Layering and the use of washes

[Kodakai]

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on layering and the use of washes.

I've done a base coast, and applied progressively lighter coats of very watered down paint on top building up to the highlights. I have a couple of questions about what i should do next.

Firstly does drybrushing have any place here for applying final highlights or is it better to do them by hand?

Second, is it a good idea to apply a wash over my current work to tone it down and tie the blending together? At the moment the transition is subtle but not as smooth as i'd like. I think applying a wash over the entire area would bring down the colour slightly and help achieve the smoother effect i'm after. Does anyone have experience with this? I don't want to apply a wash and find it ruins hours of work.

 

[Chrome]

applying a wash is a great way of smoothing out the blends. Though keep the wash extremely thin and apply tons of layers instead of going with one or two layers, that way it will be easier to control it and less of a risk of ruining it.

For me, drybrushing is just for fast highlights, dirt and grime. If you are layering your piece already I wouldn't even bother thinking about drybrushing, just keep layering the highlights as well.

 

[BPI]

Hi Kodakai, I recently bunged a thinned Gryphonne Sepia & Devlan Mud wash over a Gnoblar I'd painted, to try & tie it all together. Big mistake, it went too dark & muddied all my work If you're working from black shadow to white highlight then glazing should help to smooth your blends, I don't recommend a wash, too indiscriminate. If your colour graduations are already very subtle then I'm not sure you'll gain any benefit. And really, really, really thin, controlled application (a lot easier to do with ink than paint or GW Wash).

Drybrushing has it's place but doesn't sound right for this job. I'd tend to use it at the start to give me a guide as to where to paint my highlights. (I do think of drybrushing as a thwippy-thwappy speed painting technique though, tiny amounts of paint carefully run over a mini to catch top reflections is skillful painting, not drybrushing ).

Why not post a pic in a WIP thread of where you're up to so that the advice can be better aimed at your specific work?
Cheers, B.

 

[Tagamoga]

Hello Kodokai.

To get the right blending is a "science for itself".

To "trainee" frist blendings, I suggest to use a wash mixed up 1:1 with water. Dipp your brush in it and wipe to amount of the paint, that is to much on a paper towel. The brush should be so dry, that when you paint an two inch line, the first part of the line is already dry, while you have painted the end. The result is, that you dont have borders in the painted stroke, because all the pigments of the colour did not have the time to diffuse in the water.

To achieve a smooth blending, you do now the following steps. Paint first the base coat. If you use washes, a light colour. Then the first of thinned wash covers 90% of the surface, the second 80%, the thrid 70%... and so on. make sure, that the direction of your strokes is toward the shadows. I mean vertical to the blending itself. Well that is it for the begin. Repeat this, if the shadows is not dark enough.

After this you may mix up your own "washes" with your normal paint. Here you need a little practise until your have envolved "your own way".

I dont know if it is a good idea to wash your blending. Could you post a photo?

At the final highlight:
Drybrushing you cannot control as good as doing the highlight by hand. AND drybrushing look often rather rough. So it is your decision.


BUT:
I want to thank you. I was asked to explain in a tut my blending technique and I was overcharged, because I did not know how to do this, without showing! But you gave me the inspiration how to do this. *hug* Thank you!

So I hi-jacked your post a little bit: Is here a need for an english blending tut? And if yes, is here somebody, how could correct my translation?

Greetings, Taggi

 

[Einion]

Firstly does drybrushing have any place here for applying final highlights or is it better to do them by hand?

Good question. The usual answer would be no, but it would depend on if you wanted to create a specific effect. Because drybrushing applies the paint in a very specific way you could use it for a sort of scratched or scraped look to the highlights - this is why even high-end painters still use it for stone for example.

Second, is it a good idea to apply a wash over my current work to tone it down and tie the blending together?

No. Glaze yes, wash no.

Einion

 

[Kodakai]

Einion - When you say Glaze yes, Wash no what is the difference? In my understanding a Glaze is basically thinned down paint which i would imagine has much the same effect as a Wash. I suppose now i think about it a Wash is probably heavier on the colour but this could also be thinned. What are the benefits of one over the other?

Tagamoga - Really great little guide there, thank you. I'll give some of those tips a try.

BPI, Chrome - What would you recommend for thinning my Washes? I read distilled water was the way to go, but can you get away with normal water?

 

[Dribble Joy]

A wash is applied over an area and is intended to (generally) pool in the recesses and darken them and the surrounding areas. GW's washes are a case in point.

Glazing is the application of a layer of paint similar (or less) in opacity to washes, but are painted on in very small amounts/layers in the same way you would any other paint layer. They are not intended to pool but provide a consistent colour effect on the entire area.

On this model, I started the leg/boobage armour sections with scab red. I then glazed up with blood red, then blazing orange. This was (somewhat intentionally) exaggerated, the recesses too dark and the highlights too bright. I then went back over the whole area with a blood red glaze to bring the dark areas up and the highlights down.

In contrast, the silver areas were painted boltgun metal and washed with badab black, then highlighted with boltgun metal and mithril silver.

 

[Kodakai]

Really nice work on that armour, i'll try experimenting with the technique you describe. Hopefully it'll tone down nicely.

 

[Einion]

Einion - When you say Glaze yes, Wash no what is the difference?

Washes and glazes can be exactly the same on the paint side of things - the same dilution level, made the same way - the difference is in how much is on the brush.

When washing you flood a surface, more or less; when glazing it's a lot more controlled, the bristles are only damp with paint.

You can indeed dilute with water straight from the tap but how well it works does depend on your water, and sometimes the paint. If you live in an area with hard water (very common apparently in the UK) while tap water will dilute the paint okay it can give some specific problems.

Einion

 

[Wyrmypops]

GW had a range of glazes out in the past. I took to them, enjoying the techniques associated with them and their subtetly - but apparently not enough people did so they got discontinued.
They've the consistency of a wash, but a much weaker pigment. When applied they merely tint the underlying paintjob, whereas an ink can dominate the area being much bolder in pigment.
A glaze is applied evenly, painted on with control - whereas an ink even used the same (unless diluted) will change the overall tones more drastically.

If you're in a hard water area, as I am, could pick up some distilled water for a fiver on E-Bay. Can't say as I've tried the bottle I picked up yet, but can't really imagine it'll be radically noticable. Ain't as if for years cries of "grr, that hard water has ruined another mini" are heard across Blighty.

Am curious if there's a range of glazes by another firm out there. I've not looked, having bought a load of the GW ones I knew were being removed from the shelves.
Also curious if folk have mixed up their own, and made use of things like flow-aid and retarders.

 

[Dribble Joy]

Hard water has a very high ion content, particularly calcium carbonate in the UK.
This can affect the 'granulating' that occurs when you thin a paint strongly, interfering with the over diluted binder causing the paint to drop out of suspension.
It also means when the paint dries you quite literally have a layer of chalk on the model. This will affect the smoothness of the coat(s) (especially when building up those thin layers). The effect is barely noticeable unless you live in a very hard water area and even then it doesn't really matter unless you're trying to win the GD.