Painting with thinned paints help (example included)

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custard

New member
Hi all, been a long time admirer of the CMON site, but only just realised there were forums here. lol

I\'m trying to expand my skills atm, started painting with very thinned paints, but have run into a problem. I cant seem to get the paint on smoothly.
Example pics.
5colourfinal6.jpg

5colourfinal5.jpg


I know the base colour wasn\'t ideal, it was part of an experiment. After somewhere around 15 coats I started adding washing liquid into the mix, which did help some, but still got some patching.

Thin the paint more? Too much on brush? Any other tips?

Thanks in advance, hope someone is able to point me in the right direction.
 
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DaN

New member
I think it looks pretty good actually :)

I can see what you\'re saying, but it\'s not all that noticable.

Maybe it\'s the paints themselves - or the water you\'re using.
 
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DaN

New member
Depends where you\'re living.

Hard water as a pain, but boiling it usually helps. If you WANTED to use distilled I guess it helps for a really important figure, but I haven\'t tried it yet.
 
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Sukigod

New member
A thinned down version of either your normal color (in this case, a purple color) or a wash of your undercoat color will usually smooth this out a bit. This kind of patchiness shows up in some colors more than others (in my experience anyway). Just make sure the wash coat is fairly thin. You may have to wash it multiple times during the layering process to get it really smooth.
 
lizcam

lizcam

New member
Originally posted by DaN
Depends where you\'re living.

Hard water as a pain, but boiling it usually helps. If you WANTED to use distilled I guess it helps for a really important figure, but I haven\'t tried it yet.
Click to expand...

I use nothing but distilled water because of the hard water in my area. 1 gallon is less than $1.00 and it lasts forever as long as my hubby doesn\'t find the jug and use it for tea.
 
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Trevor

Brushlicker and Freak!
Try using GW foundation paints to lay down basecoats over dark undercoats.

Otherwise, really it looks pretty good. If you get streaking like this, try upping the amount of paint and/or use matt varnish to \'thin\' the paint. Its something you have to learn for yourslef and its different for each paint pot, because the different colours cover differently.
 
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Ritual

New member
Base coats don\'t need to be as thin as when you apply highlights and shading etc. Just make sure it\'s thin enough to not give you a grainy surface. As long as the coat has a smooth surface once it\'s dry you\'re safe. No need to thin your paint more than is necessary for the job at hand.
 
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vincegamer

New member
Honestly, I think the only reason this is an issue is that your colors don\'t match.
If you had started with a more purply blue I doubt you would notice anything.
 
C

custard

New member
Thanks for the replies.

Matthew - I used a mix of warlock purple, ultramarine blue for the basecoat. It was an experiment in painting a mini with only 5, random colours over on Warseer, although I think the idea came from CMON. A full shot if anyone wants to see.
5colourfinal1.jpg


Vince - Next attempt is going to use more suitable colours. :)

To those that liked it, thanks, I kinda like it myself.

I also popped into the local art shop this morning and picked up a bottle of extender, from what I\'ve read this might help aswell.
 
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Spacemunkie

New member
What Vince said: You\'re trying to sharp a transition from dark to light.

It\'s much easier to apply 4 or 5 progressive highlights than it is to blend one or two with big jumps in tone.
 
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MathewBaich

New member
yeah, Vince is on the right track there and that color combination on the shoulder pads is starting to mess with my eyes a littlelol
 
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bullfrog

New member
I had the same problem when painting the flesh on my Sisters Repentia and I found that using the old flow improver helped to cut down on the graininess of such a thin coat. Unfortunately going between two highly contrasting colours you may never be rid of the problem alltogether.
 
TaurenMoo

TaurenMoo

New member
I realized this a bit myself, First off you are probably thinning down the paint just fine. If you are not getting good enough coverage (atleast on the last layers) don\'t be afraid to sharpen it up with another layer. The point of thinning down the paints is to make your painting subtle and layered so it comes out smooth. I personally have started using about 4-5 layers on the simple robes on my goblins and painting highlights and they are coming out far better. I then hit them with some blue into to improve the smoothness.

But what they said, more layers the better, if you didn\'t get good coverage on it, realize you may be layering more colors over top to achieve what you want, or just go over it again. The spikes on the picture are a smooth transition from what I can see while the shoulderpads appear splotchy just a pinch, go another layer over or even more layers overall and it should come out great ^..~. And you know, those colors look great on daemons, the messing with eyes thing is perfect for daemons actually. When I start my beasts of chaos (tzeentch) army ill have to play with it on screamers...

BTW that orc has gotta be taking some serious mushrooms...
 
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Cinder666

New member
Could you use dishwashing soap to break the surface tension of the paint to any advantage, or if not dishwashing soap, something else? I just thinned down all my paints yesterday to a milky thickness, and I see that it does take a shitload of coats to get coverage, but in the end its nice and smooth, except for some blotchiness of the same type that custard is having.
 
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custard

New member
With a bit of experimentation, I think my problem was a combination of too great a colour difference and too much paint on the brush.

I found lightly draggin the brush over some kitchen paper takes off enough surplus paint to give a better finish.

Ironically I got this snippet of info from one of the first painting sites I used to use as reference years ago, and just happened to take a look there again recently.
Good \'ol Dr Faust
 
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