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... Cause from what I gather, its a mix of primary color with highlight color 50/50 than highlighter over lighting spots but not on extreme hightlights, such as for ultramrines you would use pure SW grey?
There's also topic to paint the armor pieces from bottom to up as light moves brighter - So I'm lost here.. Not sure how to proceed as I would hate to miss anything on my marines :(
There are a number of different ways you can blend two or more colors together to create a transition from one to the other.
There's layering where you apply successive layers of slightly thinned paint and slowly increase the lightness or darkness of your layers.
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/12/quick-look-at-how-to-do-layering.html
Awesome :') thank you. I just ordered a cape for my commander (god save me) and this will prove useful
There's one thing I don't understand, is blending common for space marines minis, for amror parts that is? Cause highlights sure is easier, so I can't really put cons and prons between those two :s
Blending is a bit more advanced. I think there's more line highlighting out there.
Both work and it all comes down to what effect you want on your own minis.
When people ask me, "How do you build your army?"
I tell them its "The ten-zero factor, coolness ten, combat effectiveness... zero."
Blending is basically creating a gradient effect on a part of a miniature, through various techniques. It's not actually the same as layering or highlighting. Usually, it's done as wet blending, though juicing can also be used to get a similar effect.
Wet Blending, from the excellent Les Bursley:
Juicing (or Glazing) from RCM:
Most people just paint on highlights or use layering, as blending is time consuming and can be easy to mess up. It is, however, how most of the fantastic miniatures are done, as it holds up to miniature photography fantastically well.
As for why to use blending for shadows and such. If you assume that the model is being lit from above (zenithal lighting), then the shadows will be at the bottom of the kneepad (as an example), with the brightest part being the top where the light catches it. Wet blending allows you to work from that top highlight at the top of the kneepad in a smooth gradient to the bottom of the kneepad, where the darkest shadows are.
HTH.
EDIT: Hah, just noticed you'd commented on the latter video. Ultramarines Blue and Space Wolves Grey may be too far apart on the theory to look reasonable. Try a 1/1 mix of the two colours and use that as your highlight and see how you go. Also, a little bit of Slo-Dri will probably help a fair amount.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/05/02 12:59:23
Great video tutorial! thanks for posting. My only question to anyone who is good at this would be: Do you have paint on your brush when blending the colors on the model (with oils) or do you use a damp brush and only the paint that you've already applies to the model?
Just so that you know Pete, I'm not that good. Just practicing with it like you. This is kinda where I am at the moment;
I use a clean brush to blend, kinda push one colour into the next. The brush will be clean but often with a little Vallejo Medium Glaze on it. I also mix the medium into all my different tones. It's a drying retarder but also helps blend colours I find. I learned about the glaze I think from a tutorial by a guy named Stahly. Just google "painting ultramarines the stahly way". Obviously handy if you're painting space marines, but it also has some pretty good general advice and there's lots of other useful tutorials on the site.
An easy way to start you off with blending is to learn feathering.
You pretty much get your base colour, then more or less highlight less and less of the raised areas with progressively lighter tones of your primary colour. Thin layers of course. It's not quite as smooth as wet blending, however it will teach you the techniques to help you learn how. The overall effect is fairly similar to the point that when some talk about blending they're actually incorporating feathering anyway.
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