Paint Smoothness & the Drying Process

[EArkham]

So you\'re painting away like a busy little beaver... uh, a beaver that paints. Instead of building a dam. Holding the brush with his tail. Or mouth. I dunno. Wait. Let me start over.

So you\'re painting away with a thinned paint and achieving a very nice smooth coat. The blends look flawless when wet, but as the paint dries you get a chalky finish or striations. Everyone knows what I\'m talking about, right?

I never really gave this a huge amount of thought before, chalking it up <pun> to one of the foibles of the painting process. That you just had to work it out or glaze it down; paint, wait, fix. But then I started pondering how to keep that smooth, even appearance that a coat has when wet from the start without having to rework it endlessly.

Let\'s analyze this. What\'s the process that causes this to happen? Pigments/bonders/etc becoming seperated as the coat dries? Paint drying too fast? Does it happen more often with water or retarder? With certain brands?

Kep

 

[Ritual]

Maybe you thin the paint too much? Then, I\'d assume the pigment becomes \"too spread out\" thus looking chalky. What happens if you add more layers of the same paint? Wouldn\'t it reduce the chalkiness as you sort of \"fill in the gaps\"? I don\'t know, really. I haven\'t thought too much about it.

 

[SebastianRushworth]

I\'ve found that if you shake the paint bottle enough and stir the paint enough, then you don\'t get graininess (at least with vallejo model color). When I do get graininess it\'s always because I haven\'t shaken the bottle enough to begin.

Another thing is that when you put on the first couple of layers, if the surface you\'re painting on isn\'t completely smooth, then you will get a grainy effect, since the paint pools slightly in all the little dips on the surface of the figure. With enough layers of the same colour this generally dissappears though and you get an even surface with the same colour.

 

[EArkham]

Ah, I should have mentioned: this is all with wet-blending, not layering.

More work, or glazes/washes, etc, smooth the transistions out of course. I was using GW Shadow Grey and Vallejo Ivory at the time I thought to write about it, but it\'s happened with other colours.

Maybe the paint IS too thin. I dunno. As it is, my paint has always been thicker than \"the consistency of milk\" that everyone advocates, so I\'m not convinced that\'s the issue.

Specifically, what I\'m curious about is the difference between the layer when wet and after it dries. When wet, the transitions are perfect, but as they dry they turn blotchy. What happens to paint as it dries? Does it seperate? Dry unevenly? So forth.

Kep

 

[J2FcM]

Hah, my problem:
GW SHadow grey, blending straight to GW BLeached bone... chalky textured results.... from 1 er 2ft away looks smooth as butter.

My technique is the EricJ wet-feathering... I make my paints 1:10 with water.... lets figure this problem out, cuz my blending is getting quite nice, but the chalky upcloseness is quite NOT nice!

 

[SebastianRushworth]

As I understand it Eric puts a layer on and then uses another brush to whisk as much away as possible. This sounds like a technique that could easily cause a grainy effect unless you really know what you\'re doing. Generally it\'s a bad idea to touch paint after you\'ve applied it and it\'s started to dry, as that will often cause a blotchy effect.

Hmm, EArkham, since I don\'t use wetblending I can\'t really help you, but I\'m sure Ritual can since wetblending is his main technique too. Since you don\'t water the paints down much for wetblending it can\'t be because the pigment is separating from the binder though, like you say. Maybe you\'re working the paint too much before leaving it to dry?

 

[J2FcM]

Yes, thats exactly what I\'m doing.

So far, with practice my color blending has improved A LOT. Unfortunatly the damn texture remains... but, I keep asking about additives and what not just to be sure Im not missing out on a secret ingredient here, for this specific feathering technique... I have, and intend to stick to water.

BUT, what about brushes? I\'m also using those GW brushes, and I\'ve heard rumor that they \"press\" down more and can some how \"push\" the paint down harder??? Really have no idea. I just don\'t have any stores with W&N 7\'s around so I\'ve been usin GW brushes. pip pip!

 

[Ritual]

@Kep
It sounds a bit mysterious to me, I must say. My first thought was that maybe you worked the paint too long, so that it had started to dry while you still worked the colours together. This causes uneven results. But since you say the transitions looked good at first and then turned bad when the paint dried it shouldn\'t be that.

Some paints look a quite different when they dry. The become duller and sometimes a bit darker. Maybe this has something to do with it. Maybe the lighter colour comes forward more when the paint dries. Does this happen no matter which paints you use, or is it with certain combinations? You could try using other paint combinations and see if you get better results.

I\'m not sure I\'ve been very helpful, but this is what I can think of right now.