Thinning paint?
Steven Spiroff
First, I remember about a year ago I ran across a good painting website,
it was Dr. someone-or-another's miniature painting site, however I can
no
longer find it. Does anyone have the URL?
Second, I am a novice painter and was wondering about thinning paints,
for use as both a wash and for regular painting. Should I thin the paint
right in the pot (I buy the GW brand), or mix it in something separate
(I've been saving those little black 35mm film cases), or just mix
enough for what I'm currently working on perhaps on a palette or
something? Once I mix it with water will it keep as long as regular
paint? I would assume so, but wanted to be sure. What is a good ratio of
paint to water? Do you use an eye dropper or syringe do get the paint
out of its container? Just wondering what works for everyone else.
Lastly, any tips on darkening or lightening colors? For instance, I
think I remember reading that you should use brown (not black) to darken
yellow. Anyone have a list of something like that?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Cheers,
Steven
--
Steven S. Spiroff - Richmond, Virginia, USA
Want to play Alternity, Babylon 5 Wars, Battletech, Car Wars,
Dungeons & Dragons, Full Thrust, Silent Death, Shadowrun, Starmada,
or Traveller?
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Steven Spiroff
> First, I remember about a year ago I ran across a good painting
website,
> it was Dr. someone-or-another's miniature painting site, however I can
> no
> longer find it. Does anyone have the URL?
Found it:
http://www.paintingclinic.com/
DavidR3986
it was Dr. someone-or-another's miniature painting site, however I can
no
longer find it. Does anyone have the URL?>>
I believe that's been addressed in the previous reply to your message. Good
stuff there.
<<Second, I am a novice painter and was wondering about thinning paints,
for use as both a wash and for regular painting. Should I thin the paint
right in the pot (I buy the GW brand), or mix it in something separate
(I've been saving those little black 35mm film cases), or just mix
enough for what I'm currently working on perhaps on a palette or
something?>>
Hmm... interesting question.
GW's paints, for the past several years anyway, have been plagued with a number
of problems. First and foremost, the bottles are very badly designed, and tend
to both allow solvent to evaporate from the paint, lowering the lifespan of the
paints, and suffer from sticky lids. Solving these problems is a topic in
itself, but I'll restrict myself to saying that I prefer to periodically add
more solvent to my GW paints to keep them fluid, and I've tried to build up
strength in my hands so I can open the damn lids.
Oh yes, I was going to mention another problem: some of the GW paints are
badly formulated. I have a bottle of 'Bilious Green' that springs to mind as
being unusually thick and poorly mixed. The most common remedy suggested is to
move to another brand of paints. I've experimented with several brands, and
now find myself using paints from a number of different manufacturers on my
minis, but I still like to get my money's worth from my initial investment.
Anyway, to answer your actual question...
I do occasionally add solvent to GW paints, just to keep them fluid. My
solvents of choice are water, isopropyl rubbing alcohol, and Liquitex Acrylic
Slow-Dry medium. Of the three, Liquitex is probably the best (and most
expensive), but I'm not particularly choosy, and tend to add a few drops of
whatever's handy at the time.
When actually painting, I use a brush to transfer a few drops of paint to a
pallette, then thin with drops of water or Liquitex. Alcohol doesn't transfer
well by brush, and it's surface tension is so low that it doesn't form discrete
drops, so I had not used it until recently. Now I've got some eye-droppers
(from American Science & Surplus, look 'em up on the web), which makes it
easier to use alcohol on a palette.
I had never used such large quantities of paint as to require an external
container for mixing with thinner until I began to use an airbrush. I've since
found that mixing GW paint at a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio with alcohol makes a nice
airbrush mix, and I just dump whatever of the mix is left back into the GW
bottle.
One final note: For my palettes, I prefer to use cheap, disposable plastic
plates.
<<Once I mix it with water will it keep as long as regular
paint? I would assume so, but wanted to be sure. What is a good ratio of
paint to water? Do you use an eye dropper or syringe do get the paint
out of its container? Just wondering what works for everyone else.>>
Hmm... well, I think (from the odor) that alcohols are one of the solvents
commonly used in GW paints, and they tend to evaporate faster than water, so
theoretically water added to the paint should keep longer. However, I've never
performed a real experiment along these lines, and I view paint-maintenance as
something you do until the paint's gone or irrevocably dried out.
As far as the ratio goes, for maintenance purposes I just add a few drops every
time I open the bottle. For painting purposes, how much I thin paint depends
on what I want to use it for. Generally I thin at a 3:1 ratio of paint to
solvent, but that varies a lot depending on the paint and the solvent.
<<Lastly, any tips on darkening or lightening colors? For instance, I
think I remember reading that you should use brown (not black) to darken
yellow. Anyone have a list of something like that?>>
Don't have a list handy, but the general rule is to use brown to darken the
'warm' colors, and black to darken the 'cool' colors. For most colors, white
is good for lightening, but red can be tricky to lighten. I often work with
pre-mixed shades, just to make things easy.
<<Thanks for any help you can provide. >>
Hope that helps! Good luck!
-David
Justin Taylor
pot open all the time I am painting.
Pallets are available from artists shops and are not expensive.
--
Justin Taylor
Veni Vidi Vici
Quality Transfers
http://www.3vwargames.co.uk
Steven Spiroff
david...@aol.comnospam (DavidR3986) wrote:
> GW's paints, for the past several years anyway, have been plagued with
> a number of problems. First and foremost, the bottles are very badly
> designed, and
Yes, I've been reading about the GW paints on this and other news groups
over the last couple of days. Since that is all I can get locally I
think I'll try ordering something like Coat d'Arms from an online store.
> When actually painting, I use a brush to transfer a few drops of paint
> to a pallette, then thin with drops of water or Liquitex.
Probably smarter than adding water directly into the container, in case
I were to add too much and ruin the entire thing.
> One final note: For my palettes, I prefer to use cheap, disposable
> plastic plates.
I have a couple of 6 in. white tiles left over from a kitchen project
that I've been using, they are nice and flat and work nice.
> Hope that helps! Good luck!
It does, a lot! Thanks so much for the tips, David.
Andy O'Neill
deja.com> writes
>Hi all,
>
>First, I remember about a year ago I ran across a good painting website,
>it was Dr. someone-or-another's miniature painting site, however I can
>no
>longer find it. Does anyone have the URL?
Dr Faust's painting clinic.
There's two resources you should be aware of.
1) Web Search engines.
These allow you to search the web for such sites, so long as the
author thought to submit his site... and uses meta tags... and no
frames nonsense to stuff the spidering up.
my favourite is www.google.com, but there's also yahoo...
2) Usenet archive.
www.deja.com/usenet Use the power search option.
This is an excellent resource in that you can probably find a few
thousand posts on painting figures. "Miniatures and paint" would be
a good start.
>Second, I am a novice painter and was wondering about thinning paints,
>for use as both a wash and for regular painting. Should I thin the paint
>right in the pot (I buy the GW brand),
Oh no... don't.
Liquitex or Vallejo/Andrea are far better.
Art/craft shop paints are also pretty good and FAR cheaper.
>or mix it in something separate
Use something as a palette.
I use Pringles (tube crisps) tops.
People like white tiles.. but washes run right off em.
>(I've been saving those little black 35mm film cases),
Good for additives such as Liquitex flow-aid mixed 1:20 water, Johnsons
Klear varnish thinned with water or car screen wash.
All these reduce surface tension and are good for washes.
The varnish is good for mixing with Winsor newton inks for wash
techniques as they're water soluble on their own.
You can also use for glazing techniques... but that's probably a subject
best left for another year or so.
>or just mix
>enough for what I'm currently working on perhaps on a palette or
>something? Once I mix it with water will it keep as long as regular
>paint? I would assume so, but wanted to be sure. What is a good ratio of
>paint to water?
Everyone mixes by eye, the starting paint consistency will vary from
manufacturer. Same consistency as milk for basic painting.
>Do you use an eye dropper or syringe do get the paint
>out of its container?
Toothpick.
Stir and roll off the paint onto my palette.
or
Shake and squirt a little out with Vallejo, Inscribe etc.
>Lastly, any tips on darkening or lightening colors? For instance, I
>think I remember reading that you should use brown (not black) to darken
>yellow. Anyone have a list of something like that?
Get hold of a book on painting.
Buy or borrow from a library.
"How to paint Dioramas" by Shep Paine would be my recommendation.
This has a colour wheel in it and describes what it's about.
For bright yellow:
Undercoat white.
Use liquitex bottle paints.
Block in Yellow orange azo.
This'll form the low-lights.
Apply Cadmium yellow medium to mids and hi-lights. Don't faff about
with dry brushing, paint this on by eye.
Damp brush ( deja for definition ) Cadmium yellow (light).
Andy O'Neill
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/index.htm
Liverpool Wargames Association
www.l-25.demon.co.uk/LWA.htm
Eve Forward-Rollins
> >or mix it in something separate
> Use something as a palette.
> I use Pringles (tube crisps) tops.
> People like white tiles.. but washes run right off em.
>
and no matter how thick you end up glomming the paint on, 5 mins soak in
warm water and it all peels off completely.
Kick2kil
> right in the pot (I buy the GW brand), or mix it in something separate
> paint? I would assume so, but wanted to be sure. What is a good ratio of
> paint to water? Do you use an eye dropper or syringe do get the paint
> out of its container? Just wondering what works for everyone else.
Remember, water-based paint doesn't actually contain water. It's not like a
powdered mix that you could make at home. Those would be water colors.
Acrylic paints are water soluble and water washable until they dry,
whereupon they turn into plastic, basically. Acrylic thinner can be bought
at most art supply stores. Even real acrylic thinner isn't meant to be used
right in the pot, tho. Only on the palette, on paint that is to be used
right away. As far as ratio, just a little at a time until you like the
results. It depends on how thin a paint you want. GW paints are sort of
thick and honey-like, and benefit from a little thinning. Other paints like
Armory are pretty thin already and don't need a lot of thinning down.
>
> Lastly, any tips on darkening or lightening colors? For instance, I
> think I remember reading that you should use brown (not black) to darken
> yellow. Anyone have a list of something like that?
Some colors look weird when you add black or white to them. Yellow, for
instance, turns greenish when mixed with black. It's just something you
have to experiment with. I generally avoid using a lot of tricky colors. I
often use yellow to lighten red, for instance, since using white would make
the red into pink. Ditto for green, since whitish-green makes me sick. The
best way to darken a color is to go out and buy a darker version of that
color. Store-bought dark red is going to look more alive than red mixed
with black. A weird mixing method I used to use but have gone away from is
mixing opposite colors, like using green to darken red. Green will darken
red, but also make it look brown, and vice-versa. Anyway, you try things
and evolve your own style.
-Kick2kil