Question:specifics on blending vs. layering

[awong]

I was practicing a little \"wet blending\" last night using plasticard primed in black, grey, and white. I was trying to shade from white to black as as exercise (trying over the different primer colors to see if there was a difference).

I\'m using DeltaCeramics and Vallejo\'s slow dry.

Now I was able to successfully blend in fairly smallish areas (the paint reminded me of oil painting) but I started thinking...how are people wet blending across a figure?

Do you just work on one fold of cloth at a time, then move on to another, etc? Or are you shading all recesses, highlighting all raised areas, then blending over the whole figure? How about faces...wet blending or layering?

What is the largest area that you would consider wet blending at a time (I\'m talking about clothes with multiple peaks and valleys vs. a large expanse of armor or flat surface).

Arrggg...so many questions...so little time.
Please, let me hear your thoughts and words of wisdom!

Thanks
AWhang

 

[Grumbold Ironbrow]

Great question...

I am so glad you asked this question because I\'ve been wondering the same thing myself. Doesn\'t seem to matter what kind of blending agent I use, the paint always seems to dry too fast to really blend well unless I do one fold at a time. Is there a more effective way to do a whole figure???? ???

Grumb

 

[Aryanun]

I made this image and posted it at Reaper

Anne Foerster loved the graphic as it does a fairly good, basic job of describing what layering is.

*sigh*

Okay, I\'ll let you know when the link is working. For some reason the site is working, just not that darn picture. :flame:


Anyway, for blending I use a LOT of extender, thin paints, and work in layers of blending until I get it the way I want. Often I just use two colors, allowing the lighter color blended with the darker to create the proper shades of increasing lightness (ack, hate that sentence).

For skin and faces, I tend to just use layering right now, but seeing as I put so much extender into my paint mixes, I think I end up blending it as well, a little.

*shrug*

Of course, I\'ve finished all of one mini in the past 13 years and it broke as I was putting on the dullcoat, so I might not be the best person to ask.

 

[awong]

Aryanun said - \"...work in layers of blending ...\"

So you are kind of working in stripes of graduating colors, two at a time. Sort of a hybrid of the layering technique and wet blending?

How about the size of area that you work in? Do you do a whole leg or chest or do you shadow the whole figure, then lay on highlights and start wet blending (WB)?

I\'m thinking about trying a technique where I first base coat, then block in darkest shadow, then lightest highlight...let that dry...then hit the \"inbetween\" areas by WB between the two extremes (freshly applied). I\'ve noticed during blending that, due to the thin nature of the paints (and maybe the cheap nature of my paints) that I quickly develop transparent holes where the undercoat shows through...and I\'m hoping, by blocking in the extremes, that if transparency happens, what shows through will still be near the proper color range (vs. stark black undercoat or grey undercoat).

Or...if anyone has a tried and true method...?

 

[Trevor]

First thing is everyone will have their own way of doing something even if they are using the same broad technique.

When I had the time to blend I did it a section at a time, I had a graded mix from dark to almost white on my pallet and used progressively lighter parts of the mix, blending the colours into each other on the mini. I then used pure white for the final highlight and a number of ink glazes. I also tried doing it under a dissecting microscope, it was flawless, you literally could not see any lines. But it also took AGES.

Oddly enough, I got fed up with it taking so long and used a less anal lining/blending technique and the effect looked much better for some reason. I actually prefered the coarser effort.

Fast foward to today. I now use a combination technique, the \"lining/layering/wetbrushing/blending\" technique. It mostly consists of using heavily watered down paints and layering them on top of each other using both the transparency of the paint and lightening the colour as you go to get the highlighting effect. Because I use the transparnecy of the paint to get a smooth grade I will apply the same colour twice sometimes (going over a smaller area the second time, this is also what you do if you get the base colour showing through in patches as you describe, just keep going over until its smooth), or only lighten the colour a tiny bit each step.
Wetbrushing is exactly what is sounds like, drybrushing but wet, er... oh nevermind. For this you need a wet clean brush on hand because if you aren\'t careful the paint runs into the crevices, ruining the highlighting, a wet clean brush can be used to wipe this away, or blend it smooth.

I\'ve uploaded a WIP pic that shows what the technique looks like, here Barrow Wight WIP

You\'ll notice that the colour on the right side of the blue cloak jumps from dark to light, I\'ll be going back and blending this into a more smooth transition.


Edit: Didn\'t explain the layering very well, from black base coat layer over the base colour, leaving a little black showing, do this a number of times, putting more layers on the highest areas, and less on the lower areas. Then lighten your colour a little and layer over the top, not going quite as far into the recesses, but layer multiple times over the high areas. Rinse, repeat until you have the colour you want. In places I will either blend properly or wetbrush, to get the effect I want.
It sounds like it takes a long time, but its actually pretty quick.
Because I\'m lazy I tend to get bored and rush, so its not as smooth as it could be, the longer you take/more layers you do the smoother it will be.

 

[Trevor]

I\'m thinking about trying a technique where I first base coat, then block in darkest shadow, then lightest highlight...let that dry...then hit the \"inbetween\" areas by WB between the two extremes (freshly applied). I\'ve noticed during blending that, due to the thin nature of the paints

I\'ve tried that and found it too hard, but it might work for you.

 

[awong]

Trevor
Thanks so much for your description and pic.
Regarding your pic...you mentioned that the blue cloak, which currently has a descernable shade change (\"...jumps from dark to light...\") will be blended for a smoother transition.
How are you going to do that? Will you be mixing intermediary shades or wetbrush blend between the two? This is of great interest to me because I frequently find stark shade shifts that I want to later smooth out, but getting a nice feathered edge/smooth blend to an already dried area is a nightmare for me.
Thanks
AWhang

 

[Aryanun]

Okay

Found out what happened to my layering image... the server got moved and the backup was done before the pic got uploaded :flame:

Anyway:

This guy I did layers of wet blending. First, I primed white and did the basecoat in a thin Breonne Blue (all Reaper Pro paints).

Then I added more extender to make my paints last longer. One of white, one of of the blue.

I had two brushes and I\'d paint on a bit of blue in the recesses and a bit of white above and work them in together. Little bit at a time, one crease/fold at a time. It took pretty much an entire day and a half just to do the cloak. Once the blending was where I wanted it I hit the highlights with the edge of my brush in a wet-brushing technique Anne had taught me and then did a thin (very thin) coat of the Reaper Pro Pearl, which is translucent, and which helped merge the colors a bit more.

As for the layering example, I\'ll get that loaded sometime (when I can get my bf to do it for me) and post it up when I get a chance. So much to do...

 

[Trevor]

I\'ll mix intermediary colours and reshade up from the dark to light, extending the highlighting so it goes further into the dark basecoat giving me the space to get from dark to light.