First attempt at blending

[Lucio]

As the title says, this is my first attempt at any form of blended colour scheme and I'm looking for any feedback or advice on how to get cleaner colours. Admitedly part of the problem is that the colours shown are effectively my second layer of paint, as the layer underneath turned mostly into a golden orange

Also, any suggestions on how to paint the disk of Tzeentch underneath to offset the painted colours? Would bright blues and pinks be too much alongside the flame effect?

Finally, what would be a good, lesser effect to use on individual troops, it's all well and good using a 3-4 paint job on a hero, but repeating that across 40 odd Acolytes and 30 odd Tzangor is going to get dull quickly.

 

 

[PessJerk]

Looks like your paint is either going on a bit thick. Or your blend is jumping colours too quickly. Maybe add another colour in between. Alternatively, you can try and start in the middle of the blend with very little paint on your brush and drag out towards the end. By the end of the brush stroke the brush will have very little left on it therefore creating a blend by itself.


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[Kyriakin]

Have you tried glazing?

Pick one of the extremity colors (i.e. red or yellow) as the base coat, and then push a very, very thin glaze of the other extremity color (i.e. red or yellow) toward the direction where you want that overlaying glaze color to dominate. The glaze will tend to accumulate more toward the end of each brush stroke, so make sure each one is in the same direction..

It can take 10 coats before you notice anything, and 20-30 before its significant. However, it's the only way I ever successfully blended without using an airbrush.

TBH though, I'd initially pick two colors closer in the hue wheel to start with (i.e. yellow and orange, orange and red, etc.).

[cb_rex]

To get cleaner colours for this model the main problem is the yellow over black undercoat.  Several thin yellow coats are needed to set up a nice yellow base layer which you can then try the orange blend on top of.  Shading yellow with brown works better than black also.  To do larger quantities of predominantly yellow models the only way you can make it easier is to start with a yellow primer I think GW do Averland Sunset as a spray can now, this will probably really help.

The disc might look good in gold.

Hope that helps.

[Lucio]

Thanks all

Yes, the paint is almost certainly thicker than pro painters use, as I don't really have room for a pallette in my setup, I tend to take straight from the bottle and dip the tip of the brush into the water pot to thin it.

In terms of technique, I'm probably doing it wrong as well by the sounds of it, as I've been painting thin bands of adjacent colours, then moving the brush up through them whilst they're still fresh. Some of the "damage" where black shows through is due to pressing too hard or having my brush too wet.

Will give the undercoat and glaze technique a try, may pick up some of the Build n' Paint Stormcast to give me something to experiment on.

[HeadHunter]

You don't necessarily need a big palette.  Most of the time I use a half-sheet of palette paper (4x6") but I also have a small plastic palette from an art store that is 3.5x5". 

Taking paint straight from the pot is a good way to ruin brushes because paint is a lot more likely to get up under the ferrule.  The Citadel Paint Station fits on a lap and has room for a water pot and a palette, so I'm sure your setup can accommodate a small one.

[Lucio]

Managed to get this model finished

Happy with the overall effect of the colours, and also how I was able to transfer the same ideas onto the Cursling)

 

[Stevewren]

OK, first off its great to see you attempting to push your painting technique and skills, and the finished model looks cool. 

In terms of blending I'm afraid to say you really are going to need a pallet of some description as @HeadHunter said. Your paint needs to be thinned down if you are going to do glazing. However I have a couple of other ideas that you could use. 

The first one is fairly easy and quick, and works well for things like armor and skin. You can just use two spray cans and get a pretty solid fade effect. The skin on the model below was done using Mournfang brown spray, then sprayed over the top with Zandri Dust. The effect is then pulled together with a thinned down wash of 50/50 Reikalnd Flesh and Lahmian Medium

The second technique takes a bit more time but is one that I have used on single models. I put two blobs of colour on my palette (in your case Yellow and red) and then carefully blend between the two so that I end up with a transition on my palette that goes from red to yellow through Orange. You can then pick colours from the transition to get a much smoother result. Again if you keep the colours thin you can get a really solid looking result. 

I'll try to hunt out a photo later for you 

[Lucio]

Tried painting the Changling using a blended base layer. before picking out the armour plates in silver and Soulstone Blue to give the miniature more of a disparate theme, where each "sector" of the miniature blurs into the next.

 

 

My next attempt is on an Ogre Thaumature, trying to build up the layers from within the model this time, rather than a transition vertically up the model.

Whilst my detail work definitely needs improvement, I'm happy with how to get the colour changes without using a pallette, a lot of it comes down to effectively dry brushing the colours in the order that they overlap in the scheme

 

[Lucio]

Happier with this one, the transitions flow a little better and the model really came together in it's posing.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Very moody, looks great