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Thursday, 19 November 2015

I am the master of my own mixes!

Image result for paint mixes

Ok, I am not a master of my own mixes no where close I am at the abc's and not even close to the 123's but we all have to start somewhere and the start is always a good place, but on a serious note, this is something people should have a real think about if they would like to become a better painter or if you would like to get a better grip on Color theory.

Before I go any further I need to get something off my chest about this subject. We have all become lazy with our colors in one way or another and that is because we grab a pot or bottle of a color and use another. When we should be making/mixing our own. There is no reason why we use more than five colors to paint anything. I know I am not one to talk I bought the reaper mini full set 260 paints and I was using the triad which is me using what they say works well with each other. And all the miniature companies out there do it in one way or another, pushing a on us an extra cost we don't need.

This whole thing came about when I was working on faces in a lesson with John and he made me only use Five colors they are Red, Blue, Yellow, Black and White and I was really surprised how well it all worked and it works so well because I was in control of what made the color, so it blended better and complemented each other better.

Here is the face.



I was also challenged by John to paint an entire figure using five colors and I expected after we agreed on the use of metallics and inks.

Well to start off with I had to pick my five and like with most things my choices were wrong. I went for


The issue I had with this was the blue and the mix came out odd 


So I changed the colors for the Reaper clear which are just pigment so the purest colors I am hoping.


And from here I had the best starting point if you are going to try this and I really recommend you do, you must use "pure" colors because it will end up messing with things down the line.

I started off with the Skin.





As you might be able to tell my spunge was due a change as well as more work on the Skin trying to add more definition to the mini as well as the metals and the start of some more parts.

Nice new Spunge!!


And the Skin mostly finished. Just need to add more contrast to the skin.




I have to say to people new to the hobby and old you should do this either to get a better understanding of Color Theory or just to keep your skills honed. 

Again All comments welcome.



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4 comments:

  1. Brambleten19 November 2015 at 21:30

    Interesting and thought provoking stuff.

    Have you tried switching out the white for an ivory? Something I've picked up on, particularly over the past few months and at the Wamp Workshop, is that almost nothing natural highlights up to pure white, even if it looks white, so adding it to mixes can change the mix unnaturally.

    Ivory on the other hand, is a more neutral tone while still a the white end of the spectrum so is just as effective as white for highlighting and painting white things like eyes.

    On the other hand, white can be useful for painting more man made or unnatural stuff, such as White Scars armour etc.

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  2. Merkeysa19 November 2015 at 22:01

    I never thought Interesting and Thought provoking would be used to decribe something i had to say!! thank you

    I do have to say Ivory can be made using the five colors and changeing out a primary for a premix would be sort of defeteing the perpose of this. That being said I do have plans to get it have done for a wile.

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    Replies
    1. Brambleten19 November 2015 at 22:28

      Ah, but are black and white actually colours, what with being absence of light and light itself ;)

      I think that the interesting bit is taking the time to go back to basics and learning the mixes the hard way, but can you consistently produce the shades you want to create unity within a group of models painted over a period of time. I think that's an area that the number different pre-mixed shades can help.

      Also, would you switch out your primary shades of one type of paint for different brands of paint in the same shades to see how the different the results you get are? I'm not familiar with reaper, but Scale 75 are very matte, the Scale fantasy are a little lighter and P3 are more glossy, while Citadel are more mid ground.

      See, thought provoking :)

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  3. Merkeysa19 November 2015 at 22:43

    I would say over time you would be able to create the same shade over and over again but again how would that make each mini unigue.

    Also you have to include White and black into it as weather people class them as a color or not you would be removing light and darkness from the mixes.

    As for the Switching Shades Yes that is a thought provoking thought I would like to ask can you think of Any brand of miniature paint that does a midtone primary anything or are they all premixes made to make us feel we need them. when we could make it our selfs.

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