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Best Acrylic Figure Painting Tutorial Contest By Schnobs & Citadelgrad87

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  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Everett, WA
Best Acrylic Figure Painting Tutorial Contest By Schnobs & Citadelgrad87
Posted by Schnobs on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 12:30 AM

Hello all!

Bill and I would like to stir things up and put on a contest to mine this site and everyone's experience for the best walk through and painting figure techniques.  The contest is open to all mediums of course so if your favorite medium is enamels or oils you are welcome to compete as well.  If you hear the word contest you are probably thinking what is the prize if you win? The prize is the following kit 1/72 Scale Kit I received when I signed up for a year subscription to Scale Military Modeler International:

The rules are simple: Submit a link to your favorite tutorial or one you have written yourself to this post and at the end of one week all of us will vote for the best tutorial and that person gets the kit. PM me where to send it and it's yours!

My hope is that everyone gets in the spirit of this.  Bill and I have found that once we started painting figures it has been a blast but the information to paint great figures just isn't as readily available as it is to paint and weather armor so let's create our own archive that anyone can access.

Let's Do This!!! 

 

 

 

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer
  • Member since
    June 2007
  • From: Kansas City MO
Posted by Dougums on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 5:05 AM
hmmmm  good idea ... I would love to see what people post.
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 6:25 AM

actually, there is a TON of info out there. not here in the fsm forums but there are a multitude of books on this subject. i would do one (may still) but i would be ripping off most of what's already been written about the subject!

then i also pose this to you, what determines the "best" tut written? i mean if you only build and paint ww2 figures...will a modern figure painter be considered "not good enough" because it doesnt meet "your" requirements for painting figures??? the subjects are the same as well as the proecess no matter what but...i cant help but wonder if there would be some bias. your naturally going to gravitate towards what you know and or want. human nature at its best!

"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    January 2012
Posted by I make stuff on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 9:08 AM

Good questions, camojunkie, but I beleive they are covered.

First, the group will vote for the best toot, not the best figures, I would like that to be clear before there are any submissions, it's not a contest to see who can paint the "best" fig, but to see who can convey the best information about painting figures.

Second, you are correct, it's about the process, how do YOU get a good fleshtone, how do you shade, emphasize with outlining, etc.  For me, that transcends any era.  It's a time neutral net out to catch the best "how to" regarding figures.

Edmund and I are simply priming the pump to get a thread going in one place that we can all refer back to from time to time.

Give it some thought.

Bill    

   

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 10:24 AM
well i'll do one on enamels and oils. dont really care if i win or not so much as helping people out. Big Smile [:D] in fact, if i "do" win, i want there to be a second "drawing" and give it to someone who would like it and appreciate it more than myself!! or...give it to the second place guy/girl! whatever! Wink [;)]
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Joplin, Mo
Posted by figure freak on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 8:59 PM
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/articles_figures.htm best one ive found, its a whole page all to do with figure painting
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by Schnobs on Wednesday, August 5, 2009 11:30 PM

 figure freak wrote:
http://www.missing-lynx.com/articles/articles_figures.htm best one ive found, its a whole page all to do with figure painting

Hey Brian,

Awesome links thank you for posting it! Thumbs Up [tup]

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Thursday, August 6, 2009 7:12 AM
ok, no sense wasting my time...seems like this guy does it alot like i do anyway...no sense reinventing the wheel!! Big Smile [:D]
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    January 2012
Posted by I make stuff on Thursday, August 6, 2009 10:29 AM

 camo junkie wrote:
ok, no sense wasting my time...seems like this guy does it alot like i do anyway...no sense reinventing the wheel!! Big Smile [:D]

That's one thing I forgot yesterday:  there's a lot of borrowing and complimentary stuff going around, but also a lot of improving and improvising.  Just since I have been here, I have seen a technique start as hairspray, and morph into hair gel.  One reason for the thread is that someone out there is always experimenting, and without the internet, it would never get any airplay.    

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Thursday, August 6, 2009 10:33 AM
true...and since i already started...might as well finish right? besides what else do i have to do!! Big Smile [:D]
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
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  • From: Newport News VA
Posted by Buddho on Thursday, August 6, 2009 11:53 AM
Here is a short tutorial using acrylics from 2006: /forums/640080/ShowPost.aspx

  • Member since
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  • From: Joplin, Mo
Posted by figure freak on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:13 PM

is it time to judge yet?

 

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:15 PM
if it is fine...i wont be done with mine for a couple more days...and in the long run...that's ok...it's not like i want the prize or anything. Big Smile [:D] (no offense).
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by Schnobs on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:31 PM

No worries we can wait a few days for you to finish.  I have a few links I would like to add as well not for the contest but just to share with everyone.

I really like this Calvin Tan Tutorial I found at Alpine Minatures:

http://zyclyon-tutorials.blogspot.com/2009/03/1_28.html

Lynn Kessler is a Rock Star!

http://www.track-link.net/articles/96

I found this post helpful as well:

/forums/957910/ShowPost.aspx

I got this one from Bill:

http://www.coloradominiatures.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=5#1a

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer
  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Piscataway, NJ!
Posted by wing_nut on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:35 PM

Being very new to figs I had heard how great Vallejo paints are for figure painting. I invested in a number of clors and when looking over their color chart found this...

http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/asp-inc/_modelis.asp?p1=ing&p2=modelcolortecnicas

Marc  

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:01 PM
ok, i will try and get it out tomorrow. i dont have a link, rather just a write up on my own so it is what it is!! i hope if nothing else, someone can use it! Big Smile [:D]
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:49 PM
ok, so i have to ask. im trying to make this as simple as possible. what do you recommend? do i "write a book" and post a ton of pics or is there an easier way??? i'm done i just have to post one way or another.
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Joplin, Mo
Posted by figure freak on Friday, August 14, 2009 9:15 AM
take the link from your origional figure toot post, so you dont have to write it twice
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Friday, August 14, 2009 9:34 AM

ok so here it is although its posted in the forum already! Wink [;)]/forums/1174885/ShowPost.aspx

 

"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Joplin, Mo
Posted by figure freak on Friday, August 14, 2009 9:52 AM
thats awsome! i love it i will be using it for sure
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Friday, August 14, 2009 10:54 AM

thanks. i hope someone will use it and be able to really improve their figures!! perhaps those that use acrylics can combine it with their own...who knows! Smile [:)]

"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: East TX
Posted by modelchasm on Friday, August 14, 2009 4:29 PM

Well, I haven't done squat for the hobby in the past few weeks, either due to laziness or busy-ness, so I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents ...

I exclusively use acrylics; Vallejo & Model Masters. So, I guess my tutorial will be on the use of acrylics. I will also be using photos and such from a recent build, so sorry ... nothing new to see. (I will say however, that my camera takes pretty good up-close pics. The picks out the nasty details and blemishes nicely and I find that taking pictures in progress not only shows me the flaws, but also the blending of the colors ... or the lack there-of.)

First, I start off just like anyone else by assembling the figure. (Maybe we can do another contest later on about how people to that .... as there are a million ways to do it.) I, personally, assemble the figure as much as possible, to include pouches, etc. However, I typically leave off the hands/ arms and I always leave off the head. This is to aid in painting the flesh colors.

Next, (again, a personal thing ...) since I assemble my figures using wire in the joints, I will glue in extra wire from the feet, shoulders, and neck and then clamp this extra wire into some home-made paint clamps to help aid in painting. Here, you can see this particular figure's head attached in the clamp. Also, I've already primed the figure w/ MM acrylic grey primer. I always prime as this helps bring flaws and seams that were missed. I also prime pieces since I scratch a lot of detail and many pieces are made from different mediums such as resin, plastic, soda can aluminum, wire, etc. The prime coat gets everything on the same page. As you can see, I've cleaned this up a few places already. (Note: Before priming, I also wash everything to remove oils.)

Next, I typically start the figure w/ the flesh tones, painting the face and hands. Although I've hardly ever used oils to paint, I can say that I understand the biggest difference in using oils versus acrylics. Using oils, you basically end up taking away from the oil coat until you get the basic look you want. Using acrylics is just the opposite. The "secret" to acrylics is suttle layering. I think this is why I love using them. After getting everything cleaned up and a fresh coat of primer on....

 

.....,  I start in with 2-3 thinned coats of MM flesh tone as a base coat. This ends up giving me a very pale looking figure that needs a beach vacation.

(To note: I only use an airbrush in applying the primer and the base coat. Everything else is hand painted using brushes.)

After satisfied w/ the base coat, I then begin "washing" the shadows in using MM's burnt sienna. Typically, I'll use a more highly thinned paint here and I'll continue adding layers until I'm happy w/ it. Just the way acrylics dry quickly, I find that using mutiple layering gives me more control. At this point, the flesh tones are looking quite horrid, but here's where the patience comes in.

Typically, while I'm working on the shadowing, I'll also paint the hair IF its visable. So now a quick  summary ... basically, I've gotten the light and dark down ... now, its time for blending things together using mixes of MM's flesh tone (used for the base coat), warm flesh tone, burnt sienna. I don't have written down mixes for these. I just go by the look each and every time. I find that this keeps my figures looking one in a million. Again, the secret to blending the colors here is using suttle thinned layers of paint.

After I have the mediums blended the way I want them, I use VERY SUTTLE highlighting ... and I don't typically use a light color. Confused? Don't be. To help add some highlight AND life (warmth) to the flesh, I add thinned but unmixed MM warm flesh tone. At this point, this is where I always step back and look at the face, sometimes using a mirror, after painting each and every layer. Put on too much here and you're going to be starting over. Be suttle, and you'll end up w/ a winner every time.

For this particular figure, I didn't go too heavy on the shadowing since there were going to be dark colors around the face to help "darken" things up. Here I've added some detail w/ MM's aircraft interior black, then added a sheen to the glasses using Future Floor Polish.

As you can start to see w/ the figure's head, and as advised by numerous books, I paint from the inside out. Basically, this means that I paint flesh, then undershirts, then jacket, pouches, straps, etc. .... inside - out.

Now on to the uniform. As stated before, I like to assemble as much of the figure as possible before hand. I find that this keep glue marks to a minimum. I begin, again, by priming the figure w/ MM grey primer. Same cleaning-up process as above w/ the face.

Whether its painting the new ACU or the 3-tone DCU uniform, I like starting out w/ a base coat of Vallejo's deck tan. Its not too different than the grey primer, but I've found that it gives just the right look for sun faded tan ... or "scaled-down" tan. Take your pick. This particular figure is getting the 3-tone DCU. The green color was mixed, mulitple times, using MM's OD green and tan/ sand colors. (This was the first time that I had painted the DCU, and using hindsight, I should have made the green spots a little smaller as I think they ended up drowning out most fo the tan base color.) After applying the green, I used a fine detail brush and MM's rust to add in the brown striping.

The vest & details are painted w/ MM's dark tan. Other details are painted w/ MM's aircraft interior black. Again, using the inside-out technique.

Weathering the uniform came easy, and again, using acrylics, its all about using multiple suttle layers. I used a highly thinned washes of MM's interior black (this is the only black color I use BTW. It has a grey hue to it that helps tone itself down.) I used more of these washes on the vest & pouches as I didn't want to darken the DCU uniform too much. I wanted to keep that sun-faded look, but I still had to add shadowing to the folds. For highlights, I dry-brushed unthinned Vallejo sand yellow to the vest, camelbak, pouches, etc. For the DCU, I dry-brushed very slightly w/ the base coat color, deck tan. The weapon was done using the same methods as described above. A base coat fo MM's interior black was used and since this is an SF figure, I went back and painted striping on the M4 using Vallejo deck tan & MM's dark tan.

Once everything is completed as its own part its all brought together. Since I use wire to attach everything together, I don't worry about CA glue squishing out from joints since the glue is attaching the part to the inside of drilled out holes and not just flat surface to flat surface. **IF something is going to be glued surface to surface, make sure to scatch off the paint in this area so that resin bonds to resin (or plastic to plastic) and not paint to paint.

All decals were printed off my home printer on regular paper just using images from the internet and Photoshop to resize them. In hindsight, I think that this figure would benefit from a slight dusting w/ pastels. Also I typically, "seal" my figures w/ a flat, clear coat, but since this one has the "futured" glasses, I decided not to.

But, if there's one thing to take away from this write-up on painting w/ acrylics its this: Painting w/ acrylics takes a lot of patience. Painting in suttle layers is THE KEY to blending colors in the acrylic medium. IMHO, acrylic paints, specifically Vallejo, used in multiple thinned layers gives the user a silky smooth finish that is unmatched by anything except the real thing.

Credits: I rely heavily on two particular books in my stash of references; Modelling and Painting Figures #8 by Osprey Modelling; and How to Paint Realistic Military Figures, 2nd Edition by Kessler and Winar, by FSM. I also rely VERY heavily on opinions to those on this forum (to name them all would double this post, but they know who they are.)

Hopefully, this post will at least help someONE in figure painting w/ acrylics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If you're not scratching, you're not trying!"  -Scott

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Friday, August 14, 2009 4:56 PM
so long as it helps someone scott!! besides, the figure turned out great so why not use it for something like this right? i imagine alot of people will be interested since it seems like acrylics are the norm. now get busy and do something!!! Mischief [:-,]
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    March 2008
  • From: East TX
Posted by modelchasm on Friday, August 14, 2009 5:51 PM
HAHA!, thanks brother! I've been farting around w/ some oils if that makes you feel any better!?! Other than that, "no excuse, Sir".

"If you're not scratching, you're not trying!"  -Scott

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Friday, August 14, 2009 6:07 PM

 modelchasm wrote:
HAHA!, thanks brother! I've been farting around w/ some oils if that makes you feel any better!?! Other than that, "no excuse, Sir".

muhahahahaha....welcome to the dark side brother!!! Evil [}:)]

"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    July 2009
  • From: North Carolina
Posted by Back to the bench on Saturday, August 15, 2009 4:01 PM

Wow what an informative and helpful thread. Of course looking at the quality of work I am not sure whether to be inspired or just throw all of my brushes out the window and try to learn basket weaving insteadBow [bow] Thanks to all for sharing your talent and ideas. Here is a link that I came across that has a lot of neat info and tons of nice photos. The guy's name is Calvin Tan and the link is for a tutorial on painting digital camo in 1:35. The quality of the website is pretty amazing and a ton of work is on display there.

 

http://zyclyon.blogspot.com/search/label/Alpine%20Miniatures%20-%203rd%20Stryker%20Brigade%20Combat%20Team%202nd%20Infantry%20Division 

Edit to my post...

this may be the wrong place to ask, but what do I need to do when posting a link to make it a proper hyperlink so folks don't have to cut and paste? 

Gil

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Saturday, August 15, 2009 8:38 PM
yeah b-t-b, we've all seen that one. no offense Wink [;)] i even tried to mimic it but oils/enamels dont work like acrylics so, my results where less that bad!!
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by Schnobs on Saturday, August 15, 2009 9:05 PM

That was  great Post Scott!  You are quite talented thats for sure.

Thanks for sharing it!

Guys!  It is time to start voting for your favortie Toot!!  I have 1/72nd scale kit that needs a home!!

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: clinton twp, michigan
Posted by camo junkie on Sunday, August 16, 2009 8:40 AM
i vote 4 me! Big Smile [:D] give the kit to someone who wants it though (no offense...i have enough kits is all) Wink [;)]
"An idea is only as good as the person who thought of it...and only as brilliant as the person who makes it!!"
  • Member since
    June 2009
  • From: Joplin, Mo
Posted by figure freak on Sunday, August 16, 2009 9:30 AM
even if camo doesnt want the kit, i think he put forth the best effort (not saying anyone else didnt)in making a very  useful tutorial and i could use another kitWink [;)]this was a good idea to really make use think
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