Tutorial - How to paint blood

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Hiho.

This time it is about blood.

Blood can be a great addition to a miniature, not always for sure but when it's about a fighting knight and you want to show him in a fight or after one, there can be little blood to it to make the scene complete.

Always remember sometimes less is more, for sure when it comes to the use of blood. I want to show you 2 different wasy i do my blood on my miniatures with in the following lines now, i have tried a lot, even real blood of mine and red wine but i got stuck to the second version in the end, the first explanation works well too so don't hesitate to test them both and take a look on your own what you like most:

Making blood with Windsor & Newton Ink
I use Citadel Scab Red + Windsor & Newton Ink called Peat Brown (no 968) in this case.
Some clean painting water, don't you look at mine!
A tissue to be prepaired, if you suddenly got too much water on the brush.
Some brushes.

Can look like this:

On the left you got some water thinned Scab Red - on the right the same with the W&Nink :)

Next mix it:

You now have to wait a bit. If you are fast you can finish up a model meanwhile, if not it is a good idea to check if your miniature is already finished, i mostly do blood in the end of a paintjob. Waiting, waiting, waiting... The Ink makes it more thicky soon, about 30 Minutes or so. Use a bit more ink then colour, so it will happen sooner. It somehow really gets a nice feeling of life juice. Next take a brush and make a blurb on the miniature, like this, you could say ddrrrbbbbttt! or chhoookkk!! while doing so, that sometimes helps to really hit the right spot, pay attention to not have too much water on the brush:

Now if you got that spot placed let it dry for some seconds. Now take an old brush to destroy this clean spot of blood and make it look more like a splosh! or Chonk! - really it helps making sounds to this, haha:

Next take on a bit more of the Ink in the mix to make the blood colour a bit darker, to bring in some difference in the way it looks. And Cruuuchhhhh!!! Tscheeedddrrscchhhh!!!

Also you can use a toothpick or something else to let the brush spit tiny spots of blood around. Therefore you got to check your mixed blood is up with a bit of water to make it splash around. Take care to do so with enough care, if not you can make all your room dirty. Simply stroke the brush full of blood  over the toothpick. If you want to bring this on the miniature itself it is good to hide areas you are not up to hit with some tissue:

I did this technique a long time as the Ink really makes the "blood" thick if you wait a while. Than i found something else which already got this thickness out of the bottle.




Making blood by using Tamyia Clear Red - X-27

You need Tamyia Clear Red, X-27, it smells horrible, don't get in contact with your eyes or think about licking your brush - this is dangerous for your health. As i told you it already got the thickness of blood, but if you use it out of the bottle it is a bit to bright for blood. So i often mix in a tiny drop of Chaos Black + Schorched Brown to get the right blood colour i am searching for.

You now got a time limit to work with this mix, as it starts to become thicker and thicker and also there will be tiny pieces in it after some time. You can work with them as well, you also can see the spot on the photo where the Clear Red is out of the bottle (lower left):

Now i am usin mostly old brushes to bring this mess upon a model. Always remember less is sometimes more. This is the way it looks after it dried out and i have finished to work with it - always test your brush somewhere else before you get on the miniature. Always take care to use old brushes and clean them right after using Tamyia Clear Red or they will become hard as a rock. The final work-mess

Closing words
The good thing about both techniques is that the blood effect stays the way that you but him on. It still seems to be fresh and liquid. Also you can do such strings with it like described in this article.

For example i can show you some models where blood was used, less is more ;)

So far from my side - Keep on happy painting!
Regards
Roman