Mixing paints and inks, tools?

[Sugarwookie]

I\'m trying to become a better painter and I\'m starting to try and learn blending and shading with inks and paints. I guess I\'m wondering how mix them. Do you use any special tools or just dip your brush to make your mix? I know Vallejo paints are very conveniant, but at the moment I have none, so I\'m wondering if anyone else has tips and tricks to help?

Thanks,

Wookie

 

[Chrispy]

If you\'e talking about mixing inks with paint, it depends on the amount of each. If you want a bit of paint in some ink, you\'ll ave to use a small cup and use and eyedropper to transfer the ink. If you want a bit of ink in paint, I just put a bit on a palette (or you could still use a cup) and drop the ink on it. I sugest mixing with a toothpick because if you mix with a brush, it will hurt the bristles and it will soak up all the paint. If that happens, you\'ll either have to wipe it of a bit and then paint or clean it off completly, that will make you loose part of your mix. Hope this helps!

 

[Corvus]

ALWAYS thin your paints, so that also counts for mixes of paints

 

[finn17]

Depends on the bottle...

I sometimes use a large brush for GW type bottles but this is time consuming and wasteful. An eyedropper can be useful, but you still have to keep washing them out.
IMO you can\'t beat dropper bottles:bouncy:

 

[Flashman14]

I always use a palette and an old brush to mix. A toothpick occasionally but usually I add a drop of water whenever I mix up colors and the drop isn\'t big enough on a toothpick. A brush is faster. and after you\'ve been painting awhile you\'ll find you have a ton of really unuseable ones for transfering paint and mixing.

The only drawback to Vallejo and palettes is some paint is ALWAYS wasted - there really is no practical way of not doing so.

If you don\'t have eyedroppers around use drinking straws - they\'re free and you don\'t have to worry about cleaning them. (submerge one end in a couple mm of ink cover the other end with the thumb then release -carefully! -over your palette.

 

[vincegamer]

What I used to do:
dip a toothpick into the paint pot, lift and touch it to my piece of aluminum foil (pallette).
Repeat until you have enough of that paint on the foil.
Do the same with the other paint/ink.
Use the toothpick to swirl the paints together.

What I do now:
I have transfered all of my paint to dropper bottles from Western Plastics.
I also bought a plastic pallette with tiny bowl-shaped depressions ($0.99 us).
Drop the necessary amounts of paint/ink into the pallette bowl.
Drop an equal amount of FFF solution.
Swirl it around with an old plastic children\'s water color brush. The bristles are plastic so never go bad and you can abuse it all you want.

Yes, some paint is wasted, but when have you ever run out of paint (besides it drying since it won\'t dry out in the dropper bottles)? If you use a color so much you run out it\'s worth the $3+ for another one.

 

[Sugarwookie]

Thanks!

I appreciate the tips, I\'ll use quite a few of them as well as the one where you\'re transferring the paints, does this help keep them from drying out as much as well?


Wookielol