How to be a better painter: part 2 The brush.

 Having a look through the archives and pages of tutorials I realised that although there are a thousand videos of glazes and layers nothing really explains the process. Once you have it its easy but most people are half way there by the time they stumble onto a video that gives a half way decent explanation of it. So here is my back to basics with lovely drawings.

Layers and glazes:

I'm going to be talking about bits of the brush a lot so excuse the monty python esque drawings but here they are.

I know right. What the hell does Ferrule mean. But the rest is pretty self explanatory.

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First off lets talk consistency. I'm sure you have seen the mandatory "WATER YOUR PAINTS" reply s to people just getting into the hobby or a rough finish to their miniatures, and while there is a place for the rough finish I want to talk about smoooooth jazz... blends. Smoooth blends.

The most common saying is "like milk" when people talk about how thin your paint should be for regular painting in layers. And while that's sort of helpful its difficult to understand. So let me put it like this.

It should look like this:

If you dip your brush into your paint and it looks like this...

 Then something has gone wrong. This is either straight from the pot, or just too thick.

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So you have your set up. Your paint is the right thickness, you have your kitchen roll (right next to your pallet), your wet pallet and your brush, size 1 ideally. And heres why.

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When you dip your brush into the right thinness of paint it should suck it up like a sponge. Have a close look at how a larger brush with a point, breaks the surface tension and sucks super thin ink into the well and see what I mean.

This is where most tutorials jump to painting something. And when you try this at home it will cover your model with thin "milky" paint. Or leave pools of paint that leave coffee like stains on your beautiful base coat and you'll think its something you've done. It's not.

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Filling your brushes well/belly is half the battle. Brush it onto a bit of kitchen towel a couple of times gently. (Your beginning to see the benifits of a larger brush. A bigger belly.)

Not only will this get off any excess water and paint, but it will distribute the pigment throughout the brush head evenly. Effectively turning it into a felt tip pen.

Now dragging your stroke, with your brush at an angle to the surface of the model, and towards the edge or target of the heaviest colour. It will leave the perfect layer. Make sure it is dry before going over it again. 100% dry. If its a little wet it will tear holes in your layer. Thankfully if its done right it will not only dry quickly but because your paint is the right thickness you can just leave it on your brush for a few seconds while the layer drys! GENIUS!

Try this first on a white undercoat and red paint to see immediately what's happening. Painting blue on black will take a lot of layers to show up.
I know this may seem like a lot of effort but it takes seconds to do and is well worth it.

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And now for how I learned most of my miniature brush work.
A couple of years ago I was desperately searching for books and videos on painting miniatures. And I bought a ton. Historical diorama books using materials that were no longer legal, Cool mini or not dvds that were ... a struggle. etc. etc. And then I got an order that I had nearly forgotten about, the dvd set from painting buddha.

Season 1.1 - Target Identified that is sadly no longer available as it sold the hell out. You can get it as part of the Bundle of love package though. That I also bought. Pretty much anything they touch is solid gold.

And I'm going to tell you why. This is what Painting Buddha do. They just teach people to paint to slayer sword standards. No dry-brushing and calling it done. Or settling for second best. The best artists teach you exactly how its done.

Take their last bunch of free videos:

Solid HD camera actually in focus on the miniture. No hair or hands in the way and properly lit.

Another camera pointed at the artist (so you can see how much he licks his brush. It's a lot.)

But best of all is the pallet cam. Exactly what consistency paint they are using,what colours, how much they put on their brushes, how they mix it.

And if you've been following my OTHER BLOG you'll see the marble technique I stole as best as I could from the Matt Cexwish Painting Buddha horus video, that I now see is also free on youtube.

Watched the same 10mins about 4 times. This way my first attempt using this technique and got this.

Anyway, what I thought was my secret stash is now very much in trouble of not existing anymore. So they've started a great way to fund their videos. www.patreon.com/paintingbuddha

$1 donation gives you acess to all their videos. The wording on the site is horrific. So let me sum it up. No matter what you donate per video you get access to all the videos they make. Once you have picked your pledge amount you can limit it so if they make 10 videos and you donate $1 per video with a $5 cap you will be supporting 5 videos but still have access to all 10.

I've gone with the $14 per video with a $28 cap. That gives me access to the artists lounge hangout where I can bug the artists and accuse them of witchcraft to my hearts desire.

So give what you can. And lets not allow them to vanish.

PAINTING BUDDHA NEEDS YOU 

Longest. Blog post. Ever.
Happy painting!
Henry

How to be a better painter.

I'm not a fantastic miniature painter. But I have gone from amateur/mediocre to good in the couple of years I've been back in the hobby. Which is a pretty steep learning curve. So heres some musings on how I reckon that s happened.

Before

After

I've painted, drawn, and sculpted my entire life, you might think this would give me a massive head start, and in some ways it has. But miniature painting it's a different ball game.. its juggling to zorbing.

As a visual effects artist my job is to observe and recreate. This is the place I feel I may have an edge. Observing and relying on reference. If I want to paint marble my first stop is www.cgtextures.com (free membership), then going out and seeing some marble. It might seem like a simple step but it's one that's forgotten more often than not.

But this is only half the battle. Knowing what your painting is fine if you can transfer that image directly to the model but having the skills behind it to translate the real world to 28mm scale is something that doesn't come easy.

I've spent a lot of money on gimmicky stuff. Fake gold leaf, brushes of every sort, stencils of every shape, convinced that this is what I need to improve. And now three years later I'm sat here with a size 1 brush and my airbrush and maybe a couple of tricks.

So my second bit of advice. Give up the size 0000000 brush. Learn to love a brush you can actually paint with. While the supermini brushes might seem like a good idea you cant "load" a brush that only has 4 bristles. Have you noticed your paint drying between the pot and the target? Want to keep painting but find you've run out of paint before the stroke has finished?

A size 1 Windsor and Newton brush has been my go to brush for the last year and I cant see that changing. From pupils in eyeballs to wet blending It will keep a sharper tip than any small brush as the bristles are angled inwards, and keep enough water and pigment held in its Well that you can complete a few strokes with it before it runs out.

It's dangerous to go alone. 

 Take these!

Thirdly, a community to turn to. Painting isn't a team event. But your not a lone wolf. Having the support of a good painting community is invaluable. My group of choice is John Ashton (from www.heresyandheroes.wordpress.com), my dog Alfie (He doesn't have a website), the G+ Warhammer 40k board and the 'eavy metal group on Facebook.
You are never too bad to post. You see so many pictures on groups saying the same thing "I know this doesn't deserve to be beside these beautifully painted figures but..." If your part of the group and are trying to improve your painting, you wont be mocked for it. There's nothing your fellow artists like more than to see people improve based off their advice...


Which brings me to my final point. Tuition. You'll probably notice that my work took quite a jump a couple of years ago, after stumbling onto www.massivevoodoo.blogspot.com
This font of knowledge is incredible. Loads of tutorials and quick and dirty tips and tricks.

But for a master-class, except no substitute, I've learned and re-learned how to paint from Painting Buddha. Ben Komets, Mati Zander, and Micheal Bartels. They are clear and concise, with explanations in a rainbow of languages. The split screen video tutorials are second to none and to get to their videos is incredibly cheap. Too cheap. Sign up immediately. If you want to be better go here.

I hope this little wordy geekout has helped some people out!
Happy painting!
Henry

The Evesor Assassin

So my good friend John Ashton (from www.heresyandheroes.wordpress.com) came over yesterday and we looked at my bits box(s). With a mind to build something spontaneous.

"God, how do you find anything... IS THAT LOGAN GRIMNAR?! Why do you have Logan Grimnar you dont even collect Space Wolves"

"I'd forgot I had him!"

(Mandatory Alfie appearance)

He gave me a proper talking to. So I started out with all good intentions to tidy up. Then stopped and built an Evesor assassin. And now I've got the urge to build an assassin kill team of some sort. Or just more Evesors. Like a cryo-crypt malfunctioned and they all got out. That would be awesome. Need some more Tamiya clear red. I should mix that with some typhus corrosion with some soft green stuff strings that would look amazing! Anyway.

Entire build process felt very natural, saw what I wanted and chopped and sculpted till it looked right.

Let the painting begin!

Next one will be a Culexus!
My bits boxes look worse than when I started... and now there are some harlequin legs in there, which will be a nice surprise when I find them next year.




 *As a little addendum.
My bits and sprues were (all slightly altered by greenstuff and scalpel), dark elf assassins legs, plasticard thin pipes, hand carved claws from spare sprue, the big pipe on his back is greenstuff, IG command squad torso, dark eldar plungers and needles, IG scion head, Catachan jungle fighters sprue (I think its so old that they no longer make it.), the loin cloth was either from vampires or something similar, possibly scions, Secret Weapon games Sack O' Corpses and a chunk of left over vehicle. Grenades and ammo from about 4 different boxes presumably.

I really need a filing system.

Tutorial: Tank Weathering Part 1

Here we are, I have been promising a weathering tutorial for a while now and here it is. There are a couple more stages to go but here are the first steps. I hope this is comprehensive enough for you guys and thank you for all your support during my Armies on Parade board and other endeavors. The techniques outlined here are from chats, Forgeworlds masterclass books, online tutorials, professional painters, my own background as a professional artist and the destruction of many models in my youth.

ENJOY!

1: Gradients to hull. This first step might seem strange and will look odd until we get further along. But the basic idea behind it is to give some interest to flatter surfaces, pointing your gradients in different directions as I have done helps greatly break up the models surfaces that would otherwise seem empty. Maybe giving the impession that  a hull plate has been put on at an angle, or the light has caught a highlight. This has nothing to do with direction of light or OSL (Object Source Lighting) Just a great way to start an otherwise plain tank.

 Just three shades of green were used over a black undercoat. Applied by holding a bit of card to hold in place to mask and liberal use of the airbrush. This effect is possible to get out of a dry brush but its a hassle. I don't see why this effect couldn't be done using the GW airgun.

2: Edge Highlighting. Right this step is a bit of a bugger and again it might seem unnecessary but trust me. it creates a good result. Apply a bit of your chosen colour (the lightest you have painted the gradient with) to your brush and rub it all off on your hand/pallet so you are left with a tiny tiny amount of nearly dry paint still on the brush. Then drag your brush along the corners and edges. This doesn't need to be perfect, you aren't "edge highlighting" power armor and need to blend it or anything. This can be rough. Like the tanks been used and knocked about a bit and the top layer of paint has scraped away. 

This also works to tie the model together. 

3: Sponges. Love them. Learn to use them and use them all the time. If you have bought a model from GW or forgeworld you have sponges laying around. If you wash you have sponges. Sponges cost 50p from most shops. Use sponges...

I use a 50/50 mix of chaos black and doombull brown to make a deep dark rusty black colour to dab my sponge in. Don't press it straight onto the model! Test it on your hand or table or pallet before putting it on the model or you may end up with a massive chunk of black dripping down and ruining all your hard work. Be gentle and learn to love the sponge. 

Less is more when it comes to sponging. Its tempting to go crazy and sponge the crap out of something.  With this tank it had to look battered and well used but not destroyed. So little dabs around the raised areas and between plates, with only a couple of areas receiving larger splotches where perhaps the crew would swing themselves up into the cabin. Think about how this tank would be used. It makes the process bearable haha. and if you dab on silver or gunmetals be very very sparing. This denotes where the paint is all the way down to the bare metal. With these heavy tanks doing that would be hugely difficult. 

4: Drips and leaks. This can be done with GW's Agrax Earthshade at £2.50 for a tiny pot. But for the best results get a tube of burnt umber oil paint for £1.50 and some white spirit for £1 and make yourself a lifetimes supply of perfect wash that GW cant touch for quality or price. 

This bit isnt an art form. Run your wash of choice into the gaps and do a few layers of the wash to build up drips running down. Quick and beautiful result. Dont let people tell you that it doesn't dry because they dont know what they are talking about. A thinned layer like this will dry in about 5mins. Like most inks. Obviously the less you thin the longer it will take to dry. 

You might also notice I've washed the edges with a bit of this wash mix too, again, to unify the painting. Bringing it together and making the tank look like a thing that belongs. 

I hope this has been helpful! And join me next time for part 2. Weathering powders, gloss, chipping and how not to destroy things with weathering powders.

Armies on parade: ariel reinforcement

The sunshark bomber and a devil fish have joined the ranks to fill the gaps in my armies on parade board! Beautiful models. Easy to put together and a pleasure to airbrush. You might notice the drones on the sunshark are dark grey and orange. To make them pop a little and give them a more experimental look. They will have minimal damage so they look freshly installed. And after my tau aircast arrive drone Forgeworld my plan will slowly start to come together! Alsomagnetised  the drones. Don't want them spinning off and embarrassing me. 

Armies on parade: I've been busy!

Heat damaged Gatling gun, objectsource  lighting, oil washes and miliput sculpture. Phew. A productive day!! Hoping it reads properly! 

Here's a bunch of pictures.