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Pretty new mini painter here. Having a hard time getting good use of washes.
I basecoated a ranger for our D&D game and applied an Army Painter Strong Tone and a Flesh Tone.
My intent was to add depth to the mini with darker crevices and folds and then moving on to highlighting. I was hoping for somthing similar to Mason Thornwarden with a blue cloak on Reaper's forums. I am not allowed to post links though - sorry.
As shown on the pictures I really dont feel like the wash only goes to the crevices and deeper parts. It appears more like just making the mini look dirty and splotchy - especially the cloak.
Any tips on what I am doing wrong? Too much or too little wash? Or can it get old or not be shaken properly?
Really hoping for some constructive critique.
And can the mini be saved or should I try to strip it?
Looks like a but much wash, so it has pooled on the flat surfaces.
That being said, Strong Tone is a brown pigment, and over colours it is pretty much always going to make them look a little dirty.
Dark Tone is a black wash, which will give you your shadows, but will also dull down the colours and look splotchy on large surfaces if you apply too much.
An alternative would be to wash the cloak with Blue Tone or Purple Tone, and then drybrush or layer some more blue over the top, leaving the wash in the creases.
1: Go back with the base color and re-apply over the cloak and other parts you find problematic. Don't go back into the creases and fold where the wash has achieved the effect you want, just hit the higher areas.
2) Next time instead of washing over the whole mini, use a smaller brush and apply the wash directly into the folds and creases where you want it.
Choose an appropriate wash colour. Black-brown works well on earth tones, browns, fur, feathers, leather, etc. It can make other things look dirty because its introducing another hue (brown) that wasn't there before, like on the cloak and green boots/vambrace.
For blue you're going to want a dark blue, dark purple or blue-black wash, and for green a dark green, aqua or blue wash. Blue wash on green will make the resulting item look more turquoise-y.
Shadow colours matter; you've just learned first-hand that how we perceive colour is relative / contextual!
If you don't want to start over with a new base layer / wash, then re-applying your base colour to smooth out the transitions is viable. It won't fix the dirty look completely, and I'd suggest going back over the cloak at least. Brown(orange) is opposite to blue, and it stands out.
As a general rule of thumb, the wash should be both *darker* and the same colour or an adjacent colour to the base layer. So for red, dark red, dark purple, dark orange (brown), for example. Yellow takes yellow, orange or lime green well as a shade, but all three will look very different!
Overall washes work best on textured surfaces. For the cloak, layering is going to give better results since there's not much in the way of features for the wash to outline. Using more controlled washes can help, but it's not a miracle technique that works everywhere, just like any other technique in a painter's toolkit.
Stripping is not necessary. Paint right on top of what you've already got. Takes a lot of layers before detail starts getting obscured.
I do think you probably put too much wash on as well. The name is a bit misleading as you don’t want to wash your mini. Shade is a better name I think.
Remember you can always apply more and it has the tendency to go where you don’t want it.
Also always let it dry completely before adding more or painting over it otherwise you will get coffee staining, where the pigment of the wash collects in rings, and it’s almost impossible to correct
Good info from all the previous posts. What I will add is that while washes are great for shading small areas with lots of recesses like hair, fur, intricate armour etc, they don't really work for shading large flat areas like cloaks. To get nice shading in these large folds, you really need to do the work by hand, transitioning your layers from light to dark.
I will leave the front and maybe try rebasing the cloak in a dark color and then give layering a shot. Been fearing it was above my level but seems time to give it a go.
Washes don't really work well on large areas like cloaks, you have to guide them into the deeper areas which can be difficult to do neatly.
Layering is a better option, or glazing. An alternative might be drybrushing depending on the effect you're trying to achieve. A few bucks worth of makeup brushes can be used to good effect...
Oil paints also work well for things like capes but I wouldn't really recommend them for new painters unless they have an artsy background as good oils are more expensive and take a bit of practice to get used to.
In addition to what everyone's already said - you may find that if you're washing the entire model at once, the wash doesn't end up sitting in the recesses all around due to the positioning of the model. If I was looking at washing that cloak, for example, I'd just wash the cloak and lay the model face down so that the wash pools in the recessed areas and stays off the raised areas. This doesn't necessarily happen as intended if the model is still stood upright on its base...
Except for fleshy monsters, I never get any luck with Flesh Tone. Too red. Soft Tone has a more wine color, so works better for me on flesh. Also, you can start with a white primed figure and wash with Dark Wash to pre-shade it.
Colored washes on their colors. Monsters are okay with the brown washes, but avoid brown washes on PC's. Dirty monsters are fine, dirty PC's are not.
Also, try painting the recesses with a very small amount of water first, then apply the wash. Through capillary action, the water will suck down the wash to the recesses.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/08/10 16:06:15
To backup what someone said, wash will run downwards, only small amount will stay in recessed areas the rest will run down and collect at the bottom of the model. So it’s often best to apply it where you need it in small amounts.
For example if you apply wash all over a space marine shoulder pad you will end up with large amounts of wash in the 90 degree corner but and the rest of the pad will not necessarily be glazed
Automatically Appended Next Post: However if you get pools of shade, clean your brush and touch it to the pool of wash and your brush will suck it back up
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/08/10 18:20:15
Don't be afraid of layering - it's really not a hard technique. Most people would call it 'normal painting'. If you're unsure of where to put your lighter colours and darker colours, get a flashlight and take the model into a dark place, light it from above for a cheat sheet. The general idea is if it sees the sky, lighter. Sort of visible, midtone. In shadow? Darkest colours. Follow the shapes and volumes of the mini and it'll turn out fine. A zenithal prime achieves the same thing, for future note.
There are tons of videos out there on every technique imaginable, but nothing will help more than getting your brush on the model and just painting it. No matter how things turn out, it's just paint. At the very worst it can be stripped and started over with little consequence.
Yeah layering is an essential technique if you want to level up any higher than very basic tabletop standard painting. Just play around, experiment and find what works for you.
The best approach I've had with the army painter washes is to 1. hit them with a gloss varnish (not required, but helps break the surface tension) and 2. thin them out with something like the army painter wash mixing medium (it's basically just an acrylic medium, you can use something from big art brands like Liquitex here instead).
That should help push the wash to the crevices and limit pooling. While the wash is drying keep an eye on any big blotches pooling up/staining the model and use a brush with clean water to wipe the excess off/into the recesses.
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