paint pallette

[Einion]

Originally posted by jimbo1634
I was pulling info that was stuffed in my melon 20+yrs ago. Red, Yellow and Blue was primary. While IIRC Green, Orange and Purple were secondary? colors. And for the life of me I can\'t remember what Brown was classified as and I am not sure if it was a mixture of all three primary colors or not.

It was probably defined as a Tertiary, although that\'s a very woolly term and browns are technically dark oranges or thereabouts anyway. The actual mixing average of any decent set of three paints used as primaries is a neutral grey or black.

The true secondaries are orange-red, violet-blue and green by the way (RGB) - the opposites on a colour wheel to cyan, yellow and magenta respectively.

Originally posted by jimbo1634
But I have a limited knowledge of color mixtures and what I should expect when I mix A with B.

Ah, this is one of the keys of understanding mixing and there\'s just no substitute for hands-on experience. Unfortunately any basic advice will only take you so far, as I was saying to someone the other day knowing that yellow + red mixes orange is fine as far as it goes but until you try it with your specific reds and yellows you won\'t know quite how it will turn out colour-wise.

You can get a good idea of what you\'ll get once you\'ve slung paint around for a few years but you can\'t judge exactly the result just by looking at the paint\'s main colour (what\'s called the masstone) because some pigments react in odd ways because of other atributes (undercolour, tint, transparency).

Bottom line: practice mixtures with the paints on your palette and get to know them well, that\'s the best way to get a good handle on how they\'ll act.

When I\'m back from World Expo in Boston I\'ll start a couple of threads on mixing and colour theory so watch out for them.

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
Although it is realistically impossible to create every hue from three primary colours anyway, no matter which ones you use!

Yep, that\'s exactly right. All hues are achievable with any decent primaries (even RYB) but the wider the range of colour that can be mixed the better (what\'s called a wider gamut). This is all really irrelevant to us - I don\'t think anyone here wants to do figures with just three paints although I\'m going to try it sometime soon with NMM so I don\'t have to have any metallics involved - but I had to mention it since the opportunity arose.

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
For the purposes of painting, \'traditional\' colour theory works just fine I reckon.:flip:

Up to a point it does yes, but it\'s important to know the limitations and have a deeper understanding of how paints mix - e.g. which red and yellow pairs produce brilliant oranges and which produce dull ones. Old-style colour theory (as was still taught in art school when I went) just can\'t account for this but a \'colour theory\' needs to at least give one a better guide or else what use it is?

Einion

 

[No Such Agency]

My single piece of paint advice is:

GW Bleached Bone!

This paint has changed my life! I used to avoid buying what I saw as GW\'s excessive number of special colours that I figured I could easily mix myself. This one though, oh boy is it USEFUL!

I use it to highlight everything from brown to red and purple. Mixed with brown it gives great, warm highlights, mixed with red it prevents \"pink\" highlights (to a certain extent). And it\'s a great colour to base white \"natural\" fabrics (linen, cotton) on, use BB/white mix as the base, shade with a light brown, highlight up with white.

 

[Legacy Account]

NSA gives top advice. Bone is an excellent colour for mixing highlights of almost any colour!

@Einion: I think you should have been a scientist, not an artist.....

 

[Dragonsreach]

originally by Einion

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
...Artists Acrylics (the ones in the tubes.)

I\'ve used these for model painting for years too, what brands do you like?

Einion:
Sorry to have missed this question.
I\'ve a selection:
Winsor & Newton Finity
Daler-Rowney System3
Daler-Rowney Cryla (Series C).

You seem to have a very expansive knowledge on Art & Artistic techniques and methodology. I\'d be interested in knowing where from.

 

[jimbo1634]

All I have in my area is a Hobby Lobby and I found a Micheal\'s that isn\'t to far from my brother (60 miles from here) that I could have him pick something up and bring it into work when he could.

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Artists Acrylics (the ones in the tubes.)

All paints are usable in their own special way and almost all are interchangeable and mix together quite nicely.

The local HL carries mostly Liquitex and Grumbacher in Acrylics. The Micheals carries quite a few more brands of artist acrylics. Including two lines of Grumbacher and a line of W&N acrylics. Any advise on picking from these lines?

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
But remember that the best paints deserve the best brushes and take care of them. Buy a bar of brush soap from an Art store. It is an investment that will pay for itself in taking care of your brushes.

I did purchase a can of Masters brush cleaner at the local HL. But they do not carry any Kolinsky type brushes. Nor do they carry any of the W&N line of brushes. I did find and purchase a couple of brushes from Micheals. They carry serveral lines of W&N brushes. I got the Cirrus (Kolinsky Sable) series #0 round (the smallest they carried in that line) and I got the Sceptre Gold II (Sable/Synth mix) series #00 round and #0000 round (Somewhere on the forum these were suggested for newbies like myself).

Another question, both the HL and Micheals carry W&N mediums, brush cleaners/restorers and other paint accessories. They also carry Liquitex and Grumbacher items as well. What would I be looking for as far as flow enhancer? I saw a W&N blending medium for watercolors but wasn\'t sure if that was the correct product for acrylics. And is there anything else that I could use from these stores as far as acrylic paint aids?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Sorry to have missed this question.
I\'ve a selection:
Winsor & Newton Finity
Daler-Rowney System3
Daler-Rowney Cryla (Series C).

No probs, happens! I used pretty much nothing but Finity (in their previous incarnations) for years, good paint, although Cryla has caught up very well in both the value-for-money and quality stakes.

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
You seem to have a very expansive knowledge on Art & Artistic techniques and methodology. I\'d be interested in knowing where from.

25 years of painting and reading, plus art school helped, but a great deal of it is just from the past five years or so - lots and lots of research.

Jimbo, if I can offer my two bits...

Originally posted by jimbo1634
The local HL carries mostly Liquitex and Grumbacher in Acrylics. The Micheals carries quite a few more brands of artist acrylics. Including two lines of Grumbacher and a line of W&N acrylics. Any advise on picking from these lines?

Liquitex isn\'t generally as good as its reputation would imply, but their Soft Body range (what used to be called Medium Viscosity, you\'ll still see lots of the old labels in places with a low throughput) is pretty good, particularly if you pick and choose colours with care - you\'d want to stick with colours that are classed as opaque (clearly identified on Liquitex\'s excellent labels) as much as possible, so-so opacity is a trademark of artists\' acrylics.

Grumbacher\'s artists\' acrylics (Finest) are supposed to be decent but I don\'t know how they compare to other brands when it comes down to it.

FWIW I would stick with hobby paints for minis, overall they are made to have good coverage while artists\' acrylics tend to have each colour show the natural characteristics of the pigment used, some of which are very transparent. They can also be quite thick, nearing the consistency of toothpaste in some cases, meaning you have to thin the colour a lot; this is a hassle if you\'re not used to it. Also they tend to dry to a satin or semi-matt finish - with lots of layering a bit more glossy than that at times, which can be a pain, but if you\'re okay with using Dullcote when you\'re done painting that\'s no biggie.

If you can find them locally, Michaels could have them, I would highly recommend Jo Sonja\'s artists\' acrylics (these used to be called acrylic gouache, you might still see some in the old tubes) which are dead matt and have good to very good opacity across the range. Very good paint for the price and a better fit for mini painting than most artists\' acrylics unless you know what you\'re buying.

Originally posted by jimbo1634
Another question, both the HL and Micheals carry W&N mediums, brush cleaners/restorers and other paint accessories. They also carry Liquitex and Grumbacher items as well. What would I be looking for as far as flow enhancer? I saw a W&N blending medium for watercolors but wasn\'t sure if that was the correct product for acrylics.

That W&N watercolour blending medium is supposed to work very well with acrylics, here\'s a link to an article by Tim Flagstad on using it:
http://www.metalsofhonour.com/images/stories//acrylicsbytimflagstad.pdf

Originally posted by jimbo1634
And is there anything else that I could use from these stores as far as acrylic paint aids?

I would generally suggest you stick with water and the medium above, unless you live somewhere where the humidity is really low retarders are often more trouble than they\'re worth. As far as keeping your brushes in good condition goes, if you clean them well during use you shouldn\'t need anything special but have a read of this thread for some tips:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=9430

Einion

 

[jimbo1634]

Thanks Einion

I appreciate all the help. I have a feeling I am going to be spending quite a bit on supplies. So, any help pointing me in the right direction keeps me from buying to many things that I will never use.