Blending acrylics

Two weks is a very short time. I've been painting for more years than I care to count and I'm still learning.

It's a learning curve. Each successive layer should be very thinly applied after the previous coat has dried adequately. Usually, only a couple minutes. This can be sped up with a space heater if the room is already cold. If the edges still too pronounced, I'll overlay a very thinned out layer of the base color. With practice, you should be able to get this kind of result:

As you add highlight and shadow, you place it in smaller and smaller areas. Unfortunately, most plastic figures have really soft features so iit's hard to find where to put the highlights and shadows.

This is a finished 54mm (slightly larger than your figs). Note the strongly sculpted features.

Think of the layering of valejo as a topographical map. With each successive layer you will cover a smaller area till you reach your top layer (highest highlight) or lowest low (darkest shadow).

The pigment fineness and quality of the valejo is such that a second coat of the same paint will create a difference in value. i.e.

I lay my base coat in of red. My second coat will be a red lightened with yellow mixed 4:1 with water. My 3rd coat in a slightly smaller area will be the same mix and cut over the previous coat. (your adding pigment on top of pigment to create a denser colection of pigment. This will effect the tonal value of your color) My 4th coat will be a little more yellow mixed in with my red maybe at 3:1, 5th coat same, 6th coat maybe a little more yellow  with 3:1 or 4:1 and so on till I'm happy with the transition. The more layers the smoother the transition. You can dillute your paint mixes as little or as much as you want since it is not a zero sum total of mixing. So long as you have at least some paint (no matter how little compared to your water) you are still adding pigment. Its like taking 2 tinted sheets of plastic film and stacking them. They get darker, they don't stay the same.

Patience and practice will bring you to a happy level of accomplishment if you allow it to. Not every piece is a home run. Talk to the big show winners and they'll tell you all kinds of stories of how many times they stripped a figure and started over or how many figures sit on their tables half done because they had to walk away from them for a bit because they weren't happy. And for every 3 or 4 really nice ones, they have a 1 or 2 that they'd just like to forget about or that pale in comparison.

Have you tried painting the base color in a type different from your shadow/highlights?

I've found that using an acryllic for the base color, then shaowing and highlighting in enamel or oils to work best for me... The acryllic isn't attacked by the thinners for the other stuff that way...

Or you could go vice-versa as well...

The main thing to remember is that A: Servicemen are in the sun a lot and squint, so eyes aren't necessarily needing the whites and iris.. B: Unless close-up photography is your GOAL, you needn't paint ALL the shadows and highlights as closely as what's depicted.  The closest you can focus on a figure with your eye is about 5" before in goes blurry so for 1/35th scale, you only need include what can be seen on a real person that's standing about 15 feet away from you. C: GIs are going to have a 5 O'Clock shadow, or even a beard, so you paint that part of the face in even fewer shades.. The base color and the hair will be enough.

As for two weeks, I'm still learning after 40 years, lol...

If you want to be able to blend your edges smoothly, you should get some Acrylic Retarder. I use Golden brand, commonly available at artist supply and/or craft stores. Works great.

I don't think he looks too shabby, IMHO...

I'm not perfect figure painter, but personally I think doing "Blending" with Acrylics is bit hard. One of the Acrylic paints character is, as welly known, its speed of drying but the technic known as blending require long drying time because it is a action to blend semi-dried paint of figure as palette.

Of course you can do smooth blending with retarder but, in my opinion, it killes great acrylic characte. Therefore most of figure painters around me who use acrylics do not use blending but paint thin layer again and again.

If you want to do blending easily, I sugget you to convert paint from Acrylic to Enamels, like the Humbrol, or Oil paint, due to their long drying time.

This is my finished work. Hope it will help you.

Hans von Hammer wrote:

Have you tried painting the base color in a type different from your shadow/highlights? I've found that using an acryllic for the base color, then shaowing and highlighting in enamel or oils to work best for me... The acryllic isn't attacked by the thinners for the other stuff that way... Or you could go vice-versa as well... The main thing to remember is that A: Servicemen are in the sun a lot and squint, so eyes aren't necessarily needing the whites and iris.. B: Unless close-up photography is your GOAL, you needn't paint ALL the shadows and highlights as closely as what's depicted.  The closest you can focus on a figure with your eye is about 5" before in goes blurry so for 1/35th scale, you only need include what can be seen on a real person that's standing about 15 feet away from you. C: GIs are going to have a 5 O'Clock shadow, or even a beard, so you paint that part of the face in even fewer shades.. The base color and the hair will be enough. As for two weeks, I'm still learning after 40 years, lol...

Hans makes good points, Leviathan, and they are points to consider, when you say that you're ready to throw Shep's book away.  Those are two points included in Shep's info on painting figures

Regards,

Brad

Hello,

I am new to the forum but it takes a little while but do not give up.  I took a long time to decide to quit oils and I am so glad that I have switched to acrylics.  The answer is it is more of a layering/controlled wash.  I also recommend that you use only distilled water with the acrylics.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Here is how I do it.

All the flesh was painted using Vallejo's except for two colors.

Base: Beige red + red leather and a small amount of saddle brown.

Shadows were adding more saddle brown and pure saddle brown for the deepest.
I then used very thin glazes/washes of red ochre from Maimeri acrylic paints into the cheek,nose and temple areas.

The highlights were the base + more beige red
The next highlights were more beige red and then beige red + basic skintone
I then used basic skintone by itself and for the final highlights I used Jaume Brilliant from Maimeri.

When the whole thing was finished I thin took a very thin wash of Mars Brown oil paint and put over the entire face. I find that by me doing this it helps to blend all the colors and it not to be so stark, then again, it may not do anything but I feel better by doing it!

Now I keep to this mixture but I do switch a few things here and there.  I will not always use the Maimeri paints.  In fact I have not used them in a while.  Here are some examples of my work.

Without Maimeri

With Maimeri

Highlander242 wrote:

I recognize this guy! Box art you painted for John M, correct?

Hey Al,

Sure is.  Here is the orginial picture of him and the box art.  Not sure if you know but it was one that I sculpted for John.

Yeah, and those are the "tenn boys" in the other post, right?

I have your figure on my bench, in lighter colors, as a slow moving WIP.

Hey Al,

Yes on the Tenn Boys.  I am also in the process of another figure.  Same time period different location.

Look forward to seeing your version of the Blockade Runner.

Joe

If you do lighter and lighter applications, eventually the entire face is just going to be a solid shade of the lighter color!

You shouldn't be going any farther than a highlight and a light highlight of the base color. Same-same for shadows.  Those, plus shadow and dark shadow is all you need in 1/35th. 

I always end up with a stark demarkation line separating the two different colors...or...the new color just covers the previous color that I was trying to blend on top of.

The demarkation line is supposed to be there.  That's where you blend.  Something tells me that you're going back & forth along  or up & back over the demarkation line.  Try stippling or "stabbing" the brush on the demarkation line... 

Thanks to all!  My faces finally look "real"  (kinda).  I got the skin down, kinda more cocoa than pink.  Looks good with a dark wash over/in it.  But the eyes and the highlights are killing me.

I'll keep at it.  Thanks for the advice.

Leviathan

Leviathan wrote:

But the eyes and the highlights are killing me. Leviathan

That's always the hardest part.

My method.

Paint the base color. Apply a thin ovoid/almond shape inthe socket of pale flesh. Apply the iris in brown or blue. Check the alignment by looking at the face in a mirror. Don't ask...it works. Finish shaping the eye with more base flesh color, then proceed to shadows and highlights.