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I recently returned to painting after 15+ years away and have been busy watching YouTube painting videos on all the latest techniques. Blending is really fascinating, its something I only attempted through simple layering in the past but these videos have exposed me to wet blending, airbrush blending, glaze blending and for all I know there's more techniques out there.

Some of the results are amazing, but most methods seem quite time consuming and my experiments with wet & glaze blending so far suggest they'll take a long time to master.

So which blending methods do you favor and why, and do you blend on your minis often?

I tend to get the main blends down via my airbrush in the beginning phase of base colouring. Then it's a case of glazing highlights and lowlights as and where required.

I say 'glazing' I'm unsure if that is exactly what I do. I mix up my colour and water it down to roughly a 1:1 or 2:1 water:paint mixture so it takes several coats to get close to a solid covering and every time I paint it I just use the side of the brush to draw the paint from the colour it is blending from to the point it will change to the colour I'm using.

In my opinion, if you're willing to spend the time, wet blending (two paints, mix them to a smooth gradient while both are wet) offers the best, most reliable results. It's really good for areas like capes, and it's often the only solution if the space is small, like a raised jewel.

Glazing (using a medium like Lahmian that allows you to have a little more on one side and a little less on the other) is faster, and works really well on the types of surfaces you might use a wash on (ie the model is not just flat), and works well on things like power swords, where you have limited space. You can also glaze white, which is cool.

Feathring (using water to dilute and soften the edge of one paintonly -- the other color is dry) is great well when you have more space to work with, like the top ridges of an Imperial Knight. It lets you have a soft transition quite easily between two similar colors. The PP way of doing it is called "two brush blending", I think.

The three easiest ways, which aren't really blending, are layering (which creates bands of color), drybrush + glaze, and airbrush. You can make the layering quite convincing if you're willing to do a couple extra layers. The trick is to have a consistent amount of space between each layer. You can also just hit it with a drybrush, glop some glaze it, and it will look decentish. Airbrushes are pretty self-explanatory as to why they are good

In short... there are just lots of ways to get the job done, and I think depending on what you're comfortable with and the space you have to work with, all of the techniques have merit

i used to 2 colour blend, but i find this doesnt give as much depth as other techniques like layering...i feel that layering and feathering are the more advanced technique, and harder to get nice transitions with than a 2 colour blend, but give a better result.

I tend to use a mix of layering and glazing for most work, but any and all of the techniques Talys mentions see use, at one point or another. Layering might not count as "blending" in its most basic implementation, but thin paint and controlled applications can blur the line [rimshot] quite a bit. Combining layering and glazing, at least as I do, tends to give results that look more like a blend than a topographical map.

if you use enough layers you dont even really get noticeable lines, and once you glaze they dissappear completely. i usually use at least 10 layers for most things like armour, cloaks etc. ive heard of some people using upto 50-60, which seems crazy but i guess it works.

i use the layering technique...
i wouldn't call it blending, since all of the layers are completely dry before applying the next one...
subtle enough transitions between tones of a color will make it look like blending though, and avoid the bands of color that make layering look like weak technique in comparison to true blending techniques...

this guy was painted entirely with layering:



making a return to painting seems like a really good place to be, Minimachine, since everything will seem fresh and new...
good luck, and have fun...

cheers
jah