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I was watching a video on painting power swords, and this guy recommends applying thin coats but "not super watered down so it flows everywhere, just thinned, like tinting a window rather than making a wash."

I'm wondering how you get those thin coats without thinning your paints too much and without creating a situation where there's so little paint on the brush that it's fighting you.

Just a matter of degree. I find it's helpful to thin your paint down and do a test stroke on a smooth surface like your fingernail. If it stays put, it's not too thin. If it beads up and shrinks away from your brush stroke or rolls off, it's too thin. Just takes a bit of experimentation.

I find it's all about the ratio. No more than 2:1 paint to water is enough. Typically, once I get the paint on my palette, I'll just dip my brush into the water once or so.

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 Galef wrote:
I find it's all about the ratio. No more than 2:1 paint to water is enough. Typically, once I get the paint on my palette, I'll just dip my brush into the water once or so.

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And then just make sure there's not too much on the brush so it doesn't glop?

Yep. I've been painting so long that it's hard to explain, but you can just "feel" when the paint is thin enough.
I'd suggest adding very little water at first, test it, than add more if needed.
If you end up with too much water, add more paint.
Never add more than a "brush-full" of either

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In my opinion, there is no golden ratio to thinning paints. You have to play it by ear for each different color or brand of paint you use. When you dip your brush you typically want to fill the bristles about half way up to the ferrule at most. Again, you're going to have to experiment on some test models or materials until you're happy with the result. A lot of painters test their paint on their nitrile gloves, thumbnails, a plasticard sheet or their palette every time they go from paint to model with their brush, and that's really the only way to make sure you're going get what you want in each situation.

yeah as above. its sort of an art that you develop yourself through muscle memory. eventually you will just add water or paint to your mix instinctively before you touch brush to model. its like anything, just practice. a good guideline is consistency of milk. the paint should flow, but not spread out. I think another important caveat is that different layers often need different consistencies. base layers can often afford to be a little thicker, not straight from the pot, but almost. when it comes to your feathered layers, these need to be thinnest, so you can drag the colour into place to create highlights etc.

Would you recommend thinning with Water or medium? Got my paint watery like watercolor by thinning it with water, but it pooled and became a more solid opaque color. See Aspiring Sorcerer's staff. Ignore the terrible tabards.

@Arcanis
Water works fine for most purposes, but I think what you were going for there was more of a glaze, which medium works best for.

Technique is probably a factor there too. Am I correct in assuming you just brushed the thinned paint on top, and left it at that? If you just want a tint of the colour left behind with the layer underneath still visible, you need to apply it very lightly, and sometimes gently mop it up with a clean brush to make sure it's thin enough. Much easier to add a second thin layer to enhance the colour even more than it is to try it in one go and potentially have to repaint the surface to try again.

You can thin with either. I use medium and I like how it works. I find that if you're glazing, medium works really well. Lahmian medium and Vallejo glaze medium are two of my favorite products. Unfortunately though, there are just no absolute rules or one size fits all tips that will work in every case when it comes to thinning paint. You really do have to experiment to find what works for you, and every time you use a different paint or technique you have to do it again. That's why I highly recommend testing your paint mixture to make sure you like its consistency before you apply it to your model.

Are you referring to the blue on the staff? Were you going for more transparency? Sometimes ink works better than paint when you're trying to do a very transparent tint over another color.

Edit: ninja'd by Tim, but good tips there. When you're trying to build up a transparent glaze you have to build it up layer by layer.

I keep medium for glazing or occasionally for layers that are more difficult to get smooth (white or yellow). you'll burn through it like no ones business if you use it for general thinning. water is free and works just as well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
reference the blues on your staff, what are you trying to do? it looks like you're trying to get a metallic blue. is that right? if so, what you need to do is glaze the blue over the top. in that case you need to use medium really. then pull the glaze with your brush. you need to start at the point you want lightest, and finish where you want the colour to sit heaviest.

I find thinning paint for general use is pretty simple. A brush full of paint, and just dip half the brush in water. You’re good. No need to load up the whole brush with water.

Most thick paint jobs are victim to to much paint on the brush and not thick paint. That’s how you get brushstrokes. Also, touching up or applying fresh paint on top of drying paint. Just let it dry!

I put the acrylic onto a plastic surface( Drench bottle tops, of all things ) and then just quickly dip the brush into the water and then just brush the side of the acrylic blob until I get it smooth.

If its an undercoat just apply the first thinned coat, let it dry naturally during the day - near an open window - and then do the same for the second coat.

For applying base colours and detail etc, I paint in the evening using a lamp to light up the details. This usually dries the paint much quicker - something like less than 30 minutes. Not sure if this is frowned upon, but it seems to work well.

The OP's question is about brush control, not thinning ratios.

You should be able to* paint with almost pure water. It's all about the load that you put into the brush, and the pressure you put on the bristles.

When you apply pressure to the point of a brush, it spreads the bristles. This lets paint out. If the paint is thin and/or you have a lot in the reservoir (the bulgy bit of the brush that holds the paint) more of it will come out.

So, with very thin paint, to avoid flooding, you use very little pressure on the brush, and less load - this means wicking excess of the brush (pulling it back - away from the point) over a piece of tissue, the back of your hand, whatever, will get rid of a lot of paint from the load.

*: With practice. This isn't easy, but it's a keystone ability in being able to glaze, feather, and more.

winterdyne wrote:
The OP's question is about brush control, not thinning ratios.

You should be able to* paint with almost pure water. It's all about the load that you put into the brush, and the pressure you put on the bristles.

When you apply pressure to the point of a brush, it spreads the bristles. This lets paint out. If the paint is thin and/or you have a lot in the reservoir (the bulgy bit of the brush that holds the paint) more of it will come out.

So, with very thin paint, to avoid flooding, you use very little pressure on the brush, and less load - this means wicking excess of the brush (pulling it back - away from the point) over a piece of tissue, the back of your hand, whatever, will get rid of a lot of paint from the load.

*: With practice. This isn't easy, but it's a keystone ability in being able to glaze, feather, and more.

I agree overall, but there is also the cohesion effect of the liquid itself. Unless you have very little paint on the brush (to the point where you are close to a drybrush) than putting the paint anywhere neat a recess area may cause the paint to be attracted to that recess and "pull" all the paint towards that.
So in addition to control, you also have to consider that, which is why I suggested the rough ratio. The more pigment, and thus less liquid, the less this affect happens and thus the more control you can have.

In any case, I always recommend applying very little paint at a time unless you are specifically doing a wash

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 Galef wrote:

winterdyne wrote:
The OP's question is about brush control, not thinning ratios.

You should be able to* paint with almost pure water. It's all about the load that you put into the brush, and the pressure you put on the bristles.

When you apply pressure to the point of a brush, it spreads the bristles. This lets paint out. If the paint is thin and/or you have a lot in the reservoir (the bulgy bit of the brush that holds the paint) more of it will come out.

So, with very thin paint, to avoid flooding, you use very little pressure on the brush, and less load - this means wicking excess of the brush (pulling it back - away from the point) over a piece of tissue, the back of your hand, whatever, will get rid of a lot of paint from the load.

*: With practice. This isn't easy, but it's a keystone ability in being able to glaze, feather, and more.

I agree overall, but there is also the cohesion effect of the liquid itself. Unless you have very little paint on the brush (to the point where you are close to a drybrush) than putting the paint anywhere neat a recess area may cause the paint to be attracted to that recess and "pull" all the paint towards that.
So in addition to control, you also have to consider that, which is why I suggested the rough ratio. The more pigment, and thus less liquid, the less this affect happens and thus the more control you can have.

In any case, I always recommend applying very little paint at a time unless you are specifically doing a wash

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Mediums do make it easier for sure, but they are a crutch (albeit one that makes a lot of sense to use). Also while touching on that point, using a glaze medium (lahmian medium / vallejo glaze medium) does cut down on some of the nastier effects of very hard (calcified) water, which can lead to speckling.

As with the use of micron pens etc, getting the brush control sorted is key to pushing things in the right direction technique wise.

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
@Arcanis
Water works fine for most purposes, but I think what you were going for there was more of a glaze, which medium works best for.

Technique is probably a factor there too. Am I correct in assuming you just brushed the thinned paint on top, and left it at that? If you just want a tint of the colour left behind with the layer underneath still visible, you need to apply it very lightly, and sometimes gently mop it up with a clean brush to make sure it's thin enough. Much easier to add a second thin layer to enhance the colour even more than it is to try it in one go and potentially have to repaint the surface to try again.

This is an answer to everyone asking:

My intent was lots of thin semi transparent layers to basically go from the below steel to blue to light blue. Basically, an effect like I energy building at the tip of the staff. What happened, however, was I thinned it "like milk", and it remained a mostly solid color. I decided to leave it as is because I will get more Rubrics at some point anyways.

Given your posts, I think what happened was I had too much on my brush and it all pooled at once.

I think that effect wouldve been difficult to create even without that issue. Having a metallic turn to an opaque blue. It could be done but I don't think it would look right. I think in this case either a metallic glazed with blue, or a blue taken up to white to represent the power effect would work best.

winterdyne wrote:
The OP's question is about brush control, not thinning ratios.

So, with very thin paint, to avoid flooding, you use very little pressure on the brush, and less load - this means wicking excess of the brush (pulling it back - away from the point) over a piece of tissue, the back of your hand, whatever, will get rid of a lot of paint from the load.

*: With practice. This isn't easy, but it's a keystone ability in being able to glaze, feather, and more.

Winterdyne nailed it.

OP - Literally this: take out a paper towel next time you paint.
After you have your mix on your brush, tap it against the paper towel and the excess will come off.
The remainder is how you glaze with control.

I found this got a lot easier when I switched to higher quality brushes.

Using a bigger, non-synthetic brush, with a good point, gave me better control of the flow of paint from brush to model.