Sum help on Blending Plz

[MagicMushie]

Hi, i just came bak into painting mini\'s and this site is wicked, i love it.
But currently im having alot of problems blending to the degree of the \"top artists\".
Ive tried the \"wet blending style\" that some ppl have mentioned and its just not working for me (perhaps need more practice). Another way i was told is to water down my paints really thin then layer it on and keep doing it on and on.
This style is probably suiting me atm, but i can still see the paint lines in my work and thats what im trying to eliminate without the use of inks.
Is there a formulae that people use to water down thier paints as in 5:1 ratio or are people putting sumthing in thier paints?
Any help here would be great
P.S sorry if this has previosly been posted or on sumwhere, i must have missed it.

 

[Dragonsreach]

First off welcome to the forums:

As to your question; it\'s a perennial one that has been asked by a lot of painters. There are a huge number of threads which have covered the topic. I\'ve just put links to three here but if you do a search on Blending you\'ll find plenty to peruse.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=9355

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=9198

http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/viewthread.php?tid=9149


Don\'t be put off by what seems an endless amount of threads and questions, most people on here will happily share their knowledge and learn from others themselves. I know I do.


Try posting some Works in Progress so that you can get constructive feedback and suggestions.

 

[Legacy Account]

Practice.

For some months/years.

 

[QuietiManes]

Might be you need to use closer shades of colours for your layers, with more layers. Might be the water tension forming rings, might want to try a surface tension breaker in your water/thinning mixture. Drop of dish soap, future floor finish, liquitex flow improver etc.

I think Spacemunkie summed it up best though. Practice. If you think about the size of say...a shoulder on a 28mm figure or the outter portion of a bicept, then think about blending with 5-10 or more layers from shadow to highlight. Then think about mixing up all those shades just right (if you have 10 layers, you cant do %100 shade colour then %90 shade+%10 highlight then %80 shade+%20 highlight etc because it wont end up looking right as our eyes wont see them as even gradations, the first might look like it\'s %5 lighter, the second might look %6 lighter than the first, the third might look %7 lighter than the second and so on until near the end where it\'s looking %!% lighter than the previous, or the reverse, try adding a few drops of white to black for example, numerically speaking it doesnt look right when a few drops of white make a %20 or more change in the black). Then think about how far apart each layer is from the next, it\'s just a hair or 2 away from the previous. Then think about placing each layer in the proper spot so that the highlight ends up in the right spot and from every angle is blended up from the shade in an even grade over varying distances over the model. It\'s mind boggling ??? lol to think about it mathematically. It\'s just not the sort of thing you\'ll master right away no matter how gifted you happen to be.

 

[Legacy Account]

Sorry for the flippant first post, but it\'s true!

To be honest, watering down your paints will not help you to eradicate blotchy blending that much. I learned to blend with paint straight from the pot - Mike McVey style. The secret is to apply the highlight to the mini, and quickly use a clean, damp brush (or lick the paint off the one you\'re using...) to create a smooth transition by feathering the edge of the paint.

Thinning the paint helps to make it less opaque, but it also makes it dry more quickly. You could try using some Vallejo glaze medium in your mix to combat this.

My best tips - work quickly, work thinly and don\'t overwork an area as it dries.

Oh, and practice

 

[frenchkid]

Well I\'m not doing perfect blends right now but just had a small lesson with jeremi (bragon on CMON) and this is how he does it. USe very thin layer of a darker color, the color dosn\'t have to be a close shade wich means that if you want you could use a really darker to shade for example. Then layer on the color reallly thin and \'stretch\' it with your brush so that the pigments are evenly placed and tint the area you want to darken. Then the more layer you add the darker it\'s going to get. But dilution is essential here. And of course theorie is nothing without practice. Check out cyril\'s article about is mech pilot on CMON he does nice blending that way

 

[MagicMushie]

w00t

Well all i can say is thanks alot for the speedy replies, sorry if i wasnt clear on what i said earlier but yeah, u guys sort of summed it up, i entered a local painting comp on the weekend and got 1st place on the over 18\'z (pretty happy bout that)
Im using GW paints, its basically all ive ever used, but im definatly gonna try and buy sum Vallejo paints when i get sum cash (too many miniatures><) i think i sortof got my proplem.
Seems to me when i layer, it just isnt smooth enough, i see the pics posted of miniateres and they are just so smooth blending and highlighting that i cant see the layering at all, i went out to the art shop and tried a Liquitex Matte Meduim (its white, unfortunatly and i couldnt find a clear one) but Whalah! ive now got more working time with the paint, im still trying to figure out how to get it even smoother and more gradual looking, but after a few more goes its improving a very slight bit, so now im putting in 5 parts water, 1 part paint and 1 part matte meduim, and its helped, ill keep playing with this and when i get a miniature im happy with, ill actually post it ^^
Thanks to the replies, such a nice forum ^^

 

[frenchkid]

Not to go start another vallejo/GW paints debate, but all the good french painters agree that GW paints (made by lefranc bourgois or somthing like that) are better. So if you already have a collection of GW paints I don\'t think you need to change.

 

[Legacy Account]

It\'s not the paint that\'s the problem, it\'s the shite bottles....

and the fact you get buggerall for your wonga.

A good painter would still be good using whatever\'s lying around

 

[sebrushworth]

This is a very interesting thread and it\'s exactly the things I\'ve been pondering with my layering. I usually water down the paint 4:1 wateraint when layering, and have found that the higher up I go in the layering, the more difficult it is to get even and smooth layers. I usually end up with smooth transitions, but the end result isn\'t \"clean\". With \"clean\" I mean the paint job is completely free of any unevenness. This isn\'t something that shows up in photos but I\'ve seen Ritual\'s figures in real life, and they look \"clean\", and mine don\'t.

 

[Avelorn]

Yes, this is a very interesting thread.

Some tips when using very thin paint/glazes. I will repeat what other people have said for clarity.

1. Basicly, try to keep the paint wet on the brush... so work fast. I have had trouble with paint drying a bit on the pallette, and when I then add water the pigments separated and the result became uneven. A paint retarder will help on this.

2. When using thin paint, draw the highlights in a motion from the darker to the lighter spots. Most paint will gather on the place where you lift the brush.

3. Work quick over the lines that forms and fade them into the previous highlight colour with a wet brush. It is a bit of a tricky process.. I have tried to start using two brushes for it as the paint dries to fast to use the same. Again it is nice to use a retarder.

4. Use thin glazes of the previous highlightcolour over the lines that are visible and place washes/glazes over the entire area you\'ve blended. It will help in smoothing out the blends.

5. Really work through the area.. the more careful you are, the smoother the blend will become. Keep adding layers.

6. IMO Some colours are easier to blend. The first colour I started to blend was blue.. and it still is one of the easiest for some reason.

And as everybody else says, practise.. blending is a technical skill that you learn.

 

[james9487]

Originally posted by Avelorn

4. Use thin glazes of the previous highlightcolour over the lines that are visible and place washes/glazes over the entire area you\'ve blended. It will help in smoothing out the blends.

I was hoping no one had said that yet, but here are some pictures to back up what Avelorn said. I should have taken them all on the same background, since it changes the coloring a little, but hopefully you can see the difference that a thin glaze over the whole section can make (that is, a few thin glazes). It is easy and makes a noticeable difference. I actually hadn\'t heard/thought about putting individual glazes over each minor transition as you work, so thanks Avelorn, I\'ll try that next time! What I did in these pictures is just a few thin glazes of a midtone grey over the whole blade, in this example. After the glazes, I also painted very thin white at the tip to re-highlight the white that was darked by the glaze. The pictures on the white background are before the glaze, and the blue background is after.