Painting Tip O' The Week (4th Installation)
Bruce
Well, the PTOtW is developing very nicely. I've put up a web page with
the weekly tips and their replies. I've also invited you, the reader, to
make suggestions! I've gotten my first list of suggestions, and am going
to discuss one of them today.
The PTOtW is: Blending colors with Acrylics!
I have had two seperate experiences with this in the past 3 monthes:
painting the redemptionists, and painting the horns on a chaos marine.
The goal is to blend together two colors, from the fullness of one color
to the fullness of the other, with no noticeable lines. I approached this
sitaution in two different ways, and will address both.
1. The pre-painting blend method. This involves using a palette and
blending the paints into a spectrum (a range) of the desired colors. I
used my palette (a good flat surface about 3 or 4 inches should do) and
put drops of the initial colors spaced about 4 inches apart. Then I put
decreasing amounts of paint towards the center on each side. So, if I was
doing flames, for example, here is what I would do: put 5 or 6 drops of
pure blood red at one end. Then, right next to it, but with space
inbetween, I put 4 drops. Then 3 drops, then 2, then 1. Each one is
spaced apart to prevent them bleeding together. It might even be better
to do it in a circle form. Then, I put down the 5 drops of bad moon
yellow (or sunburst yellow, depending on the color you want to achieve).
In the area that I put 1 drop of red, I add 4 drops of yellow to this. On
the pile of 2 reds, I add 3 yellows; 3 reds, 2 yellows; 4 reds, 1 yellow.
Then gently mix these together, making sure they do not bleed together.
Lightly clean your brush off after each mix, so that again the seperate
shades don't get together. It might even be a good idea for the 4 middle
shades to add a drop or two of water, to thin them out. Then, begin your
painting, starting with the yellow and finishing with the red. Work
quickly, not waiting for the paint to dry, because this will help to blend
the colors further. Voila!
2. The second method I used was slightly different. This time, three
different colors are required, but no blending is necessary. I started
with the dark color; this time, it was vermin fur (painting horns). Paint
the whole area with this color. Then, go to the next color you have
selected; this is the intermediate shade (for me, snakebite leather).
Paint 1/2 of the area with the snakebite leather; note: paint the half
that you want to be the lighter half! Then, without washing your brush
off, dip your brush into water quickly; gently wipe the excess water off
on your palette. This will dilute the paint you are working with so that
it is thinner, and the darker coat will show through a bit more, achieving
a shaded look. Paint this diluted color over the middle color, and extend
it down so that 2/3 of the whole painted area is a lighter color. What
you should have now is what appears to be 3 colors. The top half of the
mini will be snakebite leather; the bottom 1/2, broken into 1/3's, will be
1/3 watered down snakebite leather, and 2/3 pure vermin fur (math note:
2/3 of 1/2 is equal to 1/3 of 1). It's time to apply the third color. I
used bleached bone as my light shade. Remember when working with your
light shades, don't use white, but use the lightest color in that color
range, to achieve contrast. So, apply the bleached bone to the top 1/4 of
the section you are painting. This means you will be painting a little
less than half of the snakebite leather/diluted snakebite leather area
(1/6 of the whole area being painted, to be exact). Again, dip your
brush into the water quickly, and wipe off the excess water. Again, apply
this diluted paint to cover the top 1/3 of the area you are painting.
This will achieve the same effect as last time. The final look of the
area you just painted should be: 1/6 to 2/6 bleached bone, 1/6 diluted
bleached bone, 1/6 snakebite leather, 1/6 diluted snakebite, and 1/6 to
2/6 vermin fur. If you desire, add a wash to the very bottom edge of the
dark part of the area, to achieve another level of color.
I have tried both of these methods, and prefer the second one. It's
easier to work with, and I don't have to blend paints. I also like the
overall effect better. However, both methods look good!
Any comments?
They call me....Bruce!
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~me650492/index.htm
Brian Lojeck
not wanting to break my pattern of replying to all of these... I'll just
say that I've never been able to blend well and have nothing to add...
;-)
--
brian lojeck, better known as:loj...@usc.edu
"This is the .sig that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends.
Some people started reading it, not knowing what it was;but now that they've been reading it, they notice it because...
This is the .sig that never ends..."
Rick Rutherford
Nero fiddled while Bruce (me65...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu) wrote:
:
: The PTOtW is: Blending colors with Acrylics!
:
Here is a low-maintenance way to get good-looking shading on a group of
figures. When you're done, they'll all have the same basic color scheme
with the same kind of shading:
(NOTE: This idea was blatantly stolen from Gary Leitzell, who is an
excellent painter. Thanks Gary!)
1) Prime your figures white.
2) Mix a watery solution of your lightest color, with about the same
"thickness" as whole milk, in a small plastic cup (blister-pack covers
will do fine, but don't use Citadel blisters because it's too easy to
spill them). When I used this method, I was painting mostly blue figures,
so I started with light blue.
3) Dunk your figure into the watery paint and let it dry for about an
hour. The paint should settle into the crevices like a normal dark-wash,
but if it doesn't then add a drop or two of dishwashing liquid -- it
reduces the surface tension of the mixture and helps it all mix together.
4) Dunk it again, and let it dry.
5) Dunk it again, and let it dry. When you do this, you're building up
layers of paint that will look naturally shaded from the dark areas in the
crevices to the light areas on the surfaces.
6) Mix a watery solution of your medium color, just as before.
Since I was going for the blue shades, I used a medium blue.
7) You guessed it -- dunk and dry the figure three more times. At this
point you should start to see the shading effects.
8) If you like, mix a darker shade of your base color and then
dunk-and-dry three more times, but don't make it too dark.
9) Mix a watery solution of black or brown, just as before.
Black paint seems to need a drop of dishwashing liquid in order to
settle properly more than other colors do, but I don't know why.
I used "Payne's Gray", which is a blue-black color of paint found in
artist's acrylics like Liquitex (another fine idea from Gary Leitzell
shamelessly ripped off).
10) Dunk and let dry once, and then really look at the figure. You should
have black lines around all the different surfaces of the painted figure
(i.e. REALLY cheap and easy black-lining!) If not, dunk-and-dry again.
I've found that it only takes one or two dunkings for the black paint to
have an effect. It's easy to overdo it.
11) Since the whole figure is now basically one color, shaded from light
to dark in all the right places AND all the wrong places, you have to go
back to the other areas, like the face, hands, weapons, and details and
re-paint them. The good thing about this is that the layers of paint
you've put on them are so thin that none of the detail on the figure is
lost -- you can go back to the face and hands and paint them as you
normally would. If you make a mistake, you can use black (or brown) to
cover the places where you've accidentally splooshed flesh-tone onto the
figure's sleeve (for example), since there's already a black (or brown)
line there between the hand and the sleeve.
Okay, you're thinking that it will take a LONG time for this to be done,
like 7 or 8 hours. You're right. However, the drying time gives you
ample time in between to work on other things -- I usually have three or
four groups of figures on my table, all in different stages of completion.
On the other hand, this is an excellent method for those who want to just
dunk them, leave them alone, go off and do something else for a while, and
then come back in an hour or two and dunk them again.
--
Rick Rutherford ri...@digex.net The above opinions are mine.
"It seems to me that the nearer painting approaches sculpture the better
it is, and that sculpture is the worse the nearer it approaches painting."
-- Michelangelo