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Acrylic and enamel paint solutions
With both acrylics and enamels, use three starting solutions of paint: base, thinned, and tinted. Base paint means you add just enough water or thinner to the paint to make it flow evenly from your brush, approximately 2 parts paint and 1 part water or thinner. We use this for base coats only. Thinned paint means you add enough water or thinner to the paint to make the solution seem like thick, heavy, deeply colored water, generally 1 part paint and 1 part water or thinner. We use this for layering coats of paint for detailing and blending one coat or color into another. Tinted paint means that you add so much water or thinner that the paint looks like tinted water, say 1 part paint and at least 2 parts water or thinner. We use this for washes and blending
Painting techniques with acrylics and enamels
The biggest mistake that most novice painters make in using acrylics and enamels is that they expect these media to react like oils by trying to achieve the actual blends of color for which oils are well known. Because of the fast drying time of acrylics and enam¬els, you won't have time to blend colors into each other. Instead, the blending will be visual. This means that by applying thin coats of color over other lighter or darker coats, and building them up over time, you will trick the eye into seeing shading and depth. That's a visual blend. Keep that distinction in mind when working with the acrylic and enamel painting tech¬niques described below.
With both acrylics and enamels, use three starting solutions of paint: base, thinned, and tinted. Base paint means you add just enough water or thinner to the paint to make it flow evenly from your brush, approximately 2 parts paint and 1 part water or thinner. We use this for base coats only. Thinned paint means you add enough water or thinner to the paint to make the solution seem like thick, heavy, deeply colored water, generally 1 part paint and 1 part water or thinner. We use this for layering coats of paint for detailing and blending one coat or color into another. Tinted paint means that you add so much water or thinner that the paint looks like tinted water, say 1 part paint and at least 2 parts water or thinner. We use this for washes and blending
Painting techniques with acrylics and enamels
The biggest mistake that most novice painters make in using acrylics and enamels is that they expect these media to react like oils by trying to achieve the actual blends of color for which oils are well known. Because of the fast drying time of acrylics and enam¬els, you won't have time to blend colors into each other. Instead, the blending will be visual. This means that by applying thin coats of color over other lighter or darker coats, and building them up over time, you will trick the eye into seeing shading and depth. That's a visual blend. Keep that distinction in mind when working with the acrylic and enamel painting tech¬niques described below.
Layering is gradually building up color The consistency of the paint used here is somewhat denser than a wash—almost transparent, but not so dense that it changes the tone of the color beneath
Layering picks out color to make details more distinct.
Feathering is using gradually thinner coats of paint from the lay¬ering technique to blend the lay¬ered color into the color below it. Remember, the blending achieved is visual, rather than by actual mix¬ing a paints.
Blending is physically mixing one color into another on the surface of the figure. This happens rarely with acrylics and enamels, but it s still worth mentioning. Usually blend¬ing means joining two layered col¬ors with a brush dipped lightly in water or thinner and gently stroking the point where the two layered colors meet. Because acrylics and enamel dry quickly, we feather colors more often than we blend them.
Washes are tinted paint applied either to tint a particular area or to deepen the effect of crevices and lines. They arc difficult to control, since too much paint in the solution will cover up the colors beneath, and too little paint will be Splotchy and uneven. The trick is to strike just the right middle point.
You must be careful with enam¬els in one regard, however. Unlike acrylics, which dry practically rock-hard in a few minutes, the thinner in the enamels will rub away the pigments in the bottom coats of enamels if you over-stroke them too much.
The technique to use here is to keep moving about. Apply the enamel solutions to one area, then move to another and give the previous area a chance to dry a bit before going back
To be continued....
Article & photos from:
Book : How to paint realistic military figures by Lynn Kesser and Don Winar, 2nd Ed
All Right Reserved @Copyright by Kamblach Books 2000
Layering picks out color to make details more distinct.
Feathering is using gradually thinner coats of paint from the lay¬ering technique to blend the lay¬ered color into the color below it. Remember, the blending achieved is visual, rather than by actual mix¬ing a paints.
Blending is physically mixing one color into another on the surface of the figure. This happens rarely with acrylics and enamels, but it s still worth mentioning. Usually blend¬ing means joining two layered col¬ors with a brush dipped lightly in water or thinner and gently stroking the point where the two layered colors meet. Because acrylics and enamel dry quickly, we feather colors more often than we blend them.
Washes are tinted paint applied either to tint a particular area or to deepen the effect of crevices and lines. They arc difficult to control, since too much paint in the solution will cover up the colors beneath, and too little paint will be Splotchy and uneven. The trick is to strike just the right middle point.
You must be careful with enam¬els in one regard, however. Unlike acrylics, which dry practically rock-hard in a few minutes, the thinner in the enamels will rub away the pigments in the bottom coats of enamels if you over-stroke them too much.
The technique to use here is to keep moving about. Apply the enamel solutions to one area, then move to another and give the previous area a chance to dry a bit before going back
To be continued....
Article & photos from:
Book : How to paint realistic military figures by Lynn Kesser and Don Winar, 2nd Ed
All Right Reserved @Copyright by Kamblach Books 2000
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