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I have never highlighted a model, 'cause highlights are hard and drybrushing is easy.

Fair enough, i dry brush some areas and other areas i will layer it on at the moment so two different types of highlighting on one model, i was told that this is fine / normal so ill continue with that.


What percentage do you guys mix your highlight in with base?


10% 20% 30% etc etc?

or 50% then 100% or what.

Re: Glazing, there are a couple different things that get called 'glazing', and it can be very confusing.

There's applying a thin layer of transparent pigment across the entirety of a surface to tint it, which can help smoothen out highlights by reducing overall contrast. This is what GW's glazes are designed/intended for. They're closer to dilute inks than to dilute paints.

Then there's applying a thin layer of transparent pigment across a transition between two colors, to soften the transition. You can use either color, or a mixture of the two. This is what you're seeing when people paint highlights normally, then glaze them together. They're not covering the whole surface, just the spots where two colors meet.

And lastly, there's applying a very thin layer of transparent pigment, repetitively, to slowly build up a highlight or shade while avoiding the harsh border you would get with less thinned paint. In the French community this is also called a jus or 'juice', and is extensively used by professional painters.

Anyways, to actually answer the thread topic: I didn't pick one, because counting highlights seems a little misleading to me. For some projects, I'll highlight up a couple of layers, then glaze them together. For others, a quick highlight and then a wash to blend the highlight in and shade. And for some projects, I use all washes- technically zero highlights, but with the right wash mix you can get a decent faux-highlighting effect.

I think what matters most is whether you get the visual result you're looking for. There are always several ways to get a particular look.

If I were told I had to use the GW method of basecoat -> wash -> re-base -> highlights, then I'd go with two highlights for tabletop. The first to pick out all raised areas, and the second for just the more extreme edges. Then for characters, I'd add two intermediate stages, for four highlights total.

 feltmonkey wrote:
... you've got Sergio Calvo who brazenly shuns thinning paints and slaps them on at a thickness that would make Duncan faint.

I completely subscribe to Sergio's method of painting, although my paints do get thinned by nature of being on a wet palette or just moisture on the brush. It's usually a mix of something like 10 parts paint to 1 part water.

I'm not even going to answer the poll. The answer is as many as it takes to achieve the result I want.

 Stormatious wrote:
Im sorry for re posting the same post, but i really want this answered and i am worried it might be missed.


So what is a glaze then compared to thinned paint exactly?

Because as far as i know at the moment a glaze is just more thinned then thinned paint ahahahaha..( Half funny half frustrated laugh )


Thank you all.

Different people apparently use the terms differently.

The definition I understand is that a glaze goes across the whole color to unify the shades and highlights, and is typically done with an ink - that is, an an acrylic medium with a transparent pigment. Thinned paint is... well, thinned acrylic medium with a granular (therefore typically opaque) pigment powder. It can be thinned down to the coverage of a glaze - i.e. almost transparent - and used in the same manner IF you thin it down far enough... but your color intensity will be far less than that of an ink.

Now you can paint highlights with paint/ink thinned down to glaze coverage, and build up a gradual series of highlights that way, but it's not technically a glaze because it's a highlighting process, not a unifying one.

OF course, I could also be misunderstanding the terms too...

catbarf wrote:
Re: Glazing, there are a couple different things that get called 'glazing', and it can be very confusing.

There's applying a thin layer of transparent pigment across the entirety of a surface to tint it, which can help smoothen out highlights by reducing overall contrast. This is what GW's glazes are designed/intended for. They're closer to dilute inks than to dilute paints.

Then there's applying a thin layer of transparent pigment across a transition between two colors, to soften the transition. You can use either color, or a mixture of the two. This is what you're seeing when people paint highlights normally, then glaze them together. They're not covering the whole surface, just the spots where two colors meet.

And lastly, there's applying a very thin layer of transparent pigment, repetitively, to slowly build up a highlight or shade while avoiding the harsh border you would get with less thinned paint. In the French community this is also called a jus or 'juice', and is extensively used by professional painters.

Yeah, I agree. There's also at least one more way to use glazes - to add areas of different tones over a part of a model that has already been shaded and highlighted. For example, using a red glaze over areas of skin to add heat to the skin (or blue to give the model a cold feel.)


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 DV8 wrote:

 feltmonkey wrote:
... you've got Sergio Calvo who brazenly shuns thinning paints and slaps them on at a thickness that would make Duncan faint.

I completely subscribe to Sergio's method of painting, although my paints do get thinned by nature of being on a wet palette or just moisture on the brush. It's usually a mix of something like 10 parts paint to 1 part water.

I'm not even going to answer the poll. The answer is as many as it takes to achieve the result I want.

Cool, I flipping love Sergio Calvo. His work is mind-blowing. Have you seen that NMM silver armoured female knight walking down steps? I don't know how a human being can create that. So beautiful. Do you subscribe to his patreon?

Yeah this whole threads a mistake and mess because the questions are unclear.

I typically do two highlights; a lighter highlight and a bright highlight.

I think you just need to focus on painting your way dude. Definitely watch videos and speak to other painters, ask questions, see how they do things, but I feel like youre trying to break it down into a science, and find those magic bullets, whereas the key is to just find what works for you and what gives you enjoyment in the process of working towards the results you want to acheive.

I know i over think gak and its annoying as feth, i am just gonna do it, we will see how this abandon turns out.

Also another question, do people use GW washes like a glaze instead of just for receess's?

Thanks queen and all.

Technical lesson time:

A glaze is a technique, not (in particular) a kind of paint.

A glaze is a thin, consistent, translucent coat. It's actually no different to a layer, other than the opacity of paint used.

A wash, similarly is a technique, where enough paint, with a low enough surface tension is added to run into details and pool there.

Both want translucent paint, but a wash wants high flow, where a glaze is easier with lower flow (more viscosity). This is why glaze medium and flow aid are different things.

A runnier paint makes flow easier. A thicker paint is easier to spread evenly without it running from where you put it too much,

The difference in techniques is in brush load and pressure. More pressure on the brush spreads the bristles more which makes flow easier. If you're glazing a large area it's MUCH easier to use an appropriately large, flat brush rather than attempt to overload a small round detail one.

More paint in the brush makes flow more rapid with less pressure. For a glaze (with higher flow paints) you want very little paint in the brush as too much will cause a flood. For a wash, you generally want that flood but you'll want to pick excess paint up from where you dont want it before it dries / tide marks, which is why washes usually have a drying retarder in them. Glazes also often have the retarder to help with blending one brush stroke into the other.

Many companies make paints which are specially formulated for these tasks - but bearing in mind the above will let you mix your own, or be aware of those properties if you're using them for something else (ie a shade paint for glazing, or a base paint for a wash etc).

yeah. you can use washes to glaze. you can add lahmain medium to them to make them into a 'glaze' in the GW sense, or if you have enough brush control and know how much to leave on the brush, just use them from the pot. I tend to use washes to glaze down into my shadows, then the GW bottled glazes to work up into my highlights.

Thanks Queen. I did a test , and the two brush blending with glaze/Verythinned paint is way smoother for me, because if i try do glaze/very thinned paint the way those people were doing it in the video i showed you, you get these little puddles, and i don't know what to do with them, because if i dry my brush and try abosorb it, it leaves a mark, and yeah. Also i tried your method and that works nicely also, but the problem is i cant figure out what percentage to mix in with base and highlight. And if i just do it by feel as you said, then i don't know how accurate i can be, because if i were doing alot of models at once, i would rather them all be as similar as possible in terms of highlight / shade accuracy, i don't want them all looking different in that sense. Any way once i get better at either of the methods i suppose this problem will not be a problem any more.

yeah see thats another variable to consider.. are you painting models to a tabletop standard just for play, or painting single models for competition?

As a competition painter all I do is focus on perfecting the techniques I use and spend as much time as necessary on each part, but working to my pace (~1 miniature every 3-4 weeks) is clearly not going to be practical for cranking out units of models. you'll likely as not burn out and lose all motivation after finishing one or two.

However, If you're painting Abaddon, or other similar standout character models, I would advise taking a little extra time and really focusing on getting it as good as possible. think about how good the model looks, not to mention the cost!..surely its worth setting that time aside to make it as perfect as possible. those other models can wait.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
yeah see thats another variable to consider.. are you painting models to a tabletop standard just for play, or painting single models for competition?

As a competition painter all I do is focus on perfecting the techniques I use and spend as much time as necessary on each part, but working to my pace (~1 miniature every 3-4 weeks) is clearly not going to be practical for cranking out units of models. you'll likely as not burn out and lose all motivation after finishing one or two.

However, If you're painting Abaddon, or other similar standout character models, I would advise taking a little extra time and really focusing on getting it as good as possible. think about how good the model looks, not to mention the cost!..surely its worth setting that time aside to make it as perfect as possible. those other models can wait.

Yeah im not messing around this time, its perfection all the way or nothing at all. Well i was never messing around, but you know what i mean. I want to paint at competition level, but use it to play. Im going to do that layer technique you were talking about with the layers then glaze to blend it in on all the black Armour etc.


gak, i just realized his hand is not connected properly with the sword in the picture - EDIT.