Glazing experiments

[oolaa]

Hello!

I need some of your advice on my painting technique. I tried glazing for the first time, and I am ok with the results. It is not as nice and smooth though as it could have been. I feel like a lot of the grainyness appeared when paintes the highlights. Any ideas on how I can improve?
All kinds of C&C is more than welcome!


I am trying to learn the technique of glazing. Usually I just layer my colors onto the miniature when I paint. However, I want to find a way to make the transitions even more smooth.

There are many ways to blend layers of paint, but I feel that glazing is the one that should be the easiest to pick up. Yesterday I tried the technique on one of the terrific Khorne Bloodbound models from Age of Sigmar.

I mixed my paints on a wet palette with some tap water and lahmian medium from Citadel/GW. The fleshtones in the mix is from P3, I used Steel Legion Drab from Citadel Air (don’t have the regular pot) to dull the fleshtones down a bit and added Old Rust from Vallejo Panzer Aces and Hull Red from VMC in the shades. For the highlights I added Pale Sand from VMC.

I am happy with the results, considering that I am a newbie. It looks pleasing to the eye and will be an excellent tabletop miniature. With that said, however, I realize that I have a lot to learn. The shades are not as deep as I want (especially on the back of the model which I don’t have a photo of) and the highlights are a bit grainy and chalky.

If I would have been more patient when highlighting I would have been more careful when diluting the paint and I would also have unloaded the brush more. But since I painted the highlights at the end of the session I was both tired and anxious to be done so I went sloppy. That is definitely the most important lesson to be learned: immediately stop painting when feeling tired or impatient!

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I have I say from your description, as well as your final result, that you definitely know what you are doing. From the medium you chose, to the advice that you give yourself, to the final results, it is clear that what you lack in skill you make up for in knowledge and intuition. Therefore, I think that your transitions will smoothen out and your highlights will get less grainy as you learn brush control and just become more comfortable with how your acrylics handle. Great job all around.

If I can offer any advice at all, it is in two areas: first, take your own advice about unloading the brush.

Second: To fix the highlights that are a bit harsh on his right shoulder and left bicep, glaze a middle tone over the edges of the highlight until they become less apparent.

Also, maybe throw some saturated color in here or there.

 

[oolaa]

Thank you BloodFather for the kind words and encouragement!

 

[Sicks]

Firstly id say it looks above tabletop quality so far, some of the transitions aren't that smooth but it's a good start, as bloodfather said you can smooth put the highlight transition by glazing the base colour around the edge of the highlights to smooth it out, if you want deeper shadows you can make a glaze and thin a bit with water as well as medium and carefully apply it between the muscles, you can use a deep reddish purple which will give a warmer feeling, or I find gw rhinox hide quite good which is a dark brown with a hint of purple, or for a colder look i like p3 thornwood green, there's alot of options so maybe experiment on some paper or any spare bits you might have. It's just a matter of practice and patience

 

[Doc Zoff]

My most successfu glazin experiments to date have been GW paints thinned with lahmian at varying dilutions. I'll try to post a fuller description with images soon but I'm a comon uber-noob so still learning the ropes. Certainly looks as though you're getting some good results and IMHO glazing rapidly and continuously improves with practice... Stick with it!View attachment 51619. Ah ha, managed a photo upload. Mixing with lahmian can give smooth colour transitions but also gets a bit glossy with multiple coats, but I think kinda works with this ugly fella. View attachment 51627. This WIP shows tonal glazing on the green skirt and metallic glazing on the bodice. On the skirt I layered up from dark to light as per standard drybrushing practice. View attachment 51628. This was my first shot at a brighter transition across multiple colours. Again that lahmian shine is evident and kinda works. Rather than glazing from dark to light I found that I needed to vary the glazes to maintain the overall colour balance, so sometimes reducing the lighter areas by transitioning into them with darker coats. I've got a second trio of crpyt flayers where I applied lessons learned for a better result, but no photos of those to hand. Single most important step in glazing is to always wick away excess paint from the brush, an overloaded brush will ruin the effect very time!