purple Skull White
1 Skull White

Don\'t think so. Simply mixing with white will make purple lighter but flat, somewhat chalky. Looking at \"this\" the purple seems to have more BLUE in the darker and more RED in the medium area. I would try to copy \"this\" with a liche purple/blood red/light flesh mixture.

Originally posted by Arma
Seb:
Could you recommend any ways to actually practice without using a mini? I guess using a simple, flat piece of primed plastic could work? I mebbe some pieces of sprue?

NO.
A >simple, flat piece of primed plastic< will not work as @ SebastianRushworth has already pointed out.
You want to improve painting a 3 dimensional surface, you have to practise on 3 dimensional surface. Simple as that.
Get a mini cheap You really, really don\'t care for (-ugly- to -hate it- is best) and give it the best paintjob You can possibly do on the parts You are interested in. You will learn a lot without regret.

Best wishes and happy painting, Arma

 

[funnymouth]

arma - keep in mind that mixing the paint is not always the way to go. white+purple will look much different that purple OVER white. instead of mixing colors, try painting purple over a white base, in layers. the more purple you want the color to be, the more layers. mixing paint can change the color tone. not just the lntensity.

 

[Helga]

Orginal gepostet von funnymouth
arma - keep in mind that mixing the paint is not always the way to go. white+purple will look much different that purple OVER white. instead of mixing colors, try painting purple over a white base, in layers. the more purple you want the color to be, the more layers. mixing paint can change the color tone. not just the lntensity.

Very true!
Good of You to point that out.
Mixing colours will not turn out the same shade as blending same colours one over other once dried!
So always experiment before doing the ONE !

 

[Arma]

Thanks for the help! I\'ll get painting ^_^