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I don't have a blog, and I am not veteran or post enough content to justify making one - so while these musings may be better served in that format, I will leave it here for anyone who is interested to view and chime in. It just so happens that my best friend happens to work at Rustoleum as a colorist; so lately I have been picking his brain since he has an extensive knowledge about pigments, paint make up, and the chemical intricacies therein. As I have delved further and further into the hobby, I have been looking more into the deep subjects of color theory and how paint is made/composed. After reading James Gurney's Color and Light, as well as Michael Wilcox's Blue & Yellow Don't Make Green, I was really intrigued about what exactly paint is and how exactly color interactions work. Now I am guilty as the next person in owning WAY too many paints - not to say anything about minis! While color mixing may seem irrelevant to some, understanding how paints function can help even those of us who own a complete gamut of convenience mixed colors. This post is about exploring more of the technical and "scientific" aspects of paint and color theory to hopefully assist others in understanding the what and why of paint. Rethinking Paint Colors - Subtractive Color: Up until recently, I have always viewed the primary colors as Yellow, Red and Blue, and with those you can mix secondary colors; Green, Orange, and Purple. While this is technically true after a fashion, the difficulty lies with pigments themselves. Pigments do not actually *contain* color. Instead, they absorb most of the light spectrum *except* a specific wavelength of color. As Michael Wilcox states, "Of all the pigments available to the painter, none can be described as pure in hue. There is simply no such thing as a pure red, yellow or blue paint." That means chemically, there isn't a paint pigment out there that returns a pure Red - unlike in say digital art where a specifically purely calibrated hue can be made, paint is limited by the properties of the physical pigments themselves. As Michael Wilcox theorizes with a colour bias wheel (bottom-right), primary pigments almost certainly lean towards secondaries. This follows the concept of the Munsell Wheel (bottom-left). You may have heard of a split-complimentary color palette, and this is the reason why. Artistically, these have been described as "Warm" and "Cool" versions of the primaries, but scientifically, they are colors that absorb or reflect more of a particular wavelength. There are Violet-Reds (Cool Reds, often called "Crimson") and Orange-Reds (or Warm Reds, that lean more towards Orange), Violet-Blues and Green-Blues, and Orange-Yellows and Green-Yellows. One the concepts to understand when mixing paints is that you are not creating a color, but rather you are effectively destroying colors and what remains is what is returned to the eye. Referencing the above color bias wheel, if you were to mix a Violet-Blue and a Violet-Red together, both containing pigment(s) that return a great deal of Violet wavelength, the little remaining Blue/Orange and Red/Green wavelengths in each pigment would cancel each other out, leaving the Violet behind. This would yield a more saturated or more pure hue of Violet. Conversely, mixing a Green-Blue and a Orange-Red ("Warm" Red) would be a very desaturated Violet, with more of a gray tone. Keep in mind that this doesn't make a color "bad"; desatured tones by including more complimentary colors is a very useful tool! In fact, for making shadows, using a great deal of complimentary colors to desaturate is a great technique. The problem is when these colors come about unexpectedly; after all, you can have a very "intense" Red and a very "intense" Blue, but mixing them may not produce a very intense Violet if they are "moving away" from each other. Now that is all being said, it is time to forget it...sort of. RGB is based upon the concept of Additive Mixing, or how colored light interacts. With additive mixing, fully saturated Red/Green/Blue light will produce White light. However, in paint pigments, it should be pretty obvious that mixing pigment primaries of Red/Yellow (or Green)/Blue together will not yield White. This is due to Subtractive Mixing, where pigments effectively destroy each other ala Thunderdome in Mad Max, and only the survivors reflect light back. A more modern approach to color theory and pigments is CMYK or Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and "Key" (or commonly known, Black). Adding these colors into the standard primaries gives us the "Yurmby" wheel. If you have looked at a color printer, for example, the colors used are NOT Blue/Red/Yellow, but rather Cyan/Magenta/Yellow. This is because due to the subtractive nature of pigment/ink mixing. These colors present a larger printable gamut (i.e. range) of color; for example, without White, it is difficult to produce a Pink tone with Red vs Magenta. A thin Magenta will read more Pink than a thin Red. Printers do not use White ink and instead leverage the paper for white, effectively printers are printing in an underpainting style. However, we as artists DO use White pigments and this makes things a bit more complicated as we do work with Tints (White) and Shades (Black). Like most science, the direct answer regarding an accurate color wheel is: it is complicated. For observable light, there is a bit more consistency and repeatability. However, when working with "tiny wavelength absorbing/reflecting mirrors" of pigments, things become a bit more complex. Additionally, there are other aspects that that go beyond the basics, such as the effect of specular and perception of color. It gets really heady when you start dipping into Kubelka-Monk Theory and K/S. Paint Composition: Most paint is made up of 3 parts: Pigment - particles that absorb and reflect certain wavelengths of light. Binder - The 'medium' or 'glue' which holds the pigment in suspension and forms a film. For acrylic paint, this is the actual acrylic part. Solvent - The liquid that allows paint to be viscous; as it dries, it allows the binder and pigment to harden forming the film. For acrylic paint, the solvent is water. Adjusting the ratios of these can have some interesting, and sometimes disastrous effects in terms of the stability of the paint. For example, introducing too much solvent, and the binder and pigment lattice structure can break apart. This can cause "coffee staining" or splotchy spots where the bonds pull apart, leaving areas without a film at all. The pigments in paint are held in a suspension. Like hot chocolate mix, there are tiny particles that are suspended in a liquid. Given enough time or evaporation, the liquid will leave these granules behind. If you have ever mixed a packet of Swiss Miss cocoa, you know that the mix can settle at the bottom - and that attempting to add dry powder to a liquid is more difficult than adding a liquid to a dry powder. This is another reason why mixing your paints is important because it is easy for the heavier pigments to tend to settle out of the binder/solvent solution. Speaking of solutions, that is the main difference between paints and inks. Inks, specifically alcohol inks that use dyes, are a solution. The staining dye actually becomes homogeneous with the liquid. Just like dissolving sugar or extracting coffee/tea, there isn't any particulates that separate out. However, most dyes are not lightfast - a property that will be discussed in more detail further. Acrylic inks that use pigments are not "true" inks insomuch as they are composed just like an acrylic paint. The difference being the smaller size of the pigments and the viscosity of the binder/solvent being much thinner. Paint Additives Outside of the 3 main components for paint composition, there are also some optional additives that some manufacturer's include in their paint. These can be things such as: Extenders/retarders, which delay the setup of the paint film, allowing for more mixing to occur before drying. Thinners, which dilute the pigment to binder ratio, usually increasing translucency and viscosity - commonly this is done with water for acrylic paints. Flow Aid, which reduces the surface tension of paint, allowing it to flow more easily and level - Reaper is known for adding a bit of flow aid into their formulation. Opacifiers, which increase the opacity of a paint - usually some type of calcium or bicarbonate. Matting agents, which reduces the glossiness of acrylic medium. Fillers, which are commonly used in student or inexpensive paints to reduce cost and add mass without adding more pigment. You can add some of these additives yourself to your favorite brand of paint to adjust the handling qualities. The most commonly added is solvent/thinner in the form of water to "thin your paints" to reduce the viscosity and lower the overall density of the paint, building up multiple thinner layers of paint films in a "layering" fashion.

Hello all. Today I just finished this Shambling Mound from Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures. I decided to do it just like a tutorial I saw on Mini Junkies, so I'm not even sure how much credit I can claim for him . Basically it's heavily drybrushed with white and then entirely inked. I used Vallejo Game Inks and this was my first time trying them. There are some imperfections and I wish some aspects had turned out different but I'm happy enough with him. I didn't have enough guts to put grass and flock directly on him like I would have liked but I don't think any of the stuff I have would have looked right. As it is the grass and flock on the base basically disappears because it blends with the greens on him. Hope you enjoy him!

Hi folks, The new Deepstar Kraken model is coming out soon for DeepWars and I painted up this one for display using a lot of inks and liquid acrylics. This model (not really a miniature when this big) was done in different stages. The base painting was done with blue skin and light tentacles. The mantle and top of the tentacles were given two washes of Marine Blue (Ultramarine) liquid acrylics (Dr. Phil Martins brand) mixed with matte medium and water. When the first was dry, the second was applied. The underside of the tentacles was done with a mix of Cerulean Blue ink (Liquitex) + white paint + Matte medium and water. After removing from the base, as it was making it difficult to reach the bottom of the tentacles, I applied many light blue glazes (Cerulean Blue + Ultramarine Blue + White) for highlights and some dark (Ultramarine Blue) glazes for shadows. The goal was to make the blending mostly smooth but not to go overboard and spend too long on it. The reason will become clear soon. The next stage was the big one. Dots of blue-green, green, yellow-green, white and various shades of orange and Burnt Umber were applied to the mantle and tentacles. This was done using Liquitex inks and Phil Martin liquid acrylics to make sure the dots were very pure in color and, more importantly, flowed evenly off the end of the brush, which was held and used like a pen. After the dots had dried, glazes of inks colors were applied, yellow-green to the mantle and tips of tentacles and bright orange to the “face”. When this dried, more dots were applied over them and highlights were applied to some of the dots using a bit of white or yellow mixed into the ink. The eyes were done with yellow liquid acrylic mixed with white, black, and a bit of blue as the base. It was highlighted with more white and a touch of yellow. The black iris was painted, then more white highlights were applied around it to clean it up. Finally, the big highlight was added at the top with thinned white. The eyes were not painted as gems (bright bottom, dark top with hot-spot secular reflection) here as the light was meant to be diffused by the water. Maybe next time. The base was done with washes of Burnt Sienna ink first, then washes of Pthalho blue and Marine Blue ink to darken the rocks. it was all drybrushed with Americana brand Buttermilk, then some glazes of greens, magentas and purples were added to the sponges and corals. The barnacles were drybrushed with some white to make them stand out.

So I decided to do some elementals real quick. I gave them base coat of matte medium - primer for earth, because base coat. Then I attempted the yellow-ning. First it looked good, so I tried to add a little more, mixed with orange tint, and ugh. I think I'd recommend doing outsides red, and then use a yellow ink w/medium as "dry" brush to pick out details. It won't look right, but a lot of the translucents really seem to be table ready.

Hi all, Here is one more step by step painting tutorial for the Sea Serpent for DeepWars, Blood Reef. This scaly creature is related to dragons so it has very heavy scales that work well with washes and glazes. Inks are Liquitex Pro inks and the Matte Medium is by Liquitex. Paints are Golden Fluid Acrylics. White and black are standard Americana brand craft paint. The first step was to paint the whole body in a light yellow shade over white primer, leaving only the mouth white. This was left to dry. Next, the body was given a wash of Pthalho Green ink, mixed with a touch of Sap Green ink, mixed with Matte Medium and water. The fins and mouth were washed with a Magenta ink, medium and water mix. The ratio of ink/medium/water was around 40/40/20. This was allowed to dry fully before the next step. Now comes the ugly step of shading down everything. The body, fins and mouth was washed with a mixture of Violet ink and a bit of black paint to darken it, and mixed with medium and water. The ratio was 20/30/50, so thin enough to go into all of the cracks but not so dark that it stained all of the green into oblivion. This was allowed to dry fully before moving onto highlighting. Finally, the step that makes everything pop out of the shadows again. The scales wee lightly drybrushed with wet layers of a mixture of Cerulean Blue ink, Sap Green ink and white paint. This was like a drybrush with a glaze, with the mixture at around 20/80, paint+ink to water. The key was to try to be subtle and give a bit more softness to the shading on the scales. The idea is not to paint completely over the green scales though or even to add a bright blueish highlight. After the glaze-drybrush, edges were painted in thinned white paint using the tip of a brush. This seems a bit tedious but is quicker than you may think since only the portion of the scale facing the light needs to be highlighted. Some scales on the neck behind the head needed a bit more highlight in the center, so a very thin glaze of thinned white was applied with the tip of the brush. The mouth was given washes of black to shade it more, then highlighted with thinned white, then glazed with Magenta ink. The tongue was shaded with Dioxazene purple ink, then highlighted with Magenta ink + white. fins were highlighted on the edges with white, then had some tiny white dots added for additional texture. The eyes were done with yellow over white, shaded with Burnt Sienna ink, then given a black slit pupil and hotspot reflection of pure white. To finish things off, the body was shaded with glazed of Deep Violet ink + black paint + medium and water (20/40/40) ratio of color, medium and water. adding the color more to the bottom of the body. An additional glaze of Pthalho Blue ink was applied to deepen the shadows. When these glazes dried, some scale edge highlights needed to be re-applied. The base was done with Raw Sienna ink first, then when dry, given a wash of Pthalho Blue ink + medium and water. Corals were glazed in Burnt Sienna ink and Violet ink. When all dry, it was drybrushed with a light golden sand paint.

The WIP is here: A little less see-through than I'd like, but the light still passes. There is glow in the dark medium used, but it's not very effective, and would never come into play anyway.

I had so much fun with my slimes I decided to do a few more translucent minis I had handy. These are the Grave Wraith and Nightspectre (somewhere else I have a Ghostly Summons 77095, Labella DeMornay 77096, and a spare Spirit 77098 that I will paint another time). I wanted to do these quickly, so it's ink mostly - the same ones as with the slimes, plus maybe a few darker phthalos. I've done a coat of glow in the dark medium for each (photographed), a coat of the not highest green, and picked out the skeletons in the nightspectre with a wash of medium and brown liner and base coated the grave wraith's sword and tombstone in a dark blue-grey. not photographed Eventually everything will get a drybrush of spectral glow (and maybe another, mixed with maggot white, in a few spots). For the nightspectre, I'm going to try and treat it as a fire and get darker going out. With the wraith, I'm going to go lighter out from the bottom centre. Plus highlights for both. The goal will be for them to be mostly translucent (and glow in the dark, because everything gets that medium). Hopefully I'll figure out how much direct light, and how much medium I need to be able to photograph this. Photos later today in subsequent posts.

I have 2 of the clear bones shadows and 1 of the original spectres in metal. I might pick up another bones one. I'll be trying to paint these a few different ways, so they'll be distinguishable, but also similarly enough that they might be thought of as a unit. The metal spectre will be painted as a solid being, doing the reverse dry-brush, and glow-in-the-dark medium. One of the bones minis will use magenta, purple, payne's grey, prussian blue, dioxazine purple, maybe a pthalo and some warlord purple, and spectral glow for solid paints. I am going to do some experimenting. This will probably be done slowly through march or april I may do some zombies really quickly to go along with all this.

OK folks this is my most recent attempt at painting. I decided to do this mini in the color scheme of the Protectorate of Menoth from Warmachine. Basically I am doing a test paint to acclimate myself to the colors and techniques that I will use as I begin painting several minis for the Mk III release of Warmachine. I need some help though, I have had several missteps in this paint thus far and am struggling to see this as a success. 1) How should I highlight the white? Should I do darker tones around the highlight areas? 2) Should I use some liner to try and add some more contrast? I feel like the sculpt wasn't the best and then my mediocre painting skills don't help and I feel like a lot of the details this mini did have have been obscured by my crappy painting abilities. 3) I REALLY don't know how to highlight the top cape and the crest on the shield as that color is a combo of Bloodstain Red,Violet Light and then glazed over with Clear Magenta. I know that's a lot but there are very specific colors for the faction and I am trying to get as close to that as possible. 4) Can someone please explain Ink's to me? I used a red ink on the bottom cape as it was suggested somewhere else to help with contrast on similar colors and while I like the outcome, it shifted the color in a way that I didn't expect and am not certain how or why inks are used. 5) Finally, if anyone does play Warmachine as Menoth I would like to know what your thoughts are on my colors; I am currently only using Reaper paints.

Not much of a paint job just graduating layers of purple and black ink. Added bases with 1 inch washers for stability since they tipped over fairly easy and they will be seeing a lot of table top play. As usual CC welcome. and darn I forgot to add tags.....is there anyway to add tags after the fact?

I'm pretty happy with my Wall of Ice. The WIP is here. I tried doing the highlighting 2 different ways - I described it in the WIP - but I don't remember which is which anymore. I used a variety of inks - I'll have to get back about which ones exactly, I don't remember any more - to try and create some variety in the thickness of the ice, but it didn't work out so well. Edging was done with Reaper Ghost White. There's some happy accidents in there too where the brush slipped. If anyone's wondering, yes this is still see-through.

So I have a nice stock of Reaper inks, which is cool. And I've used them before to brilliant effect. Love 'em. With that said, I'm painting a Behir for my ongoing S4 AD&D game. On the cover, the beastie has a decidedly teal/blue-green belly. For reference here's a similar critter in Reaper's catalog, the Cavern Crawler: (WAY better looking than all the "official" offerings from D&D Minis or GF9 - they're both too fat!) Anyway... I'm using the Ocean triad to get the shade of blue I want (Deep Ocean, Marine Teal, Surf Aqua, 9076, -77 and -78, respectively) and I'm wondering about shading with an ink. I've got both Blue Ink and Green Ink...which do you guys think will work better for the traditional S4/Monster Manual II Behir, blue or green? Or should I do a wash of Deep Ocean instead, and base with Marine Teal and highlight with Surf Aqua and a final highlight of 50/50 Surf Aqua + Pure White? I just don't wanna get in there and start putting blue ink on and everything get stained navy blue, or green and everything go all grass colored on me.

Okay, I have a couple of different washes (well, one's a wash, and another's an ink). I have an old Pro Paint stock no. 19106 Flesh Ink. I also have an MSP9253 Flesh Wash. What's the best way to utilize each?

Hey all, I've decided to show off a little of what I've been working on lately. I got both kits of the Flying Frog Productions wild west horror game, Shadows of Brimstone in their Kickstarter. My group's been playing through the City of Ancients (unpainted) while I paint up the Swamps of Death minis. Since these will be stored in the original box without any real protection, I am not going to knock myself out with anything much above table quality, so you'll see mould lines and assembly gaps on these. Also the pics are a little darker than I wanted. My light box is a translucent file folder box lit by my painting lights. I set my self the goal of using only the airbrush for the critters in this set. That's the Slashers, Tentacles, Hell Bats and the Harbinger. Only hair brushes for details like eyes and teeth. So far, I'm really happy with how the Slashers and Tentacles turned out. Unfortunately I plowed through those two without taking any pics beyond the whole box of stuff primed. For these guys, the airbrush was a good fit. As a bonus, I got a chance to learn a lot about mixing the SoB branded Army Painter paints for the airbrush. (Compared to MSP, these are thick sludge) The Slashers came out just how I wanted. The Tentacles are pretty decent too. I think some washes could bring out more contrast, but this is how far I got with the airbrush, and I'm happy with how they've come out. They're purple, with a lighter blue for the sucker areas. This is about the muddiest of the pictures. The Hell Bats will be tough because they have fiddly bits in a cramped mini. I figure I'll tackle these guys before I get to the Harbinger. I have the wing membranes done with bone. I'm still psyching myself up with the idea of painting the little support vanes with the spray. I think the wing vanes and membranes are going to bleed colors together. I was planning for bone membranes with dark green vanes, but that may have to change as I see just how much control I can get in that close. The Harbinger is just going to be flesh colored with the tanned flesh triad. I think something this big is going to be creepy with human coloring. I'd like to work in some purple shadowing around the vanes as well. I'll have to hit that with a very light touch. We'll see how that goes after I knock out the Hell Bats. For the Hungry Dead, I tried to copy the ink work Froggy the Great was doing. This didn't come out half as well as I'd hoped. I tried the Daler Rowley inks, but my local art supply only had the primary set with the cyan, magenta, yellow, green and scarlet (which actually turned out orange when applied.) I started with the female's (I'm calling them Lucy) skirts and they came out an orange color I did not like. They got slightly better looking when I went over them again with the magenta but it wasn't right yet. I jumped over to the prospectors (Old Stinky Pete) and tried the cyan on the pants, and it was a little too washed out. My wild west zombies are not shambling about in denim that faded. I'm sure the DR inks I have are illustrator quality, not the darker ones I really needed to use. Today I picked up the P3 inks in blue, green, yellow and red. These worked a lot better than the DR inks for what I wanted on the guys. They're still lighter than what I want, but they're close. Looking at the picture on my monitor, these look darker than they do here on my desk. Except the Lucys, the rest of these would be awesome if I could get that level of saturated color. The Lucy's are far too bright after I went over them again (!) with the P3 red. The color's what I wanted, but it's a solid coat now. I think I'm going to give the Lucys a wash in watered down Secret Weapon Sewer Water, then one more pass with the P3s for a highlight only. For the guys, I might be able to get by with just another watered down pass with the P3s. At this point, Lucy probably needs to be simple greened and begun again, but I don't want to give up on her yet. Pete's just about there already. Once I get the colors right, I'd like to try a shot at a green glow in the eyes on all these guys. Anyway, that's what I've been working on lately. Comments, constructive criticism and helpful suggestions are more than welcome.

My FLGS is out of Reaper Clears, and I can't justify a direct order at the moment (though in future I might if it takes too long to restock). I do have a few (yellow, blue, magenta), and a few liquitex artists inks. What I don't have is an actual transparent red (the liquitex is opaque). I don't know anywhere local that sells Tamiya clears, so I'm wondering what else people like to use. I almost got the Army Painter inks, but they mention being resin based? and that made me a little leery of the compatibility with my other acrylic based stuff. I also saw some P3 inks available, but haven't been able to determine their transparency from searching online. The store also carries Vallejo inks, but they don't have a ton in stock. I thought I'd turn to the ever knowledgeable community for some advice and opinions. So... what do people like to use for transparent colors? and for the artists...what are your thoughts with transparent artists paints? how well do they glaze?

Hello all, As Reaper doesn't include any descriptions (that I could find) on the properties of their Liners, Clears, Inks & Pastels, does anyone have a good knowledge of their characteristics? Like what are they primarily used for, are they more fluid, more dense, brighter, translucent? I think they are used for more vibrant and flowy washing effects? I'm thinking of buying $35 worth of Reapers' Ink & liner triads and maybe a clear and a pastel and some other different/special paints in order to get a free gift Sophie. Recommendations on these and other of Reapers' special paint products or neat colors would be appreciated. I can't decide whether to get Buron Street Sophie or Cowgirl Sophie.... *mind blows up* I'm primarily painting Bones minis with a modest selection of MSP core colors (2-3 of each of the 12ish main colors) help