blending

[lynta]

can someone describe how to blend? really appreciats the help.

cheers!

[Dwayne]

Ha, i'm not to sure how to answer that one. Asuming you meen blending your highlights together then it is quite simple. Instead of painting a basecoat then first and second highlight (plus shading if you do that) mix these colours with water and apply them in two-three thin coats and they will blend into each other.

This might help;

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/58

Good luck with it, and don't be discouraged if it doesn't work first time just keep trying and asking for advise and tips.

-Dwayne

[Walex]

There's a number of ways- most popularly you would paint a series of thin layers on and they will blend togeather due to being slightly transparent.

You can also mix two colours togeather on the miniature which will litterally blend the paint but isn't great for highlights.

A wash will also help to blend two colours togeather.

[Kai-Itza]

Aaah, that's how it's done... suddenly it's not a mystery any more!

It looks so easy yet I bet it take practice, lots and lots of practice



-Kai-Itza-

[slorak]

There are two main concepts behind blending:

Dry blending: This is where you take a base color and mix in successively lighter shades of that color and build up to the lightest color you are trying to achieve. Taking an example of a folded piece of cloth - you would start with a base dark color and build up a transition to a light color at the top of a fold in that cloth. The deepest areas of the cloth would still remain dark...

The benefit of this method is that it is relatively easy to accomplish and the more layers you mix the smoother the color transition will be.

Wet Blending: draws heavily upon the concepts of dry blending but what you do is you take two or more areas where the color transists into another color and keeping the paint fairly watered down you mix or "blend" in both of those colors to create a smooth transition. A good example of this would be say - blending in a rainbow pattern onto that cloth...

Red would blend into orange, orange into yellow, yellow into green, etc. etc. By taking red and orange and wet blending them in the middle the transition from red to orange would appear smooth and natural.

Benefits of this method are that they tend to look better than dry blending. However it is a much more challenging method and practice is almost always needed...

As mentioned above glazing is a method that can be used to mimic the effects of wet blending. It isn't quite the same as you usually only have one color invovled in the glaze but still works - and can be easier to do than wet blending...

Cheers,

-Mike

[Aubec]

slorak, I understand what you are saying in the wet blending rainbow example but i am still having issues. I can wet blend but only on large surfaces such as the skin of the giant I was working on. Any tips on how to blend on smaller areas such as armor ,boots,robes,etc ?

[slorak]

To be honest it is all practice... Concept is actually fairly basic it is in the execution...

At any rate - for small areas one thing you could do is kind of a wet layering... If you do several thin watery coats in a layering manner you can still get the nice smooth transitions...

Dry layering usually works just fine for smaller areas anyway... What really makes a highlight stand out too much is when you have colors that are too far apart in their color and the highlight sticks out like a sore thumb...

You can always just keep highlighting the base color or apply a glaze to get a smoother transition... If you just take straight colors out of the pot and expect to highlight with them - you will generally get highlights that don't quite match with the base colors...

Cheers,

-Mike

[Walex]

Originally Posted by slorak

Dry layering usually works just fine for smaller areas anyway... What really makes a highlight stand out too much is when you have colors that are too far apart in their color and the highlight sticks out like a sore thumb...

Although really blatent highlights can look fine (e.g. Dallimore) although it requires a good eye for colour and a skilled hand to pull off.

[Aubec]

Thank you, Sirs. I am trying to move away from the Extreme highlight style and into the more natural/advanced wet blending look. I am just not sure if I can get my head around the concept of 7 or more highlight layers of very thin coats...you know the 5:1, 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, 1:1 stuff.

[Canew]

Originally Posted by Aubec

Thank you, Sirs. I am trying to move away from the Extreme highlight style and into the more natural/advanced wet blending look. I am just not sure if I can get my head around the concept of 7 or more highlight layers of very thin coats...you know the 5:1, 4:1, 3:1, 2:1, 1:1 stuff.

Well, it depends on what you're painting. That list of gradual layers you use may not work for, say, an army of IG. You'll want to remove a couple of those layers to keep from going batty.

On special characters/leaders, however, you might decide they need MORE layers. It's all down to personal preference.

Also, bear in mind that subsequent layers are usually on smaller and smaller areas, thus you will use less paint (and time) with each successive layer.

EDIT: WOOHOO! 1,500th post!