Painting Jam 04 - Mixed FAQ

posted by roman, jarhead, kong

Painting Jam rolling in...  dubdubdubdubidubidubdooo...
 
Joseph asked me via mail:

"hey i was wondering if you can help me figure out the paints of this color scheme,
i will attach a picture of the color scheme
i was only looking on the fleshy parts on the giant bug looking creature and the carapace
thanks for you help"

My answer:

Caraprace: i would start there with a mix from Black and Tourquise - making it brighter with tourquise and mixing in a tip of white for the final edges... maybe a drop ice blue to the tourquise...

Skin: some Graveyard Earth as basic + ice blue and much bleached bone or white for the main parts. Shadwos by mixing in Tanned Flesh or Teracotta, to the end a drop of black for the last shadows...

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Scheffieldtunes asks via mail:

"I don't know if you remember me. I painted this Mini in 2008 (which is actually my best) LINK

Some days ago I decided to paint some miniatures I got around here. Also I decided to try a new technique.
Since I found your pictures of your painted miniatures I admire your style and your skills. Your miniatures are so great. Just every one.

I have tried to paint blending with the technique of glazing the paint over a ground color. I have tried it so many times.
And every time I get a bad result. The Paint dry blotchy every time. I'm shortly before giving it up. The Terminator I try to paint
got discolored many many times. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I use a Winsor & Newton Brush, a tip of dish soap in painting water,
wetpallete, vallejo and GW colors. I make many layers between the colors. But nothing change. Maybe you got a good tip for me what can I do
to get a better result. 

Some questions I got maybe that can help to understand my problem. How many times you paint a glaze of the same color over a surface ?
(I paint many times until you can see a colour change. But its getting blotchy very fast. But mostly at the secondary color.)
Do you paint everything with glazes except of the base color ?

I send you some pictures of my trys. Maybe you can spot something from them.

Regards and big thanks!
scheffieldtunes

PS.: Massive Voodoo Rocks!"

Here are the photos we are talking about (btw thanks for such a nice preparation and the good quality of them - that helps me a lot doing a Painting Jam):

My answer:

Sure i can remember this cool paintjob by yours. It was done for the MaxPaint Competition some years ago and as far as i can remember i had been in the jury. Glad you like the way the jungle rocks... we will keep that up and thanks a lot for such nice words about the miniatures done by me, but now to the really important things :)

My first impression without going to deep into details
This doesn't look bad at all. Your glazes seem too wet and you want too much without seeing the big ... wait, i guess this will get really complicated. Need to get a coffee first - and back :) ... if i would paint like you i should now talk about the details on your photos and the problems i see, but i am answering in the same way i paint my miniatures:

I try to see the overall complications behind it: You want to create something perfect on the armour of these guys (Space Marines ?) while you still don't have an overview of your other areas, they are still white and that detracts a lot from the overall end look you'll get when finished. I often try to work my way through everything til i decide i don't like some areas... i guess your question is only about the technical aspect so i am coming back to the point, but i'd like to get you to think about this blabla by me.

Your glazes seem to be too wet on that basecoat. When doing a basecoat on a miniature it sould be a covering layer. Now when you work with  several glazes where too much water is left in the brush you get dirty spots in the colour when the water dries on your miniature. It is really hard to describe something like this with only words - if you would be sitting next to me i could show you in 2 minutes what i mean and demonstrate it to you, damn, haha!

"How many times you paint a glaze of the same color over a surface ?"

About 5~10 times. It depends on the contrast i want to bring into the miniature, light and shadow and how deep i will go with this contrast. Maybe your glazes are way to thin and after you have to set them very, very often it could happen that you got dust or dirt in your brush, really tiny stuff that makes your surface unclean. Comparing this to the maybe to wet glazes it will be can be a horrible feeling while painting your miniature. Try to find the right amount of water for your basic glazes. The first glazes are there to bring fast results, the later thinner ones you can use for cleaning up too hard edges in the blending. The thinnest glazes i mostly use in the end of a miniature to gently bring in another colour to some special places. It is hard to say "Hey, just find your right way!"... i feel a bit sad about it and i hope we someday meet so i can explain this to you very easy.

"Do you paint everything with glazes except of the base color ?"

No definatly not. I use other techniques than glazing most of the time. For example while i bring up my basecolour i mix the colours i want for shadow and light areas on the miniature while they are wet. So i have a basic but mostly unclean light/shadow situation. Then i start working with thicker starting glazes, the thinnest do follow to the end. It is like building up a brick wall - you'll see the result in the end not after you set 8 stones. Try to take a primed plastic card or something else for testing around than a miniature and then prepare 5 colours you want to use, basic colour, shadow mix, shadow, light mix, light - now with so called "creamy" colours simply paint...

I mean with paint:
Do the track from the dark tone to the bright tone of the basecolour. Simply take your brush and the colour and mix it up on your testing ground. Bring in some brighter colour if you want to become brighter, more darker tones to get dark. Don't think about technique at the moment. Simply paint with your brush. You will see when you try this that your colours while dry too fast and are too thick to paint your goal well. Bring in some water, not much, test your way on how much you need to have an easy go to your destination...after managed to achieve what you are looking for you got the point on how i bring on some basic colour on my miniatures. Painting, not thinking, no "painking". Try to imagine while looking at your blue marine for example how you could paint an area with this method, mixing the colours for your basecoat already on your miniatures. I sent you all my brain power that is left that you can imagine this. Sure you got to work yourself from part to part as you can't do this painting overall on the miniature at once.

Then after this is dried and my basecoats are everywhere already with a soft plan of shadow and light i start to use glazes and work my way to the detail work. It now depends on how much time i'd like to invest in the area and how detailed for example a face should live from shadow depths and highlights. I don't think it is a good idea to strip your miniatures very often from colour. It's like drawing human proportions and everytime you do something wrong you'll take the eraser... you will never learn to draw them when you kill and erase your own history of experience.

My proposal:
Bring in some more definition to your blue marine with working out the other areas. Ignore the blue armoury for the moment, simply do the rest as far as you think is good. Then sent me the photos again and we will have another Painting Jam about it. I'll explain how you can rescue your blue armour, but you will already see that it'll look much better when other areas build up a frame and organisation in the miniature. Your painting is not bad at all and i expect we soon see some great results by you. Your feeling for light and shadow is impressive and you got the will to work with enough contrast to show it. Now it is only getting to details... please drill that bolt pistol :)

Now swing your brush and i am waiting for your email... take your time, don't think, enjoy!

Best Regards
Roman

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