Blending with oil paints

[Redfinger]

I use a lot of oil based artist paint in my work, particularly w/ highlighting and blending. I often get asked how to do it so I thought I would share a quick how to.

 

The subject is what I think is called a Soulgrinder. A guy at my LHS commissioned me to paint this for him, he did the green stuff work. Anyway, this is how I received the model;

 

 

I am going to stick with the basic colors here, the gold base and the blue accents, I am going to give the gold a heavy weathering effect with oils that I will also show later in this thread, for now I am just working on the body.

 

The owner wanted a light colored skin w/ blue-ish green-ish tones. So the first thing I did is sprayed a light coat of testors dull coat on the model, I felt the GW gray plastic would provide a nice color as a base, and the clear coat provides the tooth for the paint to bite into.

 

 

Once that coat I had dried I did what is called a "pre-shaing" on the model, for this I used Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. The idea behind pre-shading is to airbrush the cracks and areas of "depth" on the model, the idea is that the contrast between light and dark colors creates a subtle variance in the top coat placed on it.

 

 

Here you can see clearly areas where the gray plastic shows through more than other areas.

 

After this coat dried I mixed up a very light green/gray color that was sprayed on at such an angle as to create some natural highlights and shadows, then before that layer fully dried I sprayed on Vallejo US Light Grey as a highlight, then gave everything a quick pin-wash in devlan mud, I also worked in some blue highlighting as well;

 

 

 

At this point the model received another clear coat to provide a solid surface for the oil blending to take place on. Typically it is best to oil blend on a flat surface, that is what creates the really soft blends. I use Windsor Newton Artists Colors, specifically Burnt Umber was used for the shading on the skin.

 

 

This is where I left off on it tonight, I need to let this layer fully dry a day or two before I take the shades darker and bring out some of the highlights in green. The thing to remember when working with oils, is that a little goes a loooong way, it is nothing like working w/ acrylics, it takes a soft touch and smooth application.

 

 

I tried to take a picture to show how I do the blending, this is a dixie cup turned upside down, you can see how small the brush is, it is a 3mm wide flat brush. You can see how I have pulled small amounts of paint away from the glob, then smoothed it onto the cup creating some what of a "blend" this is the general idea, that a very, very, very, tiny amount of paint is placed on the brush, then applied to the model surface, and gently pulled away from the application point creating the soft blend...I hope that makes sense.

 

It looks complicated but once you get the hang of it, it is rather quick, to get to this point was about 20min of actual work.

 

Feel free to ask any questions if your interested, I will do my best to answer. I will post new pics as soon as I make some progress, I still need to figure out what color to paint the armor plates....

 

Ashton

[Redfinger]

Just a quick update on the progress;

 

 

 

 

 

So the major differences between these pictures and the last ones is the further shading and blending with oil paints, and the painting of the armor plates. After the initial blending had dried I clear coated them and hit the shadows again with the burnt umber mixed with a little black, then brought the highlights out by mixing a little green white and black, that made a real difference and to me helped me achieve the subtle green/gray tones I was looking for. I finally settled on a blue for the armor plates. To achieve the look I did the following;

 

All armor plates were first painted with "Vallejo Black Red" this provided a solid rust colored foundation

Then I coated each plate w/ crackle medium

Then a layer of Vallejo Pale Gray Blue was brushed on, followed by a Prussian Blue wash.

The metal bits were painted black, then stippled with Tin Bitz, Shinning Gold, and Bolt Gun, then washed w/ Badab Black

At this point the whole armor plate was washed w/ badab balck.

After that layer dried I went back in with the Burnt Umber Raw Umber and some reds and oranges and made the rust streaking.

 

The next step here is to add in some "gore" around the edges of the skin where the flesh and metal meet, then I will move onto the arms, which I have already started to base coat.

 

Ashton