The two-brush blending technique

Hi guys,

So over the last week I have been attempting to try and learn the two-brush blending technique. I do remember hearing about this techniques at some stage before but it was not something that had registered with me.  But I stumbled on the following video's and thought it might be worth a try.

After a couple of hobby related incidents I had just stripped and cleaned the Colman Stryker mini from the Cynar battlebox from the last post so decided that he'd be a perfect project to try and learn and develop this technique on.

First stop was a white undercoat and then a basecoat of GW Dheneb Stone on his cloak. I then give it a very watered down wash of Asurman Blue.

So I picked out two VGC paints, Khaki and Bonewhite to highlight the cloak with and set out on my first attempt at two-brush blending. After an hour or two of fiddling around, brush licking, head scratching, spit dribbling painting later I achieved this!

 

 

 

Fairly muck in my eyes! Tide marks and streaks all over the place, no solid coverage, just a general mess of a paint job. Here's a cropped photo to highlight the messiness of it all!

 

 

I had a general idea that I was making a couple of mistakes, firstly I didn't think I was leaving enough time for the first layer of paint to be dry before I painted the second layer, secondly I had a vague notion that I was wet blending incorrectly. I was using the blending brush to drag the paint away from the initial application and it dawned on me during the process maybe I should be zig-zaging the brush along the edge of the paint layer.

So to the internet and found these from McVey studio's (awesome painters and company!)  

These video's really helped me an awful lot and while confirming my inital suspicions about the above two mistakes they also seem to have pointed out another large mistake I have been making that I hadn't even thought about. This was the amount of paint I had been applying to the mini initially. I had been applying my paint as I normally would when I use my usual layering technique, in long lines down the raised ridges of the cloak. As I keep my paint thin (like a good boy) this meant that by the time I had gotten to line it had already started to dry and I just ended up pushing half dried paint around the mini.

So my lightbulb moment was less paint is more! If I added a small spot of the paint rather than a big long line like I would edge highlighting, the paint will not dry as quickly and I won't be pushing gunk around the mini.

I did not have a lot of time yesterday evening, but after my guitar class I re-basecoated the cloak/coat/tunic with VGC Khaki and tried to shade using the "spot" two brush blending. While I only spent maybe fifteen minutes, it seemed to work a lot better. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures but I will have some tomorrow.

Until then, keep painting.

Vampires, Airbrushes and Cygnar

Hi gang,

over the weekend I finished up the Vampire Countess I have been painting. I've been painting her over the last two weeks and it's a miniature that I really enjoyed painting.

Vampire Countess (Avatar of War)

I'm fairly happy with how she turned out, especially the reds and the skin. The pictures may be a bit dark and they are something I need to improve but I was also quite happy with the dark black armour, which I highlighted with Turquoise Blue to try and give it a steel look. I was really trying to achieve the classic, white skin/black hair/red cloak vampire look and I'm reasonably happy with how she turned out.

I also started work on the Cygnar Battlebox I purchased a month or two ago. I had the set already cleaned up and glued together but I broke out the airbrush and set to work with gusto. Firstly I primed white with Vallejo White Primer.

White Undercoat Cygnar Battlebox

I then used masking medium to block out the white areas I wanted to keep.

Blocked of masking medium

 I then used Vallejo Game Colour Enchanted Blue to give a good base colour to work from.

And that's where I left that battlegroup at the moment. The plan is to darken the blue up a little bit but at the same time have a very clean bright colour scheme. I don't normally undercoat my mini's white so it's going to be a learning curve for me.

Talk to you guys later.

Secret Santa's (The best thing about Christmas)

Hi everyone,

so here we are again, the final couple of days of 2011. I personally love this time of year. I prefer cold weather over warm, I love Christmas foods, getting to spend time with my family and friends, the pleasant feeling of dozing off in-front of a terrible Christmas movie after over eating. But one of the reason's I really love this time of year (and I'm not ashamed to sound greedy!) is the presents. Funnily enough it's not the presents themselves I love; it's the opening of the presents that I really enjoy. It's the same when I open a new boxed game or blister pack. A sense of excitement of the unknown, the expectation, the anticipation all mean's that it is one of my favourite things. I suppose in a way it's a really childhood feeling.   

So when I received a box in the post this week from an unknown address, which I was not expecting I was quite excited. I had an inkling of what it was but that didn't diminish the anticipation. When I did open it I found a beautifully painted miniature from an unknown person. Most years I join up to a secret Santa on librarium-online and I've never been anything but delighted with how things work out. I know Kuffy who organises the whole thing is a follower of this blog, so if you're reading this man, thanks for all the effort put in over the last couple of years.

So here is the mini I got

Secret Santa 2011

I'm delighted with this guy, one of the reason's is it's beautifully painted, secondly I have no idea what the miniature is or who produces it. It's really is a miniature with mystery, so if anyone can help me out, answers in the comments please.

Apart from that my hobby news is less exciting, I have been painting my Secret Santa to send off, but I don't think it would be fair to post pictures on the blog before the person receives it. It does look like I'm going to miss the Christmas deadline but I should be able to finish it early in the new year. I have also assembled the Cygnar Battlebox. Nothing hugely exciting but here's a picture anyway.

Assembled Cygnar Battlebox

Hopefully between these 4 and the mini's I have for the Merc's myself and my brother might have a few games of Warmachine over Christmas.

And that is where I will leave it. I don't think I'm going to post again until the new year so a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my followers (and casual readers). Thanks for reading my blog over the last 12 months and I hope you all have health and happiness in the coming twelve.

Enjoy opening your presents.

Vincent