Pleae, help me with washes, glazes and inks.

[Corwin the Confused]

I was looking into the definition and uses of washes, glazes and inks. Yes, I searched here but I these terms at often used. I only found a couple and they lacked the detail that I want.

1. Do you agree with this? (shamefully stolen from http://www.totalmodel.com/workshop/pages/workshop_243.shtml ):
Thinning paints - mixing the same colour ink with a paint gives a much more fluid material to work with than paint alone, acting like a flow enhancer. This technique is very useful for basecoats when you don\'t want to obscure detail on the model but get a good even coverage of colour without using many coats. Thin coverage preserving detail and high colour density gives a good base coat to work on later, particularly for colours that tend to have poor covering power like yellow, red and white.
Washes - using flood washes so that the ink creates a \'natural\' shadow is a relatively simple technique. Thinned pigment applied generously flows into the recesses & detail on the model to create a general shading effect over an area.
Glazes - similar to a wash, thinned pigment of a lighter tone than the base colour is applied to blend between successive highlights to reduce \'chalkiness\' & smooth out colour difference between layers. Glazes can also be used to alter the tone of underlying colours, in a more subtle way than a wash. Glazes are painted onto a model carefully to apply the colour in a specific & controlled manner. Note that transparent ink is best for glazes.

2. What do you use to make your washes and glazes? What dilution do you use?
3. Is this the right ink?
http://www.dickblick.com/products/winsor-and-newton-drawing-inks/

Thank you,
Corwin the Confused

 

[Crayfish]

Hi there!

For thinning paints, you can just add water! If you feel like it does not have enough flow, add soap to the mixture, it will break the surface tension and flow into crevases more easy.

Glazes can be used as a way of painting, using pretty thin colors so it gets pretty transparent, and that way you build up (usually shadows) the desired color, it can also be used as a nuance enhancer, meaning that you can take another color and put it on the highlights to give it another look, I use it to tone down some colors to a more neutral look.

Washes are paint dilluted with water and somekind of surfacetensionbreaker.

Thinning paints are always good, always! You will get smoother results and better control over it. The paint wont become lumpy and streaky.

Glazes and washes can be used to make shadow or to make like you wrote alter a tone in the existing color!

I use glazes mostly and you can do it with any paint really, does not have to be a ink to use this technique!

As for paint thinning ratio, milk is often reffered to as a good reference for paint thinning. Altough just thinning a little bit will make the paints muuuch more enjoyable, you dont have to use this much for a basecoat but for laying down shadows and highlights its usually a good idea, you may go even thinner, but you have to know when to stop, feel whats the best ratio for you. For painting stuff like red yellow and white i suggest using a white undercoat or primer, or building the paints up from a dark colour to a light color.

inks come in mighty diffrent forms, i cannot say that Winsor and newton inks are good, since i have not used them. I only have the GW inks, i dont use them all that much but sometimes they have there uses (especially purple ink!)

There are no right or wrong way to paint, just thin your paints, that is the one thing that is going to change peoples painting.

Hope this helps, hopefully someone with a little better hang on this sorta stuff is going to show up (or have already) and answer the things i fell short on. Im basing this from my own experiments (which have resulted in buying massive amounts of acetone btw!)

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Corwin the Confused
I was looking into the definition and uses of washes, glazes and inks. Yes, I searched here but I these terms at often used. I only found a couple and they lacked the detail that I want.

1. Do you agree with this? (shamefully stolen from http://www.totalmodel.com/workshop/pages/workshop_243.shtml ):
Thinning paints - mixing the same colour ink with a paint gives a much more fluid material to work with than paint alone, acting like a flow enhancer. This technique is very useful for basecoats when you don\'t want to obscure detail on the model but get a good even coverage of colour without using many coats. Thin coverage preserving detail and high colour density gives a good base coat to work on later, particularly for colours that tend to have poor covering power like yellow, red and white.
In essence yes. For a great many painters adding inks to the paint has been a means of controlling the flow effectiveness without diluting the colour strength.
I\'ve used it with GW paints and inks to my own satisfaction with colours like Black and Blood Red.
However with the cessation of ink production by GW this is now moot. (unless you want to used Coat D\'Arms paints of course.)
I prefer to work with multiple thin coats rather than attempt to get solid single coats. But again this is a personal thing

Washes - using flood washes so that the ink creates a \'natural\' shadow is a relatively simple technique. Thinned pigment applied generously flows into the recesses & detail on the model to create a general shading effect over an area.
Flood washes are OK for bulk army painting but for detail, competition, commission or high end display work I\'d recommend avoiding them.
The better effects obtained with washes is in controlled circumstances, using them sparingly if at all.

Glazes - similar to a wash, thinned pigment of a lighter tone than the base colour is applied to blend between successive highlights to reduce \'chalkiness\' & smooth out colour difference between layers. Glazes can also be used to alter the tone of underlying colours, in a more subtle way than a wash. Glazes are painted onto a model carefully to apply the colour in a specific & controlled manner. Note that transparent ink is best for glazes.
Well glazes are what I prefer to use as opposed to washes on a muniature. BUT The suggestion the transparent ink is best for washes doesn\'t sit too happily for me, especially if this is suggesting that the W&N inks are used.
These inks contain Shellac (lacquer) and normaly on top of acrylic paints dry to a high gloss. (I\'ve used it to good effect).
Which is fine if that is the effect required, but for subtle tonal value shadows such as in the folds of a cloak or the creases in a Orc\'s skin a highly diluted glaze of paint is better and more controllable.

As for your question below about dilution, well each painter will have a differing level of water to paint ratio which suites their own methods.
My own method of diluting to achieve a glaze is to place a small amount of paint on my pallette and keep adding water drawing the water/paint mix out to one side and adding more water to that side until I\'m happy that the balance between colour and what I want is achieved.
Basically if I see more of the white of my pallette than colour I\'m in the right area.
But only experience and patience will teach you what you are comfortable working with. (finding a painting DVD might help with the explanation, but the practise is down to you.)



2. What do you use to make your washes and glazes? What dilution do you use?
3. Is this the right ink?
http://www.dickblick.com/products/winsor-and-newton-drawing-inks/

Thank you,
Corwin the Confused