Two-brush blending: what am I doing wrong?

[Boss Ardnutz]

I hope posting a new thread for this is ok - I didn't want to hijack someone else's blending thread.

Having looked at some YouTube videos on two-brush blending, I thought it would be worth trying it myself as it looks a lot faster than my usual many many many glazes method.

However, it turns out that what looks so easy in the videos is jolly difficult in reality! My main problem is that either the paint dries before I can blend it, causing a ride Mark, or it stays wet but simply disappears when I try to blur the edge. Can anyone tell what I am getting wrong and how to fix it?

I am using a mix of about 2:1 water:matte medium with a little bit of acrylic drying retarder to thin the P3 paints out of the pot. I'm not using a wet palette but I can build one if it will be useful.

Here are the pictures - help please!

 

[MAXXxxx]

- forget matt medium + retarder, for first around 1:2 (paint-water) is enough.
- dampen the surface with water first so it can't dry as fast on the edges.

or

- additives are not needed, but keep it thin 1:5 or so
- be fast

and for both:
- I find it easier to paint one (more thinned) color on the whole surface, then from the shade/HL part I add the color and bring it down to the other (as the shade/hl gets less and less the transition is slowly achived).
- after 1 pass WAIT. If you start with a second you might tear up the one before
- at the end you'd have to fix any with thin glazes of color

+ there is a P3 paint-demo on YT, that I like for this. Around the 3rd minute you can see some 2brush blending with P3's painter. Worth to see.

 

[usmanali7]

Many rate the matt finish and opacity of colour, and I just wondered if any of the usual bunch of us on here had used them

I recently picked

70-411 up the Vallejo NMM set but the scale 75 seems a better setup with gold \ steel and Real metal paint sets for doing each colour, with accenting (cooling\warming) tones to add in etc.

Also, anyone recommend a UK supplier?

 

[ten ball]

I'm always sucking the end of my brush when two brush blending, it works for me

 

[Zab]

Meg Maples teaches classes in 2BB. Might be worth visiting her blog (Arcane Paintworks) to see if she will be teaching any near you.

 

[GreenOne]

Its most likely a matter of consistency and brush controlm, both masteries than can only be acquired through, you guessed it, practice.

You can use one method to complement the other, so don't worry too much about it, don't use too dilute paint while you get used to the motion (I think its meant to be less dilute than layering as the intended result is opaque.), and you can also cover a much larger color gap in one go, which is the point with wet-blending. the more you do the better you'll get, some layering+glazing can be used to perfect the blend. It seems faster to wipe and lick the brush than go for a second one imo, if thats what a 'two-brush' technique entails. The most useful blending trick I found for highlights was by loading two colors, base and top light, on the same brush, a large reservoir of base color, and a tip of light, the blend occurs by brushing the side of the bristle around the edge of highlighted zone, then quickly unload the brush and then using the brush still wet with a little bit of base color to 'feather' the blend. It takes some practice to load just right, but I found this much easier to learn and apply. Hope this helps.