Horse Painting and General Blending Question (large picture)

[Will88]

Hi, I have been lurking on these forums for a while and have come up with a question that I can\'t find an answer for anywhere, so here goes:

I returned to painting miniatures a few weeks ago (after having a break of about 2 years, although i have been painting consistently on canvas). One difference between painting on canvas and miniatures, is that with miniatures a smooth transition of blending is a more desirable finish. So I have been spending time getting this technique down. I have been practicing on horses (using Jason Richards\' technique) since there are large surfaces on them and it seems like a good practice point. My problem is that I work with very thinned down paint. This seems to result (when I have finished the blending) in the colours looking very bland and lacking luster luster. I have a feeling that applying a gloss varnish, and then a matt varnish will help this. However I also find that my highlights are seem to look very washed out, even though the transition is invisible they look terrible because the colours look so bleeched. Is this my technique, too much water or my paints to blame? I seem to remember that you can buy an acrylic thinner that keeps the colour in the paint better than water, but I can\'t remember (I am not too keen on using inks because although a different pigment is used that keeps it\'s colour better, it tends to give a glossy sheen). The overall finished result looks very unprofessional even though the blend is quite good.

So my second part of the question is that I look to a lot of classical paintings for inspiration. For example when painting a horse i looked at WhistleJacket by George Stubbs. When you look at his paintings of horses there are some very bright highlights , where the light reflects off the glossy coat. When I try and achieve this using thinned paint i get a very blurred highlight that doesn\'t match that of the paintings. Is there any advise for creating a smooth transition but with a high contrast?

Thanks for all advise, I will be greatly appreciated,
Will

 

[mattrock]

Try reading this and see if it can help. It\'s largely the technique that I use after having read it and it works really well.

One thing to remember is that on miniatures you need to exhaggerate your shade to highlight range to get a \"bigger\" look. You may simply not be going bright and dark enough on the highlights.

here\'s the link: click

 

[PegaZus]

Welcome!

When you say that things look bleached, the first thing that comes to mind is mixing a highlight with straight white paint. But, you sound experienced enough to not do that. So, I\'ll go with the old fallback: post a picture! It is easier to help if we\'ve got a visual.

 

[mattrock]

by the way, on your second question, one good way to do it is to paint your base color and then place your final, brightest highlight where you want it with thicker paint than you would normally use, say 2:1 with water. Then go back with the technique on the link above and \"juice\" in the blend around the highlight until the transition is smoothed out.

 

[Will88]

Thanks Mattrock and PegaZus for your comments. That article is exactly how I have been trying to blend, and I am almost there (I have been struggling with that tide effect loads, all you have to do is overload your brush slightly and you end up with a seam where the paint collects as it dries, noooooooooo) But I think that I will give it a go what you said about highlighting with a stronger colour and then almost feathering the transition, that sounds like a good idea, thanks.

@Pagazus, yeah, I do know about adding white, I think that my problem is that the opacity of the paint is too thin over a darker colour (I am working with browns). Logic would say that I should continue building up layers, but then the transition becomes obvious.

I will do a bit of painting on the horse in question and then post a picture tonight (beware the camera is only a 6MPXL but you should be able to see what I mean).
Thanks for commenting,
Will

 

[Will88]

Firstly, sorry about the large image, if anyone knows how to make it smaller then please tell me and I will do it.

Ok, here you can see the belly of the horse that I am currently painting. As you can see the blending is quite smooth, but there is a lack of highlighting (actually none because all I have done is shade). Any attempt to highlight and it contrasts sharply with the rest of the blending. I think I got around the problem of lack luster paint by giving it washes with very thinned inks. This toned down the contrast between the different shading layers.
Previous question still stands, any adivse is very welcome,
Will.

 

[Thunderhawker]

Well, as my college mentor said: make the darks darker and the lights lighter. I heard that at least 3 times a day for 3 years.