Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi,

I'm trying to work out how to do blending and feathering (bother names seem to apply to the same technique). But i can't seem to get my head round what to do. All the tutorials have said that you start in the place of shadow and move away into the light as the paint gets thinner and more translucent. But i am finding that as i move the brush away the paint is thickest at the point where the brush leaves the model. So then i find myself pushing the paint around trying to get it in the right place and just end up with an evening covering over the whole area. Or just a powderiy finish.

So yeah there is something I am missing. So I was wondering if anyone can point me to a decent video tutorial that shows how to do it. I have looked but not found anything that helpfull. Or could someone explain the technique in easy to understand terms?

Thanks for your help.

I don't know how you are ending up with a powdery finish... Are you watering down your paints?
You could try applying paint with one brush and have another moist brush at the ready to blend that paint into the basecoat by pushing the paint around the surface.
Is your basecoat smooth and even?

wickedcarrot wrote:I don't know how you are ending up with a powdery finish... Are you watering down your paints?
You could try applying paint with one brush and have another moist brush at the ready to blend that paint into the basecoat by pushing the paint around the surface.
Is your basecoat smooth and even?

I am indeed watering them down. So they are about as thin as a wash, maybe slightly thinner. I treid them at a slightly thicker then wash consistancy and didn't do too well. My base coat is perfectly smooth.

the idea about the 2ndpaint brush seems interesting shall give it a go. I treid to take clean the excess paint off my existing brush but found that the paint is dry by the time i get back to it. So this may help.

Try some of this: http://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/shop/vallejo-17ml-model-color-drying-retarder-acrylic-paint-p-6008.html

cool, i shall give it a go.

cheers.

Whatever you've read about going away from the shadow and into the light isn't really correct.

One method is to start by covering the area you want in a mid tone. Then do a first shadow layer with just a bit of darker tone in the mix. Put this where your shadow area is going to be. Once this is done, may need a few coats if your paint is thin, add more of your shade colour to your paint mix and put into the deeper recesses of the shadow, leaving some area of your previous shadow area. Then do another deeper shadow in further of the recesses. You can keep doing this until you're done depending on how smooth you need the blending to be. Always 'push' the paint to where you want it to be, as you've already noticed where you take the brush off is where the colour will concentrate the most.

For highlights it's just the opposite, build it up in layers, adding a little more highlight colour and covering a little less area for each layer. Always push the paint to where you want it to go.

Feathering is a technique whereby once you've placed your layer of paint you use another brush which has a little water in it to smooth the transition between the last layers you put down. If you're using very dilute paint to blend this stage isn't always necessary.

I've heard that a chalky finish can be created by needing to add too much white to a highlight. Might be worth working with another colour or starting from a lighter mid tone to avoid having to add too much white.

Hope that's of some use.

Natorum wrote:Whatever you've read about going away from the shadow and into the light isn't really correct.

One method is to start by covering the area you want in a mid tone. Then do a first shadow layer with just a bit of darker tone in the mix. Put this where your shadow area is going to be. Once this is done, may need a few coats if your paint is thin, add more of your shade colour to your paint mix and put into the deeper recesses of the shadow, leaving some area of your previous shadow area. Then do another deeper shadow in further of the recesses. You can keep doing this until you're done depending on how smooth you need the blending to be. Always 'push' the paint to where you want it to be, as you've already noticed where you take the brush off is where the colour will concentrate the most.

For highlights it's just the opposite, build it up in layers, adding a little more highlight colour and covering a little less area for each layer. Always push the paint to where you want it to go.

Feathering is a technique whereby once you've placed your layer of paint you use another brush which has a little water in it to smooth the transition between the last layers you put down. If you're using very dilute paint to blend this stage isn't always necessary.

I've heard that a chalky finish can be created by needing to add too much white to a highlight. Might be worth working with another colour or starting from a lighter mid tone to avoid having to add too much white.

Hope that's of some use.

Nice one, thats abig help, cheers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPMZUqNiHGs
I have seen many tutorials on wet blending and this is by far the best. I have found to not directly pull paint in the direction of the other but pull it in sideways lines and you will get a lot smoother finish. It should be explained in the video.

This tutorial is good, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-JNNccBAis

cheers thanks for links, I shall check those out when i get home.

http://www.kaple.dk/v2/index.php?nav=tutorials&id=4
this may be handy too!

It sounds to me like you're overloading your brush. The technique you're using sounds more like layering than blending to me (but that could just be terminology).

To make sure my understanding is correct, I think you're:

1) Applying your darkest (shadow) coat to all of the area you want layered.
2) Applying a lighter shade to all of the area except the deep recesses.
3) Applying an even lighter shade to all of the area except the deep recesses and a line of the previous shade.
4) Repeating step 3 until you get to your edge.
5) Highlight edges.

If this is the technique you're using, you want to make sure that not only is your paint reasonably thin (you want the previous layer to help tint), but you need to make sure you don't have a lot of paint in your brush. When you put the brush down on a piece of paper or equivalent, you want it to put down enough paint to give a good color, without developing any kind of a puddle. It should come out in a manner similar to an ink pen, in that you get color without pooling. This will prevent you from drawing the the pool to the edge where you pick up the paint brush.

If you've looked at some youtube tutorials, you'll notice some artists have dabs of paint on their fingernails (usually thumb or index). This is because when they load their brush with thinned paint, it draws some of the paint in. By dabbing on a rough surface such as a fingernail, it allows the excess to flow out and prevents a pooling effect from too much paint.

I hope this helps.

The issue of the chalky finish can also come from overly dilute paints. Too much water in your paint without additional matte medium spreads the components of the paint (pigment, binder, vehicle) too sparsely to function normally. You end up spreading on water with little clumps of pigment in it - not large enough to look spotty to the naked eye, but enough to result in a chalky finish.

Every time I've experienced that issue, it was a result of overly dilute paint. A drop of acrylic thickener (essentially just matte medium, but that's what the bottle I was given is labeled as) in the mix helps drop the opacity to the desired level without having to resort to quite as much water. A little flow aid can also help achieve a smooth finish and will force you to avoid overloading your brush.