HELP! How do you thin paints without loosing covering quality?

[Xlanax_lot]

So, I keep hearing everywhere that a key to improving your painting skills is to thin paints, specially for freehand, blending and shades. I have found this to be a great advice and I have personally seen a lot of improvement when doing this. However I struggle when I thin the paints because the more I thin them I feel like you loose the ability of the paint to cover what you where painting, also for some colors such as bone and white, I realized that the paint becomes detached so that you have something like water with dust of the color you where using.

Is there a way or technique to thin your paints and still have them be able paint over the miniature in a "solid" way, instead of becoming kind of translucid?

If anybody can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

thanks

ps: I thin my paints with water

 

[Dblood]

You can mix your paint and water with some matte or gloss acrylic medium. A good brand is Liquitex. Just put a drop on your palette and mix until you find a good consistency. Offhand, something like 1/3 of paint, water and medium is pretty good for a thin glaze.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-gloss-and-matte-mediums/

 

[shponglefan]

I use a combination of Vallejo thinner medium and water. I can thin down paints to a glaze-like consistency without pigment separation. Keep in mind though, that as you thin down paints, they will become more transparent. Depending on how much you thin them down, you'll likely need multiple coats to get proper coverage.

 

[Xlanax_lot]

You can mix your paint and water with some matte or gloss acrylic medium. A good brand is Liquitex. Just put a drop on your palette and mix until you find a good consistency. Offhand, something like 1/3 of paint, water and medium is pretty good for a thin glaze.

http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-gloss-and-matte-mediums/

this is great, definatelly guving it a try! THANKS!

 

[Xlanax_lot]

I use a combination of Vallejo thinner medium and water. I can thin down paints to a glaze-like consistency without pigment separation. Keep in mind though, that as you thin down paints, they will become more transparent. Depending on how much you thin them down, you'll likely need multiple coats to get proper coverage.

Thanks for the great advice! I Really apreciate it this will definatelly help! Thanks!!

 

[ced1106]

Reaper paints have flow improver, so need no or minimal thinning. Just rinsing the brush is enough water for me.

Or use Liquitex Essential Inks to thin your paints. The ink adds some variety to the color, yet thins the consistency.

Or thin your paints with Army Painter and Secret Weapon washes. These premade washes are "thicker" than water (SW has matte medium and water), so will thin the paint yet give you more control.

 

[MAXXxxx]

Is there a way or technique to thin your paints and still have them be able paint over the miniature in a "solid" way, instead of becoming kind of translucid?

No there isn't. The whole point in thinning them is to reduce the opacity, so you can do better transitions.
The only solution for that is to use less water/thinner (you need surprisingly little to make it flow, look at gw's videos on YouTube they are OK in this ).

As for helping with control/separation the ones before me already told what's my pow too.

In the end it really goes to the choice: army or display mini. If you paint a whole army you don't want to thin it too much. If display(usually paint is thinned much more) then it's normal to paint 3-7 layers just to have a solid basecoat.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

What Maxxx says is the absolute truth. People often misunderstand this question from beginner painters, IMO. The beginner will make some comment like they are getting horrible spots or the layers just aren't opaque enough, etc and people tend to offer advice about additives. While these are helpful for many things, IME the beginner is just experiencing an inexperience with adding enough layers. When you thin your paints, especially for glaze layering, the first 3 to even 8 layers may look, well, crappy. It looks uneven. It looks too translucent. You can see some water spots. The key is to be patient and keep going. Eventually, the coverage will be complete and you will attain a baby soft, smooth coat. The absolute main key to this, I repeat, the absolute main key to this is making sure that you give the layers time to dry in between. Give the layers time to dry in between. Did I not make my point? Give the layers time to dry in between. If you fail to do this, you will simply break apart the layer you just added, complicating things, slowing you down, and leading to "overworked" paint. It will look messy in the end.

I am am still guilty of, at times, failing to let the coats dry in between layers. I tell myself I am just going to wet blend a transition but really I am being impatient and contributing to a crappy layer.

Well done Maxxx in seeing through to the root of the problem.

 

[Kelly Kim]

Bloodfather has the truth of it. Thinning your paints will give them better flow and more even coverage (each layer won't dry into a thick goop). But it will make each layer more translucent, thus requiring more layers. Make sure each layer is completely dry before laying down the next (if you lay down a layer of wet on half-dried paint, it'll just "tear" the previous layer into random strands of pigment).

Using straight water is the ideal (try using a wet palatte... it helps, but it'll take a little practice to get used to), but I found that using a bit of matt medium and / or flow release with water helped me at first. It was easier with mixed-in mediums, and as I got better and better, I found myself using less medium each time, and more water. They were like training wheels on a bike... they helped me get to the next step.