Can anyone help me with blending?

[Hovis]

Hey

So I\'ve been painting since about christmas time and at the moment I\'m trying to learn how to blend (well when I say blend I really mean feathering though I think the words are interchangeble and I\'ve gotten into the habbit of saying blend)

My main problem is that although I do thin my paints, whenever I paint something, the paint dries before I have a chance to draw it out, unless I put a blob of paint on and then draw it out, which, of couse, doesn\'t work in small areas.

So I was wondering, would anyone be able to give me any tips on making the paint stay wet longer, without having to blob it on?

Thanks for any help you can give me

 

[Shadzar]

I HATE when people suggest buying something as an answer to a problem, but it really is the only thing I can think of if you paint is already thin enough. Get some retarder. Some medium to add to your paint on your palette that slows down the drying so you have time to work with it.

Someone will probably suggest a wet palette, and it will likely work too, but I haven\'t tried it and don\'t know how to make one. There should be an article or 3 around here in all of these topics in the articles section of the site.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article

Hope this helps.

 

[Ritual]

The way I do it is to use a moist brush and very little paint on the brush. That way, when you drag the brush along the surface of the mini you will transfer less and less paint the longer you drag the brush, simply as you run out of paint. With practice and the right amount of both paint and moist loaded in the brush you\'ll get smooth transitions in one go. If you did the same with a dry brush you\'d not get a smooth result when the paint is running out.

Like I said, this takes some practice and getting used to, but I think it works really well.

 

[ScottRadom]

Holy smokes! Now I am confused.....

I thought feathering was the technique of placing two colors on the model and while the colors are wet blending the two together for a smooth transition right on the model. Is that incorrect?

I thought traditional blending was done by using applying thinned paint mixed on a pallete over dry layers of paint.

In the case of what I think is feathering I don\'t know a thing. If it\'s the latter then I too would also reccomend a wet pallete if you find your paint is drying on the pallete before you can use it. I got one and have never looked back.

Why not post some pics so people can have a look and offer further help?

 

[Joek]

Originally posted by ScottRadom
Holy smokes! Now I am confused.....

I thought feathering was the technique of placing two colors on the model and while the colors are wet blending the two together for a smooth transition right on the model. Is that incorrect?

I thought traditional blending was done by using applying thinned paint mixed on a pallete over dry layers of paint.

In the case of what I think is feathering I don\'t know a thing. If it\'s the latter then I too would also reccomend a wet pallete if you find your paint is drying on the pallete before you can use it. I got one and have never looked back.

Why not post some pics so people can have a look and offer further help?

Quite honestly Scott, I think there are a whole number of variations on a theme when it comes to blending. They all do a pretty similar thing, and as the effect is to get smooth transitions between different hues of paint, they all \'count\' in the blending pantheon!

I tend to have 3 dilute wells of a colour in different lights and darks, paint them on and mix them up on the figure - paying the attention needed to the changes I need. I then tend to add a very thin glaze over this when still slightly wet to get everything to tone together. I\'m the first to admit it\'s a very imprecise method of blending, but it works for me!

 

[Hovis]

Thanks for the replys

I think I\'ll go out and get some paint retarder and I\'ll try out the wet palette because, well, theres no reason not to

Scott, I would post pictures but I don\'t think they\'d be much point because most of the detail gets lost on my camera.

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by ScottRadom
I thought feathering was the technique of placing two colors on the model and while the colors are wet blending the two together for a smooth transition right on the model. Is that incorrect?

That is wet-blending. Feathering is similar to layering, but with the addition of fading the edges out, thus causing a smooth transition to what is underneath.

 

[crazyboyae1]

dude, keep it simple
good blending is simply many layers with such watered down paint it looks blended. thats how your gonna get the best transitions look at automations article on juicing thats the best way to blend if you ask me!

 

[Ritual]

Originally posted by crazyboyae1
good blending is simply many layers with such watered down paint it looks blended.

Good blending is smooth colour transitions. Any method that enables you to achieve that is a good method. The more methods you know, the better. One method can work better in some cases, whereas another might be easier in others...

 

[Aliengod3]

Ya paint retarder would probably work well for you. I use liquitex and it works pretty well. Also learning many techniques is part of painting.

 

[DarkWind]

My favorite method is the feathering method Ritual explained. I am not that accomplished at it yet, but it the easiest IMO.

Cheers.

 

[Hovis]

Thanks for the help guy\'s

I went out and got some paint retarder today and straight away it\'s made a difference